Luke 11.2-4
It’s there in the statistics!
It was once just a treat
for the weekend,
however a new survey has found
that the average Brit now forks out over £110 per month
on takeaway meals.
Not only that but Chinese and Indian food
has pushed the traditional fish and chips
into third place.
More to the point, this trend is set to continue
with the biggest group of fast food consumers
being 25 to 34-year-olds who spend as much as
£2,623 a year on them.
So too are leisure habits changing
with the average adult
internet user
claiming to spend over 20 hours
online per week
and 28 minutes per day
on mobile phones.
No wonder the BBC
could claim that
Britons spend more time
on tech than asleep.
But they can’t be too holy
about that
as we still spend
around four hours
a day
watching TV.
Here is proof,
if any was needed,
we are deluged
with words to read,
programmes to watch,
and people to correspond with
not to mention
vastly differing foods to eat.
Indeed, hardly has one idea
entered our consciousness
than it is rudely
shoved aside
by another and another.
One possible choice
is usurped
by a spectrum of others.
One intention is thrown away
by a more novel one.
As a result,
what we might call
thought noise
is continuous,
deafening and increasing.
Now of course
there were none of these distractions
in Jesus time.
Yet he still felt the need
to take himself
and disciples
away to a quiet place
so as they could get
some peace.
In other words,
he want stillness
not so much of the body
but of the mind
and certainly the soul.
How much more so
then
do we need
to take ourselves
out of the maelstrom
of digital living
to find rest, serenity
and release.
Yet do we do that
just so that we
only survive
the fray
of another week?
Or is our need for tranquillity
based on something
more nourishing?
Do we not seek stillness
so that next week
will be better,
next week
will be more fruitful
and next week
will be palpably more valuable?
For, if we go into the wilds
with Christ,
it won’t be to a desert
but an oasis.
Since it will be there
we will discover
refreshment of purpose,
of hope and of vision.
It will be in that haven
he will again feed us
with quiet but delicious faith.
It will in that refuge,
the miracle of inner renewal
will take place.
It will be in that sanctuary,
Jesus will offer
the bread of faith;
faith that he is with us
in life’s perplexity and speed,
faith that he will support us
each and every day;
faith indeed
that in God’s ancient wisdom
all will be well
and all will be well
and all manner of things will be well.
So let us return
to our community
ready to use
the gift of technology
rather than be enslaved by it.
Let us use all of today’s communications
to tell out
the good news
of our provider and saviour.
Let us also give thanks
for all the potential good
it can do.
Let us indeed enjoy
life’s tasty snacks
occasionally.
Yet let us not forget
the need
to recharge our batteries
by the older ways.
Let us not neglect
our time of quietness,
of calmness
and of togetherness with God.
Since then alone
can we truly counter
the curses of today –
the drain of fastness,
of over exposure
and of superficiality.
For it these
that are keeping hungry people
from nutritious spiritual food.
It is these
that offer a quick and easy meal
that leaves the soul
starving.
It is these,
if untamed by holy stillness,
that will leave
a ravenous generation
without the very bread of life
which is Christ Jesus.
Are you still with me?
Amen
