Let those who have eyes see.

The Healing of Blind Bartimaeus Mark 10:46-52.

A sermon by theological student in our parish, Oliver Yengi

This passage is in the central part of Marks gospels, it begins with the section where Jesus healed the blind man and predicted his crucifixion that he mentioned three times to the disciples but they could not believe or understand his teaching. In this same section there was a big confusion among the disciples in regards to who is going to be the greatest also the people who gathered there to listen to Jesus teaching were confused too.  Most of them could not understand what he was talking about but Jesus reinforced his teachings by explaining and clarifying the issues.

This section alone involved healing, deep teaching which covered a range of issues such as “who the disciple think who he was?”, divorce, the blessing of the children, the rich man plus the request by John and James to sit one on the right and the other on the left in his kingdom. In the first event Jesus restored the sight of the blind man in two stages, (Mk 8:22-26) while in the second part he gives sight to the blind Bartimaeus, (Mk10:46-52), which to me is the conclusion of this section.

Jesus performed many things in this section, and Mark structured it well.  It is interesting that he started the section with Jesus healing a blind man and concluded the section also with the healing of the blind Bartimaeus. In my opinion, I could suggest that the healing of the first man possibly reflects the progress of the disciples from blindness to having half sight to full sight afterwards; this could also be reflected in our spiritual journey, thus  we grow gradually grow in faith and  begin to see things differently . Therefore, our faith make us to change on step by step basis but not just once.

Bartimaeus the blind beggar seems to be well known in that area and he said to be the son of a blind man named Timeus.  That is like father like son all blind and made the case worse. When he was sited begging, he heard the crown following Jesus and he cried out in a loud voice to Jesus Christ for mercy; “Have mercy on me O Lord Son of David.”  He believed in him and have trust that Jesus will heal him and give him sight that will relieve him from the miserable life.

In coming to Christ for help and healing, we should have an eye on him as promised Messiah, the trustee of mercy and Grace.

Jesus encourages him to hope that he should find mercy: for he stood still and commanded him to be called.

The poor man hereupon made the best of his way to Christ “He cast away his loose upper garment and came to Jesus” and cast away everything that might be in danger of throwing him down or in any way hinder him from coming to Christ or retard his motion.

We as Christians need to throw away things that hinder our way, things that might throw us down. Those who would come to Jesus should cast away garment of their sufficiency.

The particular favor he begged was that his eyes might be opened so that he might be able to work for his living and might no longer be a burdensome to brothers. It is a desirable thing to be in a capacity to earn your our bread. Begging is a shameful thing to do.

Jesus ask him what do you want me to do for you?  He answered:  My “Teacher Let me see again”

Bartimaeus received his sight because he believed and have faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus Said to him “Go your faith has made you well” when he received his sight he followed Jesus by the way: able to do thing without helper. It is not enough to come to Christ for spiritual healing and when we are done and walk away, we should continue to follow him so that we may do honour to him and receive instruction from him.

That is why we are all here every Sunday, weekdays for bible study, choir practice, and op shop and so on all working together serving God here in Holy Cross.

Those that have spiritual eye-sight see that beauty of Christ that effectually draw them to run after him. Praise be to God that we all included.

How do we together in Holy Cross show that beauty of Christ to others who are out there being, our neighbours, friends at school, work place and so on?

The healing of Bartimaeus could serve as a reminder that many who come in contact with Jesus could ‘see’ but were blind in their hearts; Bartimaeus on the other hand could see through his heart even though he was blinded through eyesight. Jesus ask him what do you want me to do for you. Today Jesus is asking us what we want here in Holy Cross. What will be our Answer?

May his word live in us and bear much fruits to his glory! Amen

Live Simply - Live in Peace

Last year, when we celebrated this day I recalled for you a little of the story of St Francis – when he lived, where he lived and what values he placed at the heart of what was to become the Franciscan Orders of Friars, Nuns and Tertiaries.

There is something about St Francis that resonates wonderfully with people today – I am sure that is why Pope Francis, who seems to be trying to embody the same values, is such a hit with people compared with his predecessor.

I think the two big issues of our time that are causing great angst for people is the environment and war/conflict.  And on these two issues I think St Francis has a lot to say. 

It is interesting when you consider the huge disconnect in humans in their consideration of Creatures and Creation.

On the one hand we marvel with David Attenborough in his nature documentaries at the extraordinary creatures of our world, and at least those of us in the wealthy first world heap adoration on our pets of various kinds – sometimes to an obscene extent in the face of poverty in the rest of the world, or even just a few suburbs away.

