The Lord's Prayer

We all know the Lord's prayer, and I guess that for most of us it forms part of every service that we attend, either said or sung.

But there is a tendency to take it just as that 'A prayer' rather than as a way in which to pray, which is what I think Jesus had in mind when he was teaching his disciples. And when you look at it in this light it opens up the possibilities of our private and corporate prayer life.

Our prayers tend to concentrate on the things that concern us most 'Please God, do this...' 'Please God, look after.....' 'Please God, heal.....'

In fact, so often our prayers are just an explosion of words as we try hard not to let God get a word in edgeways! And Jesus has something to say about that 'And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans'

In fact, if we look at the Lord's prayer we find that the material, those things that affect us daily, are not be the prime focus of our thoughts.

Jesus suggests this form for our prayers

1) Start with God, reminding yourself who is the focus of our prayer. He is our heavenly Father, he knows our needs, he deserves our praise. What do we look for? We look for God's kingdom to spread throughout this world, the kingdom that we now see in part and look forward at some point to seeing in all its glory..

2) We know that God knows our needs, but he wants to know that what is on our hearts is in keeping with his will for our lives and the lives of those who are dear to us. We're not to ask for the ridiculous  - for riches, fame, glory! We come to him in humility, acknowledging that we are sinners in continual need of God's Grace.
God deals with our present needs (our daily bread) and our present condition (forgive us our debts)

3) And we look to the future, for our heavenly Father to keep us close to him both now and always. We are aware that without him we shall fail, but that in his loving arms we are secure (lead us not into temptation).


⁷And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. ⁸Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.  ⁹"This, then, is how you should pray:
   " 'Our Father in heaven,
   hallowed be your name,
 ¹⁰your kingdom come,
   your will be done
      on earth as it is in heaven.
 ¹¹Give us today our daily bread.
 ¹²Forgive us our debts,
      as we also have forgiven our debtors.
 ¹³And lead us not into temptation,
   but deliver us from the evil one.
(Matthew 6)

Just a thought on forcing God's will

When people are looking for God's will for their lives, maybe in applying for a job, or a house move, how often do you hear the phrase 'I'm just knocking on a few doors to see which opens!'
Well, how about this quote on the subject - I gave an 'ouch!' when I read it.

If you can't pray a door open, don't pry it open.
(Lyell Rader)

What is it with Lent?

It will soon be Lent, and I've been busy writing prayers and material for the season. But it did make me think yesterday 'Just what does the average churchgoer actually think the season of Lent is for?'
No doubt most folk would place Lent before Easter and rightly surmise that the two were connected. They might think it's about temptations (particularly those of Jesus) as there is the tradition of giving something up we enjoy for Lent. But is that all it's about - temptation and giving up?
It was when I was listening to a sermon podcast this morning while taking the dog for a walk (!) that it reminded me that Lent should be about a whole lot more - much deeper and more serious than giving up chocolate for a few weeks.
The preacher, at Mars Hill Bible Church (check them out on iPlayer) had as his text Matthew 5 and those two headings of Murder and Adultery - not the most comfortable of subjects for a preacher to share with a congregation, but he could get away with it because he was visiting!
His point, and here I precis a 35 minute sermon, was that we are all murderers and adulterers. Maybe I precis his words a little too well, and need to expand a little!
What he said was that every time we are angry with someone, every time we pass judgement on someone's actions or words, every time we look at a pornographic image, every time we lust after anything (even pushing our own ambitions and dreams of success onto the lives of our children, and taking them into places that they are not happy or comfortable) then we are guilty as charged by Jesus' own words.
OK, there's a bit of Jewish hyperbole (deliberate exageration) in Jesus' words to emphasise his point, and the preacher was doing the same, but it certainly focussed my mind on what is at the heart of Lent, as far as I am concerned, and that is not so much the problems that Jesus had with temptation but simply the state of the human heart.
That's a problem that's been around since the dawn of civilisation and has been at the centre of God's revealing plan of salvation ever since. It is why Jesus walked this earth and journeyed to the cross and beyond - so that our evident guilt might be forgiven and we be brought back into fellowship with God. Put yourself in the place of the Prodigal Son who led a wild and sordid life in the city before his downfall and eventual return home to his Father. Are we any better?
Lent should be a time to focus our minds on the Easter story, but it should also be a time to examine our hearts.

