Regular Services and the Rector's Sermons

MORNING PRAYER / HOLY COMMUNION (most weeks of the year)
Monday 1st, 3rd & 5th week of the month 9.00 am Low Catton
Every Thursday Holy Communion 9.30 am Stamford Bridge

Services at Catton are held in someone's home, ring the Rectory the day before for details. All are welcome to these short services of bible readings and prayer

1st SUNDAY
8.00 am Holy Communion Stamford Bridge
9.00 am Holy Communion Scrayingham
10.45 am ALL AGE SERVICE Stamford Bridge

2nd SUNDAY
8.00 am Holy Communion Stamford Bridge
9.00 am Holy Communion Low Catton
10.45 am HOLY COMMUNION Stamford Bridge

3rd SUNDAY
8.00 am Holy Communion Stamford Bridge
9.30 am Morning Worship Low Catton
10.45 am FAMILY COMMUNION Stamford Bridge

4th SUNDAY
8.00 am Holy Communion Stamford Bridge

9.00 am Holy Communion Low Catton

10.45 am HOLY COMMUNION Stamford Bridge

5th SUNDAY
8.00 am Holy Communion Stamford Bridge
9.00 am Holy Communion Low Catton
10.45 am HOLY COMMUNION Stamford Bridge

LAST SUNDAY OF THE MONTH

6.00 pm Celtic Style Evening Prayer Stamford Bridge

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WEDDINGS

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DIANE'S SERMONS

Sermon Series on Prayer 2008 Doctor of Ministry, Durham Univ.

Diane R. Westmoreland

This material is part of my doctoral research and may not be copied

Sermon 1 - Luke 11:1-13 'Lord, teach us to pray'

What is prayer, how do we learn to pray and why should we pray?

Context of the biblical passage - This passage comes just after Jesus- conversation with Mary and Martha, where he emphasises to Martha that she should not allow the busyness and distraction of her many tasks to draw her away from the life of contemplation and stillness which Mary seems to have embraced. We then switch scenes to Jesus praying alone, and Luke underlines the message he has just given by showing Jesus alone in prayer. Luke says:

He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” [Luke 11:1] Here we see Jesus' followers learning the practice of prayer from their Lord's example, and also asking him to teach them how to pray.

So we might ask, 'What is prayer?' - 'How can we learn to pray?' and indeed, 'What is the point of prayer, why pray at all?' These three questions will underlie this series of four sermons on prayer.

Firstly, what is prayer - what might we include under that heading in our minds? You might like to think for a moment what comes into your mind when I say the word prayer - and those participating in the research project might want to jot a few thoughts down at this moment.

[A short pause for thinking time]

I don't know what your individual experience of prayer is, but I know from talking to a lot of people about it, that often the model people find they take from public worship is the idea of prayer as intercession - praying for others, especially those in need in some way. This impression is easily given by the Common Worship service book and Anglican worship generally, when such prominence is given to intercession over and above other forms of prayer, although of course other types of prayer feature - confession, praise and thanksgiving - but when people talk about leading the prayers, they usually mean leading the intercessions. This sermon series is not about intercession at all. It is about the personal life of prayer and how that shapes us as Christians, if indeed we manage to pray. Of course intercession may well be a feature of that life of prayer, but my aim is to show that it should only be one aspect of your life of prayer.

Most of us struggle with prayer. If we haven’t yet, we will! Yet I hope you can grasp the idea that the mere desire to pray becomes prayer itself. Thinking about God, or about your relationship with God, even agonising over the fact that cannot seem to pray; these are all ways in which we pray. If your heart is turned towards God, or you are thinking about God, then you are entering in to the ultimately mysterious realm of prayer. And there is only one guide in that mysterious real, and his name is Jesus. As I said, prayer is usually a struggle; I say usually because in most people's lives, especially early on I the spiritual journey, there are times when prayer flows like a rolling river and we are carried along downstream quite fast. However, the rolling torrent will becomes a trickle and then we will struggle. The struggle is to do with learning something from God. Learning is hard, especially when we have left school, and even more so when we think there is nothing left to learn. But there is always something new in the journey of self-awareness with God, and the emphasis in these coming weeks is on exploration, on the sorts of prayer which are the product of reflection and considered thought, rather than the spontaneous. Both are important, but we tend to have more opportunity for spontaneous prayer than reflective prayer. That's the other thing people tell me, when they are under pressure or life is tough, those spontaneous talks,[or they may be rants, or complaints!] with God happen, and I should imagine most of you know what I mean by that.

