See the sleepy doggy
Curled up in her bed,
Lots of little doggy dreams
Running round her head.
She doesn't like the snowstorm,
She doesn't like the wind.
She's dreaming of sunny days
Sunbathing with her friend.
Sleepy Doggy
Tag: just because
Holy Innocents
The Feast of the Holy Innocents takes place on 28th December.
Doctor Who tells us that time is “wibbly wobbly timey wimey”. That is what we experience throughout the forty days of Christmastide.
Just a few days before the Remembrance of the Holy Innocents we celebrated Jesus’s birth as a teeny tiny human baby. Then at this feast day we jump forward a couple of years to after the magi’s visit and Herod is ordering the slaughter of many children in an attempt to kill Jesus. Then the following week we go back to that visit of the magi before we leap forward to Jesus being a man at His baptism and then a couple of weeks later Jesus is a teeny tiny baby again as He is presented at the Temple.
But for now, let us return to the day when we remember the Holy Innocents whose deaths Herod was responsible for.
Each year we remember that Joseph heeded the warnings and instructions he received, that he took his family to Egypt and that as a result of this the prophecy was fulfilled and Jesus was kept safe to grow into a man, fulfil His mission and be our salvation.
But we skim over the bit where many innocent children were killed by a scared but cruel man who wanted Jesus dead because he thought he would lose his power.
“A voice was heard in Ramah, sobbing and loud lamentation; Rachel weeping for her children, and she would not be consoled, since they were no more.”
In the Holocaust, approximately 1.5 million Jewish children, and tens of thousands of non-Jewish children were murdered.
The Nazi’s targeted children as part of their ideological goal to create a “radically pure” society and eliminate future generations of “unwanted groups” including Romani, Polish and disabled children.
In the hope of killing one child, Herod had many killed.
Looking back at Moses, who came into the world to bring a kind of deliverance, a new king had risen to power in Egypt. This new king knew nothing of Joseph1 (the Israelite who saved Egypt from the famine). He just saw how numerous the Israelite people were and, wanting to stop the numbers increasing, ordered the death of every Israelite boy born.
There is a constant battle between good and evil in the world and in our own lives.
Evil will always lash out violently towards good. Evil will use any means necessary in an attempt to retain power. There will be resistance when we do good in the world. There will be temptations as we turn away from sin. The strength of these temptations show how committed to change and how committed to doing good we are.
There is wickedness in the world. There are, very sadly, people in this world who will slaughter or arrange the slaughter of thousands and thousands of beautiful, innocent, babies and children, for their own ends, to get what they want and to keep their power.
Evil does not hold back it’s hate for the young and God does not hold back His grace from the young.
God gives us His grace freely and in abundance out of love for us. He is a generous God and there is more than enough grace to encompass everyone no matter their age. He protects us with His grace.
Our world today is, again very sadly, not that different from the world throughout history. We can still see the callousness of Herod and those like him. We still live in a world where innocents are murdered.
We can lament and cry for them. We can pray for their families and friends. But the massacres still continue. Change begins in the human heart and is expressed in what we do and think and say.
It is hard to change a world ingrained with death. But we can contribute to this change. We can demonstrate charity and patience and sanctity of life.
Christ came for our lives, to give us life abundant, sacred and unending.
Herod represents all the powers that stand against Christ; all the people that reject Christ and all the elements of ourselves that want nothing to do with Christ and prefer their independence to His will.
What are we willing to destroy because of our refusal of Christ? What aspects of our own lives and the lives of others are we ready to destroy because of our refusal of Christ?
Herod’s massacre of the innocents is a warning to us. After his death, Herod’s kingdom was divided between the sons he hated. In less than 100 years, everything Herod had built, including the monuments he had intended as structures for his glory, had been reduced to ruins.
Herod is remembered as a petty tyrant. He is not mourned.
We mourn the innocents, the children of Bethlehem, yet they are so often forgotten.
But, in heaven, “where like stars, His children crowned, all in white shall wait“.
- Genesis ↩︎
Let Our Little Lights Shine
A long time ago, possibly even in Bethlehem, a story about a little owl called Plop was very popular. The main thing about this story was that Plop, the baby owl, was scared of the dark.
I wonder, who here is, or used to be, scared of the dark?
And how many of you sometimes think that there are monsters or bad things in the dark? Or that the darkness is something bad?
