Can any of you by worrying add a single hour to
your span of life? Jesus says in the Rogation Sunday Gospel from
the Sermon on the Mount.
He
goes on to commend the contemplation of nature as reminder of God’s reality and
presence. Consider the lilies of the
field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even
Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. If God so
clothes the grass of the field… will he not much more clothe you - you of
little faith?
Religion
including Christianity is an awakening to the presence of God supremely
manifested in the world around us, which is a sacrament, an outward sign of his
invisible presence. The revelation of God in Christ enables another adjective
here, we wake up as Christians to God’s invisible loving presence through knowing for sure our creator loves us and
gave himself for us in Jesus Christ.
Experiencing
the presence of God in nature or natural contemplation is the bottom line of
faith which is conviction of things
unseen. The beauty of nature at this season in the northern hemisphere
helps us be more aware of this and it is possibly no coincidence that the week
before Ascension in the month of May is kept as what we call Rogationtide which
means ‘asking-tide’ from the
Latin rogare, ‘to ask’.
We think this Christian observance of Rogation
was taken over from Graeco-Roman religion, where an annual procession invoked divine
favour to protect crops against mildew. The tradition grew of using
processional litanies, often around the parish boundaries, for the blessing of
the land. These processions concluded with the eucharist and that is what we’ll
be doing later this morning, sprinkling the fields.
The priest poet George Herbert interpreted the
procession as a means of asking for God’s blessing on the land, of preserving
boundaries, of encouraging fellowship between neighbours with the reconciling
of differences, and of charitable giving to the poor. The tradition of ‘beating
the bounds’ has been preserved in some places and, as this morning, use of the
Litany within worship with prayers for the countryside supplemented by those
for the world of work.
In praying for the countryside we are putting faith in God’s
providential care for it and for us. Can
any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? Consider the lilies of the field, how they
grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his
glory was not clothed like one of these. If God so clothes the grass of
the field… will he not much more clothe you - you of little faith?
Our
Lord’s teaching on how faith seeing God in creation counters the human weakness
of anxiety is more fully expressed in Paul’s letter to the Philippians 4:6-7: Do not worry about anything, but in
everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be
made known to God. And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding,will
guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
In today’s litany we have put faith above fear
as we have let our requests be made known
to God entrusting all that is to
his good providence. At St Giles this year we have an invitation from our PCC
to continue in this mode from Thursday with Premier Christian Radio listeners
and Chichester Diocese through our Prayer Novena, nine days of prayer between
Ascension and Pentecost 14th to 23rd May inviting God’s Holy Spirit to renew
and work among our relationships and wider community. There are day by day
biddings assigned for the elderly, men, the marginalised, young people, women,
those suffering from mental health issues, singles, leaders and children and
there’s a Premier Radio daily bible study and guide available.
May our prayer and contemplation of the presence
of God in nature build our faith and cause the Holy Spirit to awaken others to
the truth and beauty of the Almighty God revealed in Jesus Christ.
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