25 July 2010

Welcome to  St Alban’s Anglican Church  

Today's Scripture:  Jeremiah 45: 1-5     Acts 11: 27 – 12:2                 S. Matthew 20: 20–28

Today: 9.00 a.m. Matins; 9.30 a.m. Holy Eucharist; 6 p.m. Evening Prayer. 

This Week: Tues - Fri  12.30 p.m. Midday Prayers; Sat 10 a.m. Northward Prison Ministry

Next Sunday: 9.00 a.m. Matins; 9.30 a.m. Holy Eucharist; 6 p.m. EP

S. James the Apostle (Eighth Sunday after Trinity)

Grant, O merciful God, that as thine holy Apostle Saint James, leaving his father and all that he had, without delay was obedient unto the calling of thy Son Jesus Christ, and followed him; so we, forsaking all worldly and carnal affections, may be evermore ready to follow thy holy commandments; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

 

FAITH IN FOCUS: JACKPOT PRAYER?

A woman who was on a diet came into work with a huge chocolate cream cake. When her friends asked if she had stopped dieting she told them that God wanted her to have the cake. “I saw it in the bakery and prayed to God to let there be a parking spot outside, if he wanted me to have the cake. And on the 10th time round, there was the parking place!”

Prayer is a strange thing. Some people feel the need to tell God a shopping list of things that they want, as if he didn’t already know what they need! And often we ourselves don’t realise what we really need and we pray for things that we think will make life better, but which everyone else knows will be our ruin. The same happens when an alcoholic prays for a bottle of whisky.

There are those who tend to think that prayer is like a religious fruit machine, a divine one-arm-bandit. You put your request in, pull the handle and eventually you hit the jackpot. Of course, this would be to treat God like some sort of robot that did not have our welfare at heart. It’s the sort of prayer that people make to win the lottery.

So it’s hardly surprising that people talk about unanswered prayer. The very thought that God would completely ignore us when we turn to him is ridiculous. But scripture tells us that sometimes we are asking for the wrong thing or with the wrong motives and that’s why we don’t receive what we want. Prayer is always answered; it’s just that sometimes the answer is “no”, or it comes in a way we didn’t expect.

When we look at the prayer that Jesus taught us, the Our Father or the Lord’s Prayer, we notice that there is a lot of emphasis at the beginning on God’s will being done in all things, and the values of God’s kingdom permeating our thoughts and actions. Maybe if we remained open in our prayer, telling God of our needs and desires, but asking him to help us become conformed to his will, then we would start to change our approach to prayer, wanting to be part of God’s plan rather than getting him to change his plans to suit ours. Prayer would become a request to change us.

And maybe that’s why we have to wait until the second half of the Our Father before we get round to asking for things…

 

WORD OF GOD

Once Jesus was in a certain place praying, and when he had finished, one of his disciples said, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples”. (Luke 11:1)

 

PRAYER IS OUR LIFELINE WITH GOD. Not to pray means that we have a weak relationship, looking on from the sidelines rather than being at the heart of things. If we never visited, wrote to, phoned, emailed or texted our friends we would lose them…

 

GOD’S GIFTS put man’s best dreams to shame.

(Elizabeth Barrett Browning)

GOD IS NOT A COSMIC BELLBOY for whom we can press a button to get things done.

(Harry Emerson Fosdick)

 

THIS WEEK’S BIBLE READINGS 

Mon: 1 Sam 14: 24-46, Luke 23: 13-25, James 2: 1-13

Tues : 1 Sam 15: 1–23, Lk 23: 26-43, James 2: 14-end

Wed: 1 Sam 16, Luke 23: 44–56a, James 3

Thurs: 1 Sam 17: 1-30, Lk 23:56b – 24:12, Jas 4: 1-12

Fri: 1 Sam 17: 31–54, Luke 24: 13-35, Jas 4:13 – 5:6

Sat: 1 Sam 17:55 – 18:16, Lk 24:36-end, Jas 5: 7-end

NEXT SUNDAY: Eccles 1: 2, 12-14; 2: 18–23, Colossians 3: 1–11,   S. Luke 12: 13–21