Reading: Matthew 18:15-20
“If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over.
But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’
If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.
“Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
“Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.
For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”
Sermon: What Does It Mean To Be Part Of The Church?
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
Whilst I was sorting through some books yesterday, I came upon this Celtic prayer, which I thought was very apt as we come to unfold today’s scripture, so let’s begin by praying…….
Jesus said where two or three are gathered in my name there I am among them,
God be in our eyes, and in our looking; God be in our mouth, and in our speaking;
God be in our heart, and in our thinking; God be at our end, and at our departing
God be with us morning, noon, evening, and through the night
God be with us, God be always with us, and with our absent brothers and sisters.
Amen.
In our Gospel reading we hear of Christ’s promise to us that when we agree with others in prayer that he is the unseen party to our requests.
The Greek word “agree”, is “sumphoneo”, from which is derived the English word, “symphony.” I don’t know if any of you have ever sat and listened to a live orchestra play or like me you only watch when it is the last night of the proms on BBC 1 but one of the things that it very clear from the very beginning is the power that is found in so many different musicians, and their instruments coming together as one, is that they have the ability to bring the composer’s work to life.
Likewise, Christ is teaching us how to work together and harmonise with other Christians in our prayer lives. Through time and patience, we come to find that this gives our prayers great power, and together we begin to achieve the work of our heavenly composer.
Now some may be thinking about Christ’s instruction to us earlier in Matthew’s gospel Chapter 6 v 6 when he said, ‘But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you’, and it’s right that we should continue to have our own private daily prayer devotional times.
However, as I thought about some of Christ’s other teachings on prayer, then it is clear that he meant for prayer to be not just an individual act, but that it should also be a corporate one.
A little earlier in Matthew’s Gospel Chapter 6 v 9 Jesus said ‘Pray then in this way: Our Father in heaven’.
Notice that Jesus didn’t say, My Father, but Our. This small but distinct way of wording the prayer shows us clearly that there is a communal element to prayers, which goes alongside our times of personal devotion.
He wants us, His people, to be unified in our prayers, because this is one of the core places where the bonds that we share can grow and be strengthen.
Think about how many times we pray together in this service, I could ask you how many times we do, but I won’t instead I will leave you to work out how many times we have prayed together and how many times you have had your own personal prayers and when?
For me and those of you who have been in the vestry with me pre service then my first prayer occurs before I come to lead you in worship when I offer a prayer for you all.
There is a humbling aspect to asking others to pray with us, but there is also a unifying aspect. God wants us all to be a part of His family, and this is one of the ways that we become the community that God intended for us to be and also enjoy the benefits of.
Praying with others fine tunes our prayers, just like rehearsing together perfects the work of the musicians, but just as with the orchestra, it takes time and patience and what we must avoid is the expectation that prayer is always going to be answered immediately.
Of course there will be times when we see God’s answer to us very quickly, but we also need to remember that there will be times when we have to wait. In the prophet Micah he gives us some good advice ‘But as for me, I will look to the Lord, I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me.’
Paul in his letter to the Romans echoes the same sentiment ‘But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.’
So does that mean that if we pray for something then we will always receive it? Sadly, the answer to that is no. We need to be careful and mindful of what we ask for in prayer.
We need to ensure that our motives are right and just. In James Ch 4 v 3 gives us this warning ‘When you ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives that may spend what you get on your pleasures.’
Essentially James is telling us that if we are asking for a worldly thing, such as the wealth, which may well include the winning lottery numbers, or material possession, then it’s safe to say that that request will definitely go unanswered!
But what about those requests that we make week after week, those of noble and just cause, which appear to us to fall on deaf ears? It’s a fair question, and one that I wouldn’t want to even attempt to answer myself, because I can’t or wouldn’t even attempt to second guess the mind of God.
However, I believe that the gospel writers show us a glimpse of an answer to this most difficult of questions… …hope.
John Ch 15 v 7 says ‘If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given to you.’ Likewise Matthew Ch 7 v 7 says ‘’Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.’
These two passages speak of patience and endurance in prayer, if we keep our eyes fixed heavenward, and are faithful in our prayers then when the time is right God will answer us.
But patience doesn’t come easily to many if not all of us, we can lose our focus, feel dejected, or that we are simply being ignored if we can’t see immediate or at least short-term results, then as a consequence our prayer life suffers, perhaps even to the point that we no longer pray and we ultimately lose our focus.
We come to a point where we feel that we are just going through the motions, apathy is allowed to set in, we can no longer be bothered, and we lose that hope which the gospel writer’s speak of.
Prayer expects us to be hopeful, instead of hopeless, and as we move forward with our sisters and brothers, we need to ensure that any unconcern that we may have or hold onto is let go of.
Yes, we are all different, and bring with us many different things which sometimes has the danger to divide us, but they are things which is nowhere near as strong as that which has always united us.
That being, the love and faith that we all have and hold in our lives for God.
As we continue to move forward in our lives, I continue to pray that we will fully shed the old, become fully united, focused in our prayers and offering encouragement to each other as we continue to learn about the many gifts that we have been given, that will certainly be a day of great joy and celebration.
But to reach this point in our lives, it means that we have to continue to be adventurous, fully lay down the old, and look toward the future in all things, as one people under God, united in prayer, worship and service, so that we can welcome everyone we meet, and share with them our love of God, and through our devotion and prayer, be the church, the people that God wants us to be.
Amen.
Prayers
Let us pray to the Father, who has called us to follow Christ in all things.
Empower your Church to follow Christ in all things, courageous to face the hard demands of the Gospel. Keep your people from idle gossip and evil speaking, that the purity of their witness shall not be corrupted.
Lord in your mercy hear our prayer
Fill with the love of truth those who influence the minds of others. Give to journalists and broadcasters the desire to make known the good as well as the bad, and to avoid anything that can be misleading.
Lord in your mercy hear our prayer
We pray for all who are suffering from slander and false accusations. For those unjustly accused through malice or error. Give courage to those who are called to witness to their faith in peril and persecution.
Lord in your mercy hear our prayer
Guard our speaking as we meet with others. Shield us in our families and in all our relationships from hasty words and disregard of truth.
Lord in your mercy hear our prayer
We pray that the souls of the departed who loved this world too much may be pardoned in the Kingdom where true joys are to be found. May no evil report harm the memory of those who are at rest.
As those who trust in Christ, the true messiah, we pray in his name.
Merciful Father, accept these prayers for the sake of your Son, our saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
And so we seal our prayers together in the words that our Lord Jesus Christ taught his disciples the Lords prayer and so we pray…….
Our Father, who art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name, Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done; on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, For ever and ever.
Amen
Revd Kevin. Priest at St.Wilfrids and St.Thomas