And when a light appears do you feel better?
The opposite of dark is light. So if darkness is bad or scary then the light is good and friendly.
The magical thing about light is that you only need a teeny tiny spark to transform the darkness.
That light, that tiny spark, shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it.
There is a lot of darkness in the world, selfishness, greed, things that cause hurt, sin. But a light came into the world and the darkness cannot overcome it.
Jesus is the light of the world, the light in the darkness. And like when one candle shines in the darkness and then another is lit, and then another and another; soon all there is is light.
Jesus starts with us, forgiving the darkness in us so that we can shine; and as each of us are filled with His love, light and forgiveness, the light shines brighter and the darkness diminishes.
Jesus shows us the way to live a good life, full of light and offers us His power to live that way. When He comes again and God’s final judgement comes upon the world the darkness will be banished forever.
When you hold your Christingles look at the candle, as it is lit remember Jesus, the light of the world, whose light vanquishes the darkness.
Let that light into your hearts and lives lighting the way for others to find their way out of darkness into light.
Our task is to be those Christingles (it’s okay, dressing up is optional) to share the joy that comes to us through Jesus and to be His light bringing hope to those in the dark.
In the beginning there was nothing but God. And God created the world and everything in it. He filled the world with all sorts of good things – plants, animals, mountains, rivers, seas, the sun, the moon, and even people. And God saw that everything He had made was good.
But it didn’t stay good. The people did things they should not do. They did not look after what God had allowed them to borrow. They did not look after the world or each other.
This made God sad because He loves us. So He sent us a rescuer, but not just any rescuer. He sent us the best rescuer of all – His precious Son.
Jesus came to be the light to the world, to defeat the darkness and help people come to know God.
A light for everyone, shining in our world, our lives and our hearts.
Even though we are celebrating Christ’s birth (his first coming) on Christmas Day, we are already looking ahead to Easter when Jesus died on the cross and rose again to defeat all the powers of darkness, to defeat all those scary monsters, and to be our salvation.
The ribbon which represents the outpouring of Jesus’s blood also reminds us of the great outpouring of God’s love for us which encompasses the whole of creation.
Christmas and Easter are two parts of the story of God’s love for us. May we live out the truth of that story in our own lives, may we accept again this Christmas the greatest gift of Christ’s light and may we let our little light shine out of the darkness to the glory of God. Amen.
Mary …
We tend to use a mixture of readings from the Gospels of Matthew and Luke to revisit the miracle of Jesus’s birth. Here, Matthew doesn’t tell us how the Virgin Birth took place—except that it was by the Holy Spirit. Whereas, Luke gives a little more detail, the angel telling Mary that the Holy Spirit will come upon her, and the power of the Most High will overshadow her. The Virgin Birth is a divine miracle in the power of the Holy Spirit.
But Matthew does tell us two things about Jesus, one being what he does: “You shall call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins”. Many Jews were looking for a Messiah who would come in conquering power. But Matthew shows us the much deeper human need. Jesus comes to save us from our sins—our spiritual needs far outweighing other needs.
The miracle of the Virgin Birth is also a sign of the far greater miracle and mystery of God becoming flesh and taking his place amongst us as one of us – the Incarnation. God didn’t just send angels, prophets and messengers—he came! In Jesus, God has come close; has taken human nature and human life to himself joining human nature to his own divine being. This is all of the Grace of God, who is a God who stoops to take us by the hand. In this respect, Matthew quotes from the Old Testament: ‘The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him “Immanuel”—which means, “God with us.”’ If the name Jesus is descriptive of what Jesus does, Immanuel is descriptive of who Jesus is—God with us.
The miracle of the Virgin Birth points towards both the humanity and the deity of Jesus. He was a human person born in the normal way. He is also the eternal God who has come to us—the God-man. Jesus didn’t begin his existence at Christmas, but as eternal God, entered into time and space at Christmas. For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given… (Isaiah 9:6).
So many people are ‘in the dark’ about God and don’t see him clearly. Yet, if you want to know what God is like, you only have to look at Jesus. Jesus Christ is the “Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing…” He is the revelation of the will, wisdom and person of God. His teaching is the
instruction of God. His death is the death of God-for-us. His resurrection is the victory of God! The meaning of Christmas is first and foremost a message of amazing grace, of a God who comes near.