So, wanting to pray, struggling to pray - these experiences are key in spiritual lives. And there is something else very important to add - there is no right way to pray, and there is not only one way to pray. We pray as we can and as God leads us if we are able to open ourselves sufficiently to God. We can learn from each other, but we cannot impose what works for us on each other. Just as we are all created by God to be unique, so our relationship with God will be unique. But if, as I believe, we are all relating to the same God, then there may be aspects of our prayer lives which will correspond, and ways in which God communicates with us that we can recognise in others, and so help each other along the way. I repeatedly describe this as a journey, or a way, because I think there is a path of prayer to follow, and that we do grow in our experience with God, as we try to become mature Christians, following Christ.

An aim of this sermon series is to explore different ways of praying which you might try for yourselves at home, even if you are not participating in the course. As I describe things, listen to your heart and mind for what connects most deeply with you. We are all different, and when you have tried these different ways, I hope there will be one or two ways which enrich your own prayer life. Prayer is about learning more about who you are; and so, if you find some things difficult, then they may just not be for you, or perhaps they are pointing to things that we can learn from. Trust God in prayer, God will not unfold things to you that you cannot deal with.

So, that was a bit about what prayer is - and how do we learn to pray? I think from the person whom God sent to be with us and share our lives, we learn from Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit at work in the world. However it is that God gets our attention in the first place, it is perseverance and desire for God that will take us onward. That desire for God will draw us to learn from the Bible, from the world, from each other, and sometimes directly from Jesus.

Why should we pray? I can make some suggestions here from my own experience and from the gathered wisdom of the Christian church over the centuries, which you may or may not buy into, depending on who you are and where you are in your own spiritual life. We should pray because Jesus did, and he gave us a prayer to say, which doesn’t include intercession as far as I can see. We should pray because it is the language of our relationship with God, it is the means by which we communicate with God. We should pray because it is the way in which we grow in faith, the way we mature into Christian actors in our world; and we should pray because it is the way to self-knowledge and self-love. I hope to unpack those reasons more in the weeks to come. For today, I hope you will just note down your reaction to them.

In the prayer course that is happening alongside this sermon series, each session there is a form of experiential prayer which is tried out. That cannot happen so easily in the confines of a sermon series, but each week, I will make a suggestion for something you can try at home, if you want. Centring prayer is the first suggestion. It is a few words to form an entrance into prayer, or to be a simple prayer in itself. It is used to steady or focus the thoughts. It is a short phrase. The first part is one of the names of God, like - Jesus, Son of God, or Holy Lord. Then we add to that a simple request, like, 'Have mercy on me', or 'lead me into your peace'. This little prayer is said with the breath, breathing in for the first phrase and out for the second. It is remarkable how calming this can be - it is a form of meditation that Christians have practised for centuries, but in recent years, seems to have got overlooked in the late twentieth century rush to find wisdom in eastern religions. Sometimes, you may want your centring prayer to take you into a time of simple conversation with God, just tell God what you want to say simply, as though you were a child. Remember that we are all like children in God's eyes. Bring what you have to God, don’t sort it out. Don’t be put off waiting for the ideal time – the ‘if only’ scenario. We are the centre of simple prayer – that is as it should be: St. Teresa of Avila wrote, “There is no stage of prayer so sublime that it isn’t necessary to return often to the beginning.” Be honest – no pretence – carry on the conversation with God, God listens in compassion and love, as I hope we do when our children come to talk to us.

