Well tomorrow is St. Patrick’s day but the festive attitude seems to already abound on the campus this evening. Tomorrow I will be recalling this famous prayer from St. Patrick, the missionary to Ireland.
I invite you to pray it with me and walk with Jesus on the campus by praying “with Patrick” a portion of his famous Breastplate prayer. I have included the prayer below.
I arise today through God’s strength to pilot me:
God’s might to uphold me,
God’s wisdom to guide me,
God’s eye to look before me,
God’s ear to hear me,
God’s word to speak for me,
God’s hand to guard me,
God’s way to lie before me,
God’s shield to protect me,
God’s host to secure me—
against snares of devils,
against temptations of vices,
against inclinations of
nature,
against everyone who shall
wish me ill, afar and anear,
alone and in a crowd.
Christ to protect me today.
Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left, Christ where I lie, Christ where I sit, Christ where I arise, Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me, Christ in every eye that sees me, Christ in every ear that hears me.
I arise today through a mighty strength, the
invocation of the Trinity, through belief in the Threeness, through confession of the Oneness towards the Creator.
Salvation is of the Lord.
Salvation is of the Lord.
Salvation is of Christ.
May Thy salvation, O Lord, be ever with us. AMEN.
This prayer is part of the Breastplate of St. Patrick, missionary to Ireland. Born 385 AD in England. Enslaved in Ireland at age 16. Escaped but returned to Ireland to proclaim the way of Jesus. Died March 17, 461.
In the last of the Integrity Test series, we considered what happens when there is a clash of wills. Human life under the creative hand of God means that we live with the power to choose the attitudes and actions of our lives. Jesus had a share in this trait as well. In Luke 22:39-46, Luke presents his audience with Jesus’ conflict of will between what he wanted and what he understood his Heavenly Father wanted. In the journey to the cross we must understand that Jesus did not have a death wish nor a desire to enter into the anguish of humanity’s sin and guilt–the very product of our lack of integrity with God. However, Jesus did intend to live in union and obedience with His Heavenly Father and the Holy Spirit. Like Jesus, I find myself in a clash of wills when my intention to join God in what He is doing in the world conflicts with my natural inclination to preserve myself, to avoid pain, suffering, and discomfort by holding onto comfort, ease, the familiar, the safe, and the secure. Here are few examples of when you might experience this kind of clash of wills: when you know honesty with a parent or spouse will transform the relationship, when you are going to have to give away or sell your stuff in order to give to another, when you need to change your career path to pursue a passion and opportunity to serve that God has shown you, when you must parent with patience a child who is struggling, when you need to tell him or her “no,” when you are going to intervene in a conflicted and angry situation as a peacemaker, when you have to use your holiday to go on a mission trip, when you must wake-up every day and enter into routines with love, when you must keep investing in a covenantal relationship when you don’t feel like you are getting anything out of it, when you need to add a new discipline to your life in order to pursue God.
Now it is a different thing when the clash of wills is because of what I am doing in the world as an act of rebellion or even thoughtlessness of what God wants. This message is really concerned with what happens when we have the good intentions required to join God in what He is doing in the world. Jesus shows us that the clash of wills is resolved in prayer. (You can listen to the audio of this message, When you have a clash of wills, later in the week from Cityview.)
Text:Luke 22:39-46
Big Idea:The clash of wills is resolved in prayer.
Unpacking the Text:
1.Jesus lived his life in communion with the Heavenly Father and the Holy Spirit and in the company of those He called.
“Jesus went as usual to the Mount of Olives and his disciples followed him.”Luke 22:39
2.Jesus’ conflict with the will of the Father arises from His Trinitarian communion and from His intention to do the will of the Father in the face of painful and terrifying realities.
