As I’m sure you all know, today is Rogation Sunday – rogare is Latin for ‘to ask’ and this day was originally named after the BCP gospel reading for the day which includes the same phrase as today’s gospel:  

“Whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give to you.” (John 15:17)

The Rogation Days were first instituted in the 5^th Century by Mamertus, bishop of Vienne in France from 461 to 475.  During his episcopate, France was in an almost continuous state of near-disaster.  The Goths invaded Gaul.  There was an enormous amount of disease; there were fires; there were earthquakes; there were attacks by wild animals.  As a result, Mamertus spent a great deal of time in prayer, beseeching God to help the stricken community.   One night, when the town was overwhelmed with a fire, he conceived the idea of instituting an annual procession and litany in which the entire community would pray for God's blessing and protection.

Over the centuries various changes took place.  In the 1630s George Herbert said that processions on Rogation Sunday should be encouraged for the following reasons:

1. A Blessing of God for the fruits of the field.

2.  Justice in the preservation of bounds.

3. Charity in loving, walking and neighbourly accompanying one another with reconciling of  differences at the time if there be any.

4.  Mercie, in relieving the poor by a liberal distribution of largesse (generosity).

And so Rogation Sunday evolved and as often happens with great Christian Festivals, over the years different traditions have been added on.  One of these is ‘beating the bounds’: by the 17th century, the old Roman festival of 'Terminalia", or "boundaries", had been adapted by the church and served a practical purpose.  In days before Ordnance Survey maps, there were not always clear lines of demarcation between the parishes, especially where there were open field systems.  Each village wanted to make sure that their children (particularly the boys) remained within the village in which they were born.  During the procession, boys were bumped on prominent marks and boundary stones, or rolled in briars and ditches, or thrown in the pond to ensure they never forgot the boundaries.  Those of us who have sons may be sorry that this practice has ceased but no doubt Health and Safety Officers would have a field day!  Perhaps it is just as well that the Victorians made it more civilised by beating objects rather than people, in the context of a service and procession!  In the Western Church this was combined with blessing of the crops, to protect them from mildew.  That then is a bit of history about Rogation Sunday.  No doubt we could think of 21^st century ideals such as making the countryside available to all, ecological issues and at the end of Christian Aid week, caring for the poor.

Now I want to look back at the root of Rogation Sunday.  It seems to me that the ‘asking’ bit has disappeared a little and I want to look at what ‘asking God’ involves and means. Before I do that in detail I would like to look at the Acts reading. 

Now I am probably on very dangerous ground here but I think that today’s extract from Acts would have been much more effective if we had heard the rest of chapter 10.  It means that the ‘question’ that is being asked by the Jewish believers doesn’t actually appear in our reading!  I therefore think it would be helpful to go back to the beginning of the chapter to try to understand a little more about the way that God works.

The beginning of chapter 10 starts off recounting the story of a man called Cornelius who is described as a ‘very religious man’ but he was a Gentile.  He had a vision which told him to go to send some of his men to Joppa to meet Peter.  While they were on their way to visit Peter, Peter himself had a vision in which he was told that it was allowed for Jews to eat all food, not only the restricted diet that he had adhered to.  He was not quite sure why he should have had such a vision and awaited events, having learnt that when God is at work all will become clear in His time, but often not ours!  A bit of a change from the Peter of earlier times and evidence that God does change us if we listen and take note.

A little later Cornelius’ servants arrived at Peter’s door and Peter was told by the Holy Spirit to go down and meet them.  They gave him the message that Cornelius wished to speak with him after a vision that he had received and the following day Peter went with these men to meet Cornelius although he still did not know why he had been called to speak with Cornelius.  A fair amount of trusting in God is going on here as I am sure you will agree!

When Cornelius started to speak Peter suddenly understood what his vision was saying and he was able to tell Cornelius that God treats all people the same.   He went on to talk about Jesus’ life, death and resurrection and just before our reading Peter says this:

“He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

Then, as we heard in the reading, everyone who was listening to Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit and after this Peter agreed that they should be baptised.  Now usually it would have been considered ‘normal’ for converts to have been baptised in water before they received the Holy Spirit but it may be that in this particular situation God wanted to make it quite clear that He welcomed Gentiles as well as Jews.  The Jewish leaders were not strictly asking God about whether He welcomed Gentiles as well as Jews, they were rather assuming that He didn’t but the events of Chapter 10 brought this issue out into the open with God making His point very clearly.  The problem with asking God questions is that you may not get the answer you expect or want!

Now I want to take you back to the Gospel reading – just before we are told by Jesus that God the Father will give you whatever you ask him in Jesus’ name, Christ says:

“You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, SO THAT the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name”

We will receive from God BECAUSE he has chosen us and appointed us.  So we are encouraged to ask God for what we need. 

But how do we know what we need, as opposed to what we think we need?   Do we ever listen to God asking us to do something?   It can be quite scary asking for something from someone in authority and maybe we think of God as a rather severe judge, forgetting that He is the God of love.  We think of Him as being ‘up there’ somewhere, rather than a God who passionately wants to communicate intimately with each one of us.

Maybe we are guilty, like the Jews in Acts, of not actually asking God the question at all.  But if we are listening we may still hear his reply.  When I was offered an interview for a GP Training Scheme in Epping many years ago I had no intention of attending, for various reasons.  But God made sure that I couldn't put a coherent letter together refusing to attend for interview.  When I got to the interview the different pieces of my life’s jigsaw all started to fit together.  When we eventually choose to listen God can make His chosen path for us clear. 

If we remember that God created us and knows us through and through, He becomes the obvious person to turn to and ask.  Because He does know each of us intimately, He has a particular job for each one of us in mind. How can we fail when we ask Him?   

Sadly we can often fail because we ask but we don’t listen to His reply.

How about when Jesus was washing the feet of his disciples.

“You’re not doing that to me!” Peter said. 

“You don’t understand yet’” was Jesus’ reply “but you will.”

Peter was having none of that and still argued before deciding that he would have Jesus give him a complete wash!  But he wasn’t listening and he didn’t understand what Jesus was saying to him, until later on.  We have already seen that when he did listen, amazing things happened!

We are only going to find out what God wants from us if we ask Him.  It is through the Spirit that is within us that God is able to speak to us.  It is when we develop a relationship with our risen Lord that we can be changed.  We have been chosen by Christ to bear his fruit, fruit that will last.  And to do that we need to ask in the Father’s name.  Then we will be able to learn to love others as Christ loves us as well as realizing our full potential.

Perhaps these words from the hymn we have just sung could be our starting point:

Take my will and make it thine;

it shall be no longer mine.

take my self, and I will be

ever, only, all for thee.