Pentecost 14 year C Sermon Prayer 5 The dark night
You know those amazing… clear… mid winter nights – when the moon is full… and lights up the snow on the mountains… and we’re dazzled by the brightness and the night seems to shine like the day?
It was like that the other night wasn’t it…just this week …a perfect night… a perfect moon…
and then it started to happen… didn’t it…
slowly but surely…over an hour… a shadow crept across the moon… eclipsing its light.
And our beautiful mountains and lakes …
which only moments before… were bathed in light....
are cast into darkness.
And the moon...it was there...but only a dull red reflected light… could pass through the earth’s atmosphere
It can happen during a solar eclipse too…like the one your looking at…Everything grows dark. [pause]
A very similar experience… can happen to us…
in our relationship with God. The ancient Christian mystics… called it the Dark Night of the Soul.
I can think of a couple of times in my own life… when I felt cut off… from God’s light and warmth.
One time as a teenager …I can remember sitting in church… feeling desolate and disconnected from God…I didn’t know what to do…so I opened the Bible and there were the words of Jesus in Johns Gospel "I will not leave you comfortless."
The next time was about… fourteen years ago… when I felt like I was…in a battle for my life with someone at work…I was desperate and depressed…
It was so bad…I wasn’t clinging to God in the darkness …or wrestling with God…
it just seemed to me that God wasn’t there.
And one day in the midst of all this emptyness…
I just sat on the floor of my bedroom and prayed …
in tears I demanded God meet me in my darkness.
I told God I wasn’t going to move until he joined me.
And slowly I became aware of God’s presence again.
A few years later…someone asked me what I’d do… if I were rejected for ministry training a second time …by then my trust in God’s ongoing presence… had grown to the point… where I could answer immediately…
‘I guess if that happens… I’ll just have to go into that dark place… knowing that God is already there… waiting for me.’ [pause]
I read somewhere that
‘when everything seems at its darkest…
we often find… we’re standing in the…
blinding light of God’s love.’ [pause]
Sometimes the temptation is strong…to give up praying… to walk away from God… to yield…
to weariness or cynicism…. And it’s these times
I want to talk about today... [pause]
Even for people who surrender to a life of prayer …devout people with strong faith…
it’s not unusual to experience the extremes…
of spiritual emptiness and abandonment.
Sometimes the dryness darkness and doubt… can be so intense... we seem to lose all spiritual light... and all hope.’
When we’ve only ever learned about praying with words… a time can come when we feel unable to pray. Or when our prayers aren’t answered…
we feel like giving up...or we get tired of waiting for God’s promises to be fulfilled…
You know…even Moses threw down a sack full of God’s promises in a huff. In fact…any misgiving or doubt you could ever have…has already been voiced somewhere in scripture.
The voices of the Bible speak to us of...
the ‘agony of dislocation, hurt and betrayal…
lives that don’t make sense… of a god who doesn’t seem to care or even exist. Try reading the Habakkuk, Ecclesiastes, Lamentations or the drama of Job...and listen to the Psalmist. ‘I’m worn out calling for help; my throat is parched. My eyes fail, looking for my God.’ [pause]
Through out the Bible God’s people pour out...
a litany of protest and complaint… that the world is out of kilter…instead of complaining to each other they nag and remind God of unfulfilled promises... they cry out that justice and mercy... do
not appear to rule the earth.
Even those upon whom Jesus would build his church would doubt…Jesus says to Peter, ‘I’ve prayed for you that your faith may not fail.’
But Peter’s faith did fail...didn’t it… three times.
Times of darkness, dryness, doubt…suffering and decay, disappointment and death… all belong to the twilight that’s part of our creaturely experience.
They’re not evil…and they’re not completely avoidable…they’re the ‘shadow side’…
of what it means to be alive…
We hear it fromJesus on the Cross...
as he cries out in anguish...the words of the psalm:
‘My God, my God... why have you forsaken me?’
Yet from this side of the resurrection…
we can see …even betrayal and death… can be redeemed… as part of the outworking of God’s grace.
Karl Barth…a great 20th century theologian …reminds us that ‘true prayer…
is prayer which is sure… of a hearing.’
And this is where we need to be reminded...
of the other things we’ve learned… about what it means to be in communion with the creator of the universe …especially that the only way we can know anything about God…is because God chooses to reveal himself to us … and we pray because God has invited us to pray
Remember the words from Jeremiah…
‘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. I know the plans I have in mind for you – plans for peace, not disaster, reserving a future full of
hope for you. If you pray to me I will listen to you.’
God invites us into relationship…and into prayer... and promises to listen…God is…by definition… present with us…and so when there seems to be no answer…we wait…until the day dawns… and the morning star rises in our hearts. When we surrender our will to God’s… even ‘no’…is an answer.
