Service August 23rd, 2020 Leighmoor Uniting Church
-Rev Barbara Allen
Hymn suggestions:
TIS 132: Holy, holy, holy! Lord God almighty
TIS 444: Dear Shepherd of your people, hear
TIS 564: O God of Bethel, by whose hand
TIS 590: What a friend we have in Jesus
TIS 547: Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart
TIS 619: Have faith in God, my heart
TIS 779: May the feet of God walk with you
Prayers of Adoration, Thanksgiving and Confession
Loving, Creator God,
We marvel at the world, the world you created out of love.
We thank you for the gift of water: from rain, oceans, waterfalls, creeks and rivers, trickling streams, to the water that comes out of our own taps.
We need water in order to live our physical lives. We need you in order to live our physical, emotional and spiritual lives.
Water reminds us of our emotions: rain drops resemble our tears.
Water reminds us of our spiritual life: the waters of baptism, cleansing and becoming fresh and renewed once more.
Water reminds us of what can be achieved: as droplets of water form the ocean, our giving and loving actions extend outwards to a wide community.
Thank you for the gift of water. Help us to reflect on all your gifts, and what they can teach us about our faith.
God of majesty, we come before you, mindful of your power, of your might, which is bigger than any wave crashing against a cliff-yet you can be as gentle as a light mist, caressing our cheeks.
As we are in awe of you, we are mindful of having fallen short of your dream and vision for each one of us.
Forgive us.
Forgive us for when we have become all-consumed by other things, by other matters, and have neglected you.
Forgive us for closing inwards, for being in ‘lock down’, shutting out our care and concern for others.
Forgive us for when we have doubted you, or when we have forgotten your love for each one of us.
In a time of silence, we remember other things for which we seek forgiveness.
(silence)
God is love.
Through Christ our sins are forgiven
(thanks be to God)
Take hold of this forgiveness, and live your life through the power of the Spirit.
Amen.
Bible Readings:
Exodus 1: 8-2:10
Psalm 124
Romans 12: 1-8
Matthew 16: 13-20
Sermon
I remember when I read the book The Contemplative Pastor by the late Eugene Peterson-because I was shocked when I read:
‘Pastors think people come to church to hear sermons. They don’t; they come to pray and to learn to pray.’
I don’t agree with all of that statement; we gather together as a community of believers, to be ‘fed’ or ‘nourished’-by way of the Scriptures, by singing our praise, by listening and (hopefully) responding to the sermon, in fellowship afterwards-and by praying together.
But reading that remark did make me stop to think…and I am trying to work out what would be an appropriate sermon for this time in lockdown.
I have been urging you to exercise the ministry of prayer-
So, this week, I am deviating from the lectionary readings, to focus instead on the topic of prayer.
Prayer is a key pivotal part on our lives together, as a church body, and alone, in communion with God.
The Uniting Church is called to be a worshipping church, and therefore a praying church.
Prayer is original research in unexplored territory
-it is prayer itself that brings us into the deepest and highest work of the human spirit
-real prayer is life creating and life changing.
BUT this is a warning!
-to pray is to open yourself to change.
-if you don’t want to change-don’t pray!
Prayer is the central avenue God uses to transform us.
If we are unwilling to change, we will abandon prayer.
The closer we come to the heartbeat of God-the more we see our need and the more we desire to be conformed to Christ.
All who have walked with God have viewed prayer as the main business of their lives.
It was an integral part of Jesus’ life:
Mark 1: 35: ‘In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed.’
Matthew 14: 23: ‘And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray.’
There are many other examples too.
When the apostles were tempted to invest their energies in other important and necessary tasks, they were determined to give themselves over to prayer, and to ministry of the word:
Acts 6:4- ‘while we, for our part, will devote ourselves to prayer and to serving the word.’
Martin Luther declared, ‘I have so much business I cannot get on without spending three hours daily in prayer.’
He also said ‘he that has prayed well has studied well.’
John Wesley said, “God does nothing but in answer to prayer,’ and backed up his conviction by devoting two hours daily to prayer.
For these people-prayer was not something tacked on to their lives-it was their lives. For them, to breathe was to pray.
Many of us, however, are probably feeling discouraged rather than encouraged by such examples. Those ‘giants of the faith’ are so beyond anything that we have experienced that we are tempted to despair.
BUT we should remember that God always meets us where we are-and slowly moves us along into deeper things.
Runners don’t suddenly enter an Olympic marathon.
They prepare and train themselves over a period of time.
We, too, should do the same when it comes to prayer, and our prayer lives.
Now, what I’m about to say sounds like a contradiction:
- Real prayer is something we learn
AND
- It is natural to pray
BUT it isn’t a contradiction- as you’ll see later.
-for it is natural to pray.
Before the end of today we will have eaten several meals, and perhaps a snack in between.
Eating is natural and necessary.
The same with drinking
-drinking is natural and necessary.
Like eating and drinking-prayer is not something foreign to our human nature.
Prayer is perhaps the deepest impulse of the human soul.
Prayer is natural and universal.
We pray because it is part of our human condition.
Prayer is related to our search for meaning, our longing for relationship, our need to grow.
Prayer-however practiced-is an expression of our hunger for God.
This hunger is a part of who we are.
Again and again the Psalms remind us of the naturalness of our hunger for God:
‘O God, you are my God, I seek you,
my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
as in a dry and weary land
where there is no water.’
(Psalm 63:1)
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus recognizes this natural hungering after God. More than that, he claims that this hungering will be satisfied:
‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.’(Matthew 5:6)
So-it is natural to pray
BUT
Real prayer is something we learn.
-it is natural to pray
But
Also-it is not easy to pray.
