10.00Am – 11 Feb 2018 Prayer: O Lord, Uphold Me, That I May Uplift
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10.00am – 11 Feb 2018 Prayer: O Lord, uphold me, that I may uplift you; and may the words of my mouth, and the meditation of our hearts, be ac- ceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer. It seems rather a long time since I last stood in this pulpit! To some of you it might seem like the first time! But not, I hope, as reported in a local paper: The Rev R H Maidstone made his first appearance in the pulpit at Palmerston Street Church, Castletown, on Sunday evening. The choir gave the anthem: ‘Who is this, so weak’. If you were given an hour to spend with someone who you think would be inspirational, who, apart from Jesus Christ, might you choose? I was delighted to hear recently that my last curate, Lisa Bar- net, currently Vicar of Scaynes Hill and Lucy Hollingsworth’s training incumbent, is to be a Canon of Chichester Cathedral, in- deed occupying the stall immediately next to the one I had. To- wards the end of the year she will receive a summons to attend her first College of Canons Day. After the main meeting of the day the canons will gather in the cathedral for Evensong, and it is the occasion in the year when past cathedral founders and benefac- tors are commemorated. The Dean says, You shall remember be- fore God the Founders and Benefactors of this Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity; among them … and then it’s a long, long list, starting with, SAINT WILFRID, who first exercized the ministry of Bishop in Sussex. And after a few more names we come to, SAINT RICHARD OF CHICHESTER, Bishop, reformer, and defender of the Church; venerated and loved by the people of Sussex. Throughout the 2nd half of last year I was asked to take a num- ber of services at St Mary’s Ringmer while the Vicar of Ringmer, Beth McCleave, was unwell. Having processed with the choir to the back of the church after a service, the choir and I would linger under the bell tower and pray the Prayer of St Richard: Thanks be to Thee, my Lord Jesus Christ For all the benefits Thou hast given me, For all the pains and insults Thou hast borne for me. O most merciful Redeemer, friend and brother, May I know Thee more clearly, Love Thee more dearly, Follow Thee more nearly. In this our Year of Prayer, St Richard of Chichester, who was canonized in 1262, would be my choice of someone, other than Jesus Christ, to be with for an hour to be encouraged and in- spired. My reason is that his prayer reveals two lovely things about him, things that I also value and hold dear. Firstly, there’s what he prayed for. Vaughan Williams’s ad- aptation was adopted for the song Day by Day, with music by Ste- phen Schwartz, in the 1971 musical Godspell: Day by day, Dear Lord, of thee three things I pray: To see thee more clearly, Love thee more dearly, Follow thee more nearly, Day by Day. Let me urge you to pray that prayer with genuine longing, even day by day, through the year ahead and God will work a work of his grace in your life such that people will see in you something of the love and loveliness of Christ. Secondly, there’s why he prayed it. Most people, caught in an unexpected moment of crisis, will cry out in some sort of pray- er. But far fewer will long for, and therefore pray for, the three things that St Richard prayed for in his prayer. The reason for that is simple, that we don’t naturally incline to long for God and for a deep and meaningful relationship with him. For that to hap- pen something more needs to happen, and we get a clear clue as to what that is in the first part of St Richard’s prayer. He had a deep awareness of all that he owed to Jesus. He knew that, like all of us, in his natural state, he was far from God, his heart not inclined to him, and that only as he turned to God in re- pentance to be redeemed by him could that change. In that sense the first part of the prayer is perhaps the more telling, because it’s only once we have truly appreciated all that Jesus has done for us that we will be inclined with all our heart to worship him – to acknowledge and express his true worth – and to know a new relationship of the utmost worth with him: Thanks be to Thee, my Lord Jesus Christ For all the benefits Thou hast given me, For all the pains and insults Thou hast borne for me. O most merciful Redeem- er, friend and brother … I think someone who prays like that would have so much to give by way of encouragement and challenge. Recently I renewed friendship with a dear friend from university days. He and I were both members of the CU. After we had had lunch, we chatted for quite a while about how God had lead us both through the years, and finally, before he left on his homeward journey, we prayed together. I was struck by the extent to which his prayer was very focused on all that Jesus meant to him. Each of us, if we are ever to know anything of Jesus’ true sig- nificance and worth such that we give him our heartfelt worship needs to have at some point in their life a transfiguration experi- ence in which the glory of Jesus is revealed to them. For Peter, James and John, alone with Jesus on, probably, Mount Hermon, the transfiguration will have been an unforgetta- ble moment in their lives that transformed them forever thereaf- ter. Peter later wrote, and it’s hard not to capture his sense of awe and excitement as he does, we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eye-witnesses of his majesty. He received honour and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.’ We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain. The transfiguration firstly will have done something precious for Jesus. He had accepted that ahead lay the horror of rejection and crucifixion, but this was a moment for that decision to re- ceive the highest of approvals. In being joined by Moses, the su- preme law-giver of Israel, and by Elijah, the first and greatest of the prophets, they effectively were encouraging him to go on to be the fulfilling of all that had been longed for, hoped for, and looked forward to. Here Jesus was assured that he was on course in going steadfastly forward to the cross and thus to the redemp- tion of humanity. And that was underlined by his Father’s own reassurance that he was moving forward in line with God’s fore- ordained purpose and plan. But it also, secondly, did something very precious for the dis- ciples, as I have already hinted. Jesus had already mentioned to them that he was going to Jerusalem to die and this news had shattered all their preconceived hopes in and understanding of the role of their Messiah. But on the Mount they came to see that a bigger and far more wonderful picture than the one they had been able to see was taking shape. They had heard God’s voice acknowledge Jesus as his Son! And of course it made them in a special way witnesses of what they had seen and heard. A witness is one who having seen then shows, and in due course they would share what they had seen and so enable others too to put their trust in Jesus as the redeemer and Son of God. St Richard’s prayer is, as indeed an hour with him would sure- ly be, inspirational. But so too is the urging that Peter gives us in the light of his experience of Jesus. He says this, and with this I close, make every effort to add to your faith … And in what way can we or should we add to our faith? Add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Prayer: Dear Lord, of thee three things I pray: To see thee more clearly, Love thee more dearly, Follow thee more nearly, Day by Day. Amen. .