The miracle of the Virgin Birth is a new creation, the beginning of a whole new world. What we can’t do for ourselves, God has and is doing. Into a world of brokenness and sadness God has come by means of a supernatural birth in the power of the Holy Spirit. But it doesn’t end there: the same Spirit who hovered over Mary and brought about a miracle of new life and transformation in her can also do the same in us! Regardless of who you are or what you have done you can start a whole new life as part of the new world. Jesus is the answer to our deepest needs. He is God come among us in order to save us from our sins and to rescue us from the deepest cause of our alienation and brokenness. When we start from the inside out we can have hope that the entirety of our life can experience the transformation he brings.
John the Baptist
Matthew 11:2-11 is a reading which often gets overlooked.
John the Baptist is in prison. He has been in prison for some time and knows he will not leave it alive because Herod’s wife wants him dead. She has not yet, however, found a way of securing his death and Herod is intrigued by John and so listens to what he has to say. Consequently, John is treated with respect and his disciples were allowed to visit him freely. His disciples keep him up to date with what is going on in the world outside and report to him what they have witnessed of Jesus.
John sends his disciples to Jesus with the question “Art thou he that should come?”
This is where opinion amongst well-known commentators differ.
Some state that John sent the disciples only to remove their doubts.
Others state that this question came directly from John with the answer being directed to John; who may have been feeling impatient at hearing about the signs and wonders but not seeing the appearance of God’s kingdom in a way he expected and so was falling into despair in prison.
Many Christians struggle with this passage and John’s question. This is not surprising considering what else we know about John.
John the forerunner. The one sent to “Prepare the way of the Lord”.
John, who, before he had even been born, recognised his cousin as Lord and Saviour and jumped for joy in his mother’s womb.
Seeds of doubt planted by the devil reach their peak at times of great despair and can cause people to question even the most important fundamental truths.
We hope that, nay we know that, John’s faith did not fail him.
However, at a time of despair, languishing in jail, confirmation of what he knew to be true would consolidate and strengthen his faith and hope.
Yet, if John had sent his disciples to Christ with the question for their satisfaction then we know that Christ pointed them to what they had heard and seen; directing them to the way in which salvation was to be found.
John, who at Jesus’s baptism witnessed the Holy Spirit descend on Jesus and heard the voice from heaven confirming Jesus as God’s beloved Son with whom He is well-pleased, had shown Christ to his disciples.
John saw that some of these disciples were envying for his sake and some were making the same misinterpretations as many of the Jews did about the Messiah. John wanted to ensure, before his own inevitable death took place, that his disciples were satisfied from their own experience of and sight of the works of Christ; and so he sent them on this errand.
“Poor men have the good news proclaimed to them,” Jesus added when He spoke to John’s disciples. He invited them to His kingdom and told them of peace and pardon.
It was predicted in Isaiah that the Messiah would indeed preach good tidings to the meek (the gospel to the poor).
Jesus knew that John the Baptist, whose heart was with the poor, knew that He was the one who united power and tenderness and could be none other than the expected king.
From verse 6: Blessed is he who shall not take offence at my poverty and lowliness of life and who will not reject me and my doctrine.
John wanted, not to force Christ’s hand into revealing Himself before His time came but, to ensure that he had completed his mission and passed the baton over to the one for whom he had been preparing the way.
Jesus then gave testimony to John, and to all he had achieved.
What Jesus said about John was not only to praise John but also for all the people.
Those who listen to the word will be called to give account of their improvements. Do we think that once the sermon is over the work is done? No! It most certainly is not. In fact, that is when the great work really begins.
Fervency and zeal are required by all. Self must be denied; the bent, frame and temper of the mind must be altered.
Those who have an interest in salvation will not mind what the terms are nor how hard they seem.
Things of God are of both great and common concern.
God requires no more from us than the right use of what he has given us.
People are ignorant because they will not learn.
John was sent to prepare the people to receive the Messiah and he fulfilled this commission. He preached repentance and faith in Christ.
As John prepared the way for Jesus then so we must prepare now.
We must prepare our hearts and minds, making them right and open ready to receive Him again this Christmas and for when He comes again in glory.
Not only that but we must spread that good news so that others also have the chance to repent and prepare.
Once Upon A Time …
… there was a little baby born in a stable who would become the saviour of the world. He was visited by shepherds and magi, whilst the angels sang and a star shone.
