Pray, always
Preacher: Revd Samantha Ferguson, Assistant Chaplain
Readings: 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5; Luke 18:1-8
In the name of the father, and of the son and of the holy spirit.
Congratulations!
We have successfully reached the mid point of this semester!
By now you will have by now navigated our three streets,
Discovered where the cheapest coffee and most reliable free wifi are,
Worked out when the yellow labels announcing reduced prices on out-of-date food appear in Marks and Spencer’s (Wednesdays after 3pm)
and managed to get your parents to stop Whatsapping you with pictures of your dog pining for you at home every five minutes!
As Paul asks in our first reading this morning to Timothy, Are you now ready as we enter Independent Learning week to proclaim the message of all you have learnt over the last 5 week,
to be persistent in your choice of reading matter, be it favourable or unfavourable, and to have utmost patience and trust the teaching you have received?
I pray so as I don’t wish upon you itchy ears as you wonder away from the truth and towards myths, so my advice is always go for primary sources and check them, then check again!
So we are entreated this week, a salient reminder this raisin Sunday to be sober, endure suffering or any dare that your academic parents force upon you and carry out the ministry of being a St Andrean student fully! Enjoy the foam fight tomorrow!
And as I creep towards it being 20 years since I graduated from being a student here, it is not so long ago that I don’t remember the joys, the pressures and the simple pleasures of being able to spend my time playing, reading, arguing and debating on this hallowed ground.
I loved being a student here, I really did and for me it came at a time in my life where I was responding to a call from God to ministry.
So my time here was challenged not only academically but also spiritually.
Simply put there was a lot of emphasis on prayer during my time as a student, and especially persistence in prayer even when I had no idea how any of it would turn out!
Spoiler alert, it worked out and so here I am 20 years on, living out my vocation before you now.
Faithfulness and perseverance are our two main words with regards to our gospel reading this morning.
Jesus begins our passage by telling his disciples a parable to remind them that they should always pray and never cease in prayer.
To follow the example of that wonderful, stubborn persistent widow who never gave up.
But for many of us this concept of never ceasing in prayer poses several problems.
Jesus himself is clearly calling us to Never, never, never ever give up.
To pray Always.
But what if no matter how hard we pray, how hard we wish for a certain set of circumstances to be different, however impossible a dream appears to be, no matter how sore our knees get, things don’t change for the better, God seems to have switched his hearing aid off, Jesus isn ‘t listening and has his face turned to the wall.
The cancer hasn’t disappeared
Our mother still dies,
We still do not have enough money to last the month and there is no food in the fridge or money to pay the gas bill,
The car fails its mot and the school has called yet again about our child’s behaviour problems.
My friends, Life is full of worry and woe.
So What is the point in praying if nothing changes, if nothing happens if everything stays the same.
What is the point in having faith in a man who is God incarnate, who does not hear our cry of despair, loss and need?
One of the greatest privileges of my ministry has been to be one of your Chaplains here.
But before this dream job of mine, I was a humble parish priest running churches up and down the north east of Scotland.
One of my great joys in my parish role was the introducing and running of prayer spaces in primary schools where we introduced the concept of prayer to children.
I worked in one of the most socially deprived areas of our country where some of those children often come to school tired, dirty, hungry and in fear of what they may find when they return home that evening.
So the idea that if you ask for something in prayer,
God hears and responds seemed incredible to them.
But those days of them putting pebbles in water with a silent wish, colouring in hearts and flower with words of thanksgiving, writing theirs sorrys in sand trays and being able to wipe it clean to start again, deeply affected those wonderful challenging children.
We opened up to them a world of asking, a world of prayer, a world of faithfulness in a world that offers very little stability and hope.
Perseverance is not a word that they have heard about and yet we used it with them
Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find…
Luke’s challenge to us today is to never give up, never cease asking and to take all we have to the one who made us in prayer. To ask and to trust all will be well.
To: Pray Always
Luke’s story describes a widow who wouldn’t give up until she got what she wanted from an uncaring – an unjust – judge. Jesus concludes the story by saying: “And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night?”
The lesson seems clear – persevere and you will be blessed. But it is never that simple and straightforward as we who have lived for any amount of time know. For us people of faith it comes down to a matter of timing.
The point is that sometimes our prayer is answered. Sometimes our prayers are answered immediately and exactly how we want.
Sometimes our prayers are answered after many many many hours of endless and ceaseless prayers. Sometime our prayers are answered and not in the way that we want but in the way that God knows we need.
This is all very confusing and challenging and difficult to comprehend.
But…
We forget that God is out of time. He sees it all, he sees what we need, want and desire, before we have even processed the thought ourselves.
And like any good parent restricting sweets before bedtime, sometimes what we want is exactly the opposite of what we need.
Timing is everything and we should never cease praying for we never know when our timing is right. God alone knows that and God alone holds our prayers close.
Never Never Never give up.
Pray Always
Our prayers may not be answered the way we wish but that is a part of being faithful. So hear what Jesus says to you today.
On the front of your Order’s of service is a very simple prayer Cairn I built before a sea swim at Vazon bay, a beach in Guernsey, the place I grew up.
There, 40 years ago that day, I nearly lost my life on that beach and in that sea and, believe me, there was lots of prayer and cries of help screamed at the universe.
So I came back to build a simple three fold prayer in Guernsey granite pebbles. To say:
Thank you – to the Olympic swimmers who happened to be training on that beach on that day and saved my life,
Thank you – to all those who had walked along side me, prayed for and with me and had made me the woman I grew into
And Thank you to the God who had brought me back to my home safe to be able to stand there and pray.
Friends, Have faith that your prayer will be heard, will be answered and in time you will understand how.
Pray Always
And so I leave you with the words from one of the readings that has stayed with me from my time as a student, ‘Credo’ a poem by Sheila Cassidy: A poem that for me encompasses the strength and power of prayer – wherever, whenever and however it is uttered:
I believe,
No pain is lost. No tear unmarked,
No cry of anguish
Dies unheard,
Lost in the hail of gunfire
Or blanked out by the padded cell.
I believe that pain
and prayer
are somehow saved,
processed,
stored,
used in the Divine Economy. CREDO Sheila Cassidy
AMEN