Good morning everybody. My name is Karen and I’m the Youth worker at St Hugh’s up by the L&D. Some out there may know me from a few years ago when I was a volunteer with the Youth team… I’ve come a long way since then.
What things do you wish you were better at? Feel free to shout at me - I’m used to it.
I could come up with a whole list of things. I wish I was better at going to bed on time, I wish I was better at keeping my room tidy, I wish I was better at switching off the TV. When we think about our spiritual lives we often have one thing that we all wish we could be better at. Prayer…
I don’t know about you, but I regularly think ‘if only I could pray better’ or ‘if only I didn’t sound so silly when I prayed’. Well actually this passage gives us the basis for prayer. It means that we will never sound silly or not know what to pray. I’d like to think that if I only ever prayed one prayer the ‘Lord’s prayer’, as it has become known, would be a good prayer to pray.
I’ve known this prayer for as long as I can remember. I was going to say that everyone who comes to church regularly should know this prayer, but maybe that’s a wrong assumption. We shut our eyes tight to pray, but recently I’ve taken up keeping my eyes open and actually spending a moment to read the words that Jesus taught us.
There are many different translations of the bible, but one that really helps is Rob Lacey’s word on the street, he writes it this way:
Is that easier to understand? So often we say the words that we don’t mean, or that we don’t understand, but because everyone around us is saying them we join in. We say them because it’s the ‘right’ thing to say? I’ve known this prayer for as long as I can remember, but my earliest memory is racing my sister to see who could say it fastest! Possibly quite irreverent, but at least I was saying it!
I don’t want to teach you how to pray, Jesus has already done that. But I do want to encourage you this morning. Don’t worry about the things that you say, God loves to hear your voice. Let me just point a few things out. Jesus knew it was important to recognise God for who He is, “Father”. Jesus wants us to have respect for God - that’s what hallowed means. God can provide for all we need - our “daily bread”. But this is different to what we want. And we do need to be lead away from the greatest temptation, doing things in our own power. We are nothing without God and what Jesus has done for us on the cross. I’m going to stop there and leave you with that thought, and children I want you to keep your eyes open for a game we will play very soon.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Not so long ago I was in Chelmsford cathedral watching my Dad be licensed as a reader in the church. Sitting with my brother and sister, we were joining in at all the right parts, when it came to saying the Lord’s prayer I took the opportunity to let my eyes wonder around the Cathedral. As soon as the prayer had finished Michael said “a chocolate bar for you both because you said the prayer without looking” It came to light that my dad had rewarded my brother for being able to recite the prayer with a chocolate bar! I went and asked him if he’d done this for all of us. It turns out that he had and that Michael had really persevered with learning the prayer, he really wanted the chocolate!
Obviously the reward for saying the prayer meant a lot to him! I’d like to think that this isn’t the way God deals with prayer. When we pray and ask sincerely, God will answer. But it won’t necessarily be with something to reward us in such a trivial way. I don’t dispute that it is a good thing to using prayer to ask of God but I do want us not to look at God as a sweet shop keeper.
God is available to everybody, through the death and rising of Jesus. Now some where in church I have hidden some chocolate. It might be high it might be low, but children, are you paying attention. Go and find the chocolate. (at which point I pulled out a big tub of chocolate and sat on the steps at the front of the church - one child said "this is the easiest hide and seek ever!")
God is not there to give out treats and all the things we want, just because we ask. In this passage, the friend knows WHERE to go to get a response. We do too, the cross! But he has to get the host to rise form the dead of night, disturbing his entire family, just for a few loaves of bread. Are we beginning to see the connection between the parable and the story of the cross?
One possible interpretation of this parable comes from a book called “Parables of Grace” . God is the host, he is our last and only hope, but we have to recognise this first. God is not hidden from us, he is there plain for all to see, but we have to acknowledge the fact that we are dead before we can even consider asking Jesus to rise from the dead to answer the knock at the door.
This isn’t something that is for a later date. What Jesus says is for now.
So I no longer want us to be worried about the prayers that we pray. I don’t want us to wish that we were better at praying, because by default we are good, we are God’s children. We can boldly approach the throne, because it is a throne of grace, not of judgement.
While I was thinking about this I was reminded of a song that I used to sing when I was little. You may know it, it’s called “Prayer is like a telephone”. The lyrics are self explanatory, but the great thing about God is you never have to talk to the answer machine and you never have to speak to someone who doesn’t understand you, there is no queue and it always works in an emergency!
Over the next week I want you to have a go at writing your own version of the Lord’s Prayer. I had a go and here’s what it sounds like:
Daddy in heaven,
Your name is fantastic, and holy beyond anything else.
May all that is good in heaven, take place here on earth.
All the things that I want, be the things that you want.
Help me today and give me things I need to make through.
Forgive me when I do things wrong and help me to treat others the same way you treat me.
Guide me to you always.
May it be this way forever.
I love you
Karen
So the challenge is this, write your own lord's prayer. Use this prayer, just because we use it as a corporate prayer, shouldn't and doesn't take away from its awesomeness as a prayer. And as I said before if you only ever pray one prayer, this would be a good one to pray.
Sunday, November 04, 2007
Monday, July 23, 2007
The Parable of the Weeds
The Parable of the Weeds
Matthew 13 v 24-30, 36-40
When I first read this passage I thought I had such a task on my hands. Jesus had already explained it all. But let’s put it into some context…
As we know Jesus has just told the parable of the sower to the crowd who are listening ask he speaks from a boat. The previous parable is long and repetitive, but it would have hit the right note with the crowd. There may have been farmers in the crowd nudging their mates saying “That really happens, you know”. Then he explains that story … while they are processing that he hits them with a shorter story, but one which had just as much relevance.
I think Jesus might have paused for a second to let the crowd catch their breath and maybe do that “I need to get into a more comfortable position” shuffle.
So go ahead, shuffle as much as you like.
Are we all sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin…
When I was little there was this person who always used to follow me around. She used to be wherever I went; some times she copied me and dressed the same as me. When we were really little we looked so similar that my mum had to tell us apart by writing our names on our birthday cakes and putting us in different shoes. In one picture they can only tell us apart because I’m being held by a lady called Karen. ‘She’ is of course my twin, Liz.
When we were growing up, we had our own personalities, but because we looked so similar my mum and dad had to resort to dressing us differently to tell us apart. Now that we are older and hopefully wiser, my parents know us inside-out and can tell the difference 99% of the time.
The identical twin analogy is much like this story. There isn’t a lot in it when distinguishing between wheat and weeds in the early stages of life. They look very similar, as did I and my sister. You may be aware that we now look completely different, even though we say the same things and hold the same posture. Growing up people always used to joke about who the ‘evil’ twin was. I can never imagine my dad casting one of us into the fire just because we’d been an extra be naughty that week. It’s not for him to decide. We’ll both have our moments, but I hope that we’ll be wheat at the end of the day.
We’re lucky in this one we get the story and the explanation to the story, the real insider information. We get to go into ‘the house’ and hear what Jesus says to the disciples about this story. However, even when we have all the information we can still hear what we want to hear. Many times this story has been told as though directed to the Church. We are the field, the wheat and the weeds. I’m not about to disagree with Jesus, who says in his explanation ‘the field is the world’. He never mentions anything about the Church.
Here we have this great communicator, someone who has all the knowledge of the world, yet we disagree, have our own take, and spread it around like it’s something to rejoice in. We talk all the time about the Jesus who came down to earth as a vulnerable baby, but what about Jesus as a grown man showing us a glimpse of the end of time, the kingdom of God and the final works that he will do? How can someone so right be taken so wrongly?
I think that it is mostly down to our humanness on a large scale… here Jesus has painted this wonderful picture AND explained it, but we still misinterpret it. I wonder if you have ever had a moment where you are half in a conversation on a really busy afternoon and as a consequence have forgotten what you are supposed to be doing, or managed to double book your self? Yeah, good, me too!
Even in our silliest and dumbest moments God still speaks to us. Here Jesus has given such a clear story, but the disciples still say ‘can you explain it to us please?’ Later on Jesus says to them ‘do you still not get it?’ I’m not saying that the disciples were stupid, but that Jesus has the skill to explain all the stories we’ll ever come across. Let’s give Jesus the opportunity to explain this and the other parables we’ll hear this summer, not just in the generic way, but in our own hearts and minds.
Matthew 13 v 24-30, 36-40
When I first read this passage I thought I had such a task on my hands. Jesus had already explained it all. But let’s put it into some context…
As we know Jesus has just told the parable of the sower to the crowd who are listening ask he speaks from a boat. The previous parable is long and repetitive, but it would have hit the right note with the crowd. There may have been farmers in the crowd nudging their mates saying “That really happens, you know”. Then he explains that story … while they are processing that he hits them with a shorter story, but one which had just as much relevance.
I think Jesus might have paused for a second to let the crowd catch their breath and maybe do that “I need to get into a more comfortable position” shuffle.
So go ahead, shuffle as much as you like.
Are we all sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin…
When I was little there was this person who always used to follow me around. She used to be wherever I went; some times she copied me and dressed the same as me. When we were really little we looked so similar that my mum had to tell us apart by writing our names on our birthday cakes and putting us in different shoes. In one picture they can only tell us apart because I’m being held by a lady called Karen. ‘She’ is of course my twin, Liz.
When we were growing up, we had our own personalities, but because we looked so similar my mum and dad had to resort to dressing us differently to tell us apart. Now that we are older and hopefully wiser, my parents know us inside-out and can tell the difference 99% of the time.
The identical twin analogy is much like this story. There isn’t a lot in it when distinguishing between wheat and weeds in the early stages of life. They look very similar, as did I and my sister. You may be aware that we now look completely different, even though we say the same things and hold the same posture. Growing up people always used to joke about who the ‘evil’ twin was. I can never imagine my dad casting one of us into the fire just because we’d been an extra be naughty that week. It’s not for him to decide. We’ll both have our moments, but I hope that we’ll be wheat at the end of the day.
We’re lucky in this one we get the story and the explanation to the story, the real insider information. We get to go into ‘the house’ and hear what Jesus says to the disciples about this story. However, even when we have all the information we can still hear what we want to hear. Many times this story has been told as though directed to the Church. We are the field, the wheat and the weeds. I’m not about to disagree with Jesus, who says in his explanation ‘the field is the world’. He never mentions anything about the Church.
Here we have this great communicator, someone who has all the knowledge of the world, yet we disagree, have our own take, and spread it around like it’s something to rejoice in. We talk all the time about the Jesus who came down to earth as a vulnerable baby, but what about Jesus as a grown man showing us a glimpse of the end of time, the kingdom of God and the final works that he will do? How can someone so right be taken so wrongly?
I think that it is mostly down to our humanness on a large scale… here Jesus has painted this wonderful picture AND explained it, but we still misinterpret it. I wonder if you have ever had a moment where you are half in a conversation on a really busy afternoon and as a consequence have forgotten what you are supposed to be doing, or managed to double book your self? Yeah, good, me too!
Even in our silliest and dumbest moments God still speaks to us. Here Jesus has given such a clear story, but the disciples still say ‘can you explain it to us please?’ Later on Jesus says to them ‘do you still not get it?’ I’m not saying that the disciples were stupid, but that Jesus has the skill to explain all the stories we’ll ever come across. Let’s give Jesus the opportunity to explain this and the other parables we’ll hear this summer, not just in the generic way, but in our own hearts and minds.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Pentecost opener
I need one volunteer, just one! We missed out someone when we were singing happy birthday earlier, now I’m sure you know that Pentecost is also known as the birthday of the Church. So you know what’s coming. We’re going to sing happy birthday to each other, as we are the Church! And……… is going to blow out the candles on the cake.
Ok. Now I need all the children… Play musical bumps. There’s a Prize for the winner. Children can stay sitting down.
What else is there at a birthday party? Balloons, food, party poopers etc…
And how long before your birthday happens do you start talking about it, weeks, months? Something very special happens in the run up to the Church’s birthday. A small festival known as Easter, can you believe it Easter was 50(ish) whole days ago! That’s right, you’ve had 50 days since that day where you got all that chocolate, does any one have any chocolate left?
Now the funny thing about Easter is it coincides with a Jewish festival called Passover, and Pentecost coincides with another Jewish Festival called Shavuot. This festival is timed for 7 weeks after Passover, and celebrates the first harvest of spring.
The disciples would have come together to celebrate the festival with Jesus’ words ringing fresh in their ears. Someone must have written it down otherwise we wouldn’t know it today, but you can imagine them chatting about it amongst themselves… or maybe they’d forgotten it totally and had spent the previous ten days just glaring into the sky wondering where Jesus may have gone and why he went there on a cloud.
Ok. Now I need all the children… Play musical bumps. There’s a Prize for the winner. Children can stay sitting down.
What else is there at a birthday party? Balloons, food, party poopers etc…
And how long before your birthday happens do you start talking about it, weeks, months? Something very special happens in the run up to the Church’s birthday. A small festival known as Easter, can you believe it Easter was 50(ish) whole days ago! That’s right, you’ve had 50 days since that day where you got all that chocolate, does any one have any chocolate left?