“Father if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”Luke 22:42
Jesus has already made reference to His Father’s will on this very evening by casting a look back to the Old Testament. Here, Luke 22:42, “this cup” brings to mind the prophetic announcements of God’s cup of judgment for sin. It is now finding its fulfillment in Jesus and the cross. In Luke 22:37, Jesus quotes Isaiah 53 and identifies himself as The Suffering Servant, “It is written: ‘And he was numbered with the transgressors;’ and I tell you that this must be fulfilled in me. Yes, what is written about me is reaching its fulfillment.”
We must beware the path of least resistance.
On Sunday I did not mention Alex and Brett Harris. However I include their material here as a good resource to anyone who would like to explore further the idea of “doing the hard thing.” Though they are writing and targeting their message for a generation of teenagers, I have been inspired and encouraged by the revebelution they envision. Check out their website & blog, read their book–Do Hard Things, and watch the following video to get the gest of their message.
3.Jesus knows the disciples lack the resources in themselves aloneto be victorious in the clash of wills and commands them to pray.
“Pray that you will not fall into temptation.”Luke 22:46
4.If you intend to join God in what He is doing to love the world and restore people into fellowship with Him, you will have to do the hard thing.If you intend to do the hard thing, you will have to constantly realign your will with His through the communion, conversation and cry of prayer.
In the preservice count down at Cityview we showed a video featuring Steven Curtis Chapman’s redition of Matt Redman’s song “Yours.” In it he includes a verse written after the devasting loss of his adopted daughter Maria, when she was struck and killed when his 17 year old son was backing the family car out of the driveway. After much prayer and counsel Chapman returned to his tour to promote his newest album.
Notice how Chapman found resolution to his clash of wills. How could he join God in what He was doing in the world when his own heart was so grieved and torn? Elizabeth Diffin, a reporter who attended one of Chapman’s concerts writes:
“Blessed be your name” was the first song Chapman sang May 21, the day of Maria’s death, when he wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to sing again. Inspired by the story of Job, at one point the lyrics repeat, “He gives and takes away.” “As I sang this song…it wasn’t a song, it was a cry, a scream, a prayer,” Chapman explained to the audience. “I found an amazing confort and peace that surpasses all understanding.”
Chapman also shared that after Maria’s death, he’d reconsidered the words to all his songs and whether he could still sing–and believe–them. Instead, losing his little girl brought the meaning of some of those songs into sharper focus. One example was “your” which addresses how everything in the world belongs to God. “In this song in particular, I had to come to a new realization” he said. “There’s not an inch of creation that God doesn’t look at and say ‘all that’s mine.” As a result of that realization in conjunction with Maria’s death, Chapman added a new verse to “Yours”:
I’ve walked the valley of death’s shadow
so deep and dark that I could barely breath.
I’ve had to let go of more than I could bear and
I’ve questioned everything that I believe.
Still even here in this great darkness
a comfort and a hope comes breaking through
as I can say in life or death
God we belong to you.
Steven Curtis Chapman Explains the new verse
“Yours” as seen Sunday
The clash of wills is resolved in prayer.
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6-7
Last night Ellen and I watched Tony Campolo on DVD from his Sunday talk at Mission Fest 2009. Just as I was moved at his Friday night talk I was moved in this one on the topic of prayer and missions. Tony spoke of a return to “ancient prayer” models that had been developed and taught in the Catholic stream. Centering prayer has been most helpful to him. In an article for Beliefnet he writes:
Today, some of the most spiritual people I know claim to be without religion.
I relate to their problem. I have experienced an unspoken dissatisfaction with own my spiritual life that has only been allayed over the past few years as my prayer life began to change. Believing the gospel was never a problem for me, but during times of reflection I sensed that believing in Jesus and living out His teachings just wasn’t enough. There was a yearning for something more, and I found that I was increasingly spiritually gratified as I adopted older ways of praying–ways that have largely been ignored by those of us in the Protestant tradition. Counter-Reformation saints like Ignatius of Loyola have become important sources of help as I have begun to learn from them modes of contemplative prayer. I practice what is known as “centering prayer,” in which a sacred word is repeated as a way to be in God’s presence.