I hope that in the next fortnight you might try this simple form of prayer when you have 5 or 10 minutes of quiet on your own, and that it will refresh you and bring you peace.

And I'd like to close with a prayer which you will recognise from a hymn:

Lord Jesus Christ

Now and every day, teach us how to pray, Son of God.

You have commanded us to do

this in remembrance, Lord, of you:

into our lives your power breaks through, living Lord.

Sermon Series on Prayer 2008 Doctor of Ministry, Durham Univ.

Diane R. Westmoreland

This material is part of my doctoral research and may not be copied

Sermon 2 - Luke 24:13-32 - On the road to Emmaus

Jesus opens the scriptures

I'd like to open this second sermon of my series on prayer by setting out the context of the biblical passage we have just heard. Some time just after Jesus' crucifixion, two of the disciples are walking home to Emmaus, a village probably about 7 or 8 miles from Jerusalem - a bit like walking back here from York . They are going home, forlorn, dejected, feeling lost and confused. After all, their amazing teacher and leader, their wonderful, inspiring friend, Jesus of Nazareth, had just been crucified. Now what were they to do? Perhaps best just to give up, go home and take stock for a while? On the journey, they encounter a stranger who walks with them. He 'opens the scriptures to them'; he explains to them how so many parts of their holy writings - what we now call our Old Testament - refer to Jesus and how he would suffer, be put to death and yet be raised to life again by God. You have just heard what happened to them next. They were utterly transformed by their encounter with the risen Christ. They were filled with new life, energised enough to get straight back on the road back to the capital city and tell their friends that they had just seen Jesus.

I don't know if you have ever felt that your life has been changed by an encounter with Jesus? Or that it could be? Or that you want it to be? Just think about those questions for a moment ……..

Ignatius Loyola

Next I want to tell you about someone whose life was altered for ever by what we might term an encounter with Jesus - not a road to Emmaus type experience, but a gradual change over about a year - he was called Ignatius of Loyola, in Spain . He was born in 1491 as Inigo Lopez de Loyola, and took the name Ignatius in later life, as a tribute to one of the early church fathers, St. Ignatius of Antioch . Imagine his life in the early years of the 16th century - if you have seen any of the recent TV drams about the Tudors, you'll have the right picture in your mind, for he is an exact contemporary of King Henry VIII, who was born the very same year. Ignatius was a young courtier, a 'swaggering caballero' one writer calls him, and he was a soldier in the service of the Spanish King. For some time he was in the household of the royal treasurer of Spain , so he lived a privileged life, one of comfort compared with most people of his time. Spain and France were at war and in the spring of 1521 the French invaded Spain and occupied the city of Pamplona in Navarre . The Spanish garrison in the citadel stubbornly held out and Ignatius was foremost among the defenders. On May 21st, 1521, aged 30, he was severely wounded during the bombardment when a cannonball broke one leg and badly damaged the other. He was taken back to the family castle at Loyola where he began a slow and painful recovery.

Ignatius had nothing to occupy his time, having to lie still. He wanted some books to read and instead of the courtly romances he wanted, he was given just two books - The Life of Christ by Ludolph of Saxony, a German Carthusian monk, and a collection of saint's lives called The Golden Legend, by a thirteenth century Dominican writer called Jacopo de Voragine. He had plenty of time to read these began to notice something about his thoughts and inner feelings. He was a courtier, a soldier, and for a time he was given over to day-dreaming about his exploits. He spent hours thinking about how he might impress at court, or what feats of chivalry he might achieve once his leg was better. After a while he realised that after one of these day-dreaming session, he would feel disconsolate and dissatisfied, as though he were empty and superficial. When he read his two books, he would think about Christ's life, and the lives of the saints who had tried to follow Christ. Often, he would daydream about that instead; he would imagine what it might be like to follow Christ, to do some of the things the saints had done. He began to notice that when he thought about these holy things, he was left feeling very different - he felt uplifted, consoled and at peace. He began to realise that this was no coincidence but a real spiritual difference which was changing him. In those months of convalescing, gradually his military ambitions and his thoughts of advancement at court fell away, and he became resolved to serve God, and to do something which he described as 'serving souls' - he knew he wanted to do something which would help others to encounter God as he had, but he didn't know yet what that was. Ignatius was a methodical man, military precision we might say! and it seemed most sensible to him to write down the ways in which he had thought and meditated on Jesus' life and the ways in which the stories from the bible and the lives of the saints had influenced him. As he told others about his experiences, gradually these thoughts were refined into the Spiritual Exercises which many people still use today. I don't have the scope today to go into more detail about Ignatius' later life, or about the Spiritual Exercises in detail; suffice to say that the bible and the life of Christ were very important to him, and he developed a way of meditating with the stories of the bible which has come down to us today.

