Last week we had a delicious lunch with our friends Rob and Lib in Essex. Rob and I have known each other since university days, and known each other well enough to interfere significantly in each other's lives in the sort of way that only good friends can.... He sent me the text of his sermon on Pentecost sermon which addressed what I reckon is a common Christian experience, the feeling of insecurity and inferiority - in other words, not being sure about whether we are "saved" or destined for heaven and suspecting we're not good enough and others are all better than us. I'd say this is because we haven't grasped the hugeness of God's grace, or as Frederick Faber put it "the wideness of God's mercy". Like baptism, it's not what we do that counts; it's what He does and has done eternally. We really need to get rid of our own sense of self-importance. Anyway here's a short extract from Rob's sermon:
"Let me tell you
something that a famous Indian priest, Anthony de Mello, taught. All you have
to do to experience God’s Holy Spirit is simply to breathe in. Anthony de Mello
spent a huge amount of his life teaching people to breathe in, and hence to
receive God’s Holy Spirit. When you have learned how to breathe in you will stop
worrying about other people and whether you are beautiful because you will have
received God’s Holy Spirit, and nothing else will matter again in the same way.
There is nothing living that is not enlivened by God’s Spirit. What must we do
to be saved? Breathe."
