Readings:
Sermon:
This is the driest spring on record. Although we had a bit of rain over the last couple of days as I'm recording this, by the time you're listening to it, you'll probably have had another week without any rain.
And so today, Rogation Sunday, when we pray for God to bless the crops, we are reminded for all our technology and cleverness that we still depend on nature to do its thing.
We pray for a good harvest.
And also at this time, we're praying for another kind of harvest, the harvest of the Holy Spirit. Not only do we need physical rain, we also need the fresh rain of the Holy Spirit of God. And we know that that prayer for the Holy Spirit has already been answered.
I once had a letter from a friend, oh, this is many, many years ago, a school friend who said that they were very thankful for their life.
Now this wasn't a religious person, and yet being thankful made me realise that they had understood a deep spiritual awareness. To be thankful is the most important spiritual attribute anyone can have. When you're thankful, a lot of other things just fall into place.
That's why our most important worship, the Eucharist, is called that, Eucharist, means giving thanks. And we are to give thanks, as we say, at all times and in all places … always and everywhere to give you thanks and praise.
Recently I've taken to saying this prayer at points throughout the day.
We give you thanks, we give you thanks, O Lord our God.
We breathe your name and sing your praise. Time and space conspire in worship for our sins, our forgiven and our lives set free.
I'd like to think I do it three or four times a day, I'll perhaps only manage it twice some days, but to be reminded that I need to be thankful, no, not just that actually, but that I am thankful because being thankful is itself a gift. That's really important and we easily fill our prayers with requests for others, requests for ourselves: Please God do this, please God do that. We acknowledge our faults and say how sorry we are and all that has its place in prayer.
But the most important prayer is simply thank you. Because when we thank God we are saying, I know you've already heard my prayers, you've heard my asking, I know that you've forgiven my sins, I know I'm safe with you forever.
Thank you holds all the deep needs that we have and goes on to be an act of worship and praise. You are the God we can thank, alleluia. God doesn't need our praise, God doesn't need our thanks, but we do. Giving thanks puts us just where we need to be, dependent on God's grace, forgiveness, love and liberty.
Give thanks in all circumstances, says Paul to the Thessalonian Christians.
Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
Giving thanks is the will of God in Christ for us.
Say thank you today, more than once.
Say thank you on Thursday this week when we celebrate the Ascension.
Say thank you as your main prayer if you're joining in the week or ten days of thy kingdom come.
Give thanks for the Holy Spirit who fills us with his life.
We give you thanks, we give you thanks, O Lord our God, we breathe your name and sing your praise. Time and space conspire in worship for our sins are forgiven and our lives set free.