Sunday Reflections
Advent 1 27th November, 2022
Isaiah 2.1-5, Ps 122, Romans 13.9-14, Matthew 24.36-44
“Love God and do as you wish.”
This is a famous quote by Augustine of Hippo (534-430)
At first this may sound alarming. It may sound like the hypocritical religion where people claim to love God but seem incredibly selfish and narrow mined. Where God is simply another great way to get our own way, control others and prove that I am right. But ponder this quote more deeply.
Love God………. And do, as you will.
If you love God you will follow his commandments. This is what Jesus told us to in John 15. What are his commandments? - To love God with heart, mind, soul and strength, first and above all else. This is exactly what Augustine is advising.
The second commandment is to love your neighbour as yourself. In Romans 13.8 today Paul says “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continual dept of love to another, for he who loves his neighbour has fulfilled the law.” He goes on to say that the other more specific commandments are summed up in this sentence, “you shall love your neighbour as yourself.” If you love God, this is what you will want to do.
So what is love and how do we learn to love? Shott Peck in his book “The road less travelled” finally comes to the conclusion after many chapters of exploring, that Love is; wanting what is best for the beloved. What is best, not what we think is best according to our version of right, or according to our need to control and manipulate; and not what the beloved necessarily thinks they want, or demand. Love is not rescuing. Neither is it or allowing ourselves to be used or abused. Love is pure, wise, unbiased, un-controlling and truly caring.
This sort of love is not easy. Even defining it is not easy. We know what it is not, more than we know what it is. How can we learn how to love when we can’t even fully define it? Perhaps first we need to get out of our heads, and into our hearts and souls. Out of our realm and into God’s. We learn love by being loved and by loving. The most precious, grounding, health promoting, liberating and establishing thing parents can do for their children - is love them purely, strongly and wisely. But this is very hard in our society.
We live in a world run on commercialism and growing economies; A world that taps into our inner fears to motivate and manipulate us for profit; A world that tells us who to hate, rather than how to love. A world that defines love by dollars spent and hours worked. A world made up of infinite mini worlds each revolving around self and what self wants. This is not loving our neighbour. This is not giving our best for those we love and those who love us.
We do not know the hour or the day of our Lord’s return. Indeed we have seen many times where two people have been exposed to the same situation; cancer, war, earthquake, etc, and one has been taken and the other survived. We have seen situations where someone perfectly healthy and full of life with plans and demands, had died unexpectedly and suddenly in and accident. We do not know the hour or the day. And yet we are so caught up earning, grasping, working towards our goals, believing that if only…. Then we would be happy. When…… is over, I will have time to love. If only……. Then I could truly pray. I heard an apt quote by a famous sports person talking on mental health from their own experience recently. He said, “You will never outperform your anxiety.” In other words, no matter how well you do, the little voice inside your head will always want more, and pick fault. The answer does not lie in achievement, or possessions, or position, the answer to the need for peace, meaningful achievement, self worth and significance is found in Love. And the source of all love is God. We learn to love by being loved by God. We receive that love by deliberately becoming aware that we have it, and by seeking, however inadequately, to love God. We learn to love through gratitude and worship. We learn to love by noticing love, noticing God’s presence, noticing blessings. That love then flows through us in love for others. And we find that we can love others. Because our need to present well, and our need to be safe and secure, and our need to be in control - need we all have and cannot escape – these needs are met in God and God’s love. Then it really is, “no longer I that lives, but Christ that lives in me.” I no longer have to grasp for self, because my needs are met in God. I am free from the constant competing and striving and grasping for more and more, because I am loved and secure in God. I become aware that I have all I need and am grateful for it. Of course the inner needs of self will constantly linger. WE all need to eat. WE all want somewhere safe to life. We all feel venerable at times. And we are all triggered by the grasping selfishness that is present all around us. We all face threats, real or imagined, to our security and sense of wellbeing.
Some practical types would call this prayer and going to church a waste of time. Some even in our church prefer to do, rather than to contemplate, or sit in stillness with God. But perhaps, our most productive times, are actually when we simply love God and receive his love. One cannot experience the Grace of God and not be changed. How can we know where or how this love will flow? What we do know is that when we surrender to God and give the time and dedication, and truly unite with the one who is Love, then love does flows.
We do not know the time or hour. So let that love flow now. Don’t wait for heaven to get to know God. Receive from God now, and live/give in love. Pray for our cities, our governments and our earth, pray in love, for peace. Pray, not in order to control or ask God to manipulate. Pray in love. For prayer is love, and loving is a prayer. Pray for those around you: they are your ministry. Where you are is where God can work through you now, today! Love where you are. And if you can’t, ask God for help, ask God to love through you. The more you love God the more open you will be to the Holy Spirit working in and through you. The more you become one with God, the more His will becomes your will.
“Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.”Is 2.3b
Love God. And do as you will.
The Queen’s memorial service
18th September 2022.
This Sunday as we come together for our weekly gathering to worship God, we will give special thanks and tribute for Queen Elizabeth the second. She was Queen, not because she earned it, or won it, or convinced others she would be good at it, she was Queen, she believed she was Queen, because that was the ministry God gave her. Other monarchs of the past have believed this too, and they have used this belief to justify their actions. But where other monarchs will be remembered for concurring and enslaving other, for wars, for religious or racial discrimination, for buildings or gardens, for inventions or for atrocities; Queen Elizabeth is being remembered for unifying and caring.
In her 1957 Christmas broadcast she said, “I cannot lead you into battle, I do not give you laws or administer justice but I can do something else, I can give you my heart and my devotion.” She promised to serve us for her whole live, and that she did, swearing in a new prime minister two days before she died. She understood her role, her ministry and her duty, and never shirked from it. Others use wealth and fame simply for their own glory. With it they assert their worth and importance, claiming to be greater than others because of it. Her Majesty never did. She used her position to bestow importance on others. Over her lifetime she met millions of people, far too many to remember. But for each individual, for the moment she was greeting them, she gave them her full attention and treated them as a valuable, important human being, no matter their age, race, gender or religion; no matter their achievements or wealth or importance. Each she elevated by her attention, she did not belittle them in any way. She was Royal, but she was servant-hearted. And that is why so many loved her, because she loved us.
Queen Elizabeth was head of our Anglican Church worldwide for 70 years, but when she came to church for worship and prayer, she sat in the pews. She was not a priest! But she was an ordained woman. Queen Elizabeth showed us that faith lived through action, devotion and love is the highest calling, a calling worth embracing, a calling given uniquely for each of us, where we are in what we are ordained to be. Queen Elizabeth is known to have prayed, publicly and privately and to have been guided and strengthened by her faith. Her faith and church going was not just for publicity, to help win at the next election. It was real and steadfast. She never forced it upon other, she respected those of other beliefs, but she didn’t deny it either. She simply lived it.
As we remember, reflect and mourn today, may we draw from her example of faith, wisdom, love and duty and ask God to help us to live our lives in accordance to these attribute in His grace and be the Holy Spirit.
Isaiah 2.1-5, Ps 122, Romans 13.9-14, Matthew 24.36-44
“Love God and do as you wish.”
This is a famous quote by Augustine of Hippo (534-430)
At first this may sound alarming. It may sound like the hypocritical religion where people claim to love God but seem incredibly selfish and narrow mined. Where God is simply another great way to get our own way, control others and prove that I am right. But ponder this quote more deeply.
Love God………. And do, as you will.
If you love God you will follow his commandments. This is what Jesus told us to in John 15. What are his commandments? - To love God with heart, mind, soul and strength, first and above all else. This is exactly what Augustine is advising.
The second commandment is to love your neighbour as yourself. In Romans 13.8 today Paul says “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continual dept of love to another, for he who loves his neighbour has fulfilled the law.” He goes on to say that the other more specific commandments are summed up in this sentence, “you shall love your neighbour as yourself.” If you love God, this is what you will want to do.
So what is love and how do we learn to love? Shott Peck in his book “The road less travelled” finally comes to the conclusion after many chapters of exploring, that Love is; wanting what is best for the beloved. What is best, not what we think is best according to our version of right, or according to our need to control and manipulate; and not what the beloved necessarily thinks they want, or demand. Love is not rescuing. Neither is it or allowing ourselves to be used or abused. Love is pure, wise, unbiased, un-controlling and truly caring.
This sort of love is not easy. Even defining it is not easy. We know what it is not, more than we know what it is. How can we learn how to love when we can’t even fully define it? Perhaps first we need to get out of our heads, and into our hearts and souls. Out of our realm and into God’s. We learn love by being loved and by loving. The most precious, grounding, health promoting, liberating and establishing thing parents can do for their children - is love them purely, strongly and wisely. But this is very hard in our society.
We live in a world run on commercialism and growing economies; A world that taps into our inner fears to motivate and manipulate us for profit; A world that tells us who to hate, rather than how to love. A world that defines love by dollars spent and hours worked. A world made up of infinite mini worlds each revolving around self and what self wants. This is not loving our neighbour. This is not giving our best for those we love and those who love us.