And that is precisely the problem – too many people treat the reports of Jesus’s birth as if it was a nice little fairy story for children. There is too much complacency, too much commercialism and too much watering down the truth because it’s easier to fall in with non-believers, materialism and instant gratification than it is to stand firm in the faith. Humans like an easy life but the ironic thing is that taking the easier road leads, at the end, to suffering.
The road less travelled, narrow and difficult though it may seem at times, is the path to God’s house. Whilst the journey may seem hard, the end is worth it. It is better to travel the more difficult road with Christ by our side and wait for our reward at the end of the journey than it is to opt for the easy journey and the consequences that await.
Advent is a time of waiting, watching and preparing, of truly listening to God with our heart and with all our senses, of opening our hearts and minds, of making changes and being prepared to be changed, of praying and inviting Jesus into our lives and our hearts. It is a time to get ready to climb that difficult path up the mountain.
Jesus is the gift that keeps on giving. He is real and the path to life, not just a story for Christmas. He is our Saviour, our Redeemer, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords who rules through love not war. He sacrificed himself to defeat death and the devil to save us. He shows us God’s mercy, love and grace. He grants us forgiveness and shows us how to live.
This year, why not use this time of Advent to evaluate yourself and your faith, to choose Jesus, the greatest gift of all, to choose life not death. Yes that means making difficult choices and choosing the harder path over the easier one. It means loving the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength and loving your neighbour as yourself. It means loving, forgiving and praying for your enemies. It means listening and obeying our Lord and Master and following him.
But what a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs he bears. What Joy, Love, Light and Peace we gain as a child of our Heavenly Father.
Hell is truly an absence of God, of not being in his loving presence. So stop treating Jesus’s birth as a fairy story and give it back the significance it requires.
I pray that you all receive God’s blessing this Christmas.
King of Kings
The Sunday before Advent, we celebrate Christ the King, which concludes the church year as we begin the Advent Season and the new church year the following Sunday.
Whilst one of the more recent festival days of the church, having been added to the church calendar in 1925, it is when we join together to give thanks to Christ our King and to be reminded that all nations fall under the reign of God’s Son, and to remind the world that we all live under this reign, whether or not we acknowledge it.
Jesus is our King and is the King of kings.
So, what kind of king is he?
In his epistle to the Colossians, Paul tells us that in Jesus, our King, all things in heaven and earth, both seen and unseen, have been created through Jesus and for Jesus. There is nothing, no nation, no government, no earthly ruler that has not been created through Jesus and for Jesus. He is the Lord over all. King of kings and Lord of lords.
Paul goes on to tell us that without Jesus being an active part of our world everything would fall apart. Jesus is the glue that holds all things together. The ultimate sticky back plastic.
Paul tells us that our Almighty and all powerful God rescued us from the power of darkness into Jesus’s kingdom, where there is love, forgiveness, grace and mercy. All ruled over by the gentle, loving hand of Jesus. An all – powerful king who chooses not to rule by force but by love.
In Luke chapter 23, Jesus is being crucified and mocked. Jesus, our all – powerful king, allows himself to be crucified – killed in a cruel, torturous, shaming way; choosing to reign from a cross, willingly dying for us.
Yet it is this that shows us what it means to have Jesus as our king and what kind of king He is.
A king who is literally dying to save us. A king who took our humiliation and punishment for us. A king who was tortured and died and refused to save himself. A king who gets what he does not deserve – death on a cross – so that we can have what we do not deserve – life in his kingdom. A king of overflowing love showing us God’s overflowing love for us.
And he does not stop there, as demonstrated when, even though he was dying, he still found the breath to forgive the repentant thief.
Jesus is a king who is always ready to forgive and to welcome a repentant sinner home.
Christ, our king of love has let us off the cross, giving us the opportunity to be his disciples and live each day for him.
I invite you to think about what that means for you.
We give thanks for Christ our King, the all-powerful, who chooses to reign by love. The king who died so that we might live.
So, let us live not for ourselves but for him. Let us make the most of the opportunity to live each day for the king who died to save us and continue to do so until that blessed day when his kingdom will come in all it’s fullness and glory.
Remembrance Sunday
Luke 20:27-38
A question about the resurrection.
When I was looking deeper into this reading from Luke, I noticed that one of the commentaries entitles it “The Sadducees ask Jesus a ridiculous question”.
