Prayers answered. Julian is home!

“Now there was a woman who had been suffering from haemorrhages for twelve years. She had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse. She had heard about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, for she said, “If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well. Immediately her haemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. ” (Mark 5:25-29)

Hi Fighter,

I’ve found it hard to focus on the Gospel reading this week as I’ve been preoccupied with the release of our dear brother, Julian Assange. I’ve been asking God to Bring Him Home every day for more years than I can remember, as have countless others around the world. Now, suddenly, he is home! Prayers answered! Hallelujah! 😊❤️

I guess that does lead into our Gospel reading, which is also a story of prayer being answered. In this case, it’s a woman who had been haemorrhaging blood for twelve years. She (literally) reaches out to Jesus in her desperation and is instantly healed! How wonderful! It was instantaneous! And yet, in another sense, her healing was far from instantaneous. She suffered for twelve years! Why couldn’t she have been healed instantaneously twelve years earlier?

My mind goes back to Julian. He’s lying low at the moment, trying to recover. He has endured fourteen years of persecution and pain. Will he ever fully recover?

Julian’s persecution started in 2010 after he released the “Collateral Murder” video. It still chills me to watch those images of Iraqi civilians being blown to bits by a us helicopter gunship. That video was the final nail in the coffin of what had been the dominant narrative – that we’d done the right thing by invading Iraq, and that we were acting for the good of the Iraqi people. We weren’t. We were butchering them!

The Collateral Murder video sent a shockwave around the world, and it was one that clearly unsettled a lot of people in high places. There was no way of denying the crimes recorded in the video, so the perpetrators tried to shift our attention from the message to the messenger. Bogus rape allegations surfaced, leading Julian to seek asylum. People scoffed at his claim that the trumped-up charges were just an attempt to extradite him to the US. Is there anyone who still considers that a conspiracy theory?

All that was fourteen years ago! When I saw Julian in the Ecuadorian embassy in London in 2014, he was already showing signs of fatigue. Even so, he stayed there a further five years. When a new President was elected in Ecuador, he made a secret deal with the US to have Julian evicted. Julian was taken by force to the maximum-security prison in Belmarsh from where the US government attempted to extradite him. He spent five years in Belmarsh.

Julian had a stroke during that time. Many of us wondered how much longer he could last. Along with Julian’s family and friends around the world though, we kept lobbying, protesting, petitioning and praying. Like the woman in the Gospel reading, we did everything we could, but nothing seemed to work. And then, he came home!

I don’t know why it always seems to work this way, but it is reminiscent of many of Jesus’ parables. You work hard at kneading yeast into the dough, yet nothing seems to be happening. Then you take another look and … ‘voila’! (Matthew 13:33). It’s as if we have to spend a requisite amount of time wearing ourselves out – sweating and praying and seeing nothing for our efforts – and then, all of a sudden, it happens!

I asked my mentor, Terry, what he thought about this. He said that “there is neither time nor space in the spiritual realm.” Perhaps he’s right. Unfortunately though, that’s not my realm. My realm seems to be entirely constructed out of time and space!

I read this week’s Gospel again. The full passage includes both the healing of the woman and the raising of a dead 12-year-old girl. In this latter case, everyone is asking why Jesus could not have reached the girl before she died. Again, it’s a fair question with no obvious answer. It’s not obvious why Jesus acts the way He does. Even so, we get the clear impression in both these stories that Jesus Himself knew exactly what He was doing. Maybe that’s enough? Perhaps that’s all we need?

I don’t understand why we have to wait for so long to see our prayers answered. The way the Kingdom of God works makes no sense to me. Even so, I guess we don’t need to understand how the vehicle operates so long as we can trust the driver.