In Jesus’ school of prayer…we’re careful…
not to confuse our feelings…
with God’s presence or absence. In this way…
we come to understand… the real meaning of faith.
And when we find… the solid bedrock of faith…
our difficulty with prayer… has served its purpose…
we discover …our ability to pray… and our relationship with God…aren’t based on feeling…
but on the unshakeable conviction…
that God is there…and hears us.
Whenever we question the intensity of our feelings… about prayer or worship or God…
we risk becoming obsessed with technique.
When we expect to stay on the mountain top…
be high on God all the time… we become guilt ridden or disappointed when it doesn’t happen… and we forget that prayer simply means… keeping company with God… who is always… and already present.
We need to ask ourselves...
if our desire for communion with God...
is greater… than our need... to feel ‘high on God’.
My experience… is that the peace of God… Paul talks about... is closer to relief... and even closer to rest. When we accept this… our desire for communion can remain strong…even in the midst of exhaustion and distraction…and pain.
And so we come to the end… of our month long
exploration of prayer…and we’re left with these
five precious rules for prayer
One:
Freedom and Obedience
Love can never be imposed from outside. We’re free to respond to God’s desire for us…free… to make his cause our own…and free to present our cause to him.
Two
The invitation is universal
‘Faith’s table is always laid, whether the invited guest sits down... or stays away… with a thousand excuses God’s love comes near to us...even when we shut our eyes and pretend it’s not there.
Three… We learn in Jesus’ school of prayer
our intercessions are universal
God’s cause is the cause of all creation. And so with Christ… we pray God’s will be done in all the earth. Our individual cause.. is included in the greater context
Four… we are
sure of a hearing… True prayer… is based on the assurance of being heard. Trust in God… is our gift back to God…
even when our prayers seem to go unanswered…
we pray in faith… that in everything… God can work out his purposes of love. And the bible tells us…
even the prayers of unbelievers are heard.
Five
Faith and Hope In Jesus’ school of prayer…we learn even betrayal and death… can be redeemed by God’s grace. Any balance… between fear and hope… that existed before the incarnation of Jesus...
has been tipped… in favour of the resurrection.
And so in faith and hope… we respond to God’s
invitation to communion with him.
And with the Psalmist we pray:
Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you’re there; if I make my bed in the depths, you’re there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there… your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.
If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,"
even the darkness… wont be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.
You know those amazing… clear… mid winter nights – when the moon is full… and lights up the snow on the mountains… and we’re dazzled by the brightness and the night seems to shine like the day?
It was like that the other night wasn’t it…just this week …a perfect night… a perfect moon…
and then it started to happen… didn’t it…
slowly but surely…over an hour… a shadow crept across the moon… eclipsing its light.
And our beautiful mountains and lakes …
which only moments before… were bathed in light....
are cast into darkness.
And the moon...it was there...but only a dull red reflected light… could pass through the earth’s atmosphere
It can happen during a solar eclipse too…like the one your looking at…Everything grows dark. [pause]
A very similar experience… can happen to us…
in our relationship with God. The ancient Christian mystics… called it the Dark Night of the Soul.
I can think of a couple of times in my own life… when I felt cut off… from God’s light and warmth.
One time as a teenager …I can remember sitting in church… feeling desolate and disconnected from God…I didn’t know what to do…so I opened the Bible and there were the words of Jesus in Johns Gospel "I will not leave you comfortless."
The next time was about… fourteen years ago… when I felt like I was…in a battle for my life with someone at work…I was desperate and depressed…
It was so bad…I wasn’t clinging to God in the darkness …or wrestling with God…
it just seemed to me that God wasn’t there.
And one day in the midst of all this emptyness…
I just sat on the floor of my bedroom and prayed …
in tears I demanded God meet me in my darkness.
I told God I wasn’t going to move until he joined me.
And slowly I became aware of God’s presence again.
A few years later…someone asked me what I’d do… if I were rejected for ministry training a second time …by then my trust in God’s ongoing presence… had grown to the point… where I could answer immediately…
‘I guess if that happens… I’ll just have to go into that dark place… knowing that God is already there… waiting for me.’ [pause]
I read somewhere that
‘when everything seems at its darkest…
we often find… we’re standing in the…
blinding light of God’s love.’ [pause]
Sometimes the temptation is strong…to give up praying… to walk away from God… to yield…
to weariness or cynicism…. And it’s these times
I want to talk about today... [pause]
Even for people who surrender to a life of prayer …devout people with strong faith…
it’s not unusual to experience the extremes…
of spiritual emptiness and abandonment.
Sometimes the dryness darkness and doubt… can be so intense... we seem to lose all spiritual light... and all hope.’
