Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live Isaiah 55:3
These words of Isaiah imply there is no word of God without power. As we incline our ears to listen to God, and hear in the depth of our being what he has to say to us, we gain life. By the Holy Spirit words of God from scripture or contemplation energise our lives. In the words of today’s Collect they help direct, sanctify and govern our hearts and bodies in God’s ways. The Sunday sermon is part of that direction and energising, as is our day by day study of scripture.
I’m lifting the bar on the sermon. It’s 1500 words will be 5% of the 30,000 words an average person hears during the course of a 24-hour period. We speak 7,000 words so my sermon will be a quarter of what I say today. Most significantly we retain just a quarter of what we hear. I’m hoping that this quarter of my speech will be part of the memorable quarter of what you hear today. More than that, my prayer is that something of the precious, transformative word of God reaches through what we have just read from the Bible and what I am now to share.
This morning’s Old Testament and Gospel readings are on the same theme of how God provides for us. Isaiah writes at the start of Chapter 55: The Lord says this: Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! In the Gospel from Matthew 14 we read the Lord had compassion for the crowd and cured their sick and went on to feed them supernaturally, sensing their hunger. All ate and were filled and those who ate were about five thousand.
The two passages point to the heavenly banquet and to the eucharist but they are also reminders of how God is a provider.
Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live.
I am a regular visitor to Wivelsfield and not just when Fr Christopher is on holiday. Living up in Haywards Heath on the High Weald I regularly walk or cycle down Slugwash Lane to the Low Weald enjoying the view of the Downs. Indeed during lockdown I’ve been putting together a new book ‘Fifty Walks from Haywards Heath’ in which Wivelsfield features strongly. As I listen to God, Slugwash Lane can be as powerful in delivering his word as my daily pursuit of scripture. These last months we have been hindered in attending to God in worship but not in prayer, bible reading, self-examination and service to others. The opportunity to do more walking has brought some of us into fresh conversation with God. Reading this month’s Wivelsfield News has schooled me in how some of us have been getting more involved in service through the Coronavirus Buddies scheme. At our eucharists and Zoom services we have been finding encouragement from stories of God’s provision, in answer to prayer, sometimes through fellow church members. Several of you listening to me are carers in households including frail or elderly folk. The selflessness that serves unrelenting physical and emotional demands can be inspirational. You think – how on earth do they cope? Talking to church members more afflicted than I by COVID-19 I recognise how much service to others flows from watching out for people’s needs and taking God at his word to help them be supplied.
In today’s Gospel Jesus was watchful. We heard how he had compassion for the hungry and needy around him. He felt their hunger, being with them in the desert, and he looked to his Father to provide through enlisting his disciples in service. I hope you and I feel so enlisted in this crisis, watchful with Our Lord’s watchfulness and trustful of his promises. He had compassion on them and cured their sick. Is that a word of God with power for us at St Peter & St John’s?
Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live.
One of Our Lord’s actions in this passage is repeated by priests at the eucharist. Taking the…loaves…he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves. In the eucharist we make a big ask – the priest looks up to heaven for a miracle, for God’s Spirit to sanctify bread and wine using Christ’s own words. The eucharist shows us the power in such words and encourages us to incline our ears to more of them in the Gospel. Sometimes though it’s easier to believe the miracle of God coming among us through the altar than his coming down to help a chronic state of disease. Our faith shows most, I think, when we counter the negativity of a poor health condition with an arrow prayer to heaven. God provides - but we don’t ask him to. That’s why St James in his letter chapter 4 verse 2 says in so ‘in your face’ manner: you do not have because you do not ask (James 4:2).
For a plethora of reasons we don’t ask God to provide for us. There’s the false pride that refuses to ask for my own needs. There’s unbelief in which we sink to the default of Wivelsfield woman or man who, unlike us, don’t believe God took our flesh. Unless you believe God took flesh in Jesus you’re unlikely to believe he can take diseased bodies and animate them. One of the great encouragements in recent years in this Church has been the renewal of the ministry of healing through which there are people well today who wouldn’t be - and people alive today who wouldn’t be - if they hadn’t asked God.
The Collect for Trinity 8 asks the Lord to direct, sanctify and govern both our hearts and bodies in the ways of [his] laws and the works of [his] commandments; that through [his] most mighty protection, both here and ever, we may be preserved in body and soul. We prayed that prayer with the universal church but are we ready to let it echo down through the week ahead, to percolate our circumstances so that we act always mindful of God’s gift of healing and his most mighty protection?
God is our provider and protector. It may be you are sensing frustration at lockdown, or something new ahead, a change of life or home or job. Are you listening to God to discover the best provision and avoid the fruits of careless action? Better to get things right than get them now – better, above all, to get the good things God has for those who love him?
I’ve been touching on a number of material needs but I end with a reminder concerning spiritual needs. Is your prayer dry? Are the scriptures closed to you? Is the eucharist empty ritual? Ask for the Holy Spirit to grant you the grace of discernment as you listen to God.
Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live.
Our Blessed Lord started his great Sermon on the Mount which we’ve been reading through this summer of the Year of Matthew with these words: Blessed are those who know their need of God. Do you know your need of God? Do you want to know your need of God? Do you want to want to know your need of God?
The Lord says this morning through Isaiah: Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; come and drink of the Holy Spirit. It may be you need prayer from another to attain this and phone ministry is available as ever after this service. The Lord says this morning through Matthew: all ate and were filled. Put faith in God’s provision this morning - that the word [and the bread] you receive are his gift to you, bringing healing, joy and peace deep within you, so others who see you later today will be led to wonder where you’ve been this morning! Let’s reflect for a minute or so on the word of God.
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