My house shall be a house of prayer.
But you have made it a den of robbers.
When we came up with things that were
special about Highbury worship and prayer figured large.
Relevant – challenging
Peaceful – praying – praying church
Down to earth - Prepared to problem share
Good singing – teaching focus on word of
God
A place to learn – Christ centred
This is for us what makes Highbury
special. This is for us what is so
important about our worship. And it is
something worth sharing. It is something
special.
But beware.
Even the most special of places can become tarnished.
As Luke tells the story of Jesus’ arrival
in Jerusalem on a donkey to the acclaim of the
crowds he tells of that moment known to all who make the journey from Bethany and the Mount of Olives into the city of Jersualem
It is nothing less than a house of prayer.
Yet as he rounded that bend, came near and
saw the city with the temple towering over it in all its speldour, Jesus wept
over it, saying,
“If you, even you, had only recognised on
this day the things that make for peace!
But now they are hidden from your eyes!
This was not the age old temple of great
Jewish tradition. It was a newly
re-built temple that had yet to be finally completed. It had taken a massive workforce, paid a
pittance, and had to be funded by an extortionate taxation system and coinage
system that had filled the outer courts of the temple with money-changers that
were part of a system that had done so much to destroy all that should have
been so special about that place.
When he entered the temple, he began to
drive out those who were selling things there; and he said,
It is written
My house shall be a house of prayer;
But you have made it a den of robbers.
This Palm Sunday I want to reflect on what
it is that can so destroy a house of prayer, and what it is that makes prayer
come alive. In doing that, I feel there
is something for us to take to heart collectively here at Highbury and
individually in the hearts of each one of us.
As Holy Week unfolds Luke tells of the way
Jesus is drawn back, day after day to the temple. There it is the powers that be among the
Herodian hierarchy that take issue with him time and again.
Jesus singles out the scribes, those who
have responsibility for copying out documents of state, the scriptures,
comments on the scriptures. Because they
have control of the production of written documents these are the ones who have
power in their hands. And power
corrupts. Think of the power News
International has had in its stranglehold of the news media and the way that
power has corrupted.
In the hearing of all the people he said to the disciples, ‘Beware
of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love to be greeted
with respect in the market-places, and to have the best seats in the synagogues
and places of honour at banquets. They
devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They
will receive the greater condemnation.’
He looks up and finds himself standing by
the treasury where what Luke describes as ‘rich people’ – the ones who hold
power in the city – make a show of putting their gifts into the treasury.
Then he sees it. In front of his very eyes he sees how they
devour the widows’ houses. The poverty
stricken widow who has but two coins to her name is required to put everthing
she has.
This injustice angers Jesus – this amounts
to devouring widows’ houses.
Truly,
I tell you, with anger in his voice, this poor widow has put in more than all
of them; for all of them have contributed out of their abundance, but she out
of her poverty has put in all she had to live on.
This is the first reflection on
prayer. The mistake the scribes made was
to separate out their prayers and their worship from what they did with their
lives. Splendid prayers are no good if
not lived out from day to day, from hour to hour, from minute to minute.
It is so easy for fine worship to disguise
oppression and injustice. “God is
spirit,” Jesus had said to the woman of Samaria
For a house of prayer truly to be a house
of prayer there must be prayer, but prayer must spring from the depths of our
heart, prayer must issue in the way we lead our lives and prayer must spring
from the very lives we lead.
As Michel Quoist, the worker priest of the
middle years of the last century put it
If we knew how to listen to God, if we knew
how to look around us,
Our whole life would become prayer.
For it unfolds under God’s eyes and no part
of it must be
Lived without being freely offered to him.
… Words are only a means.
However, the silent prayer which has moved
beyond words
Must always spring from everyday life,
For everyday life is the raw material of
prayer.
My
Father’s house will be called a house of prayer
When
prayer is lived.
Jesus has the capacity to read the signs of
the times. He knows that such a system,
rotten as it is to the core, cannot survive.
He speaks of the destruction that will befall the very temple
itself. Earth shattering events will
happen within the lifetime of that generation.
How true his words came to be as the temple itself was destroyed 40
years later.
When first I studied the gospels in the
late 60’s and early 70’s I used to think 40 years an incredibly long period of
time. I now realise how short a period
it actually is. It’s a bit like EF
Schumacher in his book Small is Beautiful writing just 40 years ago telling us
that endless growth and the rush towards ever bigger institutions was not
sustainable. The system would collapse …
and 40 years on we can see so much of his analysis coming to pass.
Then we reach the next reflection on
prayer.
When things are falling apart and the
system is itself destroyed for us to be true to the house of prayer that is so
special to us we must in Jesus words
Be alert at all times, praying that you may
have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand
before the Son of Man.’
In difficult times prayer is of vital
importance – it is the life-blood we need.
My
Father’s house will be called a house of prayer
When
prayer is resolute
That next moment of prayer in this Holy
Week comes on the Thursday. And it
happens at a particular moment. As Jesus
gathers his closest friends around him and shares in the Passover. Jonathan Sacks in Thought for the Day on
Thursday spoke about Passover.
Quintessentially, it is a family festival. More than that it is a family festival where
the youngest child in the family takes centre stage and is the one to ask of
the senior the key questions that speak of freedom.
He spoke of it as a family gathering. For Jesus this was his family. Luke speaks of Jesus ‘giving thanks’ before
the first cup, giving thanks before breaking the bread, and doing the same with
the cup after the meal.
For us ‘church’ is family. And breaking the bread, sharing the cup is
one of those moments when as ‘family’ we gather together, with our youngest
ones often coming back to join us.
It’s all very well saying that prayer is
something that permeates the whole of life.
If we don’t set aside times when our prayer and our worship finds its
focus in the brokenness of the Christ who comes alongside us in all our
suffering, then we are in danger of losing that spark of prayer. Jesus treasured that Passover and in those
words instituted that communion which we too can share this evening with the
choir, and on Maundy Thursday in the
most special of ways.
My
Father’s house will be called a house of prayer
When
prayer is shared
Then comes that most personal of moments as
this week unfolds. When Jesus came out
and, as was his custom, went to the Mount of Olives . And there he enjoined his closest friends to
pray. And he too prayed.
For them it was too much. They couldn’t keep awake even for an hour.
And for Jesus this was the point of deep
down despair and yet through the agonizing honesty of his praying, also the
moment that releases for him the strength of God in all his unseen power and
love.
Father, if you are willing, remove this cup
from me; yet, not my will but yours be done.’ [[ Then an angel from heaven appeared to
him and gave him strength. In his
anguish he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of
blood falling down on the ground.]]
Whatever you make of angels, that is one of
those special moments in the story of Holy Week. It is when he is at his lowest that he opens
his heart to God his father, and bares his soul. And it is at this moment that a strength from
beyond himself is let loose in his soul.
An angel from heaven appeared to him and gave him strength.
My
Father’s House will be called a house of
prayer
When
prayer is personal
This place is special for us.
It is for us in so many ways, a house of
prayer.
But for this truly to be a house of prayer
We need to be people whose lives are lived
and shaped by the prayer that springs from the heart. The most heavenly of inspiring services is of
no earthly use unless the prayers we share are lived out in the lives we lead.
For this truly to be a house of prayer
We need to be people who keep alert in the
face of the world and its troubles, seeking in prayer that strength to enable
us to hold fast in our commitment to Christ Jesus our Lord, no matter what may
befall in that troubled and troubling world.
For this truly to be a house of prayer
We need to be people who come together as
Christ’s family honouring most of all the youngest among us and as we break
bread and take the cup we need to remember that Christ is with us at the point
of our deepest suffering and we can truly give thanks.
For this truly to be a house of prayer
We need to recognise that there is nothing
that prevents us from succumbing to the darkest depths … but in those depths as
we cry out to God there will be a
strength from beyond ourselves as the angels come and minister to us.
Come on Maundy Thursday and share as church
family together.
Come on Good Friday and at the foot of the cross, reflect on the presence of Christ with us, walk with us in silent prayer through the town and in the peace of St Mary’s hear again the words of Jesus from the cross.
And then come the day, join us to celebrate
the victory of Christ in resurrection glory, a victory we all may share.
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