William Temple was the Archbishop of Canterbury from 1942 until his death in 1944. Temple, while short - lived in his office as Archbishop, was one of the most influential Anglican leaders of the 20th century. He served many pastorates and helped develop the theology of the Anglican church during the important and difficult times of World War I and World War II. Prayer was of absolute necessity for Temple. Today, I want to reflect on one of his comments about prayer. Temple wrote these words about his experience with prayer: "When I pray, coincidences happen, and when I do not, they don’t."

     How often do we prepare ourselves for our day to day activities through prayer? This is an important question. Answering this question forces us to determine whether we understand prayer as an avenue of preparation or whether we see prayer as an escape for when life has treated us unjustly. Perhaps, we have been guilty of the latter, and we have treated God more like a cosmic vending machine rather than relying on God’s deep presence in our lives to make us ready and prepare our work before we engage in life.
     I rather suspect what Temple discovered was that understanding prayer as empowerment and preparation enabled him to see that God was active and accomplishing good news all around him. As Temple became more disciplined in his praying he discovered that “ seeing ” God and
“hearing” God became more frequent. The coincidences of his life were redefined and reshaped. Life no longer unfolded haphazardly. In prayer, Temple discovered communion with God. And, in that communion he discovered that God was involved before, not only after, life unfolded.
     Maybe we ought to pay attention to Temple’s words. There might be a few opportunities we have missed because we have not been prepared. The good news is we don’t have to be unprepared. God is close. Intimate, even. And, we are invited to know God and to know what God desires for us as individuals and as a community of faith. The first and essential act we ought to do is pray.
     Grace and peace,
       Pastor Mark