Sermon 22nd March 2015

Today, our Vicar, Cameron Barker, preaches. The reading is from Acts 13: verses 1-3.

“Guidance is the most radical of the (Spiritual) Disciplines because it goes to heart of this matter of walking with God. Guidance means the glorious life of hearing God’s voice and obeying His word. The goal of guidance is not specific instructions about this or that matter but conformity to the image of Christ.” And what better quote than that could there possibly be to end a series that has rattled our spiritual cages as much as this one has done? Or at least potentially has done; and/or might yet do – if we’ll keep on applying all of its teaching.

Now that is quite some jumping-off place, I realise; so here’s a light-hearted interlude, which may (or may not) be of some relevance to today’s subject of Guidance. It’s the story about an American who’d not long been living in the UK. He was still adjusting to the challenges of our differing pronunciations, but was managing to hold onto his open-hearted nature through it. So when a young man called by to ask if he had odd jobs needing doing, he asked “How much will you charge to paint my porch?” When he was told £50 he agreed, and handed over the paint and brushes. Some while later the now paint-splattered lad knocked on his door again. “All done!” he said. As he took his money, he added, “And by the way, that’s not a Porsche: it’s a Ferrari.”

It’s true that there may be more about communication in that story than guidance; but the 2 are closely related. And we could even stretch the point and say that it might have lessons to teach us about the Discipline of Simplicity that’s also in Richard Foster’s, “Celebration of Discipline”. That’s not one of the topics that we have covered on Sundays, because this Lent series could only ever offer tasters from this book’s broad menu. But that’s also why the impact of it could yet be so much wider and deeper than has happened so far. There are so many discoveries yet to be made, by anyone who chooses to keep putting themselves in the right Godly places in this way. And that’s true not just of the areas that we’ve not covered, but also of those that we have.

As I said at the start of this series, even what we have done on Sundays has only been able to scratch the surface of each area that we’ve picked out from the book. And, only having had 3 weeks to do it all in, each topic has been one selection from the 3 headings that Foster groups the classic Spiritual Disciplines together under. So while we’ve heard good and Godly thoughts on Meditation, and Service, and today we will cover Guidance, don’t forget what else is still out there waiting to be explored. Under Inward Disciplines, there’s: Prayer; Fasting; and Study. In Outward ones, it’s: Simplicity; Solitude; and Submission. And I won’t get to the other Corporate Disciplines of: Confession; Worship; or Celebration. And if that all sounds like rather a lot, well it’s meant to! This is, to quote Foster again, all about walking a path of “disciplined grace”. It’s us doing our part, to put ourselves in the right place where God’s grace can then transform us.

That’s not least why this is the right place to end our series – though, as I say, hopefully very much not our learning from it. “The goal of guidance is … conformity to the image of Christ”, remember; and that, by definition, has to be a life-long journey. We don’t know how it works, of course; but it may even be one that continues on the other side of the grave. Or maybe I’m just projecting again, on the basis of how far I know that I still have to travel in being conformed to the image of Christ myself. One of the ways in which I’m very aware of that for myself is in this area of Guidance – and I know that’s so for plenty of others here too. How do we know what God wants? What is the right Godly course of action to take in the particular circumstances that we each face? And how can we live for Him in the detail of our daily life?

Those are the sorts of questions which I hope we do at least pause to ask, regularly; or that we will do, after today. Yes I’m very aware that that Foster quote I began with says that’s not what it’s primarily about; but any general aim that we have of becoming more like Jesus must be worked out in the detail of the everyday, of course. What’s particularly interesting, then, is that Foster lists guidance amongst the corporate Disciplines. Inasmuch as we do think of it I’d guess that we’re most likely to think of guidance as something that we need for ourselves individually. Yes, of course we do each need as much Godly guidance as possible. Foster recognises that, and in this chapter he offers much helpful material about it too, so do read what he says on that.

As you’d expect, plenty of what he writes about God’s guidance of individuals is also equally applicable to the corporate dimension of it as well. But Foster is often quick – and right – to remind us that the way that we see things is not just quite different to the way that it used to be; it’s also rather recent!  Take today’s short Bible reading as a classic example of that. It’s one that’s entirely consistent with Old Testament themes and stories, that it was the church which together discerned what God was doing. (And isn’t it interesting how that happened here in the context of the church exercising Spiritual Disciplines of Worship, Prayer and Fasting together!) Note how it then wasn’t that Saul (who became Paul) or Barnabas told the others what they had heard from God, and the rest agreed. God’s call to what turned out to be Paul’s first missionary journey came to the church, corporately; and that’s how responded to it: corporately! Together they owned it, affirmed it, and implemented it, by together sending out Saul and Barnabas.

