Preacher: The Very Rev’d Frank Nelson, Dean
Last Sunday night, Trinity Sunday, I used a prayer that I stumbled across before the service. The former bishop of Durham, Tom Wright, suggested a longer variation of the “Jesus Prayer” for Trinity, incorporating the other two persons of the Trinity – the Father and the Holy Spirit. In tonight’s sermon I want to offer you some thoughts arising out of this prayer, obviously strongly influenced by Wright’s words, thinking and praying. The prayer, which we prayed last Sunday at Evensong, is this:
Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth:
Set up your kingdom in our midst.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God:
Have mercy on me, a sinner.
Holy Spirit, breath of the living God:
Renew me and all the world.
Those who know the Jesus prayer will be very familiar with the middle section; that addressed to Jesus. It has been at the centre of Orthodox Christianity’s praying for centuries, and I, along with countless thousands of Christians, find it a helpful and useful and simple prayer to pray – anytime, anywhere. I use it particularly when I wake in the middle of the night and find it difficult to get back to sleep.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God:
Have mercy on me, a sinner.
This simple prayer to Jesus is not unlike the ancient Jewish shema, the opening words of what Jesus called the first and greatest commandment. The shema is found first in Deuteronomy 6: 4. “Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord alone.” These few words remind the faithful of the great Commands of God given to God’s people through Moses, and were prayed night and day, written on scraps of parchment or material and tied round one’s forehead or arm – a constant reminder of God’s presence, of God’s uniqueness as creator, and God’s saving love.
We know the words of the shema well, probably not so much from Deuteronomy as the Gospel incident when a lawyer, a member of the Pharisees, asks Jesus which is the greatest commandment? Jesus’s response in Matthew 22: 37ff is one we recite regularly before the General Confession at the Eucharist, and one that is worth reminding ourselves of again and again.
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.’
Just as the ancient, and modern, Jews reminded themselves that there is only One God to be loved with heart, soul and mind, so those of the Orthodox family of churches use the Jesus Prayer to focus on the central tenet of Christianity – that through the grace and mercy and love of God, we human beings, sinners all, find salvation.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God:
Have mercy on me, a sinner.
These two simple lines of prayer invite us into relationship with Jesus – the one called Lord, the Christ, the anointed one, the one whose name Jesus means ‘saviour’. They take us into the heart of the Gospel message, that Jesus, born of Mary, is, as St John tells us in the opening words of his Gospel, the Word of God, the Light of the world, and the means to salvation. They remind us that without God in Jesus we remain in a state of separation from God, alienated from God’s love through our own wilful sinfulness. They remind us too that Jesus suffered and died on the cross – for love of us, of you and me. At the heart of the Christian Gospel message, that which we proclaim in the words of the Creed, in our canticles and hymns, our anthems and psalm-singing, in the service of baptism we had this morning, in the great act of thanksgiving called Eucharist around which our glorious and musical morning service is shaped, in the daily and weekly worship offered to God through Choral Evensong, in our very being as Christians, is the cross of Jesus. There are, I suggest, more depictions of the cross in this cathedral than of any other event or symbol of faith. And for good reason – without the cross, and all that is associated with the cross, there is no Gospel, no good news.
The Jesus Prayer is a prayer of confession, of deep invitation to Jesus to work in our lives, of personal commitment and longing to be shaped and fashioned as God would have us be. It is a prayer worth praying… and praying … and praying.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God:
Have mercy on me, a sinner.
Why then, you might ask, does Tom Wright suggest we need to expand the prayer, as he does for his Trinity Sunday version? The first addition takes us into the territory both of the Lord’s Prayer, that particular way of praying given to the disciples by Jesus himself, and which we use at every single service we hold in this Cathedral, and to the opening lines of our Creeds with their reminder that God, so we believe, is the Creator of everything.
Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth:
Set up your kingdom in our midst.
Having acknowledged God as Creator, we turn to our deep prayer and longing for God’s kingdom – one of justice, mercy and peace. These are strong, central and key themes running throughout the Bible and really set apart both Judaism and Christianity from other religions. God’s kingdom is described in many different ways in the Bible but particularly in the context of the fulfilment of the hopes and dreams of everyone – especially the poor and vulnerable. The parable of the Last Judgment, where the sheep and goats are separated into two camps, is well-known. It is worth reminding ourselves that the clear expectation of Jesus was that his followers be actively involved in bringing in, in living into being, the Kingdom of God.
“I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.” Matthew 25: 36 & 37
Where the Jesus Prayer, with its focus on the individual pray-er as a sinner in need of the mercy of God in Jesus, could be seen as a very personal prayer, the addition of the first couplet, addressed to the ‘Father almighty’ makes the Gospel one of shared responsibility, where Christians come together to acknowledge the one true God and to act together to usher in God’s kingdom.
The third couplet, that addressed to the Holy Spirit, invites us into yet more active involvement in God’s work in the world.
Holy Spirit, breath of the living God:
Renew me and all the world.
The Holy Spirit – life-giving breath of God, comforter, leader into truth and action, disturber out of complacency and the temptation to think that it is someone else’s problem, the intoxicating energy of God unleashed in our lives. The prayer to the Holy Spirit is probably the most dangerous prayer to pray. It is an invitation to God to unleash that creative powerful urge and surge of God’s energy in our lives – which will change us forever. Like the sap rising from the depths of the roots up through the trunk and into the branches of tree, pulsating with new life and energy, the Spirit drives us to action. Ezekiel spoke of the valley of dry bones, an old battlefield perhaps, coming to life as the breath of God was infused once again. The dispirited, frightened and disheartened disciples of Jesus, huddled together for safety in their upper room, had their lives blown apart by the Holy Spirit of God. St Luke describes the event in the Book of Acts likening the Spirit to a rushing roaring wind and tongues of fire. It is both terrifying and tremendously exciting – this prayer to the Holy Spirit. I strongly advise you not to pray it, unless you really mean it. As God is wont to do, God might just take you seriously. But, if you do find the nerve to pray it, what a prayer!
Holy Spirit, breath of the living God:
Renew me and all the world.
There is something of this passionate prayer to God in the words of tonight’s beautiful anthem, set to music by William Walton. Using the language of love, the strongest human emotion, the lover pours out his or her assertion that ‘many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it.’ (Song of Songs 8: 7) As we listen to the Choir sing the anthem, dare to pray the Trinitarian form of the ancient Orthodox Jesus Prayer. Take it with you into the week; pray it in the dark hours of the night, and in the morning dawn, at midday and in the evening.
Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth:
Set up your kingdom in our midst.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God:
Have mercy on me, a sinner.
Holy Spirit, breath of the living God:
Renew me and all the world.