You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures. 
May I speak in the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.


And so what is it that you would ask for? Or put another way, What is it that you pray for? Perhaps you pray for Health? Either to get better from something which is troubling you, or hurting you or frightening you, or perhaps to keep all these things at bay, to keep healthy from things which worry you. But why should you ask for that? Why should you be healthy – more than anyone else? What are you going to do with your health if you are fortunate enough to be granted it? 

Or perhaps you would pray for wealth? Money to buy what you want, go where you want, do what you want… There’s a great deal of money floating around in London, even if most of it isn’t in here! but why should you, rather than anyone else, have money? And what would you do with it if you had it? Do you ask for it, wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures. 

And what about security or a long life? Is that what you pray for? But then again why should you be granted a secure and long life rather than anyone else? What is it that you, rather than anyone else in this church, need to live a long life for? Why should you be spared and another taken?

So what is it that you ask for? What is it that you pray for? And why do you ask it? Is it basically, essentially selfish : - St James writes : You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures.

It’s a hard challenge! But no-one said life is easy! Why should God grant any one of us health, or wealth or a long and prosperous life? And although you might think that it’s glaringly obvious why should we even want these things?
Well without simply walking into the trap of saying that we want these things so that we can spend them on ourselves!!, we want them – perhaps - because we think it is our right - a human right to health, wealth and a long and secure life. We might think that if we don’t get a good deal, then we have been cheated. 
We may think it’s our right to live until we are 80 or beyond. We may think it’s somehow our right to be in good health. We might even think it’s our right to live in this wealthy industrial society . But why should it be? Where does that idea come from? 

I fear God might not see it quite as we do! When God looks down on the earth and sees the poor health and poverty and average life expectancy of 40 years in Malawi and 33 years in Botswana, I wonder what he thinks then our request for health, wealth and a long and secure life? How does God see our prayers - side by side with theirs – we are, after all, all his children? Might he not be tempted to think that we are the lucky ones already – a people whose prayers have been answered – if only we could see it?

You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures.
St James doesn’t make it easy or comfortable for us, but then if you think the Christian faith is about being easy and comfortable, then you really are reading the wrong books!

1 Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from?
Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you? 
2 You want something and do not have it; so you commit murder.
And you covet something and cannot obtain it; so you engage in disputes and conflicts.

How dearly we would like to know where conflicts and disputes come from! Monarchs, governments and dictators invading other people’s lands - wanting something they cannot have and so committing murder – coveting something and being unable to obtain it, and so engaging in disputes and conflicts. 
In a couple of sentences in a letter to his congregation St James sums up the causes of war. 
The horrors and evils of two world wars, the holocaust, and genocide in Bosnia and Rwanda, cruel murder which continues to this day in Northern Ireland, Israel and Palestine – people – usually men - but not always – wanting something that is no longer theirs and committing murder to get it – and then what, what happens when they have it? As if land, borders, territories have not always been shifting and moving – and as if any land anywhere – even this green and pleasant land of England – invaded by Irish Celts, Germanic Angles and French Normans long before any of us became English – as if even this our own land belongs to any one race by right “The earth is the Lord’s and everything that is in it!” – the only preface to every National Anthem!

And so, with monarchs, governments and dictators grasping what they cannot have, when faced with “envy and selfish ambition, .. with .. disorder and wickedness of every kind” then good men and women, ordinary men and women like some of you here this morning, have to take up arms and go to war. 
The tragedy of hundreds of thousands of young men going to war in 1914 to defend European land borders which have been rewritten many many times since in a war to end all wars – which did no such thing. 
And the sacrifices of men and women going to war in 1939 to halt the horrors of the Third Reich in Europe and imperial barbarity in the Far East …. Only to see new dictators rise, new atrocities committed, and new evils come to light in other parts of Europe, the Middle East and the World.

And now …. the young men and young women of our own generation going to keep peace between warring groups in Iraq. The London Regiment, here this morning, sending soldiers to keep peace in Afghanistan – our prayers are with you.

But what are our prayers? What are we praying for?
If you only wanted health, wealth, security and a long life, then you wouldn’t be going.

Who is wise and understanding among you? Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom. 

It was King Solomon who first asked for Wisdom– and it is to King Solomon that God said
“ because … you have not asked for possessions, wealth, honour, and have not even asked for a long life for yourself, but have asked for wisdom and knowledge that you may rule my people over whom I have made you king, wisdom and knowledge are granted you, and I will also give you riches possession, and honour….” Funny that a sermon in Battersea in 2006 should already be there two and a half thousand years ago in the Book of Chronicles!!

and so it is wisdom that we pray for … 
The thing our affluent world seems to lack. The thing our powerful, rich and world-dominating generation so desperately needs. Wisdom for our leaders and for our governments, wisdom for our commanding officers and for their soldiers in the field, and wisdom and one might suggest humility, for our religious leaders too. A good life, and Works done with gentleness born of wisdom.
Better to write in our epitaphs “He lived a good life, his works were done with gentleness born of wisdom” than merely “He was rich, healthy and lived a long time.”

And Wisdom, the wisdom we seek, is not the same as knowing the facts. Wisdom is not the same as education, knowledge or intelligence. The intelligent may lack it – and the uneducated may overflow with it. It is a gift to be sought – past generations who knew less than we do, knew more than we do that wisdom was an elusive pearl of very great price – and it does not come easily, we have to train ourselves in it.

… the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. …. 
pure, … peaceable, .. gentle, .. willing to yield, .. full of mercy and good fruits, .. without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy.

Words we have heard somewhere else perhaps ….
“Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God” 
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God”
Blessed are the poor in Spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of God 
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth,
Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness sake, for they shall be satisfied.
And to these Jesus added two more
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted,
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Because he knew that the pure and gentle, the meek and merciful will mourn and be persecuted for their wisdom.

And so today, let us pray for wisdom … not that we may be rich, or healthy or live long, not even that we may have answers – but that we may live good lives and that our works may be done in gentleness born of wisdom. 
I ask you, when you pray, have you ever prayed that you might be pure?… pure and open in your motives, dealing with each person whoever they may be honestly and truly – running away from hidden and secret motives of envy and selfish ambition, - the temptation to use people for what you can get out of them, - power, deceit or sex. Has this ever been your prayer to God? God make me pure of heart?

And I ask you, when you pray, have you ever prayed that you might be peaceable, gentle, willing to yield - willing to go that extra step when everyone else has given up, able to stand back from personal pride at the risk of being thought to be weak. Has this ever been your prayer? God make me meek and a peacemaker on your earth?
And I ask you, when you pray, have you ever prayed that you might be full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. That you might hunger and thirst – hunger and thirst mind you, not just feel a little dry! - for righteousness – for justice – and that you might be satisfied? Has this ever been your prayer?

You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures. 

I shall not cease from mental fight, nor shall my sword sleep in my hand,
till we have built Jerusalem in England’s green and pleasant land.
Just a load of over-familiar words of early romantic nonsense sung to a good tune in a lovely nostalgic Georgian building where William Blake once walked, or a living call to wake up our hearts and minds and souls and bodies – a call to search for wisdom and discover what it really means to walk where those feet once walked in ancient time – a call to be disciples of Christ in deed as well as in word – a call to build the new Jerusalem – The Kingdom of God on earth even as it is in heaven. You must make up your own mind!

The Rev’d Paul Kennington