Ephesians 4:25-5:2
John 6 35, 41-51
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit
Why have you come to church this morning? What has made you get out of bed at an early hour and give up your time to come and sit in church? I’m sure it’s not just to hear me preach. There is something that draws us here and nourishes us, and no, I don’t mean the coffee and biscuits or even the occasional Prosecco and cake, nice though they may be.
Jesus tells us today that no one can come to him unless drawn by the Father. You know when you meet someone who you really connect with and you feel drawn to them and want to spend time with them? Well, maybe we come to church because we are drawn here by God and by wanting to spend time in his presence and worship him.
Whilst at church we can be nourished through words and music and of course through our receiving of the Eucharist. Jesus said “my flesh is true flesh and my blood is true blood. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me and I abide in them” This is food that can feed, nourish and strengthen us like no other. It is a food that helps us to grow in a more Christ like way. As plants grow towards the sun, we are called to grow towards Christ and to model our lives on his. The keen gardeners among you will know that plants grow better if we give them plant food. So we will grow into better Christians if we receive the nourishment of the Eucharist.
We also might feel drawn to come to church so that we can spend time with other Christians. I hope we can be honest with each other about our faith and our struggles with faith. That we can be one family and one body helping to build each other up. However, we are also human, and live in a culture that loves to moan and complain, but in today's gospel Jesus tells us do not not complain among yourselves.
I love to have a good moan about things as much as anyone else, but I think Jesus has a point. After all what does moaning, usually to those who agree with us actually achieve? Usually not a lot except for making ourselves feel better. The thing is, if we stop complaining to each other about things then we are left with the options of either doing nothing or having to do something about what we are complaining about!
C S Lewis wrote a book called the Screwtape Letters, which is a collection of letters from Screwtape, who is a senior demon to a younger demon, Wormwood, in which Screwtape offers advice on how to tempt a Christian away from God. At one point Screwtape writes
“The Church itself is a fertile field if you just keep them bickering over details, structure, organization, money, property, personal hurts and misunderstandings. One thing you must prevent, don’t ever let them look up and see the banners flying, for if they ever see the banners flying you have lost them forever.”
How much time do we spend bickering, moaning, looking down and in effect achieving nothing. What happens if we stop moaning and looking down and look up, up to God and the angels and realise we are not on our own.
The last weeks and months with continuing conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, a rise in Islamist attacks on churches in Africa and the rioting in our own country can seem like it’s too much to deal with. It’s easier to look down, to think there is nothing that we can do and that is exactly what the devil wants.
If we look up and remember that we are not alone, that we have God and the whole host of angels also working against the evil in the world, then we can have hope that things can change and we have a part to play in that change. Don’t panic, I’m not suggesting we all go out on the streets as a counter protest. However we do have one very strong weapon we can use wherever we are, and that is prayer.
Prayer can be a strange and difficult thing to understand, I assume as we are all here at church that we all believe that prayer can and does work, even if we don’t understand the how. There are many things that are difficult for us to sense or understand, what some people would call supernatural or others spiritual. If we believe in God, then it makes sense to believe in these other supernatural beings or forces. Our prayers can help strengthen good and attack the evil. It my be a comic book image but I think of someone having a devil whispering in one ear and an angel in the other. Our prayers can ripple out and maybe make a person listen more to the voice saying don’t get involved in this, don’t pick up that brick than to the voice encouraging them to violence.
I have a challenge for myself and for you for the week. To try and spend 10mins a day praying for peace. How you do it is up to you, you can do it by yourself or find time with others, follow the daily office, a set prayer or use your own words. Sit down, go for a walk, or even dance if that is what works for you. The important thing is to pray.
I want to finish with a prayer:
O God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, our only Saviour, the prince of Peace: Give us grace seriously to lay to heart the great dangers we are in by our unhappy divisions. Take away all hatred and prejudice, and whatsoever else may hinder us from godly union and concord: that, as there is but one Body, and one Spirit,and one hope of our calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all; so we may henceforth be all of one heart, and of one soul, united in one holy bond of truth and peace, of faith and charity, and may with one mind and one mouth glorify thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen
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