Sermon for Joint Benefice Service at St Peter's, Barrowden

Now, some people panic when confronted by a poem, but don't worry, I went through this poem in one of my former parishes and someone who described themselves as the least poetic person in the world said that they got it. Personally, I find poetry more of a help to understand ideas about God than academic theology books. However, the focus of this sermon is not poetry, but prayer. The former Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, used to say that what the Church lacked most was not numbers in congregations, or Vicars, or material resources, but prayer.

Prayer (I), By George Herbert

Prayer the church's banquet, angel's age,

God's breath in man returning to his birth,

The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage,

The Christian plummet sounding heav'n and earth

Engine against th' Almighty, sinner's tow'r,

Reversed thunder, Christ-side-piercing spear,

The six-days world transposing in an hour,

A kind of tune, which all things hear and fear;

Softness, and peace, and joy, and love, and bliss,

Exalted manna, gladness of the best,

Heaven in ordinary, man well drest,

The milky way, the bird of Paradise,

Church-bells beyond the stars heard, the soul's blood,

The land of spices; something understood.

George Herbert’s poem, which crams into its fourteen short lines an incredible number of powerful and challenging thoughts about prayer, so let’s have a look, line by line.

‘Prayer the church's banquet, angel's age…’

Prayer is the shared meal of the Church, there is in here reference to the prayerful act of Communion, and also to the Wedding Feast of the Lamb found in the book of Revelation, the feast celebrated when Christ and his bride, the Church, are united in heaven. But here there is also a deeper recognition that the Church needs to pray to live, our spiritual hunger is met in prayer, in prayer God feeds us, and thus when we meet together in prayer it is a banquet.

The ‘angel’s age’ is eternity, that part of the God’s Kingdom not time-bound here on earth but time-free in the Courts and Palaces of God. Prayer is a reaching out into eternity from earth to where the angels have their dwelling place. Prayer breaks through time and space into eternity.

‘God's breath in man returning to his birth…’

The reference here is to Genesis, and the creation of humanity when God breathed life into us. When we pray we breathe that life back to its origin, back to God. A cycle of life giving breathing. So prayer connects us to the end of time in the banquet of the Church, and to the beginning of time in the breath of God, and into eternity with the ‘angel’s age.’

The Old Testament speaks of God’s ‘holy breath’, the New Testament renders this as ‘Holy Spirit’, God’s breath in us, His Spirit, enables our prayers, His breath is the very substance of which our prayers are made.

I told you Herbert packed a lot into little phrases!

‘The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage…’

A paraphrase is a rewording of something to make it clearer, an explanation, or a distillation. Herbert is saying prayer teases out the threads of who we are, prayer presents before God, and before ourselves, our essential meaning. Prayer is about understanding, he will come back to this idea at the end of the poem.

‘The heart in pilgrimage’… it is as if the heart leaves the body and goes on a holy journey, an exploration, a voyage of discovery with God as both the pilgrim’s path and destination. I can certainly testify to that sense of discovery in prayer, I find God opens up my understanding when I pray, there are moments of self-realisation and perception inspired by the Spirit.

‘The Christian plummet sounding heaven and earth…’

A plummet is a weight on a length of rope designed to allow you to measure the depth of the ocean or to check if a wall is true. Prayer enables a sounding of the depths and a guide to what is true. If you struggle with a life that lacks meaning then pray and you will find profound new depths, and if you struggle to perceive the truth of a situation, then pray and the ‘Christian’s plummet’ will give a guide.

Notice prayer is a gravity defying plummet that reaches up to heaven!

‘Engine against th' Almighty, sinner's tow'r…’

Here is where it gets really interesting, and quite challenging. An engine against the Almighty? Herbert was from the pre-industrial 17th century so this is not a steam or petrol engine, the word back then had a military meaning – an engine of war, like an artillery cannon or siege tower – as in the sinner’s tower in the next phrase.

Is Herbert actually saying prayer is an act of war against God? Perhaps we can see that in prayer we may lay siege to God, as in the parable of the Persistent Widow, remember she harasses the judge until he gives her justice? Jesus says, ‘will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night?’