Our story closes with the disciples “overcome with amazement” (Mark 5:42). In other words, they had dumb looks on their faces, BUT they were trusting dumb looks. 😉

Our Sunday Eucharist

We had a great Sunday Eucharist last weekend. I always look forward to catching up with my old friends, Doug Pyeatt and Andrew Madry. We had a vibrant session of Bible Banter though, once again, I’ve limited myself to extracting just two ‘shorts’. The first raises the question, ‘How we are supposed to understand what Go is doing?’ The second asks, ‘how do we know when God is telling us to quit?’ If you identify with either or both of those questions, click below.

This coming Sunday is a special one as this is a month with five Sundays in it. We have regular teams rostered for the first four Sundays of each month but nothing for the fifth. I asked for volunteers, and have narrowed down the list to three:

David Baldwin
Andrew Logan
Mimi al-Laham

I am particularly excited to welcome Mimi to The Sunday Eucharist. Mimi is an old friend, and you may have encountered her already in the media as “Syrian Girl”, or on Twitter as @Partisangirl. Mimi is a brilliant social and political analyst, most especially when it comes to Syria and the Middle East. How she will go with our Bible Banter remains to be seen. 😉

Please join us. We will be be streaming from midday at TheSundayEucharist.com, and on Facebook , YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn and Streamyard. I do look forward to sharing this Eucharist with you. 😊

Let me work your corner

If you’d like to see my work continue, please click here to make a one-off donation, If you can afford a monthly contribution, sign up at Patreon.comand choose either:

Middleweight – $10/month (community mentoring)

Enrol in the Fighting Fit training program
Access member-only training videos
Publish to the members-only blog
Get free access to silver level membership at SurefireWealth.com

Super-Middleweight $50/month (remote mentoring)

All of the above +
One-on-one mentoring via email, phone, or Skype

Heavyweight – $100/month (in-person mentoring)

All of the above +
Training with Father Dave’s Old School Boxing Academy

Superheavyweight – $200/month (intensive in-person mentoring)

All of the above +
One weekend per month at Binacrombi Bush Camp.

Every dollar helps keep the wheels turning – the websites, the newsletters, the broadcasts, the boxing club and the bush camp. Even so, this is not a one-way process. I will support you in return, so please fill out the Physical and Spiritual Fitness Assessment form and get it back to me, and then sign up at Patreon.com.

What’s On?

Saturday to Sunday, June 29 to 30 – @Binacrombi..
Sunday, June 30^th – Our Eucharist from midday via thesundayeucharist.com (or through Facebook , YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn or Streamyard).
Tuesday, July 2^nd – Boxing at Fadi’s Gym in Five Dock from 6.00 pm.
Thursday, July 4^th – Boxing at The Mundine Gym in Redfern from 6.30 pm.
Saturday, July 6^th – Boxing (time and location to be advised)

I’m going to wind up quickly today as I’m exhausted after making the long trek to Binacrombi, and I need a break before engaging in tonight’s Bush Bash. ☹

In terms of publications this week:

I’ve republished an interview I did with ‘The General’s Son’ – Miko Peled – on www.israelandpalestine.com. Miko’s father, Matti, was a general in the Israel army in1967, yet his sister Nurit and he are both outspoke advocates for Palestine. Enjoy the short below and the full interview here.
Our Malaysian brother, Dr Chandra Muzaffar, has shared with us an article he penned, entitled, “Blackrock – no compromise with evil!”. It outlines the role the company is playing both in the Gaza Genocide and in Malaysia’s infrastructure development. It it’s been republished on www.fatherdave.com.au.
I did a quick interview with my friend – author and political analyst, Antony Loewenstein – gauging his intuitions regarding the proximity of World War III.

Keep praying for Palestine and for our broken world. To me, the Gaza Genocide looks ever more like a vortex that is going to pull all of us into its bloody orbit. I don’t see any way of stopping this. Even so, I had no inkling that Julian was about to be released either! We keep protesting, petitioning and praying. Peace is possible. Justice is possible. When we least expect it, the Kingdom comes!

Your brother in the Good Fight,