Let's Do Lent - Properly! - The Journey Home - Prayer

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For this and the next two weeks I'm dealing with the traditional Lent disciplines of Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving;  so I'm not quoting the Bible references for the Sundays, as they won't necessarily connect with the topic. However, the reading for the first Sunday in Lent, which is today, is the usual one about Jesus in the wilderness being tempted by the devil. This year we read from St. Mark. St. Matthew's is an extended version of the story and I think that gives us a good background to our topic today.

I said too that we wouldn't do any heavy theology this Lent, that I'd keep it very practical. But I would like to start out by making some connections with Jesus's time in the wilderness that I think help us especially in our life of prayer. I think the story of Jesus in the wilderness is a window onto the spiritual realm. Here we see God Himself, wrestling with the devil. It's the cosmic battle between good and evil. And there, through that window we see the whole reason why life is as it is. We see the whole reason why our lives and our Christian lives in particular, are as they are. This cosmic battle, typified in Jesus's temptation has been going on since the dawn of time and we ourselves are caught up in it, just as all the characters we meet in the Bible from beginning to end are caught up in it.

God, the book of Genesis tells us, made us in His image and likeness. Jesus talked about his disciples dwelling in Him as He dwells in the Father. St. Paul talks about us being 'in Christ'. We have the Spirit of Christ in us and St. Paul, again says that it is not he who lives but Christ who lives in him. We are in a relationship with God. We don't simply have a relationship, we are IN a relationship with God. And if this cosmic battle goes on and on we are caught up with it, because our dwelling is in God. That's why St. Paul tells us in his letter to the Ephesians that 'we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.' And so he tells us to put on what he calls 'the whole armour of God' so that we can wage that spiritual warfare. And it's that spiritual warfare that Jesus himself is at the centre of as we read that gospel reading today.

So that provides the fitting background for this subject of prayer. Because prayer is the foundation and the structure, the warp and weft of our life with God. Again in that same place in his letter to the Ephesians, St. Paul says, after putting on the armour of God that we should be 'praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication'. The phrase 'praying... with all prayer and supplication' really pushes the point home. In another place he calls us to 'pray without ceasing'. For St. Paul, prayer was what kept his life as a follower of Christ going. And there's no better teacher of prayer than the Lord himself.

So much has been written on prayer down the centuries that even to find a starting point in all the literature is so very difficult. But I said we'd keep this practical and that's what we'll do. What do you do to start to pray? What do you do to continue in prayer? What do you do, however long you've been on the Christian journey? What we'll do is just look at the best teacher of all.

When His disciples asked him how they should pray Jesus simply taught them what has become the Lord's prayer. Maybe it was a model for all our prayers but it contains all we need to pray. It reminds us of the holiness and nearness of God, of our relationship with Him, and with ourself. It talks of His Kingdom. It talks about how we live with one another and as part of creation. In other words it encompasses all that need be. Pray this prayer every day and only this prayer every day and you will pray for everyone and everything. It would be enough, but we humans usually want more and maybe we need more. Because in our prayer we are building that foundation and structure that's our relationship with God and our life in Him.

But how should you pray and when should you pray? Jesus got up very early in the morning and spent time alone with God, before the day's work started. What more do you need than that? Whenever your day starts, take time before it to spend, alone, with your heavenly Father. Five minutes or a couple of hours. Start small and build up, as much as you feel you need. And during the day, Jesus took time out to be alone. Even when other matters were pressing, he would take himself off, away from them and the press of the crowd, to be renewed in prayer. And in those darkest of times, in Gethsemane and on the cross itself, Jesus took to talking with God. There was no time which was not a good time to pray, for Jesus. And the same is true for us too.

And how should you pray? Maybe like Moses - as a man speaks to his friend. It's as simple as that. No books are needed. No fancy words or phrases. Just the intimacy you have in talking to your friends. Bring that to your time with God. If you want to use books and the prayers of the Church, that's good, but it's not essential. As least not to start with. There's something special about using the words that have been hallowed by centuries of use in the way the Church has used them. And if you can't find words of your own, whether you are a beginner or very experienced in prayer, then by all means use the Church's books.

I'm not going to add to that with fancy formulas, rules or instructions, because when you are in the desert like Jesus was, it usually feels like you are back to the beginning again anyway. And it's in those times that our simplest words are usually most effective. I'd just give you one piece of advice that was given to me and others not long after I was ordained and that is 'pray as you can, not as you can't'. It really is as simple as that. And it should be as simple and easy as talking to your friend. And like the Nike advert said or used to say, 'Just do it'. 