We love our animals.  Many of us love growing food in our gardens.  On one level creation is tops.

But on the other hand we have plundered creation with scant regard for the consequences for future generations.  Global trade these days means, for example, that Chinese traditional medicines – which many of us think are marvellous compared with the chemically engineered trugs we get from a Pharmacist – could be responsible for the extinction of a large number of exotic creatures because they kill a whole rhino just to get its horns, they kill a whole tiger just to get their genitals, and more.

The combination of our capitalist economy which seeks to drive demand beyond the capacity of earth’s resources to meet in the quest for always and ever increasing returns to shareholders, and the Military Industrial complex which rapes one part of the environment for resources and then destroys another part of environment in the cause of exerting political power and influence has meant that in almost every corner of the world the habitats of beautiful animals has been depleted to such an extent that we have an ever-growing register of endangered species.

St Francis offers two key insights into how we might remedy this.  He loved creatures and creation because they were each the handiwork of God, just as we are, and to not care for them is to not care for ourselves.  He also demonstrated a humility in his relationship with creatures.  Rather than seeing himself as superior to them – the pinnacle of Creation, made just a little lower than the angels – and lauding his power over the creatures, he prefers to adopt a stance of equality with animals.  We stand together.  We live in solidarity with each other.  We serve the least – as Jesus said so clearly to James and John in our Gospel today. 

The Gospel Way always seems to be radically different from the way of the world.   What amazes me about St Francis is that in his own way in the small part of the world he lived in he could see the Gospel challenge to the powers that be and the wisdom of the world.

The other great gift he made in this area was taking seriously the call to simplicity.  Today we would say “Live simply, so that all may simply live.”  And there are powerful counter-cultural movements working towards simplicity in our western world today – many working without a religious framework.  The Edible Garden Movement.  Recycling Movement.  The Tiny House Movement.  All the movements towards renewable energy.

But Francis was onto that long ago.  He required his monks to live simply.  They took a vow of poverty.  They could not be caught up in anything like the consumerism we worship in our day.  They took seriously Jesus’ aphorism about not worrying today about what you will do tomorrow – because God will give you all you need.  We should live with this much more in our mind than we do – and thus make our life on this planet capsule more sustainable.

When he was making his farewell speech as President of the United State, General Eisenhower said:

A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment.  Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction...

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience.  The total influence — economic, political, even spiritual — is felt in every city, every statehouse, every office of the federal government.  

We recognize the imperative need for this development.  Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications.  

Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.  In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military–industrial complex.  

The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist.  We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes.  We should take nothing for granted.  Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defence with our peaceful methods and goals so that security and liberty may prosper together.

It’s a bit longer than one of Jesus aphorisms, but I thought in its entirety it gives an insight into why we live in such a troubled world.

The military/industrial complex has hijacked public policy in the fields of foreign and national affairs.  Arms manufacturers and their financiers make a lot of money out of war – just consider how much it is worth to them to keep alive the conflict between the State of Israel and the Palestinians.

“We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence” the President said, yet almost every year since his departure from office the American military has been deployed in places as an expression of the desire of subsequent presidents to secure unwarranted influence in affairs they should leave to others to settle.

And look at the place now.  Huge areas of South East Asia a desolation from degrading defoliants and land mines.  The Middle East awash with misguided religionists wanting to impose their power and influence in places they have no right to.

In St Francis’ day there was conflict between Muslims and Christians.  Paul Moses, in his 2009 book “The Saint and the Sultan,” says:

In 1219, in the midst of disastrous Fifth Crusade, Francis crossed enemy lines to gain an audience with al-Kamil, the sultan of Egypt and a nephew of the great Muslim warrior Saladin, in his camp on the banks of the Nile.  Francis, who opposed the warfare, hoped to bring about peace by converting the sultan to Christianity.  He didn’t succeed, but came away from the peaceful encounter with revolutionary ideas that called for Christians to live harmoniously with Muslims. 

There are Muslims today who share that vision – indeed live it out where they live.  I know that many Christians struggle with the idea of living harmoniously together rather than seeking conversion.  It is also especially hard for Christians who have suffered at the hands of Muslim oppressors because of their Christianity – like our Nuba friends.  But the truth is, there are many grounds by which Jesus is honoured within Islam, and friendship with Christians is commended in the Quran, despite the things claimed by those who have distorted Islam for their own purposes.