As living beings we breathe, we eat, we drink, we sleep.
As human beings-we breathe, we eat, we drink, we sleep-and pray.
It’s a part of our nature as human beings to pray
It’s one of the ways we express our natural hungering for God.
So it’s natural
-but it isn’t easy!
There’s a difference between the tendency to pray and the practice of prayer.
We have the tendency to pray-the reflexive crying out in the face of pain or trouble
-the spontaneous shout of joy in the presence of beauty, or fulfilment,
So we give expression to this tendency to pray according to the moods and circumstances of our lives.
To live a life of prayer is something different.
To pray consistently is not easy.
-it requires both discipline and commitment.
Let’s not condemn ourselves if we find praying difficult.
Most of us do.
Even those whom we call ‘saints’ found, or find, praying hard. Even though we’ve heard about the number of hours they devoted to prayer each day- they still found praying hard. Their journals and confessions are filled with their struggles, their wrestles-their attempt to make the natural tendency to pray become a natural practice in everyday life.
The disciples didn’t find it easy either:
In Luke 11: 1 “Lord, teach us to pray.”
They had prayed during their lives and yet something about the quality and quantity of Jesus’ praying caused them to see how little they knew about prayer. If their praying was to make any difference on the human scene-there were some things they needed to learn.
When we realize that prayer involved a learning process-then we are free to experiment-to find forms of prayer which feel ‘right’ for us.
- It could be ‘kataphatic’- that’s prayer which is imaginative-meditation-perhaps picturing the situation in your mind-you may already do this when you hear Scripture-picturing yourself in the story, in the scene
You might be seeking forgiveness
–could be using images or icons.
- It could be ‘apophatic’-empty our minds of all that is not God
–a way of apprehending God as utterly beyond any thoughts we can have of God other than as Love or Presence.
It is the spirituality of the desert Fathers, and of the monastic tradition.
It is the shutting out of the world-whereas the kataphatic is a ‘bringing in of the world’-emphasizing God’s love for the world.
During the learning process we come to realize what is a comfortable position or posture for prayer.
- sitting
2. kneeling
3. lying down
Or a combination.
And that is fine-it is learning what is right for us-and this can take time, and can depend on circumstances in life.
For example, I prefer sitting. If I kneel-I might need a hand up, I am a bit stiff these days, (some of you may have had knee replacements/suffer from arthritis etc and find kneeling challenging!) and if I lie down I have a tendency to fall asleep (but that is fine too-what better way to drift off to sleep than in the arms of God)
Prayer can be hard work.
We must never wait until we feel like praying before we pray.
-prayer is like any other work; we may not feel like working-but once we have been at it for a while, we begin to feel like working.
We may not feel like practicing the piano-but once we play for a while we feel like doing it.
In the same way-our prayer muscles need to be limbered up a bit.
We need not worry that prayer will take up too much of our time-one writer says ‘It takes no time, but it occupies all our time.’
It is not prayer +work-but prayer alongside work.
Prayer and action meld together.
So
- It is natural to pray
- Real prayer is something we learn
and
- Prayer is a privilege, not a duty
(repeat)
Many of us see prayer as a discipline, as a duty, something we must do.
We’ve been taught that we ought to pray, and when we don’t-we feel guilty.
We take a giant step forward in our adventure when we stop seeing prayer as a duty and begin to look upon it as a privilege.
THEN prayer becomes a creative freedom, not a bondage of duty.
We are invited to talk with the Creator of the Universe, and to find out what God wants us to do for God-we are in ministry together! Isn’t that wonderful!
Like love, like friendship, prayer is a privilege-something wonderful to be sought!
Not to pray is an act of self robbery.
We are free to pray, or not to pray
The privilege is open to us
-to all of us.
And the privilege?
To talk, to commune with God, to feel God’s loving presence, and to become aware of God’s guidance.
I send out this challenge:
-IF you wish to change
IF you want to be active in the world-working for change
IF you wish to move closer to the heartbeat of God
Pray.
Talk with, and listen to-Our Creator who is closer to us than our own breath,
who sustains our lives more fully than our own heart,
who loves us unconditionally.
Close your eyes-and dial your prayer! There will never be an engaged signal, you will never be put on hold, and told what number you are in the queue-your call is important to God-and you will get straight through every single time!
Amen
Prayers of the People
Loving God,
How great is the power of reconciliation. What joy we know when we are able to live in peace and harmony. It is the very work of your Spirit moving in the hearts of all that makes this possible.
Today we pray for the peace makers, for all who are prepared to risk themselves for the sake of others.
We pray for diplomats and the envoys of peace. We ask you to bless and keep safe those who answer the call to be peace keepers, standing between warring factions. May their efforts be effective.
We pray for those affected by bushfires in California. We, in Australia, understand their terror. Be with their fire fighters, those involved in emergency services, and with those fleeing their homes and properties. We pray for the wildlife.
We pray for those who have answered the call to be healers.
We pray for those who care for the dying, the elderly, the frail, the ill, the distressed, especially during this pandemic. We now that it draws upon their very being to be there for others. Strengthen them. Protect them. Keep their hope and vision alive. May they know deep within that they are ministering the very grace of life.
We pray for the ill in our own faith community, especially for Alan and Fredrica, Rohini and Jaya, for John.
We pray for those who are grieving, especially the family of Jean Raynor,
In a time of silence we remember other matters, and the people known to us, who need our prayers.
(silence)
In the words our Saviour taught us, we are confident when we pray to say:
“Our Father…”
Amen
Blessing
May the strength of God uphold you, the love of Christ enfold you, and the guidance of the Spirit direct you,
Amen
August 23nd, 2020 Leighmoor UC
Rev Barbara Allen