Christian Unity

This is the week of prayer for Christian unity, and it got me thinking about what this unity is all about. I live in an area of Wales where there are many churches, a duplication because of the language - so even within the Anglican system there are both Welsh and English parish churches. So many churches/chapels and generally small congregations does cause a problem when it comes to working together, but in essense that's not what unity is about.
Christian unity is more about what we believe than where we worship. I might disagree with my Catholic friends about some of their beliefs - the perpetual virginity of Mary, the understanding of the elements in Holy Comunion etc.. On the other side of the divide I might disagree with some of my conservative evangelical friends about their strict literal interpretation of the Bible, particularly Genesis and Revelation.
But if my Christian friends agree with the basic core doctrinal beliefs of Christians, particularly where they centre on God's plan of Salvation, the nature of Jesus Christ and that we are saved by Grace not works, then I am more than happy to worship with them and count them as my Christian brothers and sisters.
We might have a discussion or two about the side issues, but these are not the important matters that should divide us. Paul was quite clear on this point - that there are lots of little things that we can disagree with, but we should rather be looking at the things that we can agree on. Yes, there are boundaries beyond which we cannot and should not agree or compromise, but our aim should be the unity of the Church - for then the world will see God's love working within us and reaching out to them.

Lent Bible Study

I've always loved the Isaac Watts' hymn 'When I survey the Wondrous Cross'.  It encompasses the whole Lent season as it asks us to look, or survey the wonder of the cross - but not only the wonder, he vividly paints the colour of Christ's agony and death on the cross.

This was one of the first English-language hymns to use the word ‘I’ and have at its core personal religious experience. The hymn is also an example of how Isaac Watts, who has been called the father of English hymnody, enlarged the boundaries of English hymn writing beyond the metrical psalms to include freer verse that readily lent itself to new musical settings.

Isaac Watts lived in turbulent times, and as we look at his life, and the words that he has written, it is easy to see the parallels with contemporary society. Most importantly for Christians, he wrote for the masses in words that they could understand. In the preface to Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1707) he wrote: ‘I have aimed at ease of numbers and smoothness of sound, and endeavoured to make the sense plain and obvious; if the verse appears so gentle and flowing as to incur the Censure of Feebleness, I may honestly affirm that sometimes it has cost me labour to make it so.’

So it inspired me to write a Lent Bible study around each of this hymn's verses. It's written with the intention that only one copy is needed per group, and permission given to photocopy. There are questions from discussion and lots of background information for the leader.

Check out http://www.faithandworship.com/Amazing_Love.htm for more information

in search of certainty

The weather in the UK has been bad of late, much snow and ice which has caused a lot of difficulty for many folk. Children have not known from one day to the next whether their school will be open for lessons or even exams, and emergency services have been struggling to cope in some areas. Small businesses who reply on couriers to deliver their goods have backlogs of orders, and shops in small villages have no stock to sell, as locals have cleared the shelves and fresh deliveries are hard to get through the blocked roads.
Hopefully the end is in sight now, as temperatures are expected to rise before the weekend, but it is interesting to see how frustrating the uncertainty of weather conditions can become.
So it is good to know that above and beyond all this temporary distraction, we have a God who we can be certain of, who is not influenced by daily fluctuations in weather systems and poor logistical decisions made by local polititians over ordering salt and grit. Beyond the ups and downs of all our lives is a constant love and concern, a constant source of strength and comfort, that can overcome all that the world throws at us on a daily basis.

I arise to-day :
might of Heaven
brightness of Sun
whiteness of Snow
splendour of Fire
speed of Light
swiftness of Wind
depth of Sea
stability of Earth
firmness of Rock.
I arise to-day :
Might of God
Power of God
Wisdom of God
Eye of God
Ear of God
Word of God
Hand of God
Path of God
Shield of God
Host of God

(from The Book of Cerne, 9th C)

Christianity and Islam - is there a point of dialogue?

