Sermons

The Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity
Sunday 1 October at 8am and 10am

Kathryn Elliott
Readings: James 5:13-20; Mark 9:38-50

Lord Jesus Christ, now & every day teach us how to pray.

About prayer: have you a garden or somewhere that you can walk in, by yourself? Take half an hour, or fifteen minutes a day and just walk up and down the flower beds… Do not try to think about anything in particular and when thoughts about work etc come to you, don't try to push them out by force, but see if you can't drop them by relaxing your mind. Do this
because you are 'praying' and because our Lord is with you…

So wrote Thomas Merton in a letter to Sr Theresa Lentfoehr in 1949. Called to the contemplative life, Merton wrote prolifically about 'living life fully awake and aware of the reality of God in the depths of our being'. His advice was of course for a certain person - it's not explicitly for us: not all of us have a garden, let alone ½ hr or 15 minutes a day to be on our own, but the implication of taking & making opportunity to be with God applies to us all.

It is significant that James concludes his letter with the subject of prayer. His letter has much practical advice: he's advised on poverty and riches, testing and temptation, on prejudice and on faith & actions; now he encourages his readers to base their everyday lives on a prayerful relationship with God.
The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with. (James 5:16 (The Message))
Tremendous power is made available through a good person's earnest prayer. (J B Phillips)
And we are to pray at all times (Ephesians 6:18) whatever our situation.

George Herbert referred to prayer as exalted Manna (referring to God's provision of food to the Israelites) - prayer can nourish us - and to heaven in ordinarie - no event in our daily lives need be beyond prayer; all is important to God. James encourages us to pray when we're troubled, when we're happy, when we're ill.

Merton realised that quiet times of prayer could be invaded by thoughts of work. Our own prayer and worship times can be unsettled because of a whole variety of circumstances: worry about family and friends; the doctor's diagnosis; moving house; new beginnings… James realised that his readers would at some time experience trouble; both Merton and James advise us to acknowledge the situation, to voice it in prayer

Another Christian author agrees: I sometimes feel pain when I hear someone pray, 'O Lord, thank you that we can come apart from the world to worship you, that we can leave our cares and burdens outside as we enter your house.' I carry my cares and burdens with me right into the worship service, because it's there that I can get the perspective I need to deal with them successfully.
Asaph in Psalm 73 dealt with his problem this way (vv16,17): When I thought how to understand this, it was too painful for me - until I went into the sanctuary of God.

Prayer is not only for times of trouble - there's prayer of rejoicing too: Are any of you happy? You should sing praises (Jas 5:13)
Yes, we can express our joy and happiness in prayerful praise - in music, song, poetry and dance. In our book of Psalms, we have inherited some of David's prayers of praise, eg 145-150:
Praise the Lord; it's good to sing praise to our God;
It's pleasant and right to praise him.

James goes on to ask, 'Are any of you ill?' Ill health is part of our ordinarie daily lives at some time or another. His advice is both practical and prayerful: the elders of the church are to use oil, one of the best-known of ancient medicines, and they are to pray for healing. As with all prayer, the prayer for healing is to be offered with the firm hope and expectation that God will answer: the prayer made in faith will heal the sick; the Lord will restore them to health and the sins they've committed will be forgiven.(Jas 5:15).

Of course, this raises a question: what about when our earnest prayers for an ill child or adult are 'not answered' and the physical healing we long for them has not happened? Saint Paul himself prayed for healing but, as far as we know, his specific prayer was not answered (2 Cor 12:7-9)

This is a difficult area and deserves more discussion and thought from us all. What we can hold on to though is that it is God, not the person praying, who heals: The Lord will restore them to health (Jas 5:15) and as we pray for God's will to be done (MTT 6:10) his will is ultimately the best - albeit beyond our understanding.

So: prayer in daily life: trouble, happiness, illness; prayer for ourselves and for one another. (Jas 5:16)

But what exactly is prayer? Essentially, it is developing a relationship, a friendship, with God. Friends find time and places to meet each other, to enjoy being together; they share news, exchange joys and concerns; they eat together; sometimes, they chat non-stop, at others they're quiet, simply enjoying each other's companionship.

If we seriously want our relationship with God to deepen and grow, we need to prepare a time and a place to listen & to share - of course, when and where will be different for each of us, according to our circumstances. Here at Saint Edmund's all are welcome to come during the Prayer Hour in church, held monthly on Monday evenings, or to Morning Prayer at 8:30 each weekday. The weekly House Groups offer opportunity for study and prayer.

Both personal and corporate prayer are important on our faith journeys and in our daily lives because prayer is not only the lifting up of the mind and heart to God; it is also the discovery of God within us. (T Merton)

Prayer the Churches banquet, Angels age,
Gods breath in man returning to his birth,
The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage,
The Christian plummet sounding heav'n and earth:

Engine against th'Almighty, sinners towre,
Reversed thunder, Christ-side-piercing spear,
The six-daies - world transposing in an houre,
A kinde of tune, which all things heare and fear;

Softnesse, and peace, and joy, and blisse,
Exalted Manna, gladnesse of the best,
Heaven in ordinarie, man well drest,
The milkie may, the bird of Paradise,
Church-bels beyond the starres heard, the souls bloud,
The land of spices, something understood.
(George Herbert)

Lord, teach us to pray. Amen

© St Edmund's Church, Roundhay