A S E R M O N FR O M S T . M A R K’ S E P I S C O P A L C HU R C H
N E W C A N A A N, C ON N E C T I C U T
David Blaine, St. Paul, and Jesus
The Rev. Peter F. Walsh, Rector
The Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost ~ October 6, 2013
Based on 2 Timothy 1:1–14 and Luke 17:5–10.
David Blaine
I wonder how many of you have seen the
TedTalk on YouTube by a man named David
Blaine. If you do not yet know, TedTalks are
talks given on-line under the heading, “Ideas
worth Spreading.”
Then he went to London, where he was
suspended in a glass box from Tower Bridge
in London over the Thames River. He lived
for forty four days with nothing but water.
The media flew hamburgers around him in a
helicopter.
David Blaine is a man who calls himself a
magician, but he is much more than that. He
says he tries to do things that get people to
stop and think. He says he tries to challenge
himself by doing things that doctors say are
not possible.
Holding his breath
Then he wanted to see how long he could
hold his breath. Now just for fun, do two
things. First, hold your breath while I am
talking. You can even time yourself if you
want to. Please start breathing when you need
to; it would look really bad if you passed out
while I am preaching. Second, guess how long
he held his breath.
Wait until you hear the sorts of things this guy
has done.
Feats
He was buried alive in a coffin in New York
City for a week. He lived in there with
nothing but water and air. He said it was so
much fun he decided to try more of these
things.
The next thing he did was freeze himself in a
block of ice for three days and three nights in
New York City. He said that was harder than
he expected.
Then he stood on a 100 foot pillar for thirtysix hours. He looked like a statue of Admiral
Nelson in Trafalgar Square in London.
He said that while he was up there he began
to hallucinate in way that the buildings behind
looked like big animal heads.
David Blaine, who had done other acts of
deprivation, wanted to see how long he could
go with nothing, not even air. One doctor told
him that if you hold your breath for more
than six minutes you risk brain damage. He
said he took that as a challenge. He made a
few attempts to break the world record but
failed. He trained harder. Then he went on
Oprah and broke the world record while in a
dunk tank on TV.
He held his breath for 17:04.
Why these Crazy Stories
David Blaine says, “As a magician I try to
show people things they think are
impossible.” David Blaine is a challenge to all
of us, if we wish to see it that way. With his
actions, he points out that all of us are capable
of many more things than we think are possible.
David Blaine had some ideas that seemed
crazy but he pursued them. He is goaloriented. He has great faith in himself. He is
very self-disciplined. He is not a freak show.
He is an inspiration to all of us to step out of
the boundaries of our ordinariness and go
places we never thought possible.
Do you have fears…?
fears you know about
fears you do not even think about, or
fears you dress up in another name like
‘practicality’, or ‘too busy’ or ‘if only…’
Paul Talks and Jesus Talks
There were other inspiring talks given before
TedTalks hit YouTube a few years ago. Just to
name two: There were PaulTalks and
JesusTalk—talks from two people who did
extraordinary things.
St. Paul
In today’s St. PaulTalk he is writing to inspire
his fellow worker Timothy, who he calls his
beloved child. Look at what he says and think
about your own life and your dream.
The Gospel, which means Good News, is in
some sense JesusTalk’s ‘Ideas worth
spreading’ or perhaps we think of them as
‘Ideas worth living.’
This Sunday we get a snippet of a PaulTalk
and JesusTalk.
Your ‘I have a dream speech’
Hopefully you have all started breathing again
by now. Before comment on the words of
Paul and Jesus, I want you to ask yourself two
questions.
First, do you have a dream? If not a dream, do
you have a big wish? Is there something you
really want to do? What would your “I have a
dream speech” be about?”
Your dream may not be as big as racial
equality in the United States. Perhaps your
dream is to be happy or healthy. Maybe your
dream is to be holy. Or perhaps you dream to
start your own company, or to be an artist or
a writer, or maybe you want justice for the
oppressed and food for the hungry. Or maybe
you wish you had a dream so you would know
what to aim for in life.
Second, ask yourself why your dream or wish
has not yet come true. There may be many
reasons. Are they good reasons? Are you
stuck in a rut?
Do you lack faith? Are you not focused?
Paul says, “Rekindle the gift of God that is
within you through the laying on of hands; for
God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but
rather a spirit of power and of love and of
self-discipline.”
Re-Kindle the Gift of God within You
Sometimes we get stuck. Our energy does not
flow. The gift of God that is within you goes
cold. It is as though the fire in your interior
fireplace has gone out and your interior room
has gone cold. When this happens our dreams
stall, and we give up pursuing our hopes with
fresh energy.
If your dreams are stalled, if the gift of God
within you needs to be rekindled, perhaps you
need to find a spiritual friend and ask for the
laying on of hands. The prayerful laying of
hands has the power to convey the power of
God. The laying on of hands can rekindle
your spiritual life. It can break the log jam. It
can begin the energy flow again.
Cowardice
Paul continues, “God did not give us the
spirit of cowardice.” No one wants to be a
coward, someone who is fearful or
uncourageous. But the truth is sometimes we
are cowards; we are fearful and uncourageous
even if the people around us do not know it.
Sometimes we are afraid of our own dreams
and callings and wishes. We think we will
never be able to fulfill them, so why try.
Take a look at your dream or wish. What
prevents you from going for it? Is it
cowardice? St. Paul is clear; cowardice does
not come from God. Cowardice prevents us
from growing into the full stature of Christ,
because we do not even try.
Power
St. Paul tells us that God has given us the
spirit of power. Paul is trying to encourage
Timothy to keep going. He is saying that God
has given him the power to do so. All he has
to do is plug into that power.
Power is energy. It moves things. That is true
for physics and the spiritual life. When power
is focused and directed we make progress;
without we do not.
I ask you, are you powerful? Are you a tower
of power or a coward? God wants you to be
powerful. You need interior power to grow
into the full stature of Christ.
Love
Paul tells us God has given us the spirit of
love. This is the true power of the world
because it comes from God. As it says in
1 John, “God is love.” Love is what makes the
world go round. Love is what makes us alive,
it warms our soul and without it we grow
cold.
Love stops aggression.
Love begets love.
Love creates vitality.
Love cures.
It is the mainspring of life.
It creates happiness.
It gives meaning.
It brings hope.
It leads to service.
It begets passion and compassion.
Love and fear are opposites. They are the
binary language of the soul. Look at your life.
What is driven by love and what is driven by
fear? Love will open the doors to all that is
good.
Self-Discipline
What about self-discipline? Paul tells us this
comes from God, too. No big dream or wish
was ever completed except through selfdiscipline. David Blaine did not wake up one
day and decide to hold his breath for 17
minutes. He trained with incredible selfdiscipline.
How are you doing on the discipline front?
Think about the athletes that run every day.
Think about the writers who write every day,
even when they do not want to. Are you
disciplined in pursuit of your calling? Your
dream? Perhaps you just need the discipline to
pick up a phone and start with one call, just
get started one day and then do it the next day.
Faith
Finally, faith. Jesus lays it out in no uncertain
terms. “If you had faith the size of a mustard
seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, `Be
uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would
obey you.” Faith, as Jesus talks about it, is not
the ascent to certain beliefs like, “I believe it,
even though I cannot see it.” Faith for Jesus is
plugging into the power of God. It is how we
download that power. It is like the
transformer that brings the power from street
cables into your house to turn on the light
bulb or the toaster. It is the connector.
Without faith, we live without the power of
God. With faith, we live with the power of
surging through our lives.
Go For It
I do not know your calling or dream or what
you need to do to grow into the full stature of
Christ. But I do know that if you are not
pursuing that calling or dream you can rekindle
the gift that God has given you. None of us
should waste our lives being a coward. We
should have the faith in God to go for it. Jesus
just told us that a little bit goes a long way. I
wish you a little bit so you can go a long way
into growing into the full stature of Christ. Now
is the time to stop being a coward and to go for
it with God. Amen.