My house shall be a House of Prayer

By the time you read this I should be well on my way to my Bucks Weekend. John, Chris and I are going to the Scottish island of Iona. It is planned to be a time of birding and prayer. We are praying also for a time of Kairos.

We will be staying in a House of Prayer. This last bit seems to have been planned by God! It has significance for me because for some time Debs and I have been living with the vision that our home will become on marriage a House of Prayer. We have been practising praying in the run up to our wedding!

God introduced the idea to both our hearts individually, and so when we started to talk with each other about it it was like we were already prepared to say yes to each other.

The difficult bit might be the how. But we are already becoming more intentional about our prayers. Also deliberately seeking to be intercessors. To assist people with or without faith by coming alongside them and praying for their intentions.

Our experience is that prayer changes things. That if you want things to improve you pray. The cynic may say that this is not empirically measurable. I would say that it is measurable but not using your yard stick. Just in the same way that electricity is not visible to the naked eye.

The interesting thing is we are not going to be the only House of Prayer. We have heard that independent of us God is planting at least two others. One of which we learnt is going to be in Clarkson Street, near the Church we are part of.

The title of this week's post comes from the quote "my house shall be a House of Prayer for all nations" from Isaiah 56.7 in the old testament. Which is also quoted by Jesus when he cast out the money changers "It is written," he said to them, "'My house will be a house of prayer'; but you have made it 'a den of robbers.'" Luke 19:46 NIV

So you can see perhaps why I am excited to be going to Iona. And to be staying in a House of Prayer.

Dear Lord, please help us to know again the power of your Holy Spirit in our lives. Help us when we pray to realise our own weakness but allow us anyway to draw strength from your love. Amen

I will post at Www.yourkairos.com if there are additional readings /thoughts

Act justly, love tenderly, walk humbly with your God

I want to return to the subject of a recent post, to think more about one of the things Fr Greg had said. See "A Time to Pray"

Unfortunately I made "typo"that altered the meaning somewhat, I published "To love the way you want to love is control" (still unpacking that one! I think it is about making our love conditional, choosing to love)

I meant to type "To love the way you want to love is control" (still unpacking that one! I think it is about making our love unconditional, choosing to love).

The word unconditional makes a big difference... If we only love the loveable people we are doing an easy thing. But God is calling us to be disciples of love.

Of course love has many shades of meaning and we can use this almost to get out of doing too much about it. But authentic Christianity demands an authentic attempt to be as loving as Christ. And that is I think where choice comes in.

One Saint said that "to love is to will the good of another" and that can act as our working definition of love in this context. An elderly priest that I used to minister with was fond of saying to me "love means to treat everyone with good will." That is where the unconditional bit comes in. It is the challenging bit of do we treat the smelly tramp with respect even though he could be said to have not earnt respect. But maybe we start (or continue) at the easier end of the spectrum, with family and work colleagues. Thinking about not what they can do for you but what you can do for them. Then move on to the more radical. Of course every now and then someone will get in your face, when they do remember "that a soft answer turns away anger."

Giving up control is not easy. Let me assure you I am no saint. But I have learnt that when I do so it releases God's grace into my life, things start to be different. Less bleak in fact.

In the same way forgiveness also changes things. To refuse to store up wrongs in our memories and to keep "short accounts" changes the dynamics of our relationships.

Dear Lord, please help me to be different, help me to build your kingdom. To love tenderly and to give and receive forgiveness mercifully. Amen

Peace be with you!

It was late that Sunday evening, and the disciples were gathered together behind locked doors, because they were afraid of the Jewish authorities. Then Jesus came and stood among them. "Peace be with you," he said. After saying this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples were filled with joy at seeing the Lord. Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father sent me, so I send you." Then he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. ( John 20:19-22 GNT)

As St Augustine says, "we are an Easter People and alleluia is our song." Authentic Christianity hinges on the belief handed down from the disciples that Jesus did indeed rise from the dead after being killed on Good Friday. For us it is what marks him out as more than just a wise man who had a way with words. Because resurrection can only be achieved using God's power.

I guess some of us need proof of this and some question it. And this is the what Gamaliel the high priest himself wrestled with, when he was being asked to imprison Jesus' followers. He said this: "....so in this case, I tell you, do not take any action against these men. Leave them alone! If what they have planned and done is of human origin, it will disappear, but if it comes from God, you cannot possibly defeat them. You could find yourselves fighting against God!” Full passage here Acts 5:34-39 GNT.

For me that is one of the proofs that Jesus is the Son of God, if he was just a Charismatic holy man leading a sect it would have died out. A couple of thousand years later no one would have known about it. Instead from the seed of Jesus life, death and resurrection and of a crew of 12 hand picked misfits Christianity has been formed. As Gamaliel says it has to come from God. It has to come from God to have survived the folly and mistakes we have made in the name of religion. The Holy Spirit is the soul or animator of the church and makes it come out of disaster into victory when we let it. It leads us out of darkness into His wonderful light.

So I put it to you that the hand of God is on history and also on our lives today. We can't always see it but it is there. Imagine spray painting with your child...you get your little one to stretch out their fingers on the paper and spray paint their hand and the paper. When she removes her hand the shape is there but the hand is not. But we can understand that her hand was there originally because we can see the silhouette! Well human history is like that we can't always visibly see God, but we can understand by the imprints left on our lives and the lives of others. The times of grace and of awareness of his presence.

There were over 500 witnesses to the presence of the risen Jesus. That is considerably more than would be needed for a court of law to say that it was proved beyond reasonable doubt. How many witnesses do we need to believe?

Are you a scoffer? Maybe not ... if you are this is what God has to say "look you scoffers! Be astonished and die! For what I am doing today is something you will not believe even when someone explains it to you!" Acts 13.41

Dear Jesus, renew my knowledge of you. Let me receive the Holy Spirit into my life and may it melt my doubt and strengthen my faith. Help me please, I pray, to move forward from this day seeking your love and sharing your peace. Amen

I will turn your mourning into dancing

Imagine if you went for a meal with a friend and they started talking all mystical about death and life and how you should be serving one another, you might begin to feel a sense of unease. Track to 24 hours later the same friend, was arrested, betrayed by another of your mates, subjected to a show trial, sentenced to death, whipped, beaten, nailed to wood, displayed in agony for the world to watch dying....

Then as if that wasn't enough an earthquake, an eclipse and a thief quoting scripture. You have lived with this man for three years... You knew that his cousin John was beheaded. But you never even guessed that death would come for Jesus too. You have walked and talked with him, listened to his jokes. Listened to him goad the Pharisees... Cooked his meals, fished with him, climbed a mountain with him, heard all his stories, more than once each, so that you too know them, prayed every day with him with a strange intensity that could bring an incredible peace.

You have seen him bring healing to people's minds and incredibly also to their bodies. You were there when you heard Peter say to him "You are the Christ, the son of the Living God" when Jesus had asked him "who do you say I am?" ever elusive to questions. Like a quizzical Rabbi.

Now you are locked in a room with others that had travelled with Jesus, shaking with fear, from anxiety that they will come for you next. How could it have come to this. That Jesus, your friend and 'brother' went through this. You think about his last moments. How even at the last gasps he was praying a psalm

One of your friends in the room with you is reciting Psalm 29, saying over again "I will turn your mourning into dancing."

For Reflection:

Who do you say Jesus is?

Dear Jesus, reveal to my heart afresh today what your death was all about. Send your Spirit to me where I am praying, let it open my eyes to the fact that you took on my sin and have given me the route out from it. Let me accept again today that you are my Lord. Let me travel with you over the next three days into the resurrection experience. Fill me again with your joy and turn my mourning into dancing. Amen

Faithful in small things

Now Debs and I were discussing the various versions of CSI on the telly the other day. Trying to think which was our favourite. After a bit of banter I told Debs that the lead character in CSI Miami Horaitio Caine is my favourite because he "wears his integrity like a blanket" as the psalm says. There are several examples where he goes beyond the call of duty to help a victim. Exhibiting a kindness that goes beyond his role as a member of the police. He almost invariably addresses hardened criminals as "my friend" even when pointing out to them that he has got them banged to rights. For an example of his kindness did you see the episode where the witness to a crime had learning difficulties? There was a kind of tender hearted compassion thing going on.

I know it is just fiction however story telling has been important to humans for thousands of years.

The conversation with Debs seems to have a link in my head to two other passages from scripture about integrity that have come to the forefront of my attention this week.

......they do not distinguish between the holy and the common; they teach that there is no difference between the unclean and the clean; and they shut their eyes to the keeping of my Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them. Ezekiel 22:26 NIV

and

I know, my God, that you test the heart and are pleased with integrity. All these things I have given willingly and with honest intent. And now I have seen with joy how willingly your people who are here have given to you.1 Chronicles 29:17 NIV

All this I suppose set me of thinking, where or how do we start to be like that man Horatio?

I think in the Christian it has to start with small things. Remember where Jesus says "Whoever is faithful in small matters will be faithful in large ones; whoever is dishonest in small matters will be dishonest in large ones." Luke 16.10 GNB

The psalm really does say in the translation I use "wear your integrity like a blanket" which I believe means your integrity should protect you from the insidious temptations that come our way. That thought goes nicely with somewhere else in the psalms where it says "shake your hand lest it contain a bribe." So remember be faithful in the small things....

So we need a foundation to build on. Maybe that is enough to think on today? Except to add that daily repentance helps. It is better to do several little midcourse corrections rather than one jarring sharp turnaround.

Dear Lord, you search me and you know me. Help me to be faithful in small things and tender hearted, let my yes be yes and my no be no. Give me words that build up. Amen

A time to pray

It's interesting when you find unexpected things - I have been furtling through my junk this week looking for a lost certificate and I found some notes that I made in March 2004 on a retreat at the Campion Retreat Centre in Melbourne, Australia.

It was for me a long weekend totally away from the normal path of my life. I was part the way through a deep crisis in my personal life and had booked the retreat because I knew I needed something that maybe only a bit of time away and out of the ordinary would give me. Picked largely because the dates fitted - I was then amazed to find out how much the retreat spoke to me over the four days. It was as if God had been patiently waiting for me like a kind father. Now he had my attention he was going to tell me stuff.

First of all that long weekend taught me that if you are in crisis and you turn back to God he will honour your decision and come alongside and bless you.

Secondly, it is worth writing down what God reveals to you so that you can think on it later.

It was interesting to hear a Carmelite monk Fr Greg, talking about our faith and saying "Christianity is not a religion it is a relationship." And that I (or we) can become fully myself through that relationship.

I wish I could tell you exactly how much of a blessing that weekend was in a way that you would believe me.

We went on a journey where we learnt or rediscovered things about our memories, about how our habits also form us, about recommitting to God and most importantly the place for forgiveness in our daily lives. Our dependence on God's grace, a gift for us which is sufficient to make us renewed.

' "My grace is all you need for my power is strongest when you are weak." I am most happy, then to be proud of my weaknesses, in order to feel the protection of Christ's power over me.... For when I am weak, then I am strong. ' 2 Corinthians 12.9

