Hebrews 13.1-8, 15-16; Luke 14.1, 7-14
I joined the army as a young officer on leaving school, and ten and a half years later I was watching a biblical drama on the life of Jesus and the last scene was taken from Matthew’s gospel when the risen Lord Jesus says to his disciples, “I am with you always to the end of the age.” As the actor said those words it was as if Jesus was speaking directly to me - the Holy Spirit at work. Two weeks later I knew Jesus wanted me to leave the army and I resigned my commission and seven weeks later was a civvie. I had no idea what Jesus had planned next for me and the first few months were uncomfortable and at times challenging but I held on to the words from Jesus, “I am with you always to the end of the age.” They echo the words that we have heard from the letter to the Hebrews, verse 5, “I will never leave you or forsake you.”
Do you believe this? In our baptism service the prayer immediately after the baptism itself includes the words: “..you may daily be renewed by his anointing Spirit..” Is this your experience?
I think most of us have ups and downs in our prayer life. Periods when we feel great, and uplifted, confident about life. Then periods of challenge and even darkness, when nothing seems to go right when life is like walking through treacle. The Footprints poem reminds us that it is in those darker times, when we feel Jesus is far from us, that he carries us. It is also in the darker times that we often reach out more for Jesus.
Emma and I were recently blessed by a holiday together to north Spain. Whenever we are in a new house, we have to learn where everything is especially the route to the toilet during the darker early hours. And if there is not a lot of light, I have to feel my way along the wall or furniture, tentatively putting one foot in front of another. It is the same in our dark times, we need to reach out to Jesus, searching for his hand and allowing him to reassure us that he is with us, that he will guide us, that he will never leave us or forsake us.
In the April magazine, I wrote about a form of prayer of engaging with God through solitude and silence, of finding a regular time and space in the day and home to be with Jesus. Ruth Barton has written an excellent book on this: “Invitation to solitude and silence” and I highly recommend it. It builds up our dependence on Jesus so that when we enter the dark times, we have the assurance that Jesus is with us.
There are of course many ways of experiencing God and some of these will be available in the interactive prayer stations that are being set up in this church today and will be here for the next 7 days. This is a wonderful opportunity to use art and craft, images, nature, music, spiritual readings to help with prayer - to go deeper with God, to know his presence with you, to receive his peace and blessings. So do engage with this, take this opportunity. Like any relationship you have to commit to it, and that means spending time intentionally with God. So make this a week of intentionally meeting with Jesus.
It is also a time for intercessory prayer. This is prayer when we ask God to act in the lives of others, in situations in the world. There are two aspects to this. The first is engaging with the spiritual battle. We live in a world where spiritual forces operate. The gospels speak of this very forcibly. There are evil forces at work and Jesus has defeated them and has given us authority over them. So we can pray in the name of Jesus, in the authority of Jesus. This does not have to be some form of complicated prayer, quite simply we speak God’s authority into the situation.
The second is praying for God’s grace, peace, presence, and action in an individual or a situation. In both we are asking God to act. Again this can be a heart felt prayer - “Lord, please help them.” Jesus said “Ask and you will receive,” and John affirmed this in his first letter: “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us". 1 John 5:14.
So to give you an example. This last week we have heard that data was stolen from the organisation that the Church of England, along with many other organisations, uses for processing DBS checks. DBS checks confirm whether an individual is safe to work with vulnerable adults or children and is a governmental requirement for volunteers and paid staff working with these groups of people. Some 13,000 people had personal data stolen including 329 from Hereford diocese, one of them being our beloved John Mills. So over the last two days I have been praying for John and Liz, asking Jesus to dispel the evil that has infiltrated their lives and praying for peace, guidance and assurance that Jesus will protect them and look after them. I ask all of you to do the same.
There is another important aspect to prayer which I want to tell you about. At the beginning of the summer holidays at the New Wine festival I was struck by a story of a lady whose husband committed suicide in their home. She gathered together as many Bibles as she could from family and friends and laid them around her home open at different verses which spoke of the authority of Jesus. Over time the negative atmosphere that the suicide had brought into the home was dispelled and she and her children were able to pick up their lives and live on. The word of God, the scriptures, the words in the Bible have an authority of their own. I do not fully understand it, but I know and trust that they do. So use verses from the Bible in your prayers, in your life, especially when confronting evil in its raw form. Speak them out, write them down, lay them around your home. Claim the presence and authority of Jesus. You can be creative in this - if you are about to decorate your home then write Bible verses in pencil on the wall before you cover it with wall paper or repaint it. They will be there a long time! When you send a card to someone, whether in hospital or a birthday, whatever reason, add a Bible verse to it. For those who have a sewing machine that will sew words, sew Bible verses into your vests or the tails of shirts or the edges of your pillow cases. Go to sleep knowing the words of God are close to you. And if you are not sure what Bible verses to write, just do a search on the internet.
Jesus promised that he will be with us to the end of the age, that he will never leave us or forsake us. Let this become a daily reality for you.
Let us pray.
Amen