The Cape Town Camerata sings Ndikhokhele Bawo: "Guide me, O Father...Lead me, my Saviour... In all the sorrows of this world, Father... Father, I thank you, for you still protect me...You are forever by my side.

Ndikhokhele Bawo, zundikhokhele (Lead me oh Father, lead me)

Ndikhokhele mmeli wami ezintsizini, Zalomhlaba Bawo (Lead me my saviour in all the sorrows of this world, Father)

Bawo, Bawo, Bawo (Father, Father, Father)

Bawo ndiyabonga Ngoba wena usandigcinile (Father I thank you, for you still protect me)

Mmeli wami Bawo uhlal’ uhlele duzekwami (Father, Saviour, you calm my fears)

Bawo ndiyabonga ngoba wena usandigcinile (Father I thank you, for you still protect me)

Today’s reading is from Saint Paul’s Letter to the Romans.

Romans 7:18-25

For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.

So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

So then, with my mind I am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh I am a slave to the law of sin.

This is not a very easy passage to interpret; perhaps the best way to look at it is to say that Paul is dealing with a problem that all of us have to face: that we do not always manage to do what we want and ought to do, and perform what we know to be right.

“I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do”. Have you ever experienced this? Perhaps you are going through it at the moment...

If you were sat with Paul, what might you say to each other about this struggle? What might you offer to Paul to help him?

“Wretched man that I am!” As you listen to the passage again, notice Paul’s agony... Notice how this touches you...

Romans 7:18-25

For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.

So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

So then, with my mind I am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh I am a slave to the law of sin.

Finally, look back over this time of reflection and prayer, and try to gather the various thoughts that were occurring to you; then turn them into a prayer, to Jesus or to God.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.

As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be

World without end

Amen