'A Copernican Revelation' - Weekly Reflection 6th September 2026

Towards the end of the school holiday we went to pick up our twin grandchildren on the final day of three-day basketball coaching session. Last year one of them won an award for the most improved player. As all the children bundled out one was full of banter with a T-shirt and a basketball, the other was in a grump. We learned that he was in a mood because someone else won the award for the most improved player. Thankfully his sulk wasn’t very long-lasting. And it is not unusual for children of primary school age. They are asserting themselves and developing their own sense of personhood, their own ego.

Richard Rohr in his book, ‘Falling Upwards,’ speaks of the two halves of life. The first half is all about developing the ego, the period of acquiring and getting and establishing. Roles, money, property, positions, salary. At one level a good ego is part and parcel of our human development. However, Rohr goes onto argue that there comes a period when we need to learn to let go of our ego, to move into the second half of life.

There is a logic to this, and an inevitability no matter how much we may have acquired. Remember the story of the bigger barn building man with a bumper grain harvest. In the story the man, after building bigger barns,  is told by God, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself.’  Luke 12:16-21.

On Friday I joined the group who gather every week to discuss either the Gospel passage set for the forthcoming Sunday, or some other related topic. On this occasion we were exploring the Letter to the Galatians. One of the earliest of New Testament documents, possibly written around 48AD by Paul.

(For a useful overview of Galatians see this short video and read allied material from The Bible Project. https://bibleproject.com/guides/book-of-galatians/)

One of the broad themes of this Letter is that in Jesus we have an opportunity of being put back into a right relationship with God, with each other and with ourselves.

However, and this is a very important however, this cannot be done by anything we can do – particularly in this case by the keeping of the law as Torah observant Jews.

The Bible I was reading on Friday was from St Andrew’s, (where we meet) and someone had obviously been doing some reading and thinking. In pencil written against Galatians 3:1-5 were written the words, ‘ego, ego, ego, ego.’

Part of Paul’s larger argument, here Paul is taking them to task for having begun to be in this right relationship as a ‘gift of grace’ were they now going to turn back to works of the law.

Let me remind you of another story Jesus told. (Luke 18:9-14)

This is the story of a self-righteous Pharisee and a tax collector praying in the temple.

Christianity is unique in its vision for a world where everyone has an opportunity to become righteous, to be made right with God, with each other and with our selves.

You might have it said that all faiths/religions are but different paths up the same mountain.

Okay, but just suppose you could pay for the best guides, you were able to get the best food, that you had the time to learn about mountain climbing.

Doesn’t that put you at an advantage over others not so blessed?

‘Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith.’ Romans 3.27

I remember once standing in line with the ‘residents’ of HMP Stafford to move forward, hold out my hands and humbly accept the wafer before moving on to dip it into the wine.

It was a moment of the deepest profundity. I stood before God, to receive Him, symbolized in bread and wine. I was in the eyes of God on a par with these men with whom I lined up, some of whom had committed the most heinous of crimes against the weakest and the most vulnerable. Loved no more nor no less.

On Saturday last I was in Coventry cathedral for a Celebration of Lay Ministry in the Diocese of Coventry. Some people were mentioned by name, having been nominated for their ministry in their parish or in some other ministry they exercised. This year I wasn’t one of them!  However, I didn’t sulk or feel in anyway slighted.

Back to the teaching of Rabbi Jesus, “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.”  Matthew 6.2.

The question for us all then is to consider where we are on our life’s journey.

Are we developing a ‘good ego’ – an ego that doesn’t wallow in self-abnegation or even self-pity or loathing. But an ego that doesn’t become all consuming, all self-consuming. Just consider someone with an over inflated ego. It isn’t helpful or healthy, especially in someone in the ‘second stage of life.’

Have a little mental check in your conversations over the week ahead. How many times does you use the term, ‘I’ in your conversations. How often do you seek your way, to impose your will, to demand that people do things your way. Do you listen or has your mind gone on ahead as to what you want to say, and you are just waiting for the opportunity to jump in.

And a final word for us to chew over from our guide Messiah Jesus, “If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it.” Matthew 10.39.

And the Copernican Revelation - 'you are not the centre of the universe!'

 https://youtu.be/5tYEo0DXclE?si=5RiliTah87gFVgok