Sermon preached at the Cathedral Church of St Augustine of Canterbury on the nineteenth Sunday after Trinity
Tubbo the Clown
is performing at Mia's party.
He gives Mia's mummy
a pack of cards
and asks her to pick a card
memorise it
and put it
back in the pack
without telling him.
After some over theatrical
moans and groans,
waving of hands
and a rubber chicken,
Tubbo says,
"eight of diamonds!"
"Yes!" exclaims Mia's mummy
Cue much applause
and bowing and tripping over
big clown shoes.
How does he do it?
Can Tubbo really
read minds?
[PAUSE]
The more sceptical of us
might suggest that
he can't.
We would probably say
that he is using
a rigged deck of cards.
He might be using
the reflection
in Mia's mummy's glasses.
Or perhaps,
he is using some
deep psychological trick.
[PAUSE,]
Mind reading acts
these days
rely on careful observation
of a person.
Knowing how
people act normally
and how they react
unconsciously to
various events,
can give a gifted observer
a good idea of what
people are thinking.
Just subtle little mannerisms
can expose to an eagle-eye
what we are thinking.
Poker players call these
little signs 'tells'
because they use them to
tell if someone is bluffing.
We're very used to this
with the people closest to us.
"That face" on a parent
usually means
that you have done something wrong.
[PAUSE]
What, then, are we to make
of Our Lord
knowing the thoughts
of the scribes
who are watching Him
heal a man with the palsy.
Is this an act of mind reading,
or has He seen "that face"
on the scribes
when He forgives
the paralysed man
his sins.
Do the scribes
have a "tell"?
We can understand
if this is the case.
We can see the sneers,
the raised eyebrows,
the hands balling
into fists.
And we can tell
that they are taking issue
with Our Lord's authority
to forgive sins.
We don't need to read minds
to know what they are thinking.
So perhaps Our Lord
isn't a mind reader at all.
Except...
[PAUSE]
He is.
But the minds being read
aren't just
the minds of the scribes.
Right at the beginning,
all we see is a paralysed man
being brought to
Our Lord by friends.
We see their faith in Jesus.
What we don't see
is that the man
needs forgiveness
in order to be healed.
Our Lord is the first to admit
that not every illness
is the result of sin.
But equally,
some illnesses
might be the result
of sin.
How does Our Lord know
that forgiving this man's sin
will heal him?
[PAUSE]
Our Lord knows his thoughts.
And He knows the thoughts
of the scribes.
He knows our thoughts
because He knows us.
He knows our "tells".
He knows our triggers.
He knows our deepest
darkest thoughts.
Got a deep dark secret?
Sonething you want
to keep hidden?
Something which would
mortify you if someone else knows?
Well, sorry,
Our Lord knows it.
Does that make you
uncomfortable?
Why?
[PAUSE]
If God knows our shame,
why is that a problem?
What we see here in front of us,
is a God Who doesn't raise
His eyebrows,
doesn't tut-tut,
doesn't condemn,
but seeks to heal.
He wants to make us better.
He wants to forgive our sins.
But we need to come to Him
or be carried to Him
in order to find
the healing of our souls
through the forgiveness
of our sins.
We are sinners.
We know that
and we have a tendency
to scold others
or sneer at others
or avoid others
because of their sins.
But God is not like that.
And He doesn't want us to be like that.
This is why priests
cannot reveal
what is told them in confession.
God wants us
to confess to Him
and not be ashamed
of coming to confession.
We should be ashamed
of sinning.
We should not be ashamed
of repenting
of confessing
of wanting to be healed.
Because God is not
ashamed of creating us
as the Incarnation,
Death and Resurrection
proves in spades.
[PAUSE]
God reads our minds
because He knows us.
The converse is also true.
If we know God,
we know His mind too.
We can read the Mind of God
if we choose to.
But that means a life of
searching for Him
and seeking His "tell"
which can only be found
in the Word of God.
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