Ignatius' teaching about meditating on the scriptures

The words meditation and contemplation are often used in talk about prayer, so let's sort them out. Contemplation is a type of prayer in which we try to empty the mind of distractions and enter into silence and stillness, into the present moment as it is. I think it is quite a tough discipline and not something everyone can manage easily. Meditation is different in that we meditate on something - so we have a focus for our thoughts and prayer. Ignatius practised this type of prayer and commended it to others. In this group of churches, I have from time to time led guided meditations on bible passages, exactly as Ignatius suggests. The object of this type of meditation is to bring us into an encounter with Christ and to allow us to relate to him and to receive from him whatever he wants to give us. Why should we do this, you might ask? Why does Ignatius recommend it to us? Because of his own experience that such times of prayer brought him consolation, peace and an assurance of the love of Christ, and that was something he wanted others to experience for themselves.

As Jesus walked with the two disciples who hadn't recognised him yet, he helped them to understand some of the bible more deeply, and eventually to recognise him as present with them. We do not have the opportunity today to encounter our Lord in the flesh on this earth, but spiritually I believe, through the Holy Spirit, we can be with Christ, and that when we pray with the bible, we are often given the grace, the gift, of such an encounter. Again, there is not time in the scope of this sermon both to describe a bible meditation and also to guide you through one. This morning, the description must suffice. But for those who would like to experience such a guided meditation before the end of the sermon course, there will be an opportunity to do so at February's Evening Prayer service on Feb 24th at 6 p.m. at Stamford Bridge church.

Here is what happens . This guide is the same as the one offered during the course, 'Exploring Prayer'. If you're trying this on your own - you need to find a place where you won’t be disturbed for 15-30 minutes and get comfortable before you begin so you’re not distracted by fidgeting! Choose a passage from the gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke are the best places to start. Read your chosen passage until you feel you can replay it in your head without looking at the text. It is generally best to begin with the gospels, with someone who encounters Jesus.

If you want to try this at home, then I suggest the passage you have just heard. Imagine you are one of the disciples on the Emmaus road. Set the scene, – what can you see, hear, smell, touch and taste? How are you dressed? Who else is there? How do you feel? Imagine the setting as realistically as you can. When you are ready, and it may take some minutes to set the entire scene, then begin to imagine the action of the story. Become one of the people in the story - replay the story in your head, taking as long as it takes to move through the scene. Be aware of how you feel; whether anything makes you feel happy, or upset, or angry, or uncomfortable. Especially notice if there are things you wish to avoid, or something you especially want to happen. If in this time of prayer something happens which was not in the original bible account, don't dismiss it, but notice it. This is most likely to happen at the moment of encountering Christ. If we believe that prayer is our communicating with God, then we must expect this to be a two-way process. Jesus may take the opportunity of your openness to him to say or do something which is only for you, so his words and actions may be different from the bible passage you are replaying. Especially notice your feelings, as Ignatius did.