When we’ve only ever learned about praying with words… a time can come when we feel unable to pray. Or when our prayers aren’t answered…
we feel like giving up...or we get tired of waiting for God’s promises to be fulfilled…
You know…even Moses threw down a sack full of God’s promises in a huff. In fact…any misgiving or doubt you could ever have…has already been voiced somewhere in scripture.
The voices of the Bible speak to us of...
the ‘agony of dislocation, hurt and betrayal…
lives that don’t make sense… of a god who doesn’t seem to care or even exist. Try reading the Habakkuk, Ecclesiastes, Lamentations or the drama of Job...and listen to the Psalmist. ‘I’m worn out calling for help; my throat is parched. My eyes fail, looking for my God.’ [pause]
Through out the Bible God’s people pour out...
a litany of protest and complaint… that the world is out of kilter…instead of complaining to each other they nag and remind God of unfulfilled promises... they cry out that justice and mercy... do
not appear to rule the earth.
Even those upon whom Jesus would build his church would doubt…Jesus says to Peter, ‘I’ve prayed for you that your faith may not fail.’
But Peter’s faith did fail...didn’t it… three times.
Times of darkness, dryness, doubt…suffering and decay, disappointment and death… all belong to the twilight that’s part of our creaturely experience.
They’re not evil…and they’re not completely avoidable…they’re the ‘shadow side’…
of what it means to be alive…
We hear it fromJesus on the Cross...
as he cries out in anguish...the words of the psalm:
‘My God, my God... why have you forsaken me?’
Yet from this side of the resurrection…
we can see …even betrayal and death… can be redeemed… as part of the outworking of God’s grace.
Karl Barth…a great 20th century theologian …reminds us that ‘true prayer…
is prayer which is sure… of a hearing.’
And this is where we need to be reminded...
of the other things we’ve learned… about what it means to be in communion with the creator of the universe …especially that the only way we can know anything about God…is because God chooses to reveal himself to us … and we pray because God has invited us to pray
Remember the words from Jeremiah…
‘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. I know the plans I have in mind for you – plans for peace, not disaster, reserving a future full of
hope for you. If you pray to me I will listen to you.’
God invites us into relationship…and into prayer... and promises to listen…God is…by definition… present with us…and so when there seems to be no answer…we wait…until the day dawns… and the morning star rises in our hearts. When we surrender our will to God’s… even ‘no’…is an answer.
In Jesus’ school of prayer…we’re careful…
not to confuse our feelings…
with God’s presence or absence. In this way…
we come to understand… the real meaning of faith.
And when we find… the solid bedrock of faith…
our difficulty with prayer… has served its purpose…
we discover …our ability to pray… and our relationship with God…aren’t based on feeling…
but on the unshakeable conviction…
that God is there…and hears us.
Whenever we question the intensity of our feelings… about prayer or worship or God…
we risk becoming obsessed with technique.
When we expect to stay on the mountain top…
be high on God all the time… we become guilt ridden or disappointed when it doesn’t happen… and we forget that prayer simply means… keeping company with God… who is always… and already present.
We need to ask ourselves...
if our desire for communion with God...
is greater… than our need... to feel ‘high on God’.
My experience… is that the peace of God… Paul talks about... is closer to relief... and even closer to rest. When we accept this… our desire for communion can remain strong…even in the midst of exhaustion and distraction…and pain.
And so we come to the end… of our month long
exploration of prayer…and we’re left with these
five precious rules for prayer
One:
Freedom and Obedience
Love can never be imposed from outside. We’re free to respond to God’s desire for us…free… to make his cause our own…and free to present our cause to him.
Two
The invitation is universal
‘Faith’s table is always laid, whether the invited guest sits down... or stays away… with a thousand excuses God’s love comes near to us...even when we shut our eyes and pretend it’s not there.
Three… We learn in Jesus’ school of prayer
our intercessions are universal
God’s cause is the cause of all creation. And so with Christ… we pray God’s will be done in all the earth. Our individual cause.. is included in the greater context
Four… we are
sure of a hearing… True prayer… is based on the assurance of being heard. Trust in God… is our gift back to God…
even when our prayers seem to go unanswered…
we pray in faith… that in everything… God can work out his purposes of love. And the bible tells us…
even the prayers of unbelievers are heard.
Five
Faith and Hope In Jesus’ school of prayer…we learn even betrayal and death… can be redeemed by God’s grace. Any balance… between fear and hope… that existed before the incarnation of Jesus...
has been tipped… in favour of the resurrection.
And so in faith and hope… we respond to God’s
invitation to communion with him.
And with the Psalmist we pray:
Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you’re there; if I make my bed in the depths, you’re there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there… your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.
If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,"
even the darkness… wont be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.
