Nineteenth of Year A - Prayer in difficult times
August 2008
For the past few weeks we have been reading Matthews Gospel.
Jesus has been very busy going about teaching his many followers both out in the open and in the Synagogues on the Sabbath days.
His teaching has centred on the ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ and we have read some of the many parables he spoke in an effort to give us some idea about what he meant.
He goes to Nazareth, his home village, and arranges to speak to them in their synagogue, but they took offence at him and would not accept his teaching.
Then Jesus received the shocking news that his cousin and close friend, John the Baptist, had been brutally executed by Herod.
It all became too much for Jesus and he immediately withdrew, in a boat, with his Apostles, to a lonely place where he could be alone for a while. But as we saw last Sunday the crowds guessed where he was going and were waiting for him when he arrived. He had pity on them and spent the whole day teaching them and curing the sick. When the hour grew late he fed them and dismissed them and sent his disciples away in the boat while he himself remained alone and prayed.
Now I have arrived at what I want to talk about today.
We all need to get away occasionally, on our own, to pray.
We all need to be alone with God from time to time.
We all need, to rest quietly in God’s arms and allow him to sooth our hurts and our angers.
God also needs these quiet moments with me to experience my gratitude and love.
There is no need to travel to do this.
Five, ten, thirty minutes sitting quietly at home, or out walking my dog, or dropping into the church (that is why our church is open every day), becoming aware of the presence of God in me - the God in whom I live and move and have my being.
Jesus of Nazareth needed this. Elijah the prophet needed this. I too need this and if I give myself the time and the opportunity I too will hear the ‘tiny whispering sound,’ ‘the sound of sheer silence,’ just as Elijah did.