Readings: Isaiah 49: 8-16a; 1 Corinthians 4:1-5; Matthew 6:24-34 What a few months it has been. Tragedy and grief and loss seem to be everywhere, as many of us both here and overseas cope with floods, fire, earthquake and accidents. It makes the reading from Matthew today seem especially relevant, because in these times, money or mammon is not important and does not define our lives.

Just lately I have been pondering the idea of joy. Those things that lift our spirits and touch our hearts, and make us feel happy. Many would say music, or art, or theatre, others would say family and especially grandchildren. Some would say nature, and the beauty that it bestows on us, even though it can suddenly turn and deliver death and destruction. I would say all of these things and more, including the Eagles winning the 2006 AFL grand final, which gave me such pleasure it is indescribable to those who do not barrack for a team!

In our society today, joy is often misinterpreted, such that many think joy will come from owning more things, like bigger houses or cars or televisions, or being in a powerful position at work or in the community. Yet this type of joy is transient, easily lost as we have seen when disaster strikes or when the novelty of those things wears off, and the need for more overwhelms us. The real joy we have is through connections, with other people and with God and not status or money. This joy comes from the heart and gives us a fullness of life that has nothing to do with what we own. We have seen this recently. People turn to each other and community during dark days and we are often amazed by the sacrifice and compassion shown by complete strangers to each other. Suddenly the two tvs and the three cars and the big house do not seem important anymore. Suddenly their meaning is worthless. Care for others seems to take over and we are drawn to compassion and love rather than competition. At these times the sounds of the world are dimmed long enough that we get a hint of what life should be like.

Yet this heart stuff, this feeling we are swimming within God`s stream, in harmony with God`s way, is normally hard to cultivate and keep as the sounds of our world are loud and seductive. We are products of our culture, of our experiences, of our genes, a complicated mix of needs and wants. Unfortunately the competition for our attention is fierce. As Desmond Tutu says in his new book, `Made for Goodness`, the voices of our own desires claw at us. Each hope, ambition and dream tries to shout louder than the other. We end up with a cacophony of sound in our heads. The seduction of money and power is also real, becoming a barrier to other thoughts and producing an irrational fear that we will not have enough of either. The noisy demands of tribe and nation can drown out the voice of reason.

Desmond Tutu focuses on prayer as a way of hearing God`s word, of connecting to the inner voice of the universe. It is this voice more than anything that can lead us to the satisfaction in life that today`s reading talks about. A voice that tells us we are all made for goodness. That we are all loved, all meant for community and that all of life can flourish and be transformed. Prayer, a quiet time to still the demands of the outside world and contemplate the presence of the divine, is essential to faith. It is the way to connect our lives with God, and affects how we will see the world, what we do and how we live. It is a way of centring ourselves on God and God`s call.

There is something mysterious, joyful, when we do this, when we are in harmony with the voice of the universe, with the voice of God. This harmony speaks of a faith that goes to a deeper more intimate level. At this level the meaning and purpose of life is not money, possessions or power, but love. We find we are able to let things go willingly that do not enhance life, either ours or others. Suddenly less is more, or as Neville sometimes puts it we are downwardly mobile instead of upwardly mobile and happy about it!

But it is certainly not an easy road to be on in our society, even though our faith guides us there. Our culture continues to bombard us with opposite messages about what we should be striving for. And we often listen to these messages because we don`t find enough time to hear a different voice, God`s voice, amongst the noise. We strive, but often fall short of what we are aiming for. Or it takes a long, long time to experience it. A perfect example of this is me.

I have been working as a scientist for 20 years, mainly at Royal Perth Hospital. I have a scientist`s view of the world. I accept wholeheartedly the evidence presented to me regarding the development of life on earth, I marvel at the cosmos, the planets and stars and the incredible almost unintelligible world of quantum mechanics. My framework for life is shaped by science but also by something else. By an experience of the divine I had when I was younger and teaching anatomy, although for many years I could not name it as that. But the feeling that there was more, more to life and more to us as human beings led me to an exploration of Christianity and my arrival here many years ago. But for a long time I was such a head person, rationally plotting my path though life. Critiquing and questioning everything, but not getting down to the essence of what my faith was and ignoring the inner voice that persistently called me to follow a different path. I did not really engage enough with my faith for it to become a part of me and what I did. I would always see myself as a scientist first, a rational thinker, and never really a person of faith, with an inner connection to God that I cultivated. But I now see that without this inner connection we are doomed to waft about in the breeze, depending on what our culture`s whims and desires are. Sometimes one just needs to commit regardless of the cost, and step out in faith, mysterious though that may be. Taking on two days a week here is a major move for me, one that reveals my awakening heart. I feel suddenly that I am not going against the tide of my faith, but am swimming with the current. Suddenly there is harmony between what I am doing and what God is urging, a sense of vocation if you like. This feeling of rightness with God helps to keep me moving forward, both as a pastoral assistant and as a Scientist.

But I am not alone in all of this. We can all get a sense of this harmony, because our faith is not just tied up in what we do for a living but what we do in our life. It is the totality of how we see the world and our role in it. It shapes our interaction with others, our view of community and urges us to seek love and compassion and justice. When we strive for these things, things that are life giving and transforming, we find we are in harmony with God`s purpose and the purpose of the universe. Suddenly we are transformed. Suddenly our hearts are lifted and our spirits raised. This is the joy we seek and which prayer helps to foster. The joy of genuine faith, lived in the world.