Run the siege tower against the walls of heaven and don’t relent until God acts. The violent language continues, ‘Reversed thunder, Christ-side-piercing spear…’

Reversed thunder, in prayer we may thunder back against God who thunders at us. Sometimes we have to let God know we are angry or hurt.

He already knows, but it helps us understand ourselves. All prayer is for our benefit not God’s. If we must lay siege to God or thunder at Him then we may learn something by the experience. In the bible Job angrily questions God, while his friends trot out pious words, yet it is Job who gains wisdom from the experience, and his friends who are rebuked by God.

But…prayer as ‘Christ-side-piercing spear…?’

This from John 19, ‘when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once blood and water came out.’

I think there are two options here.

Firstly, that when we pray it pierces directly into the heart of Christ who is our advocate in heaven. We can know that Jesus, having lived and suffered as a human being understands our pain, and feels it keenly when we pray.

Or, it could mean that sometimes when we are angry and hurt we strike out at God, and this we may recognise as a form of prayer. As a Vicar I sometimes get the edge of people’s anger with God, people who are at their wits ends have expressed their anger to me, or at me, because I am to their mind someone who represents God. For my part I listen and pray and say very little, because what can be said at such a time? I have also had the privilege of the angry person coming back to me, saying how God has brought them healing.

‘The six-days world transposing in an hour…’

Transpose, to move from one form to another while retaining the form, the six days world of creation transposed to an hour. There can be moments when you are praying that you are transposed, or taken to another place, all awareness of the physical world is left behind, and all is light. I have experienced this, this ecstasy and wonder in prayer. I find it most often starts with praise of God, singing hymns or giving thanks, and ends, as the hymn writer says, ‘lost in wonder, love and praise.’ Try giving thanks and praise to God in prayer rather than always presenting Him with a list of wants.

‘A kind of tune, which all things hear and fear…’ prayer is us joining in with the prayer and praise of heaven and of all creation. Prayer is singing along with creation.

‘Softness, and peace, and joy, and love, and bliss…’ prayer can be thundered at God, or can be words of tenderness. I once advised someone who said he could find no peace to pray for peace. He was astonished to find that in times of prayer he experienced an absolute peace. He exclaimed, ‘Why did nobody tell me this before?’

‘Exalted manna, gladness of the best…’ back to the spiritual food theme, manna the bread from heaven, the ‘gladness’ being given by Christ who is the bread of heaven come down, the ‘best’ that humanity can be.

‘Heaven in ordinary, man well drest…’ prayer is a foretaste of heaven experienced in our ordinary lives, it is us at our best, humanity ‘well dressed’ that is clothed in Christ.

‘The milky way, the bird of Paradise…’ according to legend the bird of Paradise never lands but always is airborne, what a wonderful image for prayer! Let your prayer fly, don’t pray as a pedestrian… ‘God bless Aunt Maud and Uncle Sid’… but rather be colourful and free.

‘Church-bells beyond the stars heard, the soul's blood…’ in prayer if you listen you may hear the universe calling you to prayer, or perhaps a reference to those who have gone on before us, the Church in heaven cheering us on, and ‘the soul’s blood’ – prayer is the blood of our spiritual body.

‘The land of spices; something understood…’prayer need not be dull or routine but rather a riot of colours, tastes and smells, ‘Something understood’ - prayer is a way of processing the world, it brings understanding. Who would not want to spend as much time as possible in prayer if it were so rich an experience?

George Herbert was a 17th century Anglican clergyman. An ordinary country parson who prayed and who found, like so many down the centuries, prayer to be a life changing, world shaking, bliss giving, thunderous experience..

In prayer you can speak to God, or sing to God, or be silent before God, or ask questions, or rage, or walk as a pilgrim, or give thanks, or open your eyes to the wonders of creation, or read the rich heritage of prayers passed on to us by the generations that have gone before; pray as you can, as often as you can, breath back to God what He has breathed into you.

Amen.