Now the funny thing about Easter is it coincides with a Jewish festival called Passover, and Pentecost coincides with another Jewish Festival called Shavuot. This festival is timed for 7 weeks after Passover, and celebrates the first harvest of spring.
The disciples would have come together to celebrate the festival with Jesus’ words ringing fresh in their ears. Someone must have written it down otherwise we wouldn’t know it today, but you can imagine them chatting about it amongst themselves… or maybe they’d forgotten it totally and had spent the previous ten days just glaring into the sky wondering where Jesus may have gone and why he went there on a cloud.
Monday, February 12, 2007
11th February 2007 Fasting
What have we learned? Context…
Before we start I want you to pair up with a child or young person and tell them what you learned about last week when Ruth talked about Salt and Light. Children and young people you have to listen, because I’m going to be asking you what the adults learnt.
Ok, so we’ve had a bit about how we have to be salt and light where we are, through our actions and attitudes. We skip forward a bit in Jesus’ sermon and we find him telling us to do things in secret, a bit of a contradiction perhaps?
All around Jesus ears would have been pricking up. For years the ‘normal’ people had been subjected to the teachers of the Law making a song and dance about what they were doing to please God. These ‘acts’ included giving to the needy, praying and fasting. Today, we are going to focus on the act of fasting.
What is true fasting?
Before we even delve into it, first I think we should look at how we spend our time. I want you to think for a moment… in the last week, which is 168 hours, how much time have you…
… been at work/school? 40 hours/30hours
… been asleep? 49 hours
… spent eating? 17.5 hours
… spent in front of the TV? 14 hours
… spent on the phone?
… spent doing house work?
… spent on yourself?
Now for a tough question, how long have you spent giving to the needy, praying and fasting? How long have you spent worrying?
Ponder that thought for a bit, we will be heading back there soon.
Compare your times to the time that Jesus and his disciples spent doing things like watching the TV… or the time they spent on the phone. As Christians in the 21st century we face a lot more distractions than the people who were sitting around Jesus as he spoke about these things.
Consequently fasting is something that falls to the bottom of the pile when we talk about priorities and spiritual disciplines. The thought of giving up something barely crosses our minds when we think of getting closer to God. In a few weeks we’ll be in Lent, current Christian culture has developed the idea of ‘I’m going to take something up for Lent, not give something up’. That’s brilliant, but can I ask, what exactly have you gained? Have we missed the point of Lent when we say that? Yes, Jesus did take something up, a fight with the devil!
Often what we don’t realise is that fasting and praying come hand in hand throughout the Bible. The Old Testament tells us the most stories about fasting and praying. We have Daniel, Shadrack, Meshach and Abednego, Esther and Moses (the first recorded fast in the Bible). In the New Testament we have Jesus, Paul, and Barnabas. These people, who are our history, fasted and prayed as part of life. For them it was not something to be ‘acted’ out, like the Pharisees, but it was there in order to make decisions and to have the time to pray about life.
Earlier I asked you how long you spent eating; shout some numbers at me…
Ok. During Biblical times eating took up a large amount of the day. When I say eating, I mean preparing as well, has any body’s time gone up a significant amount? Hold on actually, I mean cleaning away as well. Ok so even in modern day Britain where we suffer at the hands of microwave meals and Pot Noodle, eating can take up a huge amount of time. In Jesus time you couldn’t just go out and ‘do lunch’ there was a massive amount of preparation. No Supermarkets, no restaurants. If you gave up eating it would definitely be a significant chunk of your day.
Ok, so how many hours do you think you spend in front of the Telly, that’s including when it’s on in the background, while you are pottering etc. The average Britain will watch 23 hours of TV a week, that’s nearly a whole day! To be honest I could quite happily spend 6 hours in front of the TV in an evening, though that is excessive! Its quarter of my day, just imagine what would happen if I gave up TV for Lent and focussed on my relationship with God.
What is our true motivation?
Jesus is talking about loving God and wanting to be in relationship with him through giving, praying and fasting and NOT wanting anything back from it. The secret part was aimed at the Pharisees who make a song and dance about these things are abusing their generosity, their God given ability to talk and their discipline to abstain from eating.
Paul and Barnabas were praying in Acts in order to choose leaders for the churches. In the Message it says ‘Their prayers were intensified by fasting’. They were praying with a good and positive motivation, not one of ‘look at me, look what I’m doing’, but coming humbly to God to ask His advice. They entrusted the leaders they picked with their lives!