You see, the Old Testament is very much a story of how God made, and led, a people. Often it happened – as still does today – primarily through God’s interaction with a particular person; be they a prophet or a king; but it was about God’s people – as it still is today. Foster’s not talking here about the church as an organisation in an institutional sense so much as about us being God’s people today. That’s something which I’d agree it’s easy for us to lose sight of in our drive to matter as individuals. It’s why it’s so important to see, and exercise, guidance as a corporate discipline – which I’d say we do at least try to do here. Not everyone will be aware of this, of course, but in all our key leadership meetings, at Preachers, PCC, Standing Committee, Action Groups, we pray, think, and talk around what God’s doing in His church. And that hopefully then shows up in the specific decisions that we make as a church, and we how try to live together as God’s people here.

This is a crucial part of what Foster was trying to get the Western church to remember nearly 40 year ago when this book first came out. The need for it is, if anything, even greater today, because of a growing tendency to put ourselves first. And it really is a Discipline to seek God’s guidance in this way because it means being truly counter-cultural about it. We each need to see ourselves as part of something that’s bigger, and more important, than ourself. Nobody’s saying that it’s easy – much less trouble free – because it absolutely isn’t. It’s rare enough for everyone in any group of people to agree about a general direction, let alone the specific decisions that are necessary to follow it. As the Church of England regularly experiences at its Synods, tensions inevitably arise from the discernment process itself; and how we deal with those speak volumes about what we actually believe about God, and about our faith.

Foster has plenty more to say about the potential dangers of corporate guidance. I’ll leave you to read it yourself, though; not least because there’s another important aspect of this Discipline that it would be good to mention now. It’s one that’s particularly relevant to our tendency towards individualism, because it invites us to put ourselves in the hands of our fellow believers. This aspect of corporate guidance does apply more to the individual – but in a radically different way to what we might expect. The essential idea here is that we go to other people, as a group, and ask them what they hear God saying about a particular idea or course of action that we’re considering. And this is not advice-seeking so much as us trusting that God is guiding us by this method, through those people we go to!

I fully anticipated a sharp intake of breath when I wrote that (if not outright booing!) But it strikes me that we really should be open to this method, as people of faith who believe in a great God! Foster tells a whole range of wonderful stories of this principle in practice, which are well worth reading too. He’s also wise and sensible enough to point out the pitfalls – and the balances that we can rely on for guidance. The key thing is that we can know that God’s Spirit is never going to say anything that radically new or different to what’s in the Bible. Additionally, as we get to know God better and better over time – as we do with a spouse or very close friend – we’ll know more and more what He wants for us and from us. In that sense guidance gets easier for us – corporately and individually alike; because through engaging in this process we are conforming to Christ’s image; and that is “the goal of guidance”, remember: both corporate, and individual.

Now once again I’ve barely scratched the surface of this vital topic, of the Discipline of God’s guidance. Hopefully you’re all keen to find out more about it, though; just as you were, and are, about Meditation, Service; and all the rest of the Disciplines too. Above all, I hope you’re longing to find out how to become ever more like Jesus; and that your experience of Easter this year makes that longing both more poignant and all the more urgent. The reason that we chose to do this series this Lent was – if you’ll allow the pun – to foster such a longing in the light of all that God has done for us in Christ. As I also said at the start of this series, the ways to do that are all laid out for us very helpfully in this book itself. It invites us to choose to do the work of walking along this path of disciplined grace, day by day. By doing that we’re choosing the freedom of being, and becoming, the people who God has made us to be. So we can know for sure that He will guide every step of our journey to become ever more like Jesus. So the question for each one of us, and for us as a church, as this series ends is: will we make these choices? Let’s pray that we will …

Sermon 15th March 2015

Today, our Honorary Assistant Minister, Ben Hughes, preaches. The reading is from Luke 10: verses 35-45.

A man dies and is met by Peter at the pearly gates.

Peter says to the man, ‘You need 100 points to make it into Heaven. Tell me all of the good things you’ve done and I’ll give you a certain number of points for each item, When you reach 100 points, you get in.’

‘Okay,’ the man says, ‘I was married to the same person for 50 years and never cheated, even in my heart.’

‘That’s wonderful,’ says Peter, ‘that’s worth three points!’

