Sermon at St Mary’s Church Hadlow –Cooperation – 26th September 2021
James 5 vv 13 – E Prayer of faith
Mark 9 vv 38 – E Those not against us are for us. Causing to sin
- Introduction. “I tell you mate if you are not going to join our gang, you’ll be one of the enemy. You’ll need to watch out.” This is the sort of conversation you might expect amongst the young men involved in some of our urban gangs. But it is not far removed from the disciples’ response to an exorcist casting out demons in Jesus’ name, as the Apostle John reported it in today’s gospel reading, when he says, “Teacher, we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.” This leads on to Jesus’ teaching about co-operation with other disciples. In our Epistle, James teaches us about co-operation with God. Our co-operation with God and our co-operation with people and for that matter the whole of creation are linked.
- Co-operation with God. Firstly, co-operation with God. James has several things to say about prayer. The foundation of prayer is our relationship with God. As Paul said two or three weeks ago, intercessory prayer is not trying to twist the arm of a loving God, but rather aligning ourselves with God’s will. As Jesus taught us in the Lord’s Prayer, “Thy will be done”. I suggest that this is one of the reasons why James says that the sick person should call for the elders to pray for him. Two people can be better than one, in some circumstances, in discerning the will of God. James also speaks of singing songs of praise. The whole of our service this morning is in principle aligning ourselves with God. Our Sunday worship together, should help us to pray and live more effectively during the week.
- Co-operation with Creation. Secondly, co-operation with creation. James gives us the example of a man of faith who knew how to pray in line with God’s will. He gives us quite an extreme example of Elijah praying for a drought, which lasted for 3½ years and then praying for rain for the crops to grow again. His prayers were answered. Can we pray for appropriate weather? I recall an occasion when I was at theological college in Oxford and attached to three country parishes in my first year of training. One Sunday afternoon before I conducted evensong in one of the parishes, the Vicar rang and asked me to include a prayer for the farms, as we had experienced a very wet April, with rain nearly every day and the farmers were anxious about their spring crops becoming waterlogged. As a farmer’s son I sympathised with their predicament. I duly included a prayer for a period of dry weather. I recall coming out of Church and it was gently drizzling and I thought, “Oh dear, is our prayer going to result in fine weather or not!” From the next day, there was no rain for 6 weeks and the waterlogged ground was able to recover. More recently Julia and I were due to attend a service of thanksgiving at Trottiscliffe, one of my previous parishes, for a thanksgiving service of a well-known member of the Church and farming community. Trottiscliffe Church has pews to seat 65 people, so it was planned to relay the service to the churchyard. The forecast was for an overcast day with showers. I thought it right when Julia and I had our breakfast prayer to pray for a dry period for the service. We were sitting outside in the churchyard ready for the service to start at 1.30 p. m. and it was very gently raining until exactly 1.30 p. m. when the rain completely stopped, until about 6 p.m. We thanked God for the dry periods. Addition – we prayed for a fine period for the post service coffee at Follyfoot on 3rd October. There is a danger though that we regard rain as ‘bad weather’ and sunny, dry, weather as ‘good weather’. We need a combination of rain and dry weather, sunshine and clouds, calm and wind. All are good, all are part of God’s creation, in which he continues with an active role, not as a clockmaker, who has built the clock of the universe and set it running in a rigid regular way. I am sure we all have examples both of prayer answered in the way we had hoped and prayer answered in other ways. We don’t always by any means discern God’s will accurately. Let us though continue to try to align ourselves with the will of God, saying, ‘Your will be done’.
- Co-operation with people. We have thought about co-operation with God and co-operation with creation. Now let’s think about co-operation with people. This is where Jesus’ views and that of the 12 differed radically. John reported to Jesus that they had seen a man driving out demons in Jesus’ name and they had told the man to stop because the man was not one of them. Jesus’ response was “Do not stop him”. Despite this, if one looks at the history of the Church we see huge conflict between different sections of the Church, sometimes because the Church was too politically involved and identified with one political strand. One thinks of Bishops Ridley and Latimer, protestant bishops of the Anglican Church, being burnt at the stake in the reign of the Catholic monarch, Queen Mary. John Bunyan, the free church preacher and writer was imprisoned for many years in Bedford town jail. Much of the emigration to America in the 17th and 18th Century arose from the Anglican Church in this country seeking to enforce its rigid worship on everyone and similar action on the European continent. Thank God for the 1910 Edinburgh missionary conference which began to end conflict between denominations and ‘sheep stealing’ in the mission fields. The modern ecumenical movement has done much to reduce conflict between Christian denominations and to encourage a real desire to recognise Christians in other denominations as our brothers and sisters in Christ. I believe that it matters not too much that there is a variety of denominations. To believe in the ‘catholic’ church, catholic meaning ‘universal’, is to recognise the essential unity we have in Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit.
How far though can we go in co-operating with other religions? Whist holding firm to the essentials of the Christian faith as expressed in the creeds, we can recognise the good aspects of other religions and on a personal level work with people of a variety of faiths and beliefs. I read in the Church Times that the family of a dying, already unconscious, woman in St Thomas’ Hospital, was unable to get an Imam to come and pray with her and said, “Please would anyone pray with her.” The Archbishop of Canterbury, who was on duty there as a Chaplain, knelt by the bed and prayed for her. He said, “There was such a beautiful sense of the presence of God, of the love of God, it was such a profound moment.” In my role as a Regional Chaplain of the London and South East Region of the Air Training Corps, I agreed to take on a new commitment as the Corps’ multifaith coordinator. As such I was responsible for the appointment of a Hindu Chaplain as an adviser in our Region and as a Chaplain to Middlesex Wing, particularly to minister to the many Hindu cadets within the squadrons of that Wing. At a Wing parade I would say a couple of prayers and invite him to say a Hindu prayer. However, when it came to our annual service for London and South East region, held in the RAF Church, St. Clement Danes Church in London, that service was entirely Christian in a Christian Church.
As a lightning protection consultant, I work with people all over the world and generally do not know what their religion or lack of it is. I am very happy to work with people who have a concern for practical application of the truth, as expressed in scientific principles. However, when one of our members died, I was happy to accept the invitation of our Italian Chairman, a Roman Catholic, to say a Christian prayer of remembrance of the member who had died.
What limits should we place in the ordinary things of everyday life? Paul in his second letter to the Church at Corinth says that Christians should not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. This has been interpreted in the context of marriage and even, within a strand of the Brethren, of business partnership. The context of Paul’s injunction is however primarily about the general social relationships in a city of much idolatry and sexual immorality. The principle seems to me that one should avoid relationships which may undermine one’s faith and the purpose of one’s activities. Generally, there is not the same stark contrast in modern society, albeit there may be in some places. In marriage it is important to have a common philosophy with a good understanding between husband and wife about acquisition and use of money, of the desire or not to have children, a good understanding about roles. Sometimes cultural differences can create tensions. For both parties to have a strong Christian faith can be a great basis for marriage. I have though known good marriages where this is not so. In W London, a parish clergyman, who was one of our ATC chaplains, was married to a Hindu wife. It probably helped him in his ministry in a strongly Hindu parish. Thinking of other areas of life, one can be keen on action to minimise climate change, but not wish to associate with some forms of demonstration to bring about needful change.
- Conclusion. In conclusion, may our lives be so rooted in Christ that we can be guided in prayer and discern how we can best reach out to and co-operate with other people of other denominations, other faiths and other races and cultures, according to God’s will.
Word count: 1697 words Christopher Miles
Rev Paul White 