Let us pray  – 

[Pearl, Florrie, and the Bull is a great little true story you can find on You Tube]

Pearl Florrie, and the Bull is a great little video about a true story.  For me the punch line is when Florrie and Pearl were fighting the bull, and Florrie says, “do you know what we haven’t done?”, and Pearl is puzzled.  But Florrie says “we haven’t prayed.”  And amidst their wrestling they pray.

Note there’s no magical answer that delivers them from their dilemma.. there is no lightning bolt that strikes the bull dead.  Instead Pearl decides she really must go for help and as she does she continues to the most earnest prayer she has ever prayed to keep her sister safe.  A cynic may say what use was that and what a waste of time. Prayer didn’t magically make the bull placid and peaceful and take away the threat the women were facing….. but something did happen. Florrie received a flash of inspiration to lie across the bulls face.  Where did that arise from?  How was God involved in that flash of inspiration?  Did prayer somehow open a door to receive a message from God?  Prayer didn’t magically fix things but brought another dimension into the scene.  Prayer opens our eyes to see things we didn’t see before. Prayer gives us courage to face things with renewed hope.  Prayer helps us see what is really important amidst the chaos of life.

Praying as I have said many times is a mysterious business, but it is a business that lies at the heart of our faith journey.  Prayer is a vital part of our lives as Christians.  Jesus used to rise early each morning to pray, and prayer is a vital part of every great person of faith.  In our own time it has become a neglected spiritual practice and I speak as someone who knows this truth personally.  Busyness, lack of encouragement from others, and the trivialisation of prayer into a shopping list and ‘what can God do for me” practice, a lack of personal discipline has meant prayer drifts down the priority list in our lives.  We often fail to take spiritual formation seriously in our lives.

An old saint of the church, Clement of Alexandra, said prayer is simply “keeping company with God”.   It is a little like plugging in an electric jug and making a connection with God which allows a flow of electricity that can warm the interior contents. With God there is a power called love which flows, an illumination of the mind which occurs, and a mysterious inner transformation that somehow changes how we see things.  It’s like opening a door to another dimension of life.  In essence it’s not hard, there are no magic formulas, we just need to find the way that works for us.  I’m interested that even hardened atheists can find a way to pray.  During the heady days of communism in Russia, party stalwarts used to keep pictures of Lenin in places where traditionally Russians might have kept an Orthodox Christian icon.  Pravda the national newspaper had this advice to readers in the 1950’s:

“If you meet with difficulties in your work, or sudden doubt in your abilities, think of him – Stalin – look at his picture and you will find the confidence you need.  If you feel tired, think of him, and your work will go well.  If you are seeking a correct decision think of him – Stalin – and you will find that correct decision.”  It sounds very much like prayer to me!

Sadly in our consumer driven world prayer has often been reduced to asking God for things.  God is often asked to bend normality to give us a special favour.  It’s the capitalist consumerist take on prayer.  I learned a lesson early in my life about prayer.  I tried to enlist God’s help to ensure the All Blacks beat their dreaded foe the Springboks in South Africa. As a young boy I set about some very earnest praying in the Roslyn Presbyterian church, all through a service of worship.  I was devastated afterwards when I learned the Springboks had defeated my team.  Didn’t God listen to me and yet I had prayed so earnestly.  I learned that God was simply quite happy to let the best team win on the day.  I’m sure God did care about my sense of loss and my passion for my team, God also desired that I might grow up and see a bigger picture of life!   Just focusing on my wants and the desires of my ego wasn’t going to really benefit me nor the kingdom of God.  It’s a pretty silly example but it does reflect the modern state of prayer. If only we can twist God’s arm we can get God to do things for me.  I still find it interesting that people can ask me to pray to pray for things believing that as a minister I may have more pulling power to influence God’s mind. Some may suggest thats what our little gospel story we read this morning is all about.  Piling the pressure on God so God will give in and give us what we ask for.  Simple answer: NO. Go back and read the introduction and the point of the story is persistence of prayer. 

When you hear the word widow in our scriptures think downtrodden, neglected, isolated.  Women weren’t expected to seek out judges (that’s men’s role), and clearly she has no means to bribe the court officials like everyone else did to get their case heard.  Her only weapon is her voice and her passion for justice.  And note it’s not some individual want she is after but justice and justice is dear to God’s heart.  She doesn’t give up, she persists, and she believes she will be heard even by a corrupt uncaring judge!  How much more will the source of love and life listen.  We may pray in a half-hearted way when we need or want something, but most of the time we are content and manage life by ourselves.  Jesus is saying prayer is something that should persistently be part of our lives, anchoring our lives, guiding our lives, connecting with what God wants in our lives.  Constant, persistent, part of our everyday pattern.  