‘Three points?’ the man exclaims. ‘Well, I attended church all of my life and supported its ministry with my tithe and service.’

‘Terrific!’ says Peter, ‘that’s worth 1 point.’

‘One point? OK, well I started a soup kitchen in my city and worked in a shelter for the homeless.’

‘Fantastic, that’s good for two more points,’ Peter says.

‘TWO POINTS!’ the man cries. ‘At this rate, the only way I’ll get into Heaven is by the Grace of God!’

‘Come on in!’

Hopefully this sermon will get you thinking – in that I hope to pose more questions than perhaps answers. But what I do want to do is to challenge you this morning to think about how you can better serve God through his son Jesus Christ and challenge you to think about how you might better serve God through service in our church here in Herne Hill

However firstly to fully understand service in the Church it is essential to understand the nature of the Kingdom of Heaven

Why?  Well the Kingdom of heaven is different from Kingdoms the world. CS Lewis calls the Kingdom of heaven ‘topsy turvy’ and what he means is the Kingdom of heaven turns all the values of the world on its head. And then he adds – and the values of the Kingdom of heaven are usually in opposition to the values of the world.

So the world screams out – serve me serve me!  – Jesus instead says: No it is better to serve than be served.  

And the ways of the world is to be served – it seems to be wired that way – read the papers and you see the one-up-man-ship and fighting egos – everyone wants to rule the world – who doesn’t to be  top dog in their work, homes or families  – we are about to enter what people reckon will be one of the most unpleasant and bitter election campaigns in recent history – where it’s all become about being served rather than service

The bible says that people will kill and hate one another to get what they want. Our desires to self serve tears families and organisations apart. Relationships fail and we end up at war with each other. Self-service leads to self destruction. 

The maxim of the world appears to be serve self and those that love us – but the maxim of the Kingdom of heaven – is Love the Lord your God with all your heart and your neighbour as yourself – Jesus says: there is no other commands greater than these,

So then we need to ask our first question: How do we serve God?

Foster says in this Lent book we are reading that there is – good Christian service and bad Christian service – good Christian service is when we serve without seeking reward or recognition – good service should be done discreetly -  like  the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing! Which is a bit like my Piano Playing! Good service is the fruit of faith and Christian love

Foster suggests bad Christian service is hierarchical which leads to inequality. Inequality enslaves others and bonds us to pride and conceit. Be watchful in our churches Foster says –and serve from the bottom up. If you are in leadership – or in a position of power – understand that it is a temporary commission and calling from God to serve and has little to do with anything you have done. Jesus’ response to James and John is that the places you seek have been assigned to others and not you – so if you’re seeking high places stop now and ask God in prayer what he wants from you and if you’re blocking the service of others then stop that as well.

Foster also says serve cheerfully – do so with a glad heart and do not envy the service of others. And Foster says do not become beholden to one another in service – you are familiar with the expression – I owe you so much. Your generosity weighs heavily on me – in obligation to you and that is I am in your debt.  When we serve God we release ourselves from the debts of others – In Christ we are indebted to him and we serve him alone.

So who is fit to serve in this new Kingdom?

Anyone is fit and able to serve – if you feel rubbish about yourself and believe yourself unfit for service of the King then you are probably in the right place to serve God?! The least are the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven, you see. Less is always more in the Kingdom.

And if you believe yourself to be indispensable to service then you are a risk to shipping. No single person in the church is greater than the sum of Church all together and the least in any church is often the one where God can work through most effectively.   If you think that you are indispensable – then it’s probably time to repent and stand down from what you are doing and train others for the job.

And Foster summarises – that service is a way of life – it’s not ‘just’ deed – it’s the living out service to others day by day 

We have to yield and be yielded to in our service – in my experience it is as hard to have your feet washed as it is to do the washing. And it is in the little everyday details that God notices our service. The elderly person straitening the kneeler cushions after church– or the person who makes sure that the toilet is clean after using it or the person who picks up the rubbish that has blown into the Church garden etc.

And it is service with a smile – sacrificial service with a glad heart and service in secret is never wasted because God sees what the world ignores and sees the true motives in everything we do think and say. Jesus say do not be like the hypocrites who stand on street corners letting everyone know their sacrifice. Go to your room and do your business in quite because God sees into your heart and will bless you.

Which brings me onto why do we serve!