And I've made it sound easy, but in reality it's probably the hardest thing in the world, if not to start, to keep going, simply because the devil is out to stop us. And with that we are back where we started, looking through that window onto Jesus, in the desert, at His prayers, because as we look at Jesus praying, we are, as His disciples, looking at ourselves.

Let's Do Lent Properly! - The Journey Home - Ash Wednesday

Today is Ash Wednesday and we've been preparing for the past 3 weeks for the season of Lent which starts today. Lent comes around every year giving us the opportunity reconnect with God. The Church gives us this 6 week opportunity to think about our relationship with God and one another and creation and ourselves. As we've discovered over the last 3 weeks it's a time for which it's good to prepare and we've been doing that over the last 3 Sundays by considering different characters we hear of in the Bible.

On the first Sunday we thought about Zacchaeus who had an over-riding desire to see Jesus. He overcame his physical limitations and the thoughts and feelings of others about his being an outcast, with the result that he had a life changing encounter with Jesus. So Zacchaeus shows us the first quality we need to go into Lent well, a real desire to see God.

On the second Sunday we thought about the tax-collector and the Pharisee who come to the Temple to pray. The Pharisee is full of self-righteousness and self-importance, glad that he isn't like other people, proud of his religious observance. The tax-collector, on the other hand daren't lift his head. He knows full well who and what he is and so he simply prays, 'God be merciful to me, a sinner'. Jesus tells us that it's the tax-collector who is right with God after his prayer rather than the Pharisee. It's the tax-collector's humility, humility of heart and mind that is the example to us of how we might approach Lent.

Last Sunday we read the parable of the Prodigal Son, a parable so rich in meaning and teaching. But two statements stand out for me. The first one tells us that the Son goes off into a distant country. Here he is, in fact, in exile, completely cut off from his home and from those he loves. In those days there was no post as we know it, no phone, text messaging or e-mail; no Facebook or Twitter. He's totally cut off from his home and father.

And that's our situation today with respect to God. We spend most of our time far off from God, distanced from Him.

The second statement we read, later in the parable is when the son is at his lowest, his money gone, he's feeding pigs. And it's here that the story says 'But when he came to himself....' That's the turning point. He realises the state he's got himself into and that his only option, to find a life again, is to turn to home and to his father. It's a complete 180 degree turn. And he begins his journey home. This son teaches so much about what it means to turn to God. As we come to Lent, we, like the son, turn again to our Father. And that simple turning is repentance, the necessary quality to take us through Lent, to take us on that journey home, to God.

Over the next six weeks we are going to be making that journey. At various points on the journey we'll stop off to think about what we need to make the most of the journey though Lent.. We'll think about prayer, fasting and almsgiving. We won't be doing any heavy theology. Our thinking will be about practical things to help us to get the best our of our journey through Lent, to help us make that journey home to meet with the risen Christ at Easter. So come with us on that journey.

Let's Do Lent - Properly! The Sunday Next Before Lent - The Parable of the Prodigal Son

2 Corinthians 4.3-6;  Luke 15.11b-32

Jesus was a great storyteller. And what we've heard today is one of His greatest and most profound. If there's one story, one parable that sets the scene for Lent for us it's this parable of the Prodigal Son.

In our first week of preparation we recalled Zacchaeus and his life-changing encounter with the Lord. But for that meeting to be such a huge occasion for Zacchaeus, we learned that he'd really had an over-riding desire to see Jesus in the first place. He wasn't just curious about Jesus, he went out of his way to see Him. He overcame his physical limitations and those imposed by the attitude of others towards him. And the result was life changing. A desire to see God, no matter what is stacked against us is our first quality we need to approach Lent.

Last week we heard the story, told by Jesus of the Tax-collector and the Pharisee in the temple offering up their prayers. The Pharisee, so full of himself, pleased with his progress in the religious life, pleased with how he stuck to the rules and how it made him different from others; thankful in fact, that he was different to others. And the tax-collector, knowing what he was, regarded as an outcast, looked upon by society as a sinner, hardly dare raise his head, for shame and simply asks God to bless him even though he's so sinful. It was this man, Jesus tells us that is right with God. It is the tax-collector that shows us humility, the second quality that we need to go into Lent in the right way.

The Prodigal Son

And now we come to that, amongst the most remembered of parables. What does this parable, among all that things it can say to us, tell us about how we should approach Lent? Well this one, above all else, is about repentance, that turning to God and away from ourself, again that Lent is itself is really all about for us. For Lent is the season of repentance, a journey, a school of repentance as we said in our first week of preparation.

