Pentecost 12 year C Sermon Prayer 3Photo credit Professor Dr. Graham Hill
Let the teaching of Christ and His words… keep on living in you. And of course part of Jesus teaching is how to pray. Two weeks ago we began a month long exploration of prayer…to discover what it means…
to be in communion… with the Creator of the universe: to be in relationship with God.
We learned that before we can even begin to answer why God wants us to pray… we have to ask…
how is it… we know anything about God anyway?
And we found out… the only way we can know anything about God…is because God chooses to reveal himself to us…we learned our first reason to pray isn’t our need for God, but God’s invitation to us.
‘When you seek me you shall find me – if you search with all your heart. If you pray to me I will listen to you.’
Right from the beginning…God’s been relentless… in pursuing us and inviting us to enjoy his presence …asking us to speak to him…and listen to him… even delivering the invitation in person…
at great cost…in Jesus…
And continuing to draw us… into communion with him… by his Holy Spirit.
Last week we realised.... like the first disciples... that in Jesus’ school of prayer we’re all beginners… and need to be taught how to pray. So we learn…
from the pattern of the Lord’s Prayer… we discover that in Jesus’ prayer…there are no empty words...and we never pray alone…because we pray at Jesus side… as we approach Our Father.
And though we often think of prayer as…
our words expressed to God…it’s important to remember that our speaking is only half the story in our relationship with God… communion with God isn’t just a monologue…
So today I want to explore with you…how…
in spite of our doubts and our scepticism and even our fears…there are ways…
that everyone can learn… to listen for God…
and to God…and enjoy God’s presence.
One way is in
Contemplative Prayer…where we become quiet …and move from communicating to God…
into a receptive prayer… of resting in God.
In doing this we prepare ourselves to become aware…of the gift of God's presence. And we consent and surrender to God being with us and in us.
In contemplative prayer…attending to God in an attitude of love… overcomes words…
and we become silent.
Throughout the Bible, ‘those who are privileged to be God’s hearers’… separate themselves from the noise and distractions of life… and seek out solitude and quiet. We remember how Jesus took himself away to a quiet place to pray…to attend to God in love.
When we learn to pray wordlessly… loving God and receiving God’s love…it’s easier to quieten our hearts and our minds. I’d say from my own experience … the more quiet the mind… the deeper our communion with God can be… and the more likely we are to hear what God wants to say to us… or see what God wants to show us.
Another way to say this… is that God is present
and broadcasting; but are we tuned in to God’s wavelength…and are our lives quiet enough…
for us to hear?
When you finish your spoken prayers…
one way to calm your mind… and make yourself completely receptive to God… is to imagine a lovely cloud… between you…and all your concerns anxieties …and pre-occupations… even between you and all those you love and pray for…
the ancient Christian mystics call this
‘a cloud of forgetting’.
In imagining this you’re preparing yourself…
to be on your own in the presence of God.
All you do next is wait and
offer your love to God and try to stay in that love.
It’s my experience over twenty years of practising …
that this way of praying takes time and commitment...
but the rewards are beyond words.
And though this kind of prayer isn’t for everyone…
there is another way… to listen for …and to God…
a way that’s possible for any one. It’s called praying the scriptures or Lectio Divina
Lectio Divina, is the Latin term for divine reading... spiritual reading, or holy reading. It’s a way of praying that calls us to read and listen to what God may be saying to us...through his Word in Scripture.
And since the only way we can know anything about God at all… is because God chooses to reveal himself to us…we trust God’s self revelation is alive and breathing… through his Word…
as actively today as ever.
In praying with Scripture we discover…
that once we enter it’s force field… instead of our using the Bible to evaluate God…we are the ones who are taken hold of and evaluated. [pause]
The same words people have listened to for centuries … words that have encouraged and convicted and reshaped the lives of millions…words we’ve heard in church a thousand times or words we’ve ignored ... these same words when we pray with Scripture…
are fresh every time.
Many people who fear silence or doubt they’ll ever
hear the voice of God or believe if they did
they’d be labelled insane…
discoverthrough praying the scriptures…
an indispensable way… to hear the still small voice of God… [pause]
Every second Sunday of the month at Night Church, we enjoy this way of praying. Our inspiration for ‘What’s the Word’…. comes from the belief…
that the word of God can be a searchlight…
into our hearts and minds. We find that when we allow the word of God to drift lovingly over our preoccupations…
when we don’t shield any part of ourselves from the words, we begin to develop an attitude of expectation and a willingness to listen for God.
So let’s try it. First let us pray. Beloved God help us to open our hearts our minds and our spirits…
for a word from you. In Jesus name. AMEN.
Now listen as I read [Read text out loud]
Hebrews 12, 1-4
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfector of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so that you may not grow weary or lose heart. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
Now read it over to yourself… slowly …and if you’re struck by a word or a phrase that has meaning for you, you don’t need to hurry to finish the passage. You can just dwell on any word or phrase as long as you want to, allowing yourself to taste it and savour it, and enter more deeply into whatever it stirs within you. You can make notes if you want to.
I’m just going to give us five minutes to sit with these words. But at home you can take as long as you like.
Five minutes
in the knowledge God reveals himself ultimately
in Jesus… we must always test what we think God may be saying to us… for consistency with Jesus’ teaching and action.
In Jesus God’s word… his only-begotten Son…
Was sent into the world… to bring it home,
to bring it back to him… which is why God said…
“This is my beloved Son: listen to him”
The great Catholic theologian…Von Balthasar reminds us… ‘When we’re in danger of drowning… God’s word is the rope ladder thrown down to us… so we can climb up into the rescue boat. It’s the carpet rolled out to us … so we can walk along it to the Father’s presence. It’s the lantern which shines in the darkness encouraging us to keep going and casting a soft light on the riddles that torment us.
All our protests and excuses aside… our ability to ‘listen to God’s word for us…
goes as deep as our existence…
because God created us to hear his invitation.
My prayer is that we are listening and will respond.