When you've finished imagining the story, come out of prayer and relax, maybe do something else for a short while. When you are ready, and before you have forgotten it all, write down what happened. Don’t censor yourself, pass comment, or judge yourself, just write down what happened when you prayed. Then put it on one side. Later on, go back to it and re-read what you have written, asking God to tell you more about what God is revealing to you. Now is the time to write down anything else which occurs to you. Notice if you missed anything out by checking your bible. If you missed something out, or added something, ask God to explain to you why that happened. Keep your notebook where you can refer to it when you next pray this way. It will help you to understand the spiritual journey God is taking you on. Expect to meet God in these encounters.

You might like to try this way of praying in the next two weeks, particularly if you are doing the sermon series. It can be difficult however to start this way of praying on your own, so if you want to try the guided meditation, come along to the 6 p.m. service at the end of Feb. That's when I will talk you through the bible passage, as some of you may have done with me in church from time to time. Some of you will find this way of praying very helpful, others may not be able to get anything out of it at all. Fear not, Jesus said. Jesus is our companion in prayer, he teaches us to pray and we follow his lead. The bible tells us the stories of God, so if we are serious in our faith, we will want to know more about those stories and what they mean for us. We are all different, and so our prayer will not be the same. It may be that reading the bible in a different way will be more suitable for you, and if that's the case for you, do have a word with me if you want some further helps or suggestions.

But for all of us I believe it is true, that Christ prays for us and longs that we have a relationship with him, a relationship in which we can experience the love, compassion and acceptance of God, the God who will transform our lives for the better if we take the risk of opening our hearts and minds to him… Amen.

Sermon 3 - Psalm 139:1-18

'O Lord, you have searched me and known me'

Prayer and change - growing in self-awareness

Here we are in Lent. Our new service book, called Times and Seasons, calls us as Christians to 'the observance of a holy Lent' and it asks that we do this 'by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God's holy word'. There is of course nothing new about this call, it is what Christians have tried to do throughout the centuries. And there are ways that we as a church try to support and encourage each other during Lent. For example, this year, we are encouraging those who don't read their bibles much, or think they don't know where to begin, to come along to the Good Book Club, which started last Thursday. It will help you get to grips with reading your bible. And in this sermon series, I hope you will find sustenance that will assist you with self-examination, repentance and prayer. For that is our topic this morning - self-awareness, or to put it another way, prayer and change - how prayer can transform us, when we let God into our lives.

So the passage we are looking at this morning is not the Gospel but the Psalm we have just heard. IT is an amazing piece of writing which affirms that we are open to God in every way, we are created by God, and we are held safe by God, and God knows everything there is to know about us. What I want to suggest that what is an open book to God, our self, is often a closed book to us. And it is one we have to learn to read. Much of the course the Exploring Prayer group have been following is about learning more about ourselves and who we are in God's eyes. Why should we want to grow in self-awareness? Do you think you know yourself, really know yourself ………………………………. ???

Why is self-awareness important?

I think it is important for several reasons, some spiritual, some emotional, and some social.

Spiritually, it is in prayer that we learn more about who we are. It is in prayer that we can learn to see ourselves as God sees us - with eyes of compassion, forgiveness and love. It is in prayer that God can train our spirits, train us to be more fully the people we were created to be.

Emotionally, self-awareness can bring a sense of integration, a sense of becoming a whole person, that we make sense to ourselves, that there are reasons for the way we behave as we do. This is closely linked to spiritual wellbeing, but it is not the same thing. Healing is itself to do with wholeness, and when we become more self-aware, then we move towards healing for our emotional lives.

Socially, we are more likely to be able to get along with others if we know ourselves, our foibles and limitations, our preferred ways of behaving, which may well be the source of great irritation to others! If we know more about how we 'tick', we are more likely to be sympathetic to others who are different, and we are less likely to do damage to each other in the interplay of daily life. Self-knowledge is a bit like sandpaper - it smoothes down our rough edges!