There's so much we could learn from this parable, enough for many bible studies. But let's just look today at two things, two short statements in that parable that teach us so much about Lent and our attitude in Lent.

First of all, the son 'gathered all he had and travelled to a distant country'.  He puts himself far away from his home, far away from his family. And in those days there was no internet or text messaging, no Skype, no Facebook, no Twitter, no e-mail or even post as we know it today. So, in the 'distant country' the son was completely cut off from his home and family; from the father who, out of love, had given him so much and who was to receive him so well and who was so forgiving when he came home. The son was, in effect, in exile.

And that's our situation. The son, 'in a distant country', is us in our relationship with God. Since The Fall of Adam and Eve we've been in exile, so easily. We spend our time, separated from God, cut off from His love. And like the prodigal, it's our own doing. Day after day we spend with hardly a thought of Him if we think of Him at all. And if we do think of God our thoughts are usually full of selfishness, full of what God can do for us rather than what we can do for Him. And, like the prodigal, we squander all that God in His love has given to us. We spend it all in foolish living. And so it continues, our whole life long unless we come to the point that the prodigal Son came to; which is the second statement we read in this wonderful tale.

'But when he came to himself...' 'But when he came to himself he said, 'How many of my father's hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger!' That's the turning point, the pivot in the whole story, 'But when he came to himself....' You can imagine that the whole consequence of what he'd done came to him like an express train. Suddenly he realises his folly. Suddenly he realises what he's left behind. Suddenly he sees the state he's in. Suddenly and finally he sees his true self. And he turns for home; because he knows that there is no other course of action if he's to live and regain his true dignity. And he turns for home not knowing what the outcome will be; not expecting to be treated as a son again. It will be enough to be just a servant in his father's household. He knows he's in no place to be treated as a son again.

This is what repentance is all about. It's not about grovelling back to God, tail between the legs, asking for punishment for offending God. It's knowing how estranged from God we are. It's knowing that in our sinfulness we don't deserve to be treated as sons and daughters of God. It's being willing to accept ourselves as God accepts us, no matter how that might be.

It's really like the tax-collector we met last week, who had such complete knowledge of himself that he could be himself before God and not something false and fabricated and deluded like the Pharisee. Because it's only when we can come back to God like the prodigal and the tax-collector that we are the right frame of mind and heart to receive the healing of God's love, of God's forgiveness. For God greets us like the father in the parable, who's been looking out for us right from the start and who runs out and greets us, arms flung around us and with a kiss.

So, here we have the way in which we are best to make our way through Lent; with an over-riding desire to see God; with humility and a spirit of repentance. Do Lent that way and you'll do it properly.

Let's Do Lent - Properly! 2nd Sunday before Lent - The Tax Collector & The Pharisee

Colossians 1.15-20; Luke 18.9-14

We are continuing our pre-Lent readings as a preparation for the great season of Lent; Lent being a time to refocus on our walk with God and our relationship with Him. This week we come to Jesus's parable about the tax-collector and the Pharisee. Tax collectors are appearing quite frequently aren't they? Last week we considered Zacchaeus who was, himself, a chief tax collector. As we said last week, tax collectors in Jesus' time were considered to be outcasts, probably for lots of different reasons. For example, on a larger scale they would be representatives of the oppressive Roman empire. And then nearer to 'home' they were probably often considered to be thieves and rogues.

Last week we heard of an incident in Jesus's life, His encounter with Zacchaeus. This week we are hearing a story told by Jesus; a parable. And again, we are using this reading to give us some idea of how we might approach the season of Lent, how we might best prepare for it.

I think it's true that over the last 20 or 30 years, society has become more self-centred. And that's because each of us has been encouraged if not trained and nurtured in a way that has meant that we have become more self-centred. There's been a focus on achievement and success. All of this being a direct result of the emphasis on free market economics. That says that as individuals achieve and succeed in what they do then there is a trickle down effect which raises the standard of living for everyone in society. That's the theory anyway. I'm sure it's true to a certain extent. I'd say that the majority of the population in this country enjoys a higher standard of living than we did 40 or 50 years ago. And that is good.

But the downside to that is, as I said, that people have become more individualistic, more self-focussed and and more self-centred. And it's a short step from there to the perils and sin of pride and greed and self aggrandisement. Reading between the lines of the New Testament, there was much of it about in Jesus's time, although society was organised rather differently. And thus we read the sort of parable that Jesus told and that we have read this morning.