So, I am not proposing any answers to life’s problems or solutions for global calamities.  I am simply saying how interesting it is that one of the Saints of God who lived 700 years ago in a far less complex world than we do had some insights about life, inspired by the teachings of Jesus that could show us all how to live better in this place.

The Lord Be With You!

In the Past God Spoke to our Ancestors

After listening to the Gospel reading this morning you are expecting a sermon about divorce and remarriage, but I am going to preach mainly  on the epistle reading.

The letter to the Hebrews reminds us that long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many various ways through angels , prophets, but in these last days he spoke to by his Son, whom he appointed to be heir of all things through him he also created the world.  

So today we celebrate

• Jesus the Reflection of God’s glory
• What the power of the Holy Spirit still does today
• The Jesus who considered family unity to be important to us
• Jesus that welcomes little children to his arms
• Jesus that took time to bless everyone, no matter who they were and how other people looked at them

It is important to note that,

• Jesus is our Saviour and lord
• Jesus is the promised one of God
• Jesus is the son of God and yet a man like us
• Jesus is a man who struggles to be faithful to God a man who was called to love his neighbours as himself
• A man who suffered as we suffer

The letter to the Hebrews speaks of Jesus in exalted terms.  Calling him “The radiance of God’s Glory” and “the exact representation of God’s being”.  Thus I belief is true, as our whole faith speaks of it.  It is also interesting to me because a week ago our bible study with the youth groups was based on faith.  

The letter to the Hebrews reminded us of something else that our whole faith speaks of.  It reminds us that;

• On earth Jesus was made like us, a little lower than the angels
• That Jesus was one of us born of a woman
• Born as out brother to walk as we walk through his life

The signs before us today, the bread and wine. They remind us of how he came to be our Saviour, they remind us of what his love and his faithfulness cost him

There have been two main, heretical threats to the Christian faith throughout history, the first being that, Jesus was not divine in some essential sense, the second being that, he was not completely human. The author of Hebrews, whoever, it might have been, wants us to know that Jesus was one of us, that he shared our humanity in every sense, especially in the way that he suffered. Indeed, it is precisely because of his willingness to suffer with and for us that God honoured him above all.

1. On balance, how has the church encouraged you to think about Jesus - as being more like God in human form?
2. Which way of thinking about Jesus makes you feel closer to him?

Remember!!

On the night of his betrayal, Jesus took bread and broke it, he also took wine and blessed it and gave it to his disciples

The next day out of his love for the world he died.  

The scripture tells us that Jesus died because of our sin that he looked upon himself.  The penalty for sin doing so that we might live and be one with him and one another, before God our creator, the one with the highest power.

Through his death he united us those who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one father, for this reason Jesus is not ashamed to call us brothers and sisters.

Therefore the two sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist makes us closer to Jesus and feels his presence.

May his Word live in us and bear much fruits to his glory! Amen. 

The Heavens Declare the Glory of the Lord

Sky Sunday - Season of Creation

I could never claim to be an astrophysicist, or even claim to understand much about these things.  But I have subscribed to the kind of magazines that tell stories about these things for many years and there is something that amazes me about the sky.

With our telescopes, we have gathered visible and invisible light and radio-wave information to create images of stars, galaxies and constellations that are further away from us here on earth than we can imagine.  Indeed the light which we have used to create the images has been travelling towards us for millions of years so what we say we are seeing now is really what was there those millions of years ago – maybe it has all changed.

I suppose you are like most people, feeling more comfortable thinking about rather more solid things much closer to home – like the chair you are sitting on, or the building that we are worshipping in.

In the mid to late 16^th century, as scientists were experimenting with glass lenses, Zacharias Jensen invented the first microscope and since then we have been one a quest to look at smaller and smaller things.  The electron microscope took us close enough to see the particles of atoms, and now we can even see sub-atomic particles.

What we have discovered about the world of atoms that make up solid matter in our world is that actually they are far from solid.  In fact, I hear recently that if an atom was seen on the scale of our solar system, the electrons flying around the nucleus of neutrons and protons would be as far away from the nucleus as Saturn or Jupiter are from our sun.  That seems to me to be an awful lot of space within the atoms that make up solid things.  Yet they still hold us up when we stand on them or sit on them.

When I think of our world in these two directions, I think I get in touch with the kind of awe that the Bible speaks of when it refers to our response to the Glory of the Lord.

The Psalm we read today is most eloquent about this:

¹ The heavens declare the glory of God:

and the firmament proclaims

               his handiwork;

The Psalmist did not understand the heavens In the way we do today.  As best we can tell, the cosmology of the Psalmists day was based on an image of the earth as a flat disc covered over by a hemispherical dome – the heavens.  The earth we stood on and the space between earth and the dome had a specific function – to keep the water back.