The Sadducees were like an ancient version of modern liberal theologians. They only accepted the first five books of Moses as authentic; disregarding what was written in them whenever they chose to do so. They did not believe in the resurrection, spirits or angels. They liked worldly things and cooperated with the Romans in order to keep their privileges.
There is a saying that there are no stupid questions only stupid answers but, in this case, it is the other way around. The Sadducees ask a ridiculous, hypothetical question based on Deuteronomy 25:5-10 in the hope of tricking Jesus into justifying their views. It is even feasible that the story they told was one of their stock in trade, told regularly purely in an attempt to cast ridicule on the resurrection of the dead.
Jesus’s reply, however, was a reminder that life in the resurrection is quite different to this worldly life with practices that are different to earthly life practices.
Revelation tells us that the glory of heaven will be a relationship and connection with God that surpasses anything else.
The question was not actually asked, however, to debate about those in heaven who had been married more than once; although Jesus tells us here that jealousy and exclusion have no place in heaven.
It was asked in order to attempt to refute the resurrection.
Jesus’s reply: “Nor can they die anymore, for they are equal to the angels, are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.”
Jesus reminds us that life in heaven is eternal and shares some of the characteristics of the existence angels experience; although by being called children of God and children of the resurrection is a greater honour than that of the angels – these titles not having been given to angelic beings.
Jesus confirmed (and goes on to prove in the passage) that the resurrection is real and that there is no death in that life to come. And of course, this was a double blow for the Sadducees having had Jesus also confirm the existence of angels.
This teaching of Jesus , confirming the resurrection, is particularly poignant on Remembrance Sunday, when our thoughts turn to those who gave their lives, the mystery of death and what happens next.
We remember those who, throughout the centuries, received the news of their loved one’s death or that they were Missing In Action.
We remember those, who, today, yesterday, and in years long past made the ultimate sacrifice; and those who, sadly, will be making that sacrifice tomorrow.
They gave, and give, their lives for our tomorrows, for peace, freedom, justice and stability.
The scale and horror of the First World War was such that, at the time, it seemed impossible and unthinkable that such atrocity could be repeated – giving it the name “the war to end all wars”.
Sadly, reality turned out very different. Many millions more lives have since been, and continue to be, lost in all the many conflicts that have continued since around the world.
Most of us, most people, at least most of the time, want to live in peace.
So, what is it that is within humanity that creates this, appearingly, insatiable, appetite for conflict and war. Both for actual conflict and war and that which is created for, rather shamefully named I think, “entertainment purposes” such as video games.
Deep down beneath all the surface reasons or, dare I say, excuses, for conflict is that much used and much misunderstood word sin. The difference between the people we are and the people God made us to be. And what did God make us to be? He created us in His image. In the image and likeness of a loving God for the express purpose of being a loving people that love one another.
As Jesus said in John 15: “This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you” and “I am giving you these commandments so that you may love one another.”
There are far too many shocking stories, accounts and images of the atrocities of war – including those that continued to be committed after peace treaties were signed. We are supposed to learn from our mistakes and yet these still continue to take place.
But, there are also the poignant images of the Allied and German cemeteries filled with crosses.
Picture those rows of white crosses, be immersed in the silence.
Rows and rows of white crosses.
Take the command to love one another seriously.
Row upon row.
Understand that Christ went to the cross to overcome our separation from God and from each other.
Rows and rows and rows of white crosses.
If only this commandment was followed and the sacrifice understood all around the world then maybe, just maybe, the glimmer of hope given by the light of Christ will stay lit, not all will be lost and we would actually be able to allow Remembrance Day to fulfil it’s dream and truly mark the end of war!
How can I pray?
Do you think everyone else knows how to pray? You are not alone if you think this. Prayer is something we are often not taught. How often do we sit and kneel in church looking at other people and wondering what it is they are doing in their silent prayers? They always look so holy and yet here we are, trying to say something to God …
Do you feel like giving up? Don’t! Prayer is like every human skill. It is something that we need to learn how to do. We can use books, or ask a friend, or seek the guidance of a priest. But, in many ways, prayer is something that we do have to find out about for ourselves. God has made us all different, and so we will all pray differently. We will also pray differently in different situations.
What is prayer? Prayer is the way in which we keep in touch with God. Many people think that they can change God: ‘If I ask really nicely, then God will do what I want.’ For others, prayer is a form of magic: ‘If I say it in the right way then God will answer.’ Neither of these is true. Prayer is the way in which we open up to God, so that God can work in us. And God does always answer, although not always in the way that we want.