Into the temple come two men to pray. A Pharisee and a tax collector. The one a religious man, a faithful and upright Jew - the best of the best by the sound of it; a super-achiever in the religion game. And the other, an outcast, a sinner, a lacky of the state, a thief probably and a rogue, maybe. Both of them in their own way are probably the best in their own sphere, in their own world. And yet they are worlds apart in different ways.

The Pharisee is the one who, on the outside, is and does everything that is right and good and commendable in the eyes of Jewish society. And his heart tells him he's the best of the best. It would be hard to find anyone more virtuous, more Godly, more in tune, more successful in religious terms. He's outstanding in all he does. He stands out. And, he literally, stands apart from others at his prayers in the temple. How expressive is that of his attitude of mind and his heart? I am better than you! I am better than the rest! He's quick to let others, and God, know how good he is too. And more than that he's thankful that he's not like the rest. I think it's what's known as self-righteousness.

Contrast him with the tax collector. The tax collector might be the best of the best of tax collectors. Like Zacchaeus was, he might be rich from the proceeds of his tax collecting. But what does he do? He stands far off, from the altar presumably, away from where God's presence was most evident in the temple. He doesn't dare to look up. He doesn't want to catch God's eye as it were. And he beats his breast with his fist. And all this because he knows, he really knows who and what he is. He doesn't have to compare himself with others as the Pharisee does. And so his demeanour, his body language and finally, his prayer say quite well his state of mind and heart, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!'

And Jesus tells us who is the more right with God. And here is the lesson, the lesson for all of us, the lesson for this week and for every day of our Christian life. It's not that we have to think of ourselves as the lowest of the low. It's not that we have to grovel before God for forgiveness. It's not that we have to do ourselves down because we've overstepped the mark. The lesson is simply to have a true knowledge of ourselves before God and before others. The lesson here is one of humility.

One of the great traps that lots of people fall into these days is that of comparison. We compare ourselves and our lot with that of others. It's what the Pharisee did and it leads us right into the jaws of sin. In comparing ourselves with others we fall into jealousy and envy and pride and greed and self-righteousness. God doesn't ask us to compare ourselves with anyone or anything. He calls us to follow in Jesus' footsteps. And we can only do that properly if we know and acknowledge who and what we truly are. Because then we are acknowledging the person who God made. And then God can speak into our heart.

The tax collector actually shows us the starting point. In that prayer that he made, he shows us where humility starts, where being ourself starts. And it's from there that God makes us all we can be with Him. As Jesus said, the tax collector after praying that prayer went down to his home justified, made right with God. He was the one of the two that could then hold his head up high, because he was being truly himself and not some deluded fabrication.

So this week we see what humility is about and we begin to see why it's important to have that sense of humility as we go into Lent, as we start on that journey again to God and with God, as we start on that journey of repentance. As we saw last week we first need the desire to see God and then we have to come to him in that spirit of humility, the spirit that lets us stand before God openly and honestly and in a way that means that God can really speak into our hearts and minds, and more importantly, that we can hear and listen.

Let's Do Lent - Properly! 3rd Sunday before Lent - Zacchaeus

1 Corinthians 9.16-24; Luke 19.1-9

I'm departing from the Church of England lectionary for the next 3 weeks for the gospel readings. Instead I'll be using the gospel readings set in the Orthodox church for 3 of the Sundays before Great Lent begins. I'm using them as the Orthodox Church does as preparation for our observance of Lent which this year beings on 22nd February. I owe much of what I'll be saying in these sermons to the work of the late Fr. Alexander Schmemann, Orthodox professor of liturgical theology in his book Great Lent.

In the Western church these days I think we so often go through Lent with the good intention of doing something with the season but we might not properly apply ourselves to it. Our church lets us use it much as we please and much of what we do is quite superficial, it seems to me. We use it, quite rightly as a time of reflection and study. But it shouldn't stay as 'head' stuff, just be limited to acquiring new knowledge.

So this year I'd like to encourage all my readers and listeners to use the season of Lent to good effect. Not just to feed our mind but to change our heart. Lent is there to be taken advantage of as we prepare for Easter. Fr. Alexander calls Lent a 'school of repentance' to which we come year by year to learn again what it means to be truly a Christian, to listen again to the call of Jesus Christ to us to repent and turn to back to God, indeed to learn again how to do that and what it means for us. Many of us in our working life these days have an annual review, a time of taking stock and thinking about how we will shape the future. And the Church gives us the opportunity each year in the season of Lent to review our relationship with God and how effectively we live our Christian life, how much of a disciple of Christ we really are.

