Friday, October 10, 2008

This I Know

We must never presume that we see. We must always be ready to see anew. But it's so hard to go back, to be vulnerable, and to say to your soul, "I don't know anything." Try to say that: "I don't know anything." Maybe you could think of yourself as an erased blackboard, ready to be written on. For by and large, what blocks spiritual teaching is the assumption that we already know, or that we don't need to know. – Richard Rohr

I understood the point of Richard Rohr’s meditation, but I was also struck by the opposite potential for spiritual growth, the ability to say “This I know!” It’s very easy for me to admit that I don’t know anything about almost everything, but it’s a real challenge to declare my thoughts on things as inconsequential as a favorite color, a favorite restaurant, or a favorite movie. If I can’t claim my own ideas, how can I pretend to have knowledge at all? How then can I pronounce the miracles of Jesus, or participate in Scriptural debate, or suggest the discernment of God’s will if I can’t identify what I do know about myself? If a blackboard remains blank, no reinforced teaching can occur. When you write key words it helps strengthen the message. What would you write down as the essential things you know, and that you wanted others to know about you?

My prayer for the congregation?

Omnipotent God, we know that you hold us dearly and have our best interests as your aim. Let us narrow down the most basic tenets that we follow and may they be seen as plainly in our actions as if they were written on our foreheads. Allow us to marvel at your mysteries without a need to undermine by explanations and propositions and instead utter words of submission, “I don’t know. It’s a God thing.” Build up our knowledge of ourselves, what we believe and what we are capable of becoming with your grace. Let us affirm what we believe to be true, "Jesus loves me, this I know!" Amen

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