We do not know the hour or the day of our Lord’s return. Indeed we have seen many times where two people have been exposed to the same situation; cancer, war, earthquake, etc, and one has been taken and the other survived. We have seen situations where someone perfectly healthy and full of life with plans and demands, had died unexpectedly and suddenly in and accident. We do not know the hour or the day. And yet we are so caught up earning, grasping, working towards our goals, believing that if only…. Then we would be happy. When…… is over, I will have time to love. If only……. Then I could truly pray. I heard an apt quote by a famous sports person talking on mental health from their own experience recently. He said, “You will never outperform your anxiety.” In other words, no matter how well you do, the little voice inside your head will always want more, and pick fault. The answer does not lie in achievement, or possessions, or position, the answer to the need for peace, meaningful achievement, self worth and significance is found in Love. And the source of all love is God. We learn to love by being loved by God. We receive that love by deliberately becoming aware that we have it, and by seeking, however inadequately, to love God. We learn to love through gratitude and worship. We learn to love by noticing love, noticing God’s presence, noticing blessings. That love then flows through us in love for others. And we find that we can love others. Because our need to present well, and our need to be safe and secure, and our need to be in control - need we all have and cannot escape – these needs are met in God and God’s love. Then it really is, “no longer I that lives, but Christ that lives in me.” I no longer have to grasp for self, because my needs are met in God. I am free from the constant competing and striving and grasping for more and more, because I am loved and secure in God. I become aware that I have all I need and am grateful for it. Of course the inner needs of self will constantly linger. WE all need to eat. WE all want somewhere safe to life. We all feel venerable at times. And we are all triggered by the grasping selfishness that is present all around us. We all face threats, real or imagined, to our security and sense of wellbeing.
Some practical types would call this prayer and going to church a waste of time. Some even in our church prefer to do, rather than to contemplate, or sit in stillness with God. But perhaps, our most productive times, are actually when we simply love God and receive his love. One cannot experience the Grace of God and not be changed. How can we know where or how this love will flow? What we do know is that when we surrender to God and give the time and dedication, and truly unite with the one who is Love, then love does flows.
We do not know the time or hour. So let that love flow now. Don’t wait for heaven to get to know God. Receive from God now, and live/give in love. Pray for our cities, our governments and our earth, pray in love, for peace. Pray, not in order to control or ask God to manipulate. Pray in love. For prayer is love, and loving is a prayer. Pray for those around you: they are your ministry. Where you are is where God can work through you now, today! Love where you are. And if you can’t, ask God for help, ask God to love through you. The more you love God the more open you will be to the Holy Spirit working in and through you. The more you become one with God, the more His will becomes your will.
“Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.”Is 2.3b
Love God. And do as you will.
The Queen’s memorial service
18th September 2022.
This Sunday as we come together for our weekly gathering to worship God, we will give special thanks and tribute for Queen Elizabeth the second. She was Queen, not because she earned it, or won it, or convinced others she would be good at it, she was Queen, she believed she was Queen, because that was the ministry God gave her. Other monarchs of the past have believed this too, and they have used this belief to justify their actions. But where other monarchs will be remembered for concurring and enslaving other, for wars, for religious or racial discrimination, for buildings or gardens, for inventions or for atrocities; Queen Elizabeth is being remembered for unifying and caring.
In her 1957 Christmas broadcast she said, “I cannot lead you into battle, I do not give you laws or administer justice but I can do something else, I can give you my heart and my devotion.” She promised to serve us for her whole live, and that she did, swearing in a new prime minister two days before she died. She understood her role, her ministry and her duty, and never shirked from it. Others use wealth and fame simply for their own glory. With it they assert their worth and importance, claiming to be greater than others because of it. Her Majesty never did. She used her position to bestow importance on others. Over her lifetime she met millions of people, far too many to remember. But for each individual, for the moment she was greeting them, she gave them her full attention and treated them as a valuable, important human being, no matter their age, race, gender or religion; no matter their achievements or wealth or importance. Each she elevated by her attention, she did not belittle them in any way. She was Royal, but she was servant-hearted. And that is why so many loved her, because she loved us.
Queen Elizabeth was head of our Anglican Church worldwide for 70 years, but when she came to church for worship and prayer, she sat in the pews. She was not a priest! But she was an ordained woman. Queen Elizabeth showed us that faith lived through action, devotion and love is the highest calling, a calling worth embracing, a calling given uniquely for each of us, where we are in what we are ordained to be. Queen Elizabeth is known to have prayed, publicly and privately and to have been guided and strengthened by her faith. Her faith and church going was not just for publicity, to help win at the next election. It was real and steadfast. She never forced it upon other, she respected those of other beliefs, but she didn’t deny it either. She simply lived it.
As we remember, reflect and mourn today, may we draw from her example of faith, wisdom, love and duty and ask God to help us to live our lives in accordance to these attribute in His grace and be the Holy Spirit.
For daily thought to inspire and encourage prayer, please visit www.encouragementforintercessors.com