If you would like to know more continue reading his article or listen to Thomas Keating teach on the topic. I have found that some songs helpful to me in centering prayer and I have posted, Jesus-be the centre, below. Meeting with Jesus, sitting with Jesus, is often hard for the activist bent I live with. While working on my Dmin, Dr. Nelson said that Baptists must learn to be “active contemplatives.” I’m still learning.
In the fourteen days leading up to Easter Cityview is uniting with a few other local congregations in 14 days of prayer. I want to encourage you to take up the challenge of getting together with two other people for a period of united prayer. Our heavenly Father delights to answer prayer and there are things He desires to do in your life when you will maintain a posture of prayer. On many occasions Jesus instructed his disciples in the prayer life. In fact Jesus told more than one parable to encourage boldness and persistence in prayer.
“Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, ‘Friend lend me three loaves of bread, because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.’ Then the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man’s boldness, he will get up and give him as much as he needs.”
“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks the door will be opened.”
“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Of if he asks for an egg, will you give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
Luke 11: 5-13
Some suggestions for how to get the most out of these 14 days of prayer are below.
·Develop your prayer team of 3 people now.
·Meet together to develop your prayer list by Mar 28; see the prayer guide for directions.
·Submit your list to Pastor Craig for his private prayer by March 29.
·Connect daily over the 2 week period for prayer.
·Meet as a prayer team at the two pubic gatherings. Tuesday March 31 & Tuesday April 7, 7:00 PM
·Watch for God’s response.
Here are few suggestions for your prayer list.Divide it into three parts.Lift these requests and those of your 2 other prayer partners up to God persistently for the two week period.
ASK for God to provide for personal / family needs.Identify 2 or 3 needs.
SEEK for God’s direction for a decision or intervention in a situation.Identify 1or 2 decisions or situations.
KNOCK for God’s salvation for friends, neighbours, coworkers or family that have not yet entered into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.Identify 3 or 4 people.
Cityview will also publish a prayer list specific to the organization needs of our sister churches and congregations that are participating in the two week prayer emphasis.
Yesterday violence erupted again in my neighbourhood and someone lay dead on the ground for the second time in as many weeks. For the most part I live my life from the space in between Main and Fraser in Vancouver. I enjoy these two streets and the different stories they are telling about the City. However my heart broke yesterday in hearing the account my neighbour told of taking children home and having to walk past the body of a young man absorbed in the darkness of lawlessness.
This morning I sat a few blocks from the corner where he died and reflected on what grounds for violence he and others in his realm have. The Lower Mainland is seemingly awash with those who would turn this western edge of the continent into their own wild playground. What has consumed their conscience and heart? Why have they abandoned the delight of life? Have they been deceived by the attraction of power? What vision of strength have they enshrined? What honour has been constructed that must be preserved? Do they truly want a life built on the survival of the strongest? What lies has the Evil One weaved into the fabric of their hearts?
Law is the tutor that highlights reality for the deadened conscience to recognize that something is wrong. But what’s next? Changed hearts and restored relationships are possible from a Christian worldview through the grace of God in Christ Jesus His Son. Into the grounds of violence God has planted a cross and empty tomb; He is shouting “you matter to me.”
This morning I prayed for our City in the tradition of Jesus a prayer that seeks to take back the ground and the lives of those sullied and sickened by violence, apathy, greed, denial, revenge, selfishness, bravado, and pain. Perhaps you will join me in voicing again the prayer of all Jesus’ disciples:
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliever us from the evil one.
Matthew 6:9-13
In the fourteen days leading up to Easter Cityview is uniting with a few other local congregations in 14 days of prayer. I want to encourage you to take up the challenge of getting together with two other people for a period of united prayer. Our heavenly Father delights to answer prayer and there are things He desires to do in your life when you will maintain a posture of prayer. On many occasions Jesus instructed his disciples in the prayer life. In fact Jesus told more than one parable to encourage boldness and persistence in prayer.
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