What is needed in our consumer world is a new understanding of prayer as paying attention to what God wants.  In our time I believe the purpose of prayer that God wants to emphasise is transformation – transformation of our very beings.  I believe we need to see prayer as a spiritual practice or discipline which helps transforms our lives, to make them truer, more authentic, more centred in God.   Prayer is like opening a door to a friend.  It’s not rocket science, but we need to bear in mind we have two ears and only one mouth. When we open the door and engage with a friend there may be words, but we may simply share silence.  Instead of sending words off out there somewhere to get God to do things, we need to recapture prayer as a time God connects with us deep to deep.  I go for a morning walk, and sometimes I talk to God on the walk, but mostly I just walk in stillness.  I hear the birds singing greeting the new dawn, and something within is transformed.  As you are aware I have started a mediation group that meets weekly but encourages a daily practice of mediation.  I’m still working into that daily practice, but I can report I find it encouraging and helpful to meet with others to meditate and pray. You are welcome to join us, but I know it’s not for everyone.  In the quietness of mediation which happens as I focus on a word as a mantra I believe I connect with God deep to deep.  It’s not a matter of words, but of a deep connection in the silence and in the moments where my chaotic ego driven mind stills.  I am transformed.  It’s not dramatic and it required ongoing discipline and effort. There are other activities that  may encourage this deep connection.   

I think this is why Jesus so often stressed the need to find a quiet place to pray.  He talked of going into the inner room which I see as the deeper place of my being.  In the stillness I am aware of being opened to a bigger presence, being embraced by a deep love, an enlightening power.  Prayer is about changing and transforming me, so that I am no longer blown this way and that by the hungers and desires of my ego but instead find a deeper moral foundation that allows me to stand against the tide. 

Of course that doesn’t mean we give up on words.  Like the widow we should cry out to God and voice our deepest longings.  Recently I was wrestling with an issue in my life and I prayed that God might give me insight.  About two hours later someone phoned me and talked for a while about some issue in their life.  In concluding they happened to just mention something out of the blue which just seemed like an answer to the question I had been wrestling with.  I guess someone might say it was all coincidence and wishful thinking but I choose to believe otherwise.  When we share our deepest desires and longings with God expect an answer.

Prayer, like all spiritual practices, is about becoming more centred in God. It is about learning what matters to God in our lives.  Centring in God changes us and transforms us.  If you know me you’ll know there is plenty of transformation still needed!   Paul said prayer should bear fruit…. These fruits are many but the most important are compassion, authenticity, courage, and gratitude. 

I don’t know if you caught the last line of this morning’s parable.  I suspect the gospel writer saw a community around him that neglected prayer and so adds a little note.  When Jesus returns will he find people who are faithful in prayer.  I with Luke want to say that without constant practice of prayer together and as individuals we will wither as communities of faith.  We all know the institutional church is dying.  My response is to say look at our prayer life. I often hear messages like we need to do more in our community, or we need to change the way we do things to be more relevant as a church.  I think if there one thing we need it is a more persistent and active practice of prayer.  My deep hope for us as the St Martins church family is that as a community of faith we might all know the importance of prayer and we might like Florrie say “let us pray” more often.   

Dugald Wilson 20 Oct 2019

If you want to watch the movie

Google Pearl, Florrie and the Bull and you should be directed to the You Tube clip of the movie.

Importance of saying Thank You…. Luke 17: 11-19

There is something I think I can guarantee we all want.  There is something that we all look for.  There is something you would spend a lot of money for.  There is something I bet you wish your neighbour has too.  I’m thinking of happiness.  You and I want to be happy, we want everyone to be happy.

Happiness is a strange thing.  Actually I don’t think you can buy it. 

Rich people are often unhappy people and people with not so much are often happier people.

Maybe happiness can be linked to circumstance.  When everything goes sweetly in our lives we can be happy.  But then I think of people I know who seem to have all sorts of misfortune and who radiate a sense of happiness. 

I have a hunch that happiness is closely connected with something else in our lives – our sense of gratefulness.  Happy people are grateful people.  One of the quotes on our service sheet says simply, ‘you cannot be truly happy without being grateful first’.  

Wealthy people are often unhappy because they simply want more and they are not grateful for what they have.  People who have great misfortune can radiate happiness because they still have a sense of gratitude even though life has dished up some hard times. 

Without gratefulness I don’t think we can be truly happy.