If you dig deep enough into the earth, everyone knew that you would find water, so the earth is clearly keeping that water at bay.  And the rain and hail and snow that falls is obvious let in by God, through the shutters in the heavens, to water the earth so that plants could grow and we had water to drink.

That was cause enough for the Psalmist to say these heavens declared the glory of God.  Given what we know today, how much more cause have we to marvel at the glory of the Lord.

But there is something else in this Psalm that has tantalized thinking believers for thousands of years.

³ There is no speech or language:

nor are their voices heard;

⁴ Yet their sound has gone out

through all the world:

and their words to the ends of the earth.

Because the whole basis of our social existence relies on words spoken or read, the claim in this Psalm challenges us.  Yet in some ways we understand it when we say that “actions speak louder than words.”

But it does kind of boggle my mind thinking about how these inanimate objects we have become familiar with in our universe “speak” or “declare” something to anyone.  Let me explore this a little to see if you can get in touch with it.

How would you respond if you were sitting on a beach like Cable Beach in Broome, watching the sky over the ocean gradually turn various shades of golden / orange and fading into deep amber before giving way to a bluey-green twilight that preceded the darkness of the night and the gradual brightening of the starry pinpoints of light.  Or watching a full moon rise over Roebuck Bay creating the reflections they call a "Stairway to Heaven".

A typical human response to that would be awe.  The same typical human response as when we consider God our Creator.

The ability of the created order to arouse this sense of awe in us is what I think the Psalmist is getting at with these words – that the Heavens do communicate to us without words or voices that this is all an expression of the glory of God.  And so we join with the Heavens in praising God, in declaring his glory, in responding in awe.

Thanks be to God.  Amen

Created to Serve

Most mothers, these days work very hard to bring up their children with the best of modern theories in mind.

One such mother thought it was important for her only boy to have his friends over for socializing so she would ask his friends over from time to time – to have “little boy’s time” for them all.

They had been playing outside very well for a while when her son comes in with a concerned expression on his face and asks:  “Mummy.  Where did I come from?”

Again, concerned to respond to her son’s questions with the best of modern theories on child development in mind, she proceeded to illuminate him, quite appropriately, about what we sometimes call “The Birds and the Bee.”  In short, a brief journey from conception to childbirth.

When she had finished her little boy sat quietly – which made her wonder, so she asked:  “Honey, what did you want to know all that for?”  To which he replied:

“Well, Yanni Papodopoulos says he came from Greece, and I wondered where I came from.”

Today we are celebrating Humanity Sunday in the Season of Creation, and the scriptures chosen to guide us in this celebration are rather interesting.

In Genesis we start with the creation of all living things in the first chapter, and then skip into the second chapter for the story of how God formed the first man bodily out of the earth and breathed his own spirit/breath into it to give him life.

The Psalm tries to unpack a sense of our place among all created things – a delicate web of inter-dependency.

Philippians explores what it meant for God, in Christ, to take on our humanity, and finally, the Gospel has a very clear emphasis that the earth owes us nothing.  Rather we were created in order to serve one another.

Our liturgy will use words that gather us with all people in praising God for this created world we enjoy so much, so I thought I might just explore these texts a little to get an idea of how we arrived at the views expressed in the Gospel.

The story we read in the Gospel is only part of the story.  James and John had quietly asked Jesus if they could have those places of special honour, sitting on the left and right of Jesus when his Kingdom comes in.  These men really understood the ways of the world in which the most important and powerful  lauded their power over people and had people serving them – meeting their every need.

Jesus very quickly makes it clear that this is not the way things will be in God’s Kingdom.  He says that the pathway to greatness in this Kingdom involves service to others.

Let me offer you three suggestions that are brought to mind by these readings.

Firstly, our understanding of the Creation Story is that we were given a responsibility to look after all created things – to look after the earth so that the earth could look after us.  So service is hinted at in that story.

Secondly, if we are to correctly understand what the Psalmist getting at, it seems to me that we understand ourselves as being at the pinnacle of the created order – just a little lower than the angels or gods as our translation has it – and if we were to unpack the Hebrew behind the words “dominion” and “subjection” we would come up with a much greater sense of mutual responsibility, of healthy husbandry of the animals and land, so that both the land and creatures are served and looked after.