When we have genuine faith – then we have no choice but to serve – service is the fruit of Christian living. It’s what we become and what we automatically do! Service is part of the process of Christian transformation from living for self to living for God ad others

And God cannot make us serve either– if He did we would be robots – we would be like that Japanese Honda Robot that serves tea in Disney world – we would be a program running until its reprogrammed or turned off – that is not service – that is functioning – it’s control and automatic. God desires our ideas, our creativity; he wants us to collaborate with him and others out of free will

And our team has a captain called Jesus. And Jesus is the best boss – he says my Yoke is easy and my burden is light – he is the boss – if someone says – I am the boss in Jesus’ absence – tell them to politely sling their hook – test the authorities – pray about it – be alert and measure their intent And as we pray for help to better serve us and the Holy Spirit is sent to guide us.

When you put your hand to the proverbial plough as the bible says – the Holy Spirit is there behind us providing the push and power.  

So how do we serve?

Well, all activity done in the name of Christ is service in and to Him. If you need some structure to help focus service here in Herne Hill then I have a booklet of things that we need to do.  This church like all others – it runs on goodwill and it needs people to do things. There is twenty-eighty club of course – 20% of people who do 80% of the volunteering and thanks to you all for that – but it is a matter of balance, sharing and teamwork and there are things that need to be done if we are to have a church at all. My challenge to you is to get involved – as volunteers we need people to help – chair stacking, flowers, sound desks, overhead,  music groups, prayer rota, playground, coffee rota – gardens, PCC, children’s church, prison visits, food ministry playground, youth club, prayer ministry and so on. – The problem is – that we have quite a few rotas of one person and people need some help! You could also Join a weekly prayer group, the challenge is  give generously at all times because God will bless you and you will feel the warmth of His pleasure – which is the greatest feeling ever.

So to end I leave you with that challenge and a reminder to serve generously with a glad heart because the rewards are fantastic – deeds do not get us into heaven alone but a gracious generous heart is the one that responds to Grace and it is by grace we enter – I leave those words of Jesus - Good and faithful servant you have done well – you have been faithful in small things come now and be trusted with many great things.

Amen

Sermon 8th March 2015

Today, our Honorary Assistant Minister, Gill Tayleur, preaches. The reading is from James 4: 1-10

MEDITATION, CELEBRATION OF DISCIPLINE

We’ve just heard in that reading from James: “Come near to God and he will come near to you.”

People often remark how much they like the invitation to Communion Cameron introduced into the parish, and written by William Barclay: “Come to this table not because you are strong but because you are weak. Come because you love the Lord a little and want to love him more. Come because he loves you and gave himself for you”, and so on. It’s an appealing invitation - to come to God, to get closer to him. Receiving Holy Communion or a blessing may be one way we come to God - but what about the rest of the time?!

As we’ve heard, today is the third Sunday in Lent and this year’s Lent book is Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster. Quite a lot of people are reading it individually, and all of us are seeing what we can learn from it in this series of sermons during Lent.

Simon started us off on Ash Wednesday, challenging us to see these spiritual disciplines as a matter of celebration! The way the discipline of practice and training for a race, - that later leads to success - is a cause for celebration.

And then last Sunday Cameron introduced the idea of discipline putting us in the place of receiving God’s grace. Cameron explained (as Richard Foster says in his book), that we can’t really change ourselves as we’d like, can’t make ourselves grow in faith, or goodness, just by trying really really hard. Like plants, that we want to grow. We have to put the seeds in the right soil, at the right time; and we have to water them – but we can’t make them grow. Only the soil & sun can do that; our part is to give it every chance to happen. And that’s exactly what the spiritual disciplines can, and will, do. They’ll put us into a place in which God can enable us to grow.

So – what are these spiritual disciplines? Celebration of Discipline has 12 of them, grouped into 4 inward disciplines, 4 outward disciplines and 4 corporate disciplines. This morning we’re looking at one of the inward disciplines, meditation. The other 3 are prayer, fasting and study.

So, meditation, or meditative prayer. Being still, and being quiet are pretty big challenges in our culture today. Hurry, noise, busyness, crowds – that’s what 2015 London life is like, and often what our individual lives are like. We’re rushed, pressured, life crammed full, living on the go – and perhaps on the surface. We may feel stretched very thinly, in terms of our time, our attention, even our relationships, as we squeeze so much into our lives. Richard Foster says if we hope to move beyond the superficialities of our culture, including our religious culture, we must be willing to go down into the re-creating silences, into the inner world of meditative prayer.

