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The Speechless Sing - Page 40

  • Masseycroft, 2 October 2006

    So pondering on the last line of my previous post I began thinking about the message I might bring to the people of Masseycroft this afternoon. Masseycroft is a sheltered housing complex where an Ecumenical Service is held every Monday afternoon - they are a thoughtful lively bunch with the host of disabilities that you will find amongst any group aged 70+

    Mark 9:42-50
    If we were to take this passage literally what a state we would be in. All around us one handed, one eyed, unipeds - hobbling along the Kingdom Road. (Cue Dudley Moore/Peter Cook sketch? "I've got nothing against your right leg. The trouble is - neither have you")

    These are harsh words by Jesus - and probably not aimed at everyone in the community, but at those whose sin was abusive and caused others to stumble. Yet it has still had me pondering the nature of such a community. Jesus still wants people to have the chance to follow, to enter the Kingdom of God despite their disabilities - and so as we follow there will be those around us whose journey will be a lot harder than simply putting one foot in front of the other.

    It's not the image that the world wants to present. We live in an age obsessed by physical perfection and with the means to  "heal" our natural imperfections. Disability embarrasses us - and yet look at us here - each with our own  disabilities, - age, ill-health, natural lack of certain abilities - affect each of us - some can be seen others can not. 

    Yet think about some of the people chosen by God - the ineloquent Moses, the stuttering, depressive Paul, the reluctant Jonah, the outcast Woman at the Well, the barren Sarah, Hannah, Elizabeth et. al. the blind, the lame, the desperate that gathered around Jesus - all called to follow, to hobble, drag, carry, guide, grope, themselves and each other along the Kingdom Road.

    We are a disabled community, enabled by God
    We are an impure community, who are salted by God
    We are a troublesome community, called to live in peace.
    Let us follow, hobbling, crawling, carrying, our way along the Kingdom Road


  • St. Andrew's 1 October 2006

    Another Harvest service linked around the Elijah stories of 1 Kings 17:1-16 - but also linking in the  gospel at Mark 9:38-50. I thought I was just going to look at belonging in general and our project helping local failed asylum speakers in particular but 
    disclosing new worlds/  challenged me to look at it from the view of sexual abuse and so I tried to make the jump and connection. Not sure if the discomfort in the congregation was all to  do with the subject matter or was partially that the progression didn't make sense - however it went something like this:-

     "A place at the table"
    Who will we welcome to a place at the table?

    Elijah - no resources - relied on ravens & widows - was welcome at the table
    charity - needs to be given and received! The poor understand that more than the rich who fear being beholden - owing a debt - having a place at the table is as much about accepting a place at someone elses table as welcoming others at ours

    Disciples - think they can decide who is welcome - the church has followed the disciples lead - statements of belief - the right baptism/confirmation giving access to eucharist - unwritten rules about social status, behaviour,  - Jesus does not make these rules, he seeks people willing to follow in actions not words - Jesus says “whoever is not against us is for us” - important when we are working in partnership - beauty of partnership with New Life - our style of worship, approach to theology is very different - each bearing the name of Christ. It is a good partnership to have - enhanced by acting together in feeding those who need to be fed.

    However, Jesus is not all welcoming - if any put a stumbling block ... - might be a reference to sexual abuse - children are property, least powerful members of society - “Foot” - euphemism for a penis; hand and eye are far more obviously relevant to a context of sexual abuse. The process of “seeing, coveting, taking and using” is about the exercise of power, and sexual abuse is all about power. & God condemns abuse in all it's forms, God cares about everyone who is abused - even the least powerful most abused members of our communities. - and God would rather have a disabled community than a community with an abusive power structure - “be at peace with one another”

    Who will be welcome at the table?

    For just and unjust, a place at the table,
    abuser, abused, with need to forgive,
    in anger, in hurt, a mind-set of mercy,
    for just and unjust, a new way to live,

    For everyone born, a place at the table,
    to live without fear, and simply to be,
    to work, to speak out, to witness and worship,
    for everyone born, the right to be free.

    Shirley Erena Murray © 1998, Hope Publishing Co.

    and I've come away thinking maybe I should have explored that thought about the disabled community - an armless, footless (castrated?!!), half-blind community - hobbling, groping, crawling along the way.


  • Faith Adventure

    What's the difference between belief and faith?

    My dictionary says:-
    belief: 1. a principle accepted as true or real especially without proof; 2. opinion, conviction 3. religious faith; 4. trust or confidence - as in a person's abilities.
    faith: 1 strong or unshakable belief in something especially without proof; 2. a specific system of religious belief; 3. Christianity trust in God and in his actions and promises; 4. a conviction of the truth of certain doctrines of religion; 5.complete confidence or trust in a person, remedy etc.
    - which would seem to suggest that belief and faith are dependent upon one another, in fact those of us living within a religious system need faith in order to believe these things for which we have no proof!

    Mark Oakley in his essay Reclaiming Faith in Spirituality in the City (SPCK 2005) wants to understand faith in different terms, "people believe in order to find assurance, a solution, a system of ideas. Faith, especially biblical faith, is completely different. The purpose of revelation is not to supply us with explanations or propositions, but to get us to listen to questions, radical addresses to ourselves and the world we are making. Belief talks and wallows in words, takes the initiative; faith waits, remains on guard, picks up signs, seeks to discern complex parables, listens to a silence poised for God. Belief looks for regimentation. Faith can be lonely: it knows that holiness means being separated somehow. Belief is reassuring, makes you feel safe. Faith is forever placing you on the razor's edge. Belief can order God and normalize. Faith knows this can't be done and, as it were, puts the odd back into God. Belief relates to ideas. Faith knows that ideas can get in the way; it embraces paradox and silence and lives with city-like confusion."

    I know that we will react to those views in different ways, but I am intrigued by his description of faith. I love the way that faith is an exciting adventure, whose outcome must remain unknown - open to the wonder of God and the potential of the human spirit. I seem to share a discomfort with belief as something that can be written and controlled and enforced and quantified. When Jesus says, "follow me" - he doesn't ask anyone to sign up to a well argued well scripted doctrine but to experience the adventure and learn about God's reign. The first disciples knew that there lives would be changed but not the way in which it was changed, they expect glory but not the way it is achieved. And so today's disciples are also invited to experience the adventure of faith with all it's uncertainties, fear, excitement and opportunities.

    I hope your enjoying the walk.