But what is gratefulness?  Where does gratefulness come from.  Two people can watch a magnificent sunset and one goes, ‘ho hum the sun has set nice colours’, and the other goes, ‘wow, what an amazing  magnificent sight, how fortunate I have been to be part of it.’  Gratefulness arises within us when we experience something we value as a gift.  We experience something we value like a magnificent sunset and we know we haven’t made it happen, we haven’t earned it, we haven’t purchased it.  It’s generous gift to us.   Religious people will often say it is a gift from God.  You can probably think of some amazing experiences for which you’ve been grateful.  Sun rise, birth of a child, someone listening, the love of a friend, shelter in a storm.  When we are grateful happiness is not far away.

Have you noticed some people are grateful people.  They radiate a deep happiness.  You sometimes wonder what they’ve been smoking.  I wonder how they do it?  Part of coming to worship every Sunday is an opportunity to be grateful.  We sing songs of thanks, we offer prayers of gratefulness and thanksgiving.  Our liturgy encourages us to develop thankful grateful hearts through our worship together.  I think we often miss the opportunity. 

 I think we often miss the opportunity in our daily lives to be grateful.  We are too busy, we are too preoccupied and living out of the moment, we are anxious and fearful, we are too worried about what others think, or standing out in some way.  What if we saw every moment of our lives as amazing gift, as opportunity?  I think we would be happier.

I’m not saying we should be grateful for everything that happens, because there are plenty of things in life that we should not be thankful for… violence, war, loss of someone we value, uncaring hurtfulness, but we can be grateful in every moment even when we are confronted with pain and conflict.  In every moment there will be opportunities for good.  I can be grateful for that.  Why is it for example that when I show you a piece of paper with a little black dot on it we tend to notice the black dot and not be thankful for the rest of the sheet which has all sorts of opportunity to write and draw on or even the other side which has complete opportunity to do something creatively with.  It’s just the black dot we notice rather than the opportunity of the blank page!

I think we can learn to be grateful and happy.  We can build what I call spiritual practices into our lives to enhance our sense of gratitude.  There is a little technique we learn when we are young about crossing the road.  It is just three words: ‘Stop, Look, Go’.  I  invite to take these words into your life as a spiritual practice that will bring more gratefulness and happiness into your life. 

Stop – Make time in your life to be still – hit pause more often in your day to make space to ponder and be aware of what is happening.  Build some stop signs into your day where you reflect on simple things like turning on the tap and getting a supply of fresh clean water.  Saying grace before a meal is one of those stop signs.  Maybe it’s making time at the beginning or the end of the day to reflect.  Some people write a gratefulness journal.  Someone else I know has a practice in their life of spending a few minutes each night to review their day and name at least three things they are grateful in that day.  But we all need stop time if we are going to build gratefulness and happiness in our lives. . 

Look – ponder, reflect.  Savour the experiences of life in your heart.   Some of us have lived in places where there is little fresh clean water and we know the value of this gift that comes at the turn of a tap.  Or when you switch on the light pause for a moment and reflect on the ingenuity that gives us energy so easily.   Notice the intricacy of the flowers in your garden, the hard working bees pollinating, the trees converting carbon dioxide into oxygen so we can live.  Notice the love that others share with you. When someone asks ‘how you are’, notice the love and concern that is behind the question.  We take so much for granted in our busy lives and we are the poorer for it.  It is not a giant clockwork universe we live in, but wonderfully rich, gracious world where we are constantly on the receiving end of gifts.  Notice this and you will be more grateful and happier.  Notice the buds opening, the birds singing, the fresh scents the sunset and think ‘gift’.    

Go – and as you stop and look and notice, let your life be changed.  Let the gratitude make you a happier person, and more generous person.  Let your life be healed.  Let it be well.  Let it be thank-full and let the thankfulness radiate from you.  Let it bring shalom into the world.  Don’t keep it bottled in but share it, affirm others with it.  Psychologists are now telling us that there is a huge amount of scientific research behind the positive impact of showing gratitude.  It enhances the neurotransmitters, serotonin, and dopomines. When we are grateful we change our cognitive processes and we notice more things to be thankful for.  Another quote…God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today.  Have you used at least one to be thankful... to express thanks.  Saying thank you is one of the most powerful things you can do for others, and it’s a great way to give witness to your faith in God the amazing gift giver!

A grateful person will help save the planet because they will share more and consume less.

A grateful person enjoys differences in others and will respect others who are different.

A grateful person is happy with who they are and less likely to be violent and abusive to those around them.

A grateful person will be more joyful .

A grateful person will often be more aware of God and gifts of God.