Below I have picked out some key points from my notes for reflection

• St John of the Cross - says that our inward workings are intellect, memory and will
• His life as a monk sought purification of these three aspects
• Our memory can be an obstacle because of it's fallibility or because we hold onto memories that are painful, replaying them
• He asked "Do we let our memory rule us through our emotions?"
• Grace reality is a gift from God, "Do we accept Grace as a gift from God?"
• Prayer in the Carmelite tradition is a way of being present to the loving God, a kind of companionship, shouldn't be like the pharisees, is about relationship, through prayer the will of God becomes apparent, is learning and growing in the presence of God
• Christ is first not me
• Are you loving as God wants you to love?
• Believe in the goodwill of your brother, Jesus always spoke to a persons goodness
• "To love the way you want to love is control" (still unpacking that one! I think it is about making our love conditional, choosing to love)
• the power to forgive belongs to God, if I forgive it has been given by God
• the inability to forgive impedes love
• to truly forgive is to forgive AND love

With apologies to Fr Greg as I have condensed four pages of notes and missed out important bits! But maybe you can see why this retreat was so important to me. Especially as the group of people on it were so lovely.

Dear Lord, help me to understand your love for me, heal my memories and move me forward, let me learn to act the way you would want me to.... Amen

God delights in showing mercy

One of my preoccupations since I moved to Ipswich is which rubbish bin I should put out on a Monday evening. I always have to look it up as I can never remember whether to put my black or blue bin out.

Do you ever wonder what it would be like if we could de-junk our personal lives from the burdens that we carry? Wouldn't it be lovely to be able to put our emotional baggage out for collection?

Some of that feeling we have of emotional baggage comes from having unresolved sin in our lives. I want you to listen to some words from the prophet Micah that reveal a wonderful image of God. Here they are:

"What god can compare with you: taking fault away, pardoning crime, not cherishing anger for ever but delighting in showing mercy? Once more have pity on us, tread down our faults, to the bottom of the sea throw all our sins. Grant Jacob your faithfulness, and Abraham your mercy, as you swore to our fathers from the days of long ago." JB

That sounds like a God that cares for us and wants us to succeed doesn't it? And what a beautiful image "tread down our faults to the bottom of the sea."

Before we go further with that thought we need to ask ourselves what is sin? In the original language of the NewTestament the Greek word 'hamartia' is used. Literally translated this means to 'miss the mark.' Sin is when we deliberately choose to miss the mark. Where we deliberately choose a bad action instead of a good or neutral action. Another way of looking at it is that sin is when we choose to be unloving in the way we act. Now there are various levels of harm caused by sin. A major,or grave, one would be to murder someone. Obviously the harm in that is collosal. A minor sin in comparison is when we tell a white lie. But even that has a knock on effect.

St Paul says that sin unchecked leads to death. I believe that he means spiritual death but he might equally be warning of physical death. We can quite see that the cumulative results of a series of negative actions could lead us into the sort of angry conflict where death ensues. Sometimes inevitably one evil thing leads to another.

Some sins break national laws as well as spiritual laws. It is worth us thinking about the following passage from St Paul "The commandments... are summed up in the one command, "Love your neighbour as you love yourself." If you love someone you will never do them wrong; to love then is to obey the whole law." Romans 13:10 - Surely this means that love should be the yardstick by which we need to measure our actions?

The thing about the Christian faith is that it is about redemption. It doesn't lead us to an awareness of sin and then leave us 'high and dry' to wallow in our misery. God through Jesus offers us a new beginning. A way out of sin, a new way of forgiveness that comes from God.

God wants us to be happy and fulfilled people who have put darkness behind us. He can bring us to a stage where we are aware of our sins. When that happens we need to then turn to him and ask what we need to do put things right. It could be, for example, that we need to forgive someone or ask them to forgive us. That forgiveness then opens us to receiving God's forgiveness. The fact that we are trying to make amends allows a spiritual dynamic to happen.

Now the great thing is that we can access this grace gift at any time. We don't have to wait until the one day in two weeks when the bin men come. God comes out to meet us on the road and is prepared at any time to "tread down our faults to the bottom of the sea."

Dear Lord, help me to identify what in my life needs changing. Show me how that change can happen. Give me courage and insight to take the steps that I need to. Help me to bless and not to curse. To build and not to destroy. May your Spirit come to strengthen me, Amen