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A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Richard Reddie from Churches Together in Britain and Ireland

Good morning!

Today is National Superman Day. I’m sure that many listeners would agree with the great Sir Michael Caine that ‘not many people know that!’

I’m an avid comic or graphic novel fan, especially of the superhero genre, and my favourite character has always been Superman. I still like the idea of being ‘faster than a speeding bullet’, even if this phrase is tautological in nature!

I’ve been fasincated by the religious symbolism linked to Superman. His Jewish American creators, the writer Jerry Siegel, and artist, Joe Shuster, based him on biblical figures from the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible. Superman crash lands on this planet in a space vessel as a toddler and is adopted by Martha and Jonathan Kent which is reminiscent of a Baby Moses. Equally, Superman’s strength is similar to to that of Samson’s. Interestingly, in his earliest incarnation Superman did not hve the ability to fly. Similarly, Superman’s s Kryptonian name, Kal-El, plays heavily on the divine as the word ‘El’ in the Hebrew language denotes God, and Superman’s messianic credentials can be seen in his earthly mission to ‘fight for truth and justice’.

Although Superman appears invincible, he is vulnerable to a greenish rock from his home planet called Kryptonite; which is now a that term has become a metaphor for a person’s weakness. As we all know, weakness is what makes us human, and separates us from the divine. And since time immemorial we have grappled with ways to turn our weaknesses into strengths.

In 2 Corinthians 12, the Apostle Paul, when discussing the ‘Thorn in his flesh’, suggested that Jesus Christ’s power is made perfect in weakness, and he ended his famous treatise on weakness by proposing that ‘whenever I am weak, then I am strong’.

Today I pray that I can help some people find strength when they experience weakness.

Amen

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