I wonder if this idea of meditation, or meditative prayer, appeals to you? I must admit that although the idea sounds good, to me the reality feels like a huge and uncomfortable challenge.  I’ve had only little forays into meditative prayer, myself. But that’s the point of a discipline, isn’t it? That even if it’s something not comfortable or easy to start with, that we choose to do it, because we believe it will produce something good. Like the discipline of training for a race. Or of eating healthier for our cholesterol level. But what is promised to those who come near to God is so much better than that! Come near to God and he will come near to you.” You and I can come near to the living God and He to us! To be with Him. To encounter Him. To speak with Him. To hear from Him.

So – whether you’re already experienced in meditative prayer, or interested in the idea, or frankly a bit reluctant, let’s find out a bit more about Christian meditation today. We start by looking at the Bible – which uses 2 different Hebrew words for it, and they’re used 58 times in total. These words have various meanings, including: listening to God’s word, reflecting on God’s works, remembering God’s deeds, ruminating on God’s law, and more. In each case there is an emphasis on changed behaviour as a result of an encounter with the living God in meditation.

Many people and many different sorts of people in the Bible are described as meditating, right through from Old Testament characters like Isaac, Eli, David and Jeremiah, to the New Testament, including Jesus himself. He made a habit of withdrawing to a quiet place by himself, to be with God.

Richard Foster says, “Christian meditation, very simply, is the ability to hear God’s voice and obey his word. It’s that simple. I wish I could make it more complicated for those who like things difficult. It involves no hidden mysteries, no secret mantras, no mental gymnastics, no esoteric flights into cosmic consciousness.” It is simply God speaking to a person, who listens quietly and then obeys.

The Bible is full of people hearing from God, or Jesus. Hearing His teaching, His direction, His guidance. “The wonderful news is that Jesus has not stopped acting and speaking. He is resurrected and is still at work in our world. He is not idle, nor has he developed laryngitis. He is alive and among us, as our Priest to forgive us, our Prophet to teach us, our King to rule us, our Shepherd to guide us.” Christians through the centuries have witnessed to the truth of this ongoing reality of hearing God’s voice. Probably not an audible voice, but a prompting, a nudge, a sense an insight.

Yes of course we might mis-hear, and have to check that what we think might be from God fits with what else we know of Him especially from the Bible, but we’ll get better at that with practice – after all, this is a spiritual discipline.

So what stops you (& I) from practising meditative prayer and hearing from God? There are several understandable misconceptions about it.

First is, that it’s the same or very similar to the concept of meditation found in Eastern religions or new age movements. Actually they are poles apart – because in Christian meditation, we’re not emptying our minds or trying to be more detached from the world. It’s just the opposite, that in Christian meditation one is focusing on God and His word, with a view to hearing from Him how to live in the world. Often meditation will bring insights that are deeply practical and almost mundane. An idea will come on how to relate to your partner, or how to deal with a sensitive work problem. God wants to speak with us about how to go about our everyday lives.

Another misconception is that meditation, or listening to God, is difficult or complicated. Maybe it’s best left to the clergy or church leaders, to grapple with it. Not at all! Hearing God’s voice is for all Christians, and doesn’t need any special techniques to teach us how to go about it.

And one more common misconception about meditation is to see it as a religious form of psychological manipulation. A way of lowering one’s blood pressure or relieving tension. But rather than seeing it that way, if we believe in a personal creator God who loves us more than we can imagine, we’ll see meditation as a communication with the God who delights in our relationship with Him. Maybe that’s why meditation is so challenging or even threatening to us (and why we’re so reluctant to do it). It boldly calls us to enter into the presence of the living God for ourselves. It tells us that God is speaking in the continuous present and wants to address US. “Come near to God and he will come near to you.”So, does this appeal? Would you like to hear from the living God today?! We can! We do!

HOW??

Richard Foster has suggestions for some ways to start, but first let’s say what is perhaps obvious, that we need to set aside some undisturbed time for this – start with say 5 or 10 minutes? – with the phone on silent. In a reasonably comfortable position, we get still, consciously relaxing our muscles and breathing fully and slowly.

So, what are the ideas for what we meditate on?! One is with a passage from the Bible. A short passage, maybe only a phrase or verse, not to be studied on this occasion, but rather to be dwelt upon, pondered upon, allowing it to sink in, to take root in us. Suppose we meditate on Jesus’ wonderful statement, “My peace I give to you.” (John 14v27)

Rather than trying to study or analyse these words, we’re seeking to experience the reality of which they speak. We mull over the truth that Jesus is now filling us with his peace. We open the heart, the mind, and the spirit to His inflowing peace. We may sense that our fear and anxiety is stilled by His peace. Rather than dissecting Jesus’ words, we are entering into them, being gathered and enveloped into His peace. We don’t have to try and make ourselves more at peace, or think laboriously for ways to act peacefully; we just sit with his promise of peace and drink it in.