What is prayer like? If you love someone, you keep in touch. Prayer is the same. If we love God, we stay in touch. We talk to God and we listen to God. It’s a conversation!
How do we get in touch with God? To begin our conversation with God we need to get ready: to come consciously into God’s presence, to sit or kneel in a way that is comfortable and attentive. Then we need to calm down. Normally, our minds are full of distractions; thoughts just keep happening. One way of calming down is to listen to our breathing, the regular pattern of it. Another way is to repeat over and over, ‘Be still and know that I am God.’ After a while we settle down, our minds are less full, and then we are ready to pray.
When we are calm, then we can start to pray. Sometimes, this just means continuing to listen, just letting the awareness of God enfold us, like loving arms – we don’t need to say anything else, the contact is enough. At other times we need to say something, This can be anything: ‘Dear Father…’ or ‘Hello God…’ If you are going to say something (whether aloud or silently), then just say what you want to say. God doesn’t stand on ceremony.
We need to take time to say what we want: ‘Thank you.’ ‘Sorry.’ ‘Guess what?’ ‘I love you.’ Take time to listen – to your breathing, to your thoughts and feelings. Be aware of yourself and don’t push it. Give God time to speak to you. Conversations take time … and patience.
Traditionally, Christians pray every morning and evening. The more we are in touch, the better it gets. The more time we take, the more rewarding it can be. As we pray regularly, the more natural prayer becomes.
‘What a friend we have in Jesus,
All our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit!
O what needless pain we bear!
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer!
The Lord’s Prayer:
Though there are many versions and interpretations of the Bible, the Lord’s Prayer remains much the same and sets a pattern for our own prayers. Speaking to our Father in Heaven should be much like speaking to someone in the room, as He is there in spirit. It should be personal, intimate and all disclosing of the thoughts in our minds and the feelings in our hearts.
From the King James Bible, Matthew 6:9-13, these are the words of the Lord’s Prayer:
After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.
If we break this down we can see the pattern more clearly:
After this manner therefore pray ye: This discloses that this is the pattern or way we are to pray, not by rote, by following these guidelines.
Our Father which art in heaven. Hallowed be thy name: We should begin our prayer by acknowledging that God is our Father in heaven and that we honour him. This is an important step in humbling yourself before him and telling him that he is our God and we trust in his words and wisdom.
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven: We let God know that we understand he is still in charge, that his kingdom will roll forth and that it is his will and not our own that we are to listen and obey. It is that same authority that was, and is, used to govern his home in heaven. At this point we should acknowledge all that he has done for us, all the bounteous blessings he has provided for our good, all the trials that he has blessed us with in order for us to learn what we need to learn, and every good thing in our lives.
Give us this day our daily bread: We petition God for our needs and the righteous desires of our hearts, not our whims or worldly desires. Our daily bread could include harmony in our homes. Patience, more holiness in speech and actions, the ability to support ourselves and our families, all the things that are daily necessities for our growth and salvation.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors: We should lay before God our sins and transgressions asking for forgiveness and for the strength to forgive everyone who has wronged us. This could also be financial debts, but includes so much more. This is our opportunity to repent for our weakness, our thoughtlessness, and our disobedience.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: We pray to God fervently for guidance in our walk and the power to overcome the evils that impede our paths. We pray that our self-mastery will be enough to conquer the adversary and keep us out of hot water!
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen: We close our prayer by, once again, acknowledging that this is God’s kingdom and that he has all the power. The glory of what we do belongs to him for all that he provides for us. We should close in the holy name of Jesus Christ, our saviour and redeemer, and the only way back to our Father.
We are so blessed to know the goodness of God and the way he has prepared for us to return to him. Prayer is an essential part of that plan. Daily honest communication with our Heavenly Father keeps us in tune to the spirit, forces us to be honest with ourselves about our shortcomings, allows us to repent for them, blesses us with an accounting and acknowledgement of our many blessings which is particularly important on days when we think we have nothing and bonds us with deity.
So have:
Conversation with God.
Become familiar with prayer as conversation that involves a delightful rhythm of asking God questions and waiting on God for responses.
Pray with authenticity.
Understand that praying authentically involves expressing doubts and fears as well as truth, believing God can give strength and grace.