As well as being a school, Lent is also a journey, a journey towards the great feast of Easter, the Feast of feasts, the highest point in our year. And if we are to arrive at Easter understanding in a deeper way what it means for us and for the world, then we must go on that journey, the journey in the school of repentance. And in Holy Week, accompany Jesus on His journey to the cross and beyond.

As for any journey we undertake, we have to make preparations. Many of you know that in 2010 I made a pilgrimage to Mount Athos in Greece. I had to make quite extensive preparations for that journey beginning 6 months before I actually departed to Greece. There were special permissions I had to get, bookings in the monasteries I wanted to stay in, bookings for my travel and decisions to make about how I would travel while I was there. I had to decide what I would take in the form of clothing and food and get books and maps to read up and familiarise myself about Mount Athos. I had to do that so I could make the most of the trip and learn the most I could from it. Like those preparations, the journey through Lent needs preparation time too. So we are taking the next three weeks as preparation to begin the journey through Lent on Ash Wednesday.

Today we start our preparations by looking at the character we encounter in the Bible by the name of Zacchaeus. What has he got to show us about how we might prepare for Lent? Well, he shows us what it means to have a desire to see God, to have God in our lives and to let God have an impact on our lives.

Zacchaeus

Here is Zacchaeus, a chief tax collector by trade and physically, a not very tall man. He seems to be disliked by a lot by people. Tax collectors didn't have the best of reputations in his time. So being a chief tax collector might have made him even more unpopular. We get a sense of why he might be unpopular, towards the end of the gospel reading when he talks about the effect his encounter with Jesus has had on him. And he was rich, his wealth perhaps having been made by defrauding the people he collected taxes from. But as we meet him, Zacchaeus has heard about Jesus, that he's coming to Jericho where Zacchaeus lives and he's curious about Jesus.

In fact Zacchaeus, from his behaviour, seems more than curious. He has a great, even overwhelming desire to see Jesus. So much so that, because he's so short and can't see over people in front of him, he runs on ahead and climbs a tree to get a better vantage point. So, he overcomes his limitations, to succeed in his endeavour, and he does see Jesus. I wonder if you've had that sort of deep seated desire in your life? An overwhelming desire to get something or to achieve something? Such a great desire that you will overcome any limitation you might have to succeed; to have your desire fulfilled? At bottom of anybody's great work or great success in life, there's usually an overwhelming desire to succeed, a passion for whatever it is that sees the desire fulfilled.

Well, not only does Zacchaeus see Jesus but Jesus sees Zacchaeus and even better, Jesus shouts up to him and tells him to come down because He wants to stay at Zacchaeus' house. So for Zacchaeus it gets better. His desire has been more than fulfilled.

Others standing by watching complain, of course. Here's Jesus talking with and staying at the house of a sinner, an outcast. We see that all through the gospels, that complaining, borne out of jealousy maybe, borne out of envy and self-righteousness. And at the end of the passage we get an explanation from Jesus Himself why he does this sort of thing which goes against people's expectations of Him - He came 'to save the lost.'

When Zacchaeus climbed the tree, little did he know that his curiosity, his great desire would have such an outcome. He hadn't had any inkling of the sort of impact his encounter with Jesus would have. But like for so many at the time and since, this encounter with Jesus had a profoundly transforming effect. So bowled over with what had happened to him, how he'd been received by Jesus and treated with mercy and grace and peace, that Zacchaeus makes a vow, that he would give half of what he owned to the poor, and also that if he'd defrauded anybody of anything then he would not just return it but return it fourfold.

Remember that Zacchaeus was very rich and he'd lived a life that was shaped by taking from people. And now he was not just anxious but pleased to give away what he had. He was a changed man. It was a 180 degree change, in a moment, after a life time of living a particular way. And all from seeing Jesus, and being received by Jesus.  How does Zacchaeus prepare us for Lent?

Lent is about turning again to God, it's about seeing God again or for the first time. But we need to have a need. We must desire to see God, a desire we want to see fulfilled and not only that but a desire we'll do anything to see fulfilled, overcome any limitation, any obstacle to see fulfilled. And that's what I mean about doing Lent properly. It's about taking the time to ask ourselves what we must do if we are to turn to God again. Only we and God know what are our limitations, what's stopping us fulfilling our need. Maybe it's a lack of will, a lack of that desire. So how do you develop the desire? Maybe you feel it's some other much greater obstacle, some sin or difficulty in relationship with a person or others which seems insurmountable.

As we think about Zacchaeus in these few days before Lent begins, take the time to think about just how much you want to see God, how much you want to turn to God again, overcome any limitation or obstacle so that you too might have that transforming encounter with Him that will turn your life around as it did Zacchaeus.