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Parish Prayer - 3
Lead me from hatred to love ......
Sermon preached by the Rector in Street Mission and Parish Church
January 2006
The readings were:
Col 3:12-16; Romans 5:1-11
Lead me from hatred to love from war to peace
Let peace fill our heart, our world our universe... Amen
In many ways the section of our prayer this week is the most difficult to preach on, one of the reasons for this, I think, is that as Christians we do not want to admit to feelings of hatred nor that there is constant war raging in our life.
I heard about the couple celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. When the festivities were over, the woman turned to her husband and said, "We've been miserable for 50 years. We've fought every day. We've disagreed on nearly everything, and I am convinced that we can't keep going like this. I have made a commitment to pray that God will help us solve this problem. I'm praying that he will take one of us home. And when he answers my prayer, I'm going to live with my sister in Eastborne."
The dictionary's definition of hatred is the emotion of hate; a feeling of dislike so strong that it demands action. So is hatred bad? Yes and No must be the answer to that because I think it depends on where the action that it demands leads us. It will of course also depend on the subject of our hate.
Paul says in Romans "Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good." There are things in this world that it would seem right to hate but this hate can only be justified if it leads on to love. As Christians we are told to hate the sin but love the sinner, this is good advise. In this case the hatred of sin almost demands the action we move to, is one of love, for it is only love that can bring about the change that is necessary for the sinner to find peace and healing.
Proverbs 10:12 Hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers over all wrongs. I said last week that I believe Mother Teresa sees life as a journey, a journey which leads from Death to Peace, but before we can move to a place of peace we have to deal with hate. The writer of the proverb understood that hatred creates turmoil and anger within us, so much so that no matter what we seem to do peace seems to be out of reach. It is also true that hatred and anger can also cause us to do and say things we may deeply regret. George Martin tells the following true story: "I remember a fellow who once wrote a nasty letter to his father. Since we worked in the same office, I advised him not to send it because it was written in a fit of temper. But he sealed it and asked me to put it in the mail. Instead, I simply slipped it into my pocket and kept it until the next day. The following morning he arrived at the office looking very worried. `George,' he said, `I wish I had never sent that note to my dad yesterday. It hurts me deeply, and I know it will break his heart when he reads it. I'd give 50 dollars to get it back!' Taking the envelope from my pocket, I handed it to him and told him what I had done. He was so overjoyed that he actually wanted to pay me the 50 dollars!"
Sadly however there are times when we act on our anger and that anger turns to loathing, it is only forgiveness and love that can bring us to find peace. On a cold winter evening a man suffered a heart attack and after being admitted to the hospital, asked the nurse to call his daughter. He explained, "You see, I live alone and she is the only family I have." The nurse went to phone the daughter. The daughter was quite upset and shouted, "You must not let him die! You see, Dad and I had a terrible argument almost a year ago. I haven't seen him since. All these months I've wanted to go to him for forgiveness. The last thing I said to him was 'I hate you."' The daughter cried and then said, "I'm coming now. I'll be there in thirty minutes."
The patient went into cardiac arrest, and code 99 was alerted. The nurse prayed, "O God, his daughter is coming. Don't let it end this way." The efforts of the medical team to revive the patient were fruitless. The nurse observed one of the doctors talking to the daughter outside the room. She could see the pathetic hurt in her face. The nurse took the daughter aside and said, "I'm sorry." The daughter responded, "I never hated him, you know. I loved him, And now I want to go see him." The nurse took her to the room, and the daughter went to the bed and buried her face in the sheets as she said good-bye to her deceased father. The nurse, as she tried not to look at this sad good-bye, noticed a scrap of paper on the bed table. She. picked it up and read: "My dearest Janie, I forgive you. I pray you will also forgive me. I know that you love me. I love you, too. Daddy." When hatred and anger fill our life it is not easy to overcome the turmoil but if we don't make the effort and act in love then we will never find peace.
There are many wars throughout our world today, indeed it has been calculated that in the over 3100 years of recorded world history, the world has only been at peace 8% of the time or a total of 286 years. However one of the most destructive is the war that goes on with in us. St Paul put it like this:- When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. To move from this war to a place of peace we need forgiveness, indeed we need God's forgiveness, however this war has a cost which we do not always recognize. Many of us are like the little boy who had broken the glass of a street lamp. Greatly disturbed, he asked his father, "What shall I do?" "Do?" exclaimed his father, "why we must report it and ask what you must pay, then go and settle it." This practical way of dealing with the matter was not what the boy was looking for, and he whimpered, "I-I-thought all I had to do was ask God to forgive me. To receive God's forgiveness we have to acknowledge our wrongdoing, first we have to admit to our selves our failing, then we must repent, part of this repentance may well be seeking to practically put right a transgression. Then we must turn to God seeking and accepting the payment of our sin that Jesus paid on our behalf.
All war is costly but World Vision gives us and understanding of the cost of civile war with these facts: In one area, of Sudan 50% of the children are orphans, 50% are malnourished and 50% die before the age of 5. One hospital must serve 1.5 million people.
Mozambique has been a battlefield for years. More than 100,000 Mozambicans have died due to war. About 1.6 million people have been displaced from their homes due to warfare. Another 900,000 have fled to other countries. When I hear these statistics all kinds of emotions come to me, first sadness, then frustration and helplessness, why, O why does this need to happen in our world today. The answer to that question is beyond me I am afraid but this does not mean that we are helpless to act, even though it may look like.
The first thing we can do is to pray Mother Teresa's prayer, make it our daily prayer. By doing this we will give God permission to bless us personally, our family and our community will also benefit as God hears our prayer, and in a small way as we reach out to God, praying for peace in the world, we join with thousands of others who battle in the spiritual realms.
Secondly find out about the conflict in one country, and pray for the leaders, for peace and for future generations of that country so that the cycle of war can be broken.
Thirdly support financially and prayerfully a Christian agency, TEAR Fund, World Vision, Christian Aid, that is working in one of the areas of conflict around the world.
We may not see an immediate dramatic change but if we as Christians do not give to and pray for God's peace inthe world I fear that the world will continue to slip into greater conflict.
Lead me from death to life, from lies to truth
Lead me from despair to hope from fear to trust
Lead me from hatred to love from war to peace
Let peace fill our heart,
our world our universe... Amen
Mother Teresa of Calcutta
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Thursday 20th of November 2008
