April 3rd 2011

In my readings through the scriptures this week, a verse from the Psalms shone out.

The Psalmist wrote in Psalm 40.

Then I said, here I am
In the scroll of the book it is
Written of me.

I delight to do your will
O my God
Your law is written in my heart

The words that specially stood out for me I delight to do your will. Those who read what I wrote to
you last week may remember the promise I would share with you – thoughts on one of his greatest
gifts without which our love to him would be null and void. It is his gift of free will. This is
something we so take for granted.  We do not give it much thought. When you go into a beautiful
garden or gaze at a lovely flower, shall we say a pansy, you do not say to it, “how good you are to
give me such joy”. The pansy has no will of its own to give you pleasure.
God just made it that way – it cannot help being beautiful. God wanted us
to love him, not because we were made that way and could not help being
loving. He needed our love for him to be given freely of our own choice.
Otherwise, it would not have been real.  That choice is often hard. We need
wisdom, strength and love to carry through. Very often we have to
overcome fear, shyness, laziness and other negative forces to do his will and give him back the love
he gave us.

There is another thought about God’s love on earth. How does he reach out with it? He does it
through us. Last Sunday, there was printed in Happenings, that wonderful poem of St. Teresa of
Avila. I will not repeat it here again, but just remind you of the thought it expressed. God has no
human body on earth. Therefore he has to use our hands, eyes, feet etc to reach out and reveal his
love to those around us. He needs us to take part in his Ministry but he also needs us to do it of our
own free will – the free will that he has given us that we may truly love him. We need also to
minister to ourselves as we revel in his scriptures, meditate on the wonders of his creation and
worship him in spirit and truth. Above all, we need to embrace him in the love he revealed to us
through his son Jesus Christ

Canon John Speers Lenten Talk

This is a recording of the Lenten talk Canon John gave at Trinity on Friday April1st 2011.  

March 27th 2011

Last week, I mentioned the Collects, those beautiful prayers which are also helpful and uplifting guides to meditation. On page 367 in the Book of Alternative Services, you will find a Collect which comes from the mind and thinking of that great North African saint and scholar, Augustine of Hippo (not to be confused with St. Augustine of Canterbury). Let us start with the first part Almighty God, you have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you. There are two thoughts here. First God Made us for Himself. What does that mean? We have been told from earliest childhood that God loves us; more than that, God is love. You cannot love in a vacuum, you need someone to love. Dare we say, God needed us? These thoughts are overwhelming and take time and prayer before moving on to the second thought which stems from it. That is "our hearts are restless, until they find their rest in you". In the start of this Collect, we address God as Almighty. It reflects the fact that the one who is all powerful is also love itself. He made us, that he might love us.

May we now turn to Genesis 1: 27 So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God, he created them. It is not just God who is love. He made us in his image. Many people particularly those starting to face life, declare they are on a road to discover themselves. That will happen when they discover God. In him, they will find satisfaction and peace. There is one among the many great gifts he has given without which our love would be null and void. We will think about this next week.

I will leave you with a prayer which St. Paul gave us in his Epistle to the Ephesisans 3:16. I pray that according to the riches of his Glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through the spirit and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith as you are being rooted and grounded in love.