Make requests of God in terms of God’s concerns, not just our own.
Listen to God in prayer.
To bring our questions to God, being open to God’s answers and obeying what we hear.
Pray for others as Jesus did.
To make intercession by praying for others’ oneness with God, not ‘patching up’ folks or getting them to do what we think they should do.
Practice God’s presence.
Practice prayer that infuses all of life as we practice the presence of God.
Gratitude
The passage from Luke 17:11-19 about the ten lepers clearly corresponds with the passage from 2 Kings in which Naaman the Syrian is healed of leprosy through Elisha the Prophet.
Leprosy in Jesus’s time was a deadly skin disease. Anyone who caught it had to live away from the healthy people and had to keep a distance away. Most would join a group of other lepers and be part of a leper colony.
When the lepers call out to Jesus, they call him “Master” – just like the disciples do.
In a similar way to other instances of lepers cleansing or healing, Jesus sent the lepers to the priests to confirm the healing.
The law was that if a leper was cured, they had to go to the priest to be inspected, and if they were healed (clean), the priest would give them a certificate. Only when they have the certificate would they be allowed back into society.
Jesus sent these ten lepers to the priest before the healing took place. They were required to obey and step out in faith to be healed; and they were healed whilst on their way to the priests.
God is at work when Jesus notices and heals hurts and brokenness that are not noticed by others.
Those living on the edges of our community, who are treated as invisible because of how they look, who they are, or where they come from. Jesus notices them and loves them and calls us to do the same.
But Jesus also notices the parts of ourselves that we hide, and he heals our hidden brokenness.
Jesus cares for the marginalised. In this example of the ten lepers, at least one of them was not a Jew.
After the ten lepers were healed, and once they had their certificates from the priests, they were free to go their own way, even to rejoin their families.
Ten were healed, and one returns full of gratitude and thanksgiving. That one, as it turned out, was a Samaritan, and Jesus said to them, “Your faith has made you well (saved you).”
Jesus’s life is full of people glorifying God – from the shepherds at his birth to the centurion at his death. Here, as in many other instances, it is as a result of Jesus’s work of healing and restoration.
The right response to Jesus is to praise and glorify God.
The Samaritan recognised God at work. He understood that to thank Jesus is to glorify God. He gave the response of faithful recognition and gratitude.
All ten lepers were willing to go to the priest in faith, but only one was filled with true praise and thanksgiving.
Jesus noticed that nine of the lepers did not return to give thanks. He notices our ingratitude.
There is no reason to assume that the other nine lepers were not grateful: they may have just been too wrapped up in their relief and amazement to even think of returning to give thanks to Jesus.
But one did return to Jesus. He recognised his gratitude and returned to say thank you and to form a relationship with Jesus.
It is one thing to offer words of thanks or feel thankful, but gratitude is a state of mind which transforms us.
The leper was transformed physically, emotionally, and socially. Jesus wants to physically, emotionally, and socially transform us too.
Ingratitude is a horrible thing. It is the enemy of the soul.
St. Paul tells us we should give thanks in all circumstances. Part of the vocation of any Christian is to give thanks and praise.
We can always find reasons for gratitude before God.
The nine lepers who leave without acknowledging Jesus highlight how blessings can be missed when gratitude is absent.
A blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet. He held up a sign which read, “I am blind, please help.”
There were only a few coins in the hat – spare change from folks as they hurried past.
A man was walking by. He took a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat. He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words. Then he put the sign back in the boy’s hand so that everyone who walked by would see the new words.
Soon the hat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy.
That afternoon, the man who had changed the sign returned to see how things were. The boy recognised his footsteps and asked, “Were you the one who changed my sign this morning? What did you write?”
The man said, “I only wrote the truth. I said what you said but in a different way.”
I wrote, “Today is a beautiful day, but I cannot see it.”
Both signs spoke the truth. But the first sign simply the boy was blind, while the second sign conveyed to everyone walking by how they should be able to see…
When life is full of difficulty it can be hard to be full of gratitude. When things are going well we take it for granted.
Gratitude is a habit; a way of looking at the world and all the good things in it with appreciation regardless of whether we are going through the good times or the bad.
Gratitude is a heart-centred approach to being at peace with yourself, others, what you have, and the world around you.
We need to practice gratitude and give thanks and praise to God in all we do, and think and say.
Just because 