It’s good to see that Church leaders throughout the UK have come together to call for a National Day Of Prayer And Action this coming Sunday. I was writing yesterday of David’s Godward instinct in the midst of his troubles. You can hear the urgency in his words: ‘My heart says of you, “Seek his face”. (Psalm 27: 8) We can see his face in Jesus who reached out to the sick, comforted the bereaved and in the end gave hope even in the face of death. It is to this God that we turn in this present crisis, a God who has connected with humankind and who is seeking to redeem the universe from every dark influence. I am continually drawn to Paul’s vision of Jesus at the end of all things cleansing the universe of every dark influence and handing it over perfect to His Father. (1 Corinthians 15: 24) So when we pray for the sick and the bereaved and those who are in the forefront of care we are uniting our hearts with His purpose.
To this end it is also appropriate that the National Day of Prayer And Action should be a time of self-examination. When Jesus heard about ‘Galileans’ whose slaughter Pilate ordered as they were sacrificing in the Temple he refused to follow the popular notion that the dead were worse sinners than anyone else. (Luke 13: 2) But he saw this atrocity as an opportunity for men and women to consider the fragility of their own lives and where they stood with God: ‘. . . unless you repent, you too will all perish.’ (Luke 3: 3) He sees a recent tragedy in the same way. Eighteen people died when a tower in Siloam fell on them:
‘ . . . do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. (Luke 13: 4-5)
That word ‘repent’ is often regarded in a negative way, thundered by near psychotic preachers to terrorize sensitive souls. But really it’s essential meaning is simply a wholehearted turning to God from ways that are harmful to others and to ourselves. Jesus uses two catastrophic events to remind people of the end of all human life, that we are all destined to stand before God and what then will be the condition of our inner lives? Wholeheartedly turned towards Him? Or otherwise?
I was on the phone yesterday to one of the busiest men I know. His wife is one of the busiest women I know. They both agree that this time of cancelled meetings, appointments and journeys has slowed the pace of their lives and enabled them to take stock in a way not possible for many years. A new sense of appreciation of what really matters has come to them.
I could say the same about the cancer experience from diagnosis through treatment and now recovery. You have to slow down, live with yourself, perhaps discovering things that were obscured in the busy-ness of life and need to be changed. And it doesn’t do any harm to be stripped back spiritually, to feel fragile and exposed, because that’s when you come to the place where the words of the old song sum up everything within you: ‘Where could I go but to the Lord?‘ And with Him there is forgiveness, renewal, hope and strength to love those who are lovingly caring for you.
I hope all of this will come together in the National Day Of Prayer And Action. It will be good to hold others in prayer but also to lay open our lives before God and to seek those changes within ourselves that will make us more consistent citizens of the Kingdom.