As a Christian, speaking from my own spiritual experience, and from the experience of talking to many others, I'd like to suggest for your consideration that the most important way we can grow in self-awareness is through the activity of prayer. And I'd like to reiterate something I said last time. It is an activity - it's something we do, although I hope that by talking about it, I can encourage you to do more of it.

I hope I have laid out some reasons why I think self-awareness is important, and the benefits it brings as we go on in the spiritual journey with God. We will never be fully self-aware, until we face God at the end of our lives. Then, as St. Paul said, we shall know, as we are fully known. But we can work towards it in this life, and it is worth working for.

So, if prayer is a route, and I would suggest, a main route to self-awareness, how does it work? Well, here of course we encounter the notion of faith. I cannot prove this to you, anymore than I can prove to you that Jesus is the Son of God, that is something you have to believe for yourself and accept in your own life. But I can offer some evidence.

When I first offered the prayer course Id' written as a curate in Tadcaster, some of it was virgin territory for all of us. The ways of praying I included in the course were things I had learned on my own journey of prayer, but after the formal course ended, the group wanted to carry on, and we began to devise things to do together. One of those prayer activities was something I have brought into the course. We got the daily papers, and we sat down and looked at them. We cut out things which really struck us that we wanted to pray about, that we thought God should do something about, that we thought God should change. Before we prayed about them, we discussed our concerns and put them up on a flip chart. Then we spent about 20 minutes praying in silence about them. Coming together again, people described what had happened, what thoughts had come, what they felt. A second list went up alongside the first list of concerns.

As the list grew longer, people said things like, 'I felt as though there was something I should do ….' or, 'I began to see this in a whole new way', or 'I've realised something about how this must seem to the people involved'. In the end, it dawned on us all, that when we prayed for God to change things, what happened was that WE changed. We grew in awareness of the world's suffering, things occurred to people that they could do, we saw things in new perspectives, people gained in compassion, and forgiveness. Negative emotions like anger, resentment and strife were replaced, by love, joy, peace, self-control, - those fruits of the Spirit which St. Paul talks about. It was a moment of complete mystery, but it was also like a new dawn, a breaking in of a realisation that God is indeed a God who will transform us, and can transform us, when we open up enough to let that happen.

I can also offer you my personal experience, that it was through prayer that my own life was transformed. I know I have this often told this to you, and I shan't go into great detail today, but it was through hearing sermons at my local church and from that deciding to read my bible more, and knowing that somehow God was addressing me through its pages, I eventually was able to pray a prayer which asked God to come into my life and change it, however God wanted to. It was no sudden conversion experience, it was a gradual journey of growing more aware of God. But God took hold of that openness in prayer, and began a work of radical change, at the pace I could manage. It led eventually to ordination for me, and the sense of wholeness and integration that meant my life began to make sense, within a bigger picture of God's kingdom. It would take too long in this context to explain the detail, but suffice to say, that all the gifts I had which hadn't seemed to hang together, began to be used. The fact that I did History A level, which I hadn't really wanted to do, was immensely useful. I loved singing, and could play the piano, these gifts began to be used again, in the church choir. The difficult life experiences, losing Keith's parents when our children were little, and then mine as we went through the training and the children growing older - these were not things we wished for, but God has used them to help others, I feel sure. There has been a real sense of resurrection. And I hope that over the years, I am beginning to realise how little it is I do know, and how much further I have to go, and also that in that, I am finding some of the humility which is the hallmark of a Christian life. As I say, still a long way to go, but through prayer, I feel that I am on the right track. And it is only prayer that keeps me on that track. Private prayer, and communal prayer both have their part to play in this, and I know I am sustained by other people praying for me when I am struggling to pray.

God continually calls us to go deeper, to let go of control and hand it over to him. That can fill us with fear at the sense of risk, but I think it is a risk we need to take, and keep on taking, if we are to be faithful to the God who calls us out of complacency into change, who calls us from stagnation to transformation, who calls us to embrace risk, surrender control and follow Christ.

Amen.