The third glimpse at God’s purpose comes from the glorious description of the significance of the incarnation in Philippians 2.  One of the principal meanings we derive from our understanding of the incarnation is that in Jesus we see all that is possible to see of the character of God in human form.  So in this person Jesus, God has put aside his goodness, and what we see is a servant – humble and obedient.  I take from this the sense that when we take on that same role of serving others and the whole creation, we are giving human expression to this aspect of the character of God.  This is how God wants us to be.

So on this Humanity Sunday of the Season of Creation we are encouraged to see the complex inter-dependency we share with all other humans and the rest of creation.  The well-being of others and the created order is our responsibility, and in caring for them we will find ourselves served and looked after by the rest of creation.

Let us all praise God for his love and wisdom in making thing thus that we should serve one another has he came to serve us.  Amen.

Let all Created things Praise the Lord

Season of Creation 1 - Year B

Earth Sunday

While many planets have solid matter that is similar to soil and rocks, it is the water and the magical mix of the right gases in our air that make life possible.  When the space probe landed no Mars, what they were most keenly looking for was signs of water – H²O – because without it we know that no life forms are possible (at least as we understand life).

These elements are the stuff of which the Earth is made.  They are also the stuff used by God in Genesis Two to create human beings.  Human flesh was wrought out of earth/dust/clay, water and air. 

So we, ourselves are intimately connected to the earth.  At our Ash Wednesday services we say those words “From dust you came and to dust you shall return” and at funerals we say “ashes to ashes, dust to dust.”  These words express that sense of connection between us and the earth.

The remarkable truth of John 1.14 is that God, the Word, ‘became flesh’.  

•     God became the very same stuff of which Earth is made. 
•     God became part of Earth, a piece of Earth, flesh! 
•     God thus joined us in the very web of creation!

But some of you will be thinking “Isn’t there another element in this ancient scheme of things?”  Well, of course there is.  The fourth element traditionally associated with Earth is fire.  

In the Old Testament the visible presence of God called ‘the glory’ appears in fire.  Moses first confronted God in a burning bush.  Then a cloud filled with fire on Mt Sinai marked the presence of God in that place, and a fiery, cloudy pillar led the people throughout their wilderness wanderings.  And wherever the people stopped that same fire cloud dwelt in the tabernacle.  Now there is an interesting link to this in John’s Gospel.

John declares not only that God became flesh—Earth, water, air—but also that in Jesus Christ the Word of God ‘tabernacled’ (or dwelt) among us on Earth.  And in Christ we see not only the flesh of Earth but also the fire, the glory of God’s presence. 

This mystery of the incarnation is also the mystery of God becoming part of Earth for us and with us.  This is something that raises within us a sense of awe and wonder and we celebrate God’s connection with us and the earth

Now that is one reason why we celebrate the Earth during the Season of Creation. 

But, wait!  There’s more!!

At the heart of Psalm 148 is a call for all created things to Praise God.  Look it up as I speak – on p.627 in the pew bibles.  If we were reading it as a congregational Psalm it might begin to feel a bit tedious after a while.  The Psalmist seems to think that every single thing that has been created needs a mention. 

And the praise is called forth not just from the animate and sentient beings like us.  Beginning with the sun, the moon and the stars, mountains, seas, fire and rain, then the whole range of creatures that inhabit the earth.  Finally he explores the whole range of humanity – kings and rulers, young men and maidens, old folks and children – let them all praise the Lord.

So today we praise God for the whole creation, but particularly this planet on which we live.  And we join with all of that creation in praising God.

The Lord be with you.

Psalm 148 

¹ Praise the Lord, praise the Lord from heaven:

            O praise him in the heights.

² Praise him, all his angels:

            O praise him, all his host.

³ Praise him, sun and moon:

            praise him, all you stars of light.

⁴ Praise him, you highest heaven:

            and you waters that are above the heavens.

⁵ Let them praise the name of the Lord:

            for he commanded and they were made.

⁶ He established them for ever and ever:

            he made an ordinance

            which shall not pass away.

⁷ O praise the Lord from the earth:

            praise him, you sea-monsters and all deeps;

⁸ Fire and hail, mist and snow:

            and storm-wind fulfilling his command;

⁹ Mountains and all hills:

            fruit trees and all cedars;

¹⁰ Beasts of the wild, and all cattle:

            creeping things and winged birds;

¹¹ Kings of the earth, and all peoples:

            princes, and all rulers of the world;

¹² Young men and maidens:

            old folk and children together.

¹³ Let them praise the name of the Lord:

            for his name alone is exalted.

