Accept yourself

There’s a story about a parachutist who bails out of a plane and lands in a tree. He hangs there until he spots a passerby, who says: “How did you get up there?” ‘I fell from the sky’ he replies, ‘but where am I?’ “In a tree.” says the passer by. ‘You must be clergy,’ sighs the parachutist. “How did you know?” the passer by asks. “Because clergy always tell me something completely true but utterly useless.”

In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus doesn’t only tell us something true, something which has been around as long as the recession or Cliff Richard, but something which is useful. “Scribes and Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat ... do whatever they teach you, but don’t do as they do!” In other words, do the practice.

There’s another story about the devil going for a walk with a friend when they see a man stoop and pick something up. “What did that man just find?” asked the friend. “A piece of truth,” said the devil. “Doesn't that disturb you?” asked the friend. “No,” said the devil. “I’ll let him make a belief out of it.”

There is nothing wrong with belief, unless the belief is small enough to stop you practicing it. So Jesus’ teaching about prayer in Matthew’s gospel warns against external religion, which feeds ego, reputation, fame, concern for the world’s perceptions. “They do their deeds to be seen by others,” he says, with broad phylacteries, those little tie on boxes with scripture in, with long fringes on their prayer shawls, with places of honour at banquets, the best seats in a synagogue, or for respect in the market place, and the desire to be called a Rabbi.

Jesus is also called Rabbouni, or teacher, more than by any other name in the gospels, but he doesn’t start the Lord’s prayer off with “Our Jesus”. His desire is not to talk about himself, but about the life and teaching he embodies, and which we can embody. Call no one your father on earth, he says, you have one Father in heaven. Nor are we to be called instructors, we have one instructor, one Messiah, one true Self, to whom we can say: “Not my will, but yours, or Thy will be done”

The practice is saying a wholehearted yes, accepting what is, not setting up a rival to God which prevents us from being fully alive, which means to be able to say: “For all that has been, thanks, and for all that shall be, yes.” It is as shocking as it is simple. God’s only rival is anything or anyone who weakens the attitude of yes and thanks, which is a gratefulness that makes us happy.

The prayer practice Jesus recommends is to notice we are a mystery to our temporary selves, and all who exalt themselves will be humbled, all who humble themselves will be exalted. We are not our thoughts, beliefs, sensations, bodies. God is the I am of the disciple, as well as the I am of Moses, but the kingdom of God is so difficult to define, Jesus has to use images and parables, like a man who stumbles across treasure in field by accident, then buries it in his sheer joy so he can go and sell everything else to buy the field which contains it, the field of his boundary-less awareness, and have it joyously contained in an ordinary life.

Anyone who wants to find God must also understand the limitations of words and ideas, must look, listen, hear without preconceived images, ideas, or reactions, read scripture meditatively, pass through silence, like suddenly walking into a fullness of being, a moment of joy and enlightenment, so the disciple’s prayer is to give up everything to acquire who he or she really is, like a merchant who sells everything he has, the disciple becomes poor in spirit, not deficient, but un-possessive, to buy one fine pearl of unconditional happiness, even in suffering and evil. He or she doesn’t try to hold anything else, any experience, person, status, he or she accepts, in a free generous open way, so that he or she is one with life, risen life.

As we give up our time bound definitions of who we are, body, clothes, relatives, possessions, and even our reason, we give up something good for something greater, give our full attention to what contains them all, to what really is. We let go of thoughts and live as the One source of all thoughts, images, sensations and daydreams, the One God. We go to the very earliest intuitions humanity has had about what is behind the senses and the mind.

Coming back to today, we are now seeing the effects of not accepting what is, but insisting we need something else, or as a former Bishop put it, encouraging people to borrow money they can’t afford, to buy things they don’t need, to impress people they don’t like… people are demonstrating against financial mismanagement and government cutbacks across the world, and a vested interest in ensuring that things are loved and people are used, rather than the other way around.

There’s a story about a woman who is given three requests by God, who is weary of her. She asks for her husband to disappear so she can have a better one. But then she remembers his virtues and asks for him to be brought back again. With one request left she can’t decide what to ask for. What good is immortality without health? What good is health without money? What good is money without friends? So she asks God – what is your will - what should I ask for. God says “ask to be content no matter what you receive.”

St Paul says something very similar in his letter to the Philippians. I have learned the secret of being content, he says, in any and every situation. In Christ, he is no longer at the mercy of growth and decay, success and failure, honour and disgrace, poverty and riches, life and death. Thy will be done.

This is Jesus’ prayer – he is saying prayer is about interiority. We don’t need to use lots of words, he says, because our Father knows what we need before we ask. If he knows… he knows. This gives us trust to be still, to pay attention, just as God is paying attention. Just attention. Jesus advises us not to be unduly concerned about anything else - physical needs and consumer madness, but to look to beauty in the world, flowers and birds, to contemplate.

Set our mind on God’s Kingdom, so everything else will follow. Prayer in Matthew’s gospel is about being mindful, receiving the present, and not worrying about tomorrow. It is moving beyond words into a trusting loving intention which is in us, and more than this which actually is us.

Learning to practice is the same as learning to be. Distraction is unhappiness, and the cure is to pay attention. To give yourself to the moment, and to let go of the hundred thousand things contained within it. They are arising and passing within you. You, like God, contain them, so… accept yourself.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit +