Praying Together 6th April 2025

Meditation for the Fifth Sunday in Lent

Passion Sunday

Collects

Most merciful God, who by the death and resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ delivered and saved the world: Grant that by faith in him who suffered on the cross, we may triumph in the power of his victory;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing that you have made and forgive the sins of all those who are penitent: Create and make in us new and contrite hearts that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may receive from you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Phillippians 3: 4b-14

I have reason for confidence in the flesh. If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on towards the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.

In the film ‘Chariots of fire, there is a scene where Harold Abrahams is distraught at having lost a race he felt he should have won because he looked over his shoulder at his opponent. “I had to look for him. It’s absolutely
fundamental. You never look.”

It doesn’t matter what we are trying to do – we allow ourselves to be distracted and in that instant, we lose sight of the finish line.

It’s so tempting. I glance over my shoulder to see how the next man is doing –is he working as hard as me? And is he getting the same reward, even though he’s not putting in half as much effort?

Or when I’m trying to get something urgent finished – the smell of fresh coffee destroys my concentration.

There is one unfailing way of making sure you hit the boundary – ‘Watch the ball’, said every coach since the dawn of time. But we don’t, and we hear that horrible sound of tumbling wickets.

St Paul doesn’t mention sport, but I think it was in his mind when he wrote to the Philippians about focussing on the highest priority of them all, the objective, the finish line: knowing Jesus, and as His body, bringing in the Kingdom. That’s the objective, the finish tape. The task that Jesus calls me to do.

“Me?” I say. “I’m nowhere near good enough. There are too many other important things that get in the way.”

“Yes, You” says the Lord. “You might not be good enough in your own strength. But if you let me, I’ll be with you all the way. You’ll have to train hard. You’ll make many mistakes, and you’ll fall down often – especially if you lose sight of the prize above all prizes and let the world take hold of your determination. But if every time, you get up and start again, letting everything else go, you’ll make it to the tape. Just trust me.“

In the same film, in the pouring rain, Eric Liddell speaks to the crowd that have seen him win a race.

“Who am I to say, “Believe, have faith,” in the face of life’s realities? I would like to give you something more permanent, but I can only point the way. I have no formula for winning the race. Everyone runs in her own way, or his own way. And where does the power come from, to see the race to its end? From within. Jesus said, ‘Behold, the Kingdom of God is within you. If with all your hearts, you truly seek me, you shall ever surely find me.’ If you commit yourself to the love of Christ, then that is how you run a straight race.”

And a final quote from another gold medallist, the sprinter Carl Lewis – ‘If you don’t have confidence, you’ll always find a way not to win’