Sermon 4 - Matthew 28:16-20

'Go and make disciples of all nations'

Living our lives as Christians in the world

We have looked at the questions, What is prayer? Why pray? How do we pray? and I have made suggestions about how you might pray. Tonight at the 6 p.m. Evening service, I am offering a bible meditation for those who would like to come along and experience it, actually do the praying rather than hear me talk about it. I have described prayer as the journey of self-awareness - not the only reason for prayer, but a crucial one - one which leads us to transformation, into being more the people God wants us to be, which is moving into the question I want to address last. What is the purpose of prayer? Where does it take us? If it changes us and is to do with transformation, the question is transformation for what?

Most people are created and called by God to live in the world. A few are called to live lives apart, lives of religious commitment, as hermits, solitaries, or as monks and nuns in communities, both closed and open. I think those people are vitally important, but also that their calling is restricted to a small percentage of the population. Most of us go about our daily lives in the world. We do not live in religious communities. Neither should our lives be entirely focussed on the church community. Jesus was not enclosed by the life of his synagogue. We know he attended worship, we know he read his scripture, we know he took himself off alone to pray regularly, but he lived his life amongst the people - the great unwashed, as we might say - as they probably were in his day! He actively sought out the poor, those with disfiguring illnesses, the outcasts and those hated by society - he ate his meals with those who were considered to be the greatest sinners. He chose disciples who weren't always the sharpest tools in the box. He met with all kinds of people, rich and poor, educated and not, Jew and Gentile, and he offered them love, healing, acceptance, guidance, challenge, a rebuke when it was needed. He dealt with people as they were, and he tried to bring them to God. In the end, that cost him his life, but that was for us the ultimate sacrifice, and it was the self-sacrifice that transformed the whole world, and is still transforming the whole world. For many people who suffer, the gospel of a God who suffers with them is the only one that makes any sense.

So, Jesus lived in the world of his time. We live in the world of our time.

And the purpose of prayer is …..? This morning I offer you my answer to this question which is that the purpose of prayer is that it equips us to live the Christian life. It equips us to be Christians and to act as Christians. To use a phrase from the 16th century church - prayer should lead us into being 'contemplatives in action'. The transforming power of prayer, the subject of the previous sermon on this topic, finds it end in activity as well as contemplation. There are many different spiritualities, some more active than others. For example, those who follow the teaching of St. Francis are usually those who have an activist spirituality - they like getting out and doing stuff. I would say that's the sort of spirituality that underpins people who become part of the Salvation Army for example, or those who run soup kitchens, or who agitate for social justice. There are more contemplative spiritualities, where social activity is less obvious. They are people who may support and mentor other Christians. They may be the people behind the scenes, volunteers in charity shops, visitors at hospitals, the archetypal good neighbour, the person who prays regularly for others. On this spectrum there are many shades of Christian life, but ultimately, prayer must make a difference to your life in some way. And its outworking should be for the good of others. Those who pray must also do. For the end result of prayer which is genuinely of the heart opening to God must be the unfolding of the one life for the benefit of the kingdom. And I mean by the kingdom, God's rule in our world, not in the church, in the world. God is out there doing stuff, getting alongside people who are in need. We need to be out there too, getting stuck in alongside him, wherever our lives of prayer lead us. And our lives of prayer will of course lead us with the grain of our personality, not against it. Surely that makes sense if we believe that we are created by God? Which is why it's important to know ourselves, as God teaches us who we are through prayer, and to use that knowledge to move into the freedom that Jesus promised us. It is reported in John's gospel that Jesus said:

'If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.' (John 8:32)

I think that one of the key ways we move into that freedom is by identifying the things which distract us from following Christ faithfully. I just want to suggest a few ways in which we might identify those things in our lives, and with God's help in prayer, see them for what they are.

First of all, think of a ball and chain, fastened around your ankle, like some comedy pirate scene maybe! These are the obvious things which draw us away from God. They should be fairly easy to identify, and of course they are easier to spot in others. Drug addiction is a gross example - or alcoholism. Addictions of any kind make us dependent on something other than God; they replace God at the heart of life. The addict is focussed solely on the next fix, and if that fix is not God, then they're in trouble. Of course, we're not addicts are we, …. or are we?

How much TV do you watch? How important is the latest new gadget or toy?

How many pairs of shoes do you own? Or maybe it's not material things at all - maybe you're precious about your time being wasted, maybe you're proud of how much you can achieve, how hard you can work, how giving you can be to other people? We can become addicted to these things. They can lead us away from God. If I say, 'Well, as long as I have my ………… whatever, I'll be ok, I'll be alright, even if God doesn't show up.' Think for a moment about what you would put in that blank space - 'as long as I have my ………… whatever, I'll be ok, I'll be alright, even if God doesn't show up.' Maybe you're overly attached, addicted to something after all?

Think now of a cloud of midges, the sort that follow you around, flit about your head when it's a warm day - even worse, think of the shores of the loch in July, if you've ever visited Scotland in the summer. Nibble nibble, they go, on your skin. Drat those midges you say, flapping them away. You're so busy flapping, you can't think about anything else. What are the midges in your life? What do you spend so much time and energy flapping about that God can't get a look in? Do you work too hard? Do too many after-school activities, run your kids about everywhere as though their very happiness depended upon the amount of stuff they can cram in? Do you worry incessantly, or get anxious about things that haven't happened yet? Those midges are keeping you away from God.

And now let's go to the fair. Let's buy some candy floss. Ooh, yummy, full of sugar, looks pretty. But when you bite it, it melts away to nothing. It's full of empty energy - it'll give you the sugar rush, that's true, and then it will dump you down. What's the candy floss in your life - the gaudy, superficially attractive things, the shiny glittery things which make you take your eye off following Jesus? Maybe it's money? Maybe it's a new car or bigger house that you really can't afford. Maybe it's the new book or DVD. Maybe it is food. Maybe it's sex. Nothing wrong with any of these things in themselves, but once they become the centre of our attention, then they've replaced God, and before you know it, you've wandered off the spiritual path, maybe you've just fallen into a bush, or maybe you're lost in the heart of the forest. And we all know what happens to people who get lost in the heart of the forest. Any self-respecting fairy tale will tell you, bad things happen to people lost in the forest. There are wolves, and gingerbread cottages in the forest.

The trouble about being in the forest is that you need to get back on the path to find your way out. In the forest you're not going to see much apart from trees. Prayer is the path that will lead you back to God. Prayer is also the way by which you will recognise the ball and chain, the midges and the candy floss for what they truly are - distractions. Distractions are always there. The more subtle they are, the harder they are to recognise. Spend some time thinking about what distracts you from God this week. The more you can find out the truth about who you are really are, the truth about all those subtle ways that we let ourselves slide away, or be drawn away, from God, then the freer you will become. Spend some time praying for the freedom to come to God, and to inhabit God's freedom - the open plain, where everything is clear, where we can lift our eyes and focus on heaven. For it is in the open plain that Jesus stands, in plain sight, attracting us, not distracting us.

And last of all, let me end this sermon where I began it, by reminding you that the purpose of prayer is to draw us into lives lived as Christians - lives of loving, compassionate, just and forgiving, action. Lives which reflect and emulate Christ's. Where can your lives be more loving, more compassionate, more just and more forgiving? Jesus calls us to go, and make disciples, to go and help others to follow. And earlier in Matthew's gospel, he tells of the paradox at the heart of the Christian life: Chapter 11, verse 28 and 29:

'Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.'

May your prayer lead you to understand this more fully in your own life.

Amen.

Regular Services and the Rector's Sermons

REGULAR SERVICES

BAPTISMS, CONFIRMATIONS AND ENQUIRIES

WEDDINGS

DIANE'S SERMONS

REGULAR SERVICES

BAPTISMS, CONFIRMATIONS AND ENQUIRIES

WEDDINGS

DIANE'S SERMONS