¹⁴ His glory is above earth and heaven:

            and he has lifted high the horn of his people.

¹⁵ Therefore he is the praise of all his servants:

            of the children of Israel,

            a people that is near him.

            Praise the Lord. 

The Great Leveller

Sundays after Pentecost Proper 9 [14] Year B

I am very happy being part of the Anglican Church, but sometimes there are aspects of our life as a church that strike me as being unhelpful in making the gospel clear.

One of the things that comes over again and again in the teaching of Jesus is that the world’s way of power is not God’s way.  “My Kingdom is not of this world,” Jesus says to Pilate and in these words he is not referring to his Kingdom being “out of this world” which is the way many Christians take it.  What he means is that the way of the EMPIRE – of power, force, oppression – was not his way.  He proclaimed an alternative way that did not involve sucking up to people of power and influence.  He found power in weakness.

Now we in the Anglican Church sometimes forget this.  Because in Britain we were an “established” church the leaders of the church naturally rubbed shoulders with the King and politicians, and the church was filled with what we call “the Establishment”. 

And we model our church life on structures of power.  Bishops are described as “monarchical” by which we mean that whatever they say goes.  When they write official documents like my License as your priest they use the “Royal ‘WE’”.  We this is repeated in the structure of a parish.  What I say as PP goes.  I authorise musicians, Sunday School Teachers, Op Shop workers and the like – and I can stop any of them without needing a reason.  These hierarchies of power are the same as we have in the world – monarchs, governors, presidents, prime ministers, premiers.  Each uses their power to have what they want.

But the Kingdom of God is not about power – we get that very clearly from the story of Jesus as a powerless baby in our Christmas stories and as a defeated and crucified felon in our Easter stories.  Nothing could be more powerless than these two images.

Paul is grappling with the same paradox in the passage we read from 2 Corinthians 12 today.  Paul’s leadership or authority as an Apostle had been challenged by various people in and around Corinth.  It seems they claimed to be closer to the Apostles in Jerusalem, that they did amazing signs and wonders and that Paul had done none of these things.

Paul uses this as an opportunity to teach the Corinthians something really important about the Way.  He says that we shouldn’t boast like this.

He somehow learned that God’s power was most commonly found in our weaknesses.  This was a great relief to him, because it meant that he could let people judge him very simply on what he said and what he did.  The pathway of humility is the way of Christ.

Have any of you ever explored Christian meditation?  This contemplative practice of seeking God in silence has helped many people in their spiritual journeys, but one thing I have noticed about the meditation communities is that they all seem to have their gurus or people who they look to for guidance because, presumably they do it well. 

Gurus may be wonderful, but they can have a devastating effect on novices – it is almost universally the case that people struggle with meditation.  Their minds focus on ridiculous things when they try to meditate.  They can’t stop these thoughts intruding into the space and it is very easy to think they are an absolute failure because of the overwhelming feeling that “nothing happened.”

A man once told me a wonderful thing – perhaps we as a “guru” for me in that moment.  He said to me “Every time I begin a meditation I think of myself as a beginner – that kills the expectation that something will happen.  Then, when it does, it will be a surprise.”

Paul discovered that he needed a constant reminder of the need to be humble – to not get “puffed up with pride” as he says.  And don’t you find it interesting that he is able to use something that he really doesn’t want – this thorn in the flesh that he had prayed to God three times to be free of – as a “messenger from Satan” that keeps him on the straight and narrow way.

This affliction could have been thought by many as a sign of weakness.  We don’t know what it “really” was.  I like to think of it as having the flexibility to be whatever it needed to be.  So if Paul was among a bunch of people who were very, very smart philosophers then his affliction would be that he was rather incoherent.  If he was among a group of people who were big on signs and wonders like healing or speaking in tongues, then perhaps this affliction was that he wasn’t healed, or that he couldn’t speak in tongues when he was with them.

Whatever it was, Paul thought of it as a weakness through which Christ’s power became all the more obvious – since whatever may have happened, it hadn’t been because Paul was powerful, smart, whatever.  “My grace is all you need, for my power is strongest when you are weak.”  This little message he carried with him where ever he was.

So the thing I have been pondering all week is how do I keep reminding myself of this?  And I am wondering it that is something you need to think about, too.  How do you keep yourself relying on the wisdom and power of Christ, rather than your own smarts?

One thing I do know is this.  When we all understand this together the Church is a very level place – not at all hierarchical.  There is no room for celebrities or monarchs or gurus.  We are all on a level playing field in this spiritual endeavour.