My text is taken from the 29th verse of the 9th chapter of the gospel according to Mark. It is three of the words that Jesus spoke to his disciples when they asked him why they could not cast the demon out of the boy. The three words are "only through prayer".

However I need to go back to the first reading about the capable wife from the book of Proverbs. It is written from the point of view of her husband. This is not surprising since this section of the book is said to be advice given to King Lemuel by his mother. So the description is not of an ordinary woman, but a woman who is in charge of a large household. Her husband, we are told is known in the city gates and takes his seat among the elders of the land. In other words he is a judge, because the law courts were always at the gates of the city.

As we read the woman's description we find that she is in control of a large family business. She commands the services of many servant girls; she buys land and develops it; she is kind to the poor; she cares for her household; she deals in cloth and clothing and she speaks words of wisdom. She is a woman of integrity, strength, independence, courage, kindness, wisdom and faith. It is an affirmation of the role of women as leaders in the household and in the community. Indeed I have often wondered if her husband is so well known and respected in the law courts because he is the husband of such a fine businesswoman.

Now the real point of the reading comes at the end. Here is the punch line. Many women have done excellently, but she has done better than all of them. She has done it, not by her charm and her beauty, but because she fears the Lord. It is her love of the Lord and her trust in the Lord that gives her the fearlessness to be honest, the confidence to be strong, the self-knowledge to be courageous and the love to be kind, wise and faithful.

I think it is significant that her love of the Lord is made plain at the end of the reading, just as Jesus' statement about prayer comes at the end of the gospel. We are to understand that it is through our fear of the Lord and through our prayer that we are made strong.

In our second reading, James is sending a letter to the twelve tribes of the Diaspora, that is, the scattered people of Israel. It sounds as if there is a lot of argument going on, and James wants it to stop. Near the beginning of his letter he says; "If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless." (Jas 1:26)

In today's reading from his letter we hear; "How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire! And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is placed among our members as a world of iniquity; it stains the whole body, sets on fire the cycle of nature, and is itself set on fire by hell." (Jas 3:5b-6)

And later on he writes, "Submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you." (Jas 4:7-8) "Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will raise you up."(Jas 4:10)

James gives this advice to his readers and to us; If you want to control your tongue and gain the wisdom of God, you need to come to the Lord in prayer and humbleness. The capable wife gained her strength from her fear of God, and the disciples needed to pray before they tried to drive out a demon.

The story is an interesting one. When the disciples could not cure the boy, Jesus was annoyed and spoke sharply to his disciples. "You faithless generation, how much longer must I be among you? How much longer must I put up with you?"

And then, to teach them a lesson he commanded, "Bring him to me." The boy's father had lost faith in the disciples so when he came to Jesus he pleaded with him, "If you are able to do anything, have pity on us and help us." Jesus was angry at his lack of faith and said to him, "If you are able!" How can you possibly doubt it? "All things can be done for the one who believes. Of course I can help you if you believe."

Immediately the father of the child cried out, "I believe; help my unbelief!" This is a prayer, one of the most powerful and touching prayers in Scripture. The man wanted to believe that his child could be cured, he wanted to have confidence in Jesus, he wanted to believe that God was in Jesus, and most importantly he really did believe that Jesus could give him the faith that he needed to believe in all those things. The man believed that he could gain strength from the Lord, strength that would give him complete trust in Jesus and with complete trust in Jesus he knew his child would be cured.

But I think that we are also like the man whose child had a spirit which made him unable to speak. We believe, but we need help with our unbelief. There are certainly people joining our congregation and our Sunday School and our Friendship Group are both growing. The Op Shop is more profitable than ever before. These are good things, for which we thank God. At the same time, we recognise that our church is not perfect. We are trying to give better pastoral care, our children's ministry and our small group ministry are still under development. There are many things we could do better.

There is no doubt that we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. It shows in our good works, in the joy of our worship, and the strength of our fellowship. We can be pleased with what we are doing, but we know we can always do better, our belief will always need help and our faith need a growing knowledge of the presence of God in the life of the parish. Which brings me right back to the text I chose for today, our Lord's words; "only through prayer." Prayer is the foundation of worship and the foundation of our life with Christ. We begin our meetings and our meals together with prayer, and many of us, I know pray alone or together every day.

I would like to see these good things made better. I would like to see a development and deepening of our prayer life. I would like us to be known as a congregation which prays. Prayer is more than the intercessions on Sunday. Prayer is more than reading the prayers from the Prayer Book. Prayer includes all the difficulties we face, the hard decisions we wrestle with, the joys we celebrate and feelings we have in the secret places of our hearts.

Two things might be helpful to us.

Firstly it has been suggested that we could meet and pray for our church, its life and ministry a quarter of an hour before the Eucharist on Sunday.

Secondly, it has been suggested that after church one Sunday we hold a seminar on prayer. These are seeds and suggestions. There are pens and paper in the foyer, and a whiteboard and markers in the hall. The Parish leadership and I need your help on this, so any comments will be welcome.

Finally, please, I ask you to pray for our parish and for its ministry, so that we may continue to share the unconditional love of God with all people, regardless of the things which may divide us, and that we may do so with growing strength and confidence, by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, in the love of God and with the fellowship and power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.