Today’s title is personal: I arrived in this world 55 years ago. Talking to my parents last night, who said it has arrived far faster that they thought. Forty years ago I was found by the LORD in high school, Thirty years ago injuries meant I could no longer make the road relay teams, twenty years ago I had been married for seven years and my first child was just born, and ten years ago I was meeting my oldest grandchild as a babe and the idea of moving to Dunedin had not occurred.

One of the few things I have learned over these years is that planning does not work. If you told me at thirty I would be a published academic and an examiner for my trade I would have thought you were high. I was training, and struggling with it. One cannot tell, one cannot predict.

One can only do the tasks for today. It may be my natal day, but life goes on.

So today’s text reminds us of one thing: Simple is better than complicated: Plain is better than elaborate. The one prayer we have from Christ I knew by the time I was five. I recite it in the old language of the Book of Common Prayer, for that is how I first heard it.

For Christ is merciful, and knows that often we cannot pray well, or know how. He gave us a framework, a prayer, that we can say when all else is taken.

“And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then like this:

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come,
your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

(Matthew 6:7-15 ESV)

The edge in this text is that we need to forgive those who have oppressed us and hurt us and where there are scars on our body or psyche that itch and hurt. Where the more inept of my colleagues would diagnose Post Traumatic Stress instead of brokenness, hatred and wounded pride. Where guilt and shame live.

It is hard to pray. It is harder to pray for your ex if you are divorced. It is harder still to pray for the enemy that crippled you (and praise God, that is a burden I have not been given).

But. None. Of. Us. Are. Perfect. If you think you are, young man or young woman, live a little longer. The Ugly stick will hit you, and you will end up taking pills lest your GP nag you about your cholesterol or blood pressure. You will have to continue to live with the consequences of your actions, for good and for ill.

Now, I won’t name those to thank: some of them are my family and civilians) and some are friends who I know in real life and some are people I have emailed for years but never met.

But this old fart thanks you. And for those who pray for me (and I know they are there), I thank you most deeply. I’m more than aware of my flaws.

Finally, to those who hate this place. Who hate that I say things are wrong, and that we need to repent. Who dislike reformed theology, who despise any form of Christianity. I’m not saying these things because I enjoy conflict that much: I’m abrasive in real life but I am a Kiwi, and we keep our aggression for the pub floor and the rugby field. I feel like the sign on the side of a cliff, reminding you that gravity is something you cannot opt out of. There are consequences to what we do, to our bodies, our souls and those around us.

May those around us grow in righteousness and be accounted as righteous by Christ. And may the will of the Almighty come to this world, as it is in heaven.

For his is the kingdom, the power and the glory. For all times.