Another way of meditating on the Bible is to imagine oneself in the situation of a passage, maybe from a gospel, about Jesus. Imagine feeling the heat of the day or cool of the night, the gravel on the dusty road, the smell of the market place, the wind across the hills. Imagine the noise – quiet footsteps, or a crowd, or shouting or sobbing maybe. Try to imagine the people; a crowd or just a few? What do they look like? Are they upset or peaceful, angry, impatient, expectant? Are they paying attention to Jesus, or wishing he would go away? And where do you imagine yourself to be in the situation? What do you feel? Are your feet sore from walking a long way? Are you hungry, thirsty? Are you in pain or need of healing? And lastly, what conversation do you hear? Does Jesus turn and speak directly to you? What does he say? What do you say to Him?

Imagining ourselves like that right in a Bible passage, and how we’d respond to being there, can bring insight into God’s word to us for today.

Another form of meditation is what the contemplatives of the Middle Ages called re-collection, and what the Quakers have called Centring Down. One example in doing this is a simple exercise called Palms down, Palms up.

Begin by placing your palms down as a symbolic indication of your desire to turn over any concerns you may have, to God. Inwardly you might pray, Lord I give to you my anger toward Robert. I release my fear about my hospital appointment. I surrender my anxiety about not having enough money to pay the bills this month. I release my frustration over trying to find a babysitter for tonight. Whatever your concerns, just say “palms down.” You may even feel a sense of release in your hands. After several moments of surrender, turn your palms up as a symbol of your desire to receive from God. Perhaps pray silently, Lord I would like to receive your love for Robert, your peace about the hospital, your patience, your joy, each time saying Palms Up. Then spend the remaining time in silence. Do not ask for anything, just allow God to be with you and listen out for any impressions or directions that might come.

There are other sorts of meditations, and much more that could be said about it. But I’d like to finish by getting us to have a taster of it right now. We’re going to imagine being with Jesus and his disciples as he calms a storm, from Luke 8. Please try to enter into this – just for a few minutes.

So get comfortable, be still and aware of breathing in and out. Maybe close your eyes if you want to. Imagine you are with Jesus’ disciples standing near the Sea of Galilee. You can hear the lapping of the water. Feel the moisture in the air and the blowing of a gentle breeze.

...

You hear Jesus call out, “Let’s cross to the other side of the lake.” Jesus is already in the boat, so you and the disciples quickly get in.

...

Some of the disciples begin to row, and the boat slowly moves away from the shore. Jesus takes a place in the back of the boat, grabs a cushion for his head, and lies down.

...

As you and the others go across the lake, you begin to feel the force of the wind picking up and more cold spray in your face. You see the waves are starting to get higher and stronger. And you feel the boat go up and down and side to side rather more than is comfortable.

...

The waves continue to grow, and they start crashing over the edges and into the boat! Water is coming in, a little to start with, but more and more, loads of it, a really scary amount!

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You look at the faces of the disciples: Simon, Andrew, James, and John, fisherman who grew up on the lake. You see fear in their eyes and hear panic in their voices. “Start getting some of this water out of the boat!” they shout. Your mind is racing, fear is rising as each wave crashes into the boat, bringing with it more water.

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You suddenly remember Jesus - powerful, caring, concerned, and here. You turn to look at him, hoping to draw strength and courage from him. But he’s asleep! Jesus is sleeping while you and the disciples are facing death.

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You might feel angry - doesn’t Jesus care? Your fear turns to panic and you rush over to Jesus, frantically shaking him and shouting, “Don’t you care that we’re about to drown?” Jesus wakes up. “Quiet down,” he says. The wind and waves stop.

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He then looks at you and the disciples saying, “Why are you so afraid? Where is your faith?”

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What thoughts and fears would you like to bring to Jesus, from the storms of your own life? Maybe a setback, a worry, a fear, a disappointment, a pain.

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What do you want to say to him about it?

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And how does Jesus respond? What does he say to you?

That’s an example of an imaginative prayer meditation. If you want to talk or pray with someone after about any of this, do come speak to me [or find someone on the prayer team with a red badge over there] after the service.

“Come near to God and he will come near to you.” What an exciting invitation! Let’s accept it! And now let’s pray together [as we sit]...