I've been reading an interesting book over Christmas, and that is Alister McGrath's recent book 'Heresy' and alongside a general discussion on the origins of heresy he has some interesting things to say about the subject of dialogue between Christianity and Islam.
There seems to be a general understanding among Christians (as it seems to me) that although Islam recognises that Abrahamic connections between the two faiths, that when it comes to the New Testament, and particularly the person of Jesus, then everything falls apart.
McGrath makes much more sense of the whole situation. He looks at the Islamic view of the Trinity, which is generally understood to be that Christians worship three persons - God, Jesus and Mary.
Where does this strange viewpoint come from?
Well, apparently it hails from a heretical viewpoint that was influential in Arabia at that time (the Collyridian sect which flourished in the Middle East.) One of its characteristics was to treat Mary as a godess.
The situation is similar in Islam's understanding of Jesus. Christian orthodoxy was slow to find its way into Arabia, and early heresies seem to have prevailed. Particularly here we must consider the Sethian Gnosticism (sorry!) which insisted that Jesus did not die on the cross, but was substituted at the last minute by Simon of Cyrene.
It seems inreasingly clear that Qur'anic interpretation of the Gospel is heavily influenced by encounters with the form of Christianity that was prevalent in Arabia at the time of Muhammad - and that these would be regarded in retrospect as heretical rather than orthodox belief.
So, with regard to conversations between these two faiths, it would seem that we have a point at which we can agree with our Moslem friends. As McGrath says 'Christians would concur in criticizing such beliefs as they are presented in the Qur'an. Muhammad may well have been correct in identifying unacceptable Christian view about Jesus and God - they were based upon views which would have been deemed as unorthodox and heretical by the Church a a whole.
That's not a critisism of Islam, but rather an appreciation that at that time, Christianity was really struggling to achieve a degree of conformity in what it believed about Jesus and the nature of the Godhead.

Last thoughts on Christmas

There's a lot of giving and receiving at Christmas, some of it well thought out, and some based upon the premise that 'it's the thought that counts', but it struck me markedly this year that God's gift to the world was the right one at the right time, and deserves a response, a gift in return. But what do you give to the one who not only has everything but created everything!?

And then I was reminded of that wonderful old carol 'In the bleak midwinter' which is strangely apt this year with the weather in the UK!

What can I give Him, poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;
If I were a Wise Man, I would do my part;
Yet what I can I give Him: give my heart.

God's timing

In thinking about the arrival of the Magi to the Christmas story (albeit sometime after the shepherds paid their visit) I got to thinking what the importance of these folk from the East actually was, and came to the conclusion that it was all about the fact that with the arrival of Jesus on the scene, God was ready to bring the whole world back into fellowship with Himself - all of history had been working up to this point, and now God was ready. Up until now it had all been about the People of Israel, now the net was cast far and wide!

And unsurprisingly the world was also ready. I'm grateful for William Barclay for this information, but it so fits in with my musings -

When Jesus was born the jigsaw was almost complete

All the known world spoke Greek. It was the language of trade and literature – if you were going to take part in public life you had to know Greek, and that meant that the early missionaries had no problems with spreading the Good News if they could speak Greek.

If we go abroad then we have to make sure that the paperwork is right, and for many countries we need a passport or visa to cross the border and gain entry. But at the time that Jesus was born wherever you went you were probably travelling through the Roman Empire and that made life much simpler. A missionary would be able to travel freely from one end of the known world to the other.

And if you were travelling then what better time to travel than when the Romans had covered the land with serviceable roads and more or less rid the seas of pirates.

This was surprisingly also a time of relative peace within the known world, and you could travel within the vast Roman Empire in safety.

Add to all that the fact that at this particular time there was a real searching for salvation. There was a real feeling in the air that people had needs that wanted fulfilling. The time was right for people to listen and respond to the Good News that would be brought to them.

Jesus came to the world when he did because it was the right time, God’s time! The world was ready!