This weekend we have mirrored the Jewish tradition of taking part in a public fast. Everyone took part and we’ve been raising money too. I would have to say I’m very proud of them all, however ‘fasting’ isn’t a race. Like anything that Jesus asks us to do, we do it at our pace, within our capabilities.
Most importantly when we fast, we need to replace what we WERE doing with God. There is no use in fasting, if you spend that time filling it with other things.
Before we start I want you to pair up with a child or young person and tell them what you learned about last week when Ruth talked about Salt and Light. Children and young people you have to listen, because I’m going to be asking you what the adults learnt.
Ok, so we’ve had a bit about how we have to be salt and light where we are, through our actions and attitudes. We skip forward a bit in Jesus’ sermon and we find him telling us to do things in secret, a bit of a contradiction perhaps?
All around Jesus ears would have been pricking up. For years the ‘normal’ people had been subjected to the teachers of the Law making a song and dance about what they were doing to please God. These ‘acts’ included giving to the needy, praying and fasting. Today, we are going to focus on the act of fasting.
What is true fasting?
Before we even delve into it, first I think we should look at how we spend our time. I want you to think for a moment… in the last week, which is 168 hours, how much time have you…
… been at work/school? 40 hours/30hours
… been asleep? 49 hours
… spent eating? 17.5 hours
… spent in front of the TV? 14 hours
… spent on the phone?
… spent doing house work?
… spent on yourself?
Now for a tough question, how long have you spent giving to the needy, praying and fasting? How long have you spent worrying?
Ponder that thought for a bit, we will be heading back there soon.
Compare your times to the time that Jesus and his disciples spent doing things like watching the TV… or the time they spent on the phone. As Christians in the 21st century we face a lot more distractions than the people who were sitting around Jesus as he spoke about these things.
Consequently fasting is something that falls to the bottom of the pile when we talk about priorities and spiritual disciplines. The thought of giving up something barely crosses our minds when we think of getting closer to God. In a few weeks we’ll be in Lent, current Christian culture has developed the idea of ‘I’m going to take something up for Lent, not give something up’. That’s brilliant, but can I ask, what exactly have you gained? Have we missed the point of Lent when we say that? Yes, Jesus did take something up, a fight with the devil!
Often what we don’t realise is that fasting and praying come hand in hand throughout the Bible. The Old Testament tells us the most stories about fasting and praying. We have Daniel, Shadrack, Meshach and Abednego, Esther and Moses (the first recorded fast in the Bible). In the New Testament we have Jesus, Paul, and Barnabas. These people, who are our history, fasted and prayed as part of life. For them it was not something to be ‘acted’ out, like the Pharisees, but it was there in order to make decisions and to have the time to pray about life.
Earlier I asked you how long you spent eating; shout some numbers at me…
Ok. During Biblical times eating took up a large amount of the day. When I say eating, I mean preparing as well, has any body’s time gone up a significant amount? Hold on actually, I mean cleaning away as well. Ok so even in modern day Britain where we suffer at the hands of microwave meals and Pot Noodle, eating can take up a huge amount of time. In Jesus time you couldn’t just go out and ‘do lunch’ there was a massive amount of preparation. No Supermarkets, no restaurants. If you gave up eating it would definitely be a significant chunk of your day.
Ok, so how many hours do you think you spend in front of the Telly, that’s including when it’s on in the background, while you are pottering etc. The average Britain will watch 23 hours of TV a week, that’s nearly a whole day! To be honest I could quite happily spend 6 hours in front of the TV in an evening, though that is excessive! Its quarter of my day, just imagine what would happen if I gave up TV for Lent and focussed on my relationship with God.
What is our true motivation?
Jesus is talking about loving God and wanting to be in relationship with him through giving, praying and fasting and NOT wanting anything back from it. The secret part was aimed at the Pharisees who make a song and dance about these things are abusing their generosity, their God given ability to talk and their discipline to abstain from eating.
Paul and Barnabas were praying in Acts in order to choose leaders for the churches. In the Message it says ‘Their prayers were intensified by fasting’. They were praying with a good and positive motivation, not one of ‘look at me, look what I’m doing’, but coming humbly to God to ask His advice. They entrusted the leaders they picked with their lives!
This weekend we have mirrored the Jewish tradition of taking part in a public fast. Everyone took part and we’ve been raising money too. I would have to say I’m very proud of them all, however ‘fasting’ isn’t a race. Like anything that Jesus asks us to do, we do it at our pace, within our capabilities.
Most importantly when we fast, we need to replace what we WERE doing with God. There is no use in fasting, if you spend that time filling it with other things.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)