Sermon for Vision / Disability Sunday Today is one of our Vision Sundays so we've got the vision logo here to remind us! If you remember our vision is in 3 parts Seeking God (yep - get that, we're a church, we're about seeking God) Sharing our Gifts (we all share what we can do with one another) and today we're focussing on the third part: Serving the world (the world? we don't like to think small in this church do we?! ) I think this part of our vision is about how faith plays out in life, does it do what it says on the tin, is it just talk or do we live it. Today is also Disability Sunday more about that as we go on. In our reading from Luke we heard Jesus saying Why do you call me Lord, Lord and do not do what I tell you? And then he tells the famous parable about how the one who hears what he says and does it is like a house built with foundations on the rock. So what is it Jesus has been telling them? Without that the question makes no sense. Why do you call me Lord, Lord and do not do what I tell you? This section comes at the end of the Sermon on the Plain - if we were in Matthew's gospel we'd get the same story and its at the end of the Sermon on the Mount. In either case Jesus would have been talking to them about the upside down values of the kingdom, most famously in the beatitudes. He's been challenging them on their ideas of who is blessed by God- who are the blessed people, the ones who are in that place where they are being blessed by God- and its not who they would have expected. Lk 6 20-21 Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of 1
God, blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled, blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. Jesus has no patience with the idea that you can tell who is blessed by God because they will be the ones leading a charmed life- on the contrary, the kingdom of God is found amongst the poor, the oppressed, amongst those who know their need of God. There's never any suggestion that following Jesus will give us an easy life- not because he wants us to suffer- but because we will receive blessing from God in the midst of the challenges of life. Have you ever been for one of those job interviews where they ask you what your worst weakness is and you basically have to say something mad like My worst weakness is that I'm too much of a perfectionist. Not so with Jesus who expects us to know our own weakness and be willing to come to him in need. Essentially we are seeing Jesus turning over the ideas of the world they were in, teaching his hearers the upside down values of the kingdom. In Luke's gospel humble ordinary people (like Mary) who say yes to God find themselves caught up in God's purposes and blessed in serving him. Our gospel reading told us that someone who comes to Jesus, hears his words, and acts on them, is like a man building a house, who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock; when a flood arose, the river burst against that house but could not shake it because it had been well built. An image of hard manual labour, digging to turn over the hard clay in summer to set down foundations on rock before the winter rains come. The reward for that hard work, the digging, the turning over of the clay and the backache, is the security of knowing that your house is built on rock. The equivalent of the digging is to allow Jesus to turn our world upside up-side down, to challenge our attitudes and disturb us, to throw away whatever gets in the way of coming to him and allow him and catch us up in what he is doing. In doing we 2
find ourselves securely on the rock that is Jesus. We don't escape the challenges of life- the river still floods, but we remain standing on the rock. And there is a warning that failure to act on Jesus words is like a house without foundations, built on the earth that will turn to mush in winter as the floods come and the house collapses. I think that one of the ways we might act on Jesus words is by considering our attitudes and actions towards people with disabilities. It's hard to say exactly how many people have a disability- possibly around 1 in 6 people. Last year we had the Paralympics and disabilities issues gained a higher profile. But there is a sense that under the surface things have not changed significantly. People with disabilities still experience discrimination in many areas of life- and disabled people might say that the thing that disables them the most is society- by which we mean that when we fail to provide for the needs of people with disabilities as a society we are disabling them. In some ways it seems that our society has got less compassionate recently with the financial problems, we've heard in the news in the last couple of weeks about the system of assessment for fitness to work which seems to be causing all sorts of problems. We might want to think about improving the experience that people with disabilities will have in our church. Our buildings have some limitations- and we have an opportunity as we plan alterations to the building to make this much better, our church language can be complicated for those who have learning disabilities, we could think about how people with visual impairment access our services. We already have a signed service once a month- the all age at 11.15 on the last Sunday of the month - if you've not been yet, please come and give it a try one month! We might also want to think about who we talk to, about making friendships (it s not 3
all about helping people, it s about relationships and community and hopefully about friendships). Some people have been learning to sign not only so they can sign services but so they can talk with people in their language. I suppose the ideal is to be an enabling or empowering church where disabled people get to make decisions, and we get to know people and build real relationships. It s not a one size fits all. Enabling better access may of course mean some disruption to the way we've usually done things but as we've said the call to follow Jesus is disruptive, it does involve hard work, like that digging down into the hard soil to build our foundations. But its not all about doing worthy stuff- its about relationships and community, and getting caught up into the purposes of our wonderful God who values everyone. I'd like to read you a section from a sermon I found online called The elephant in the room (If you'd like to read the whole thing it s at http://reformedworship.org/article/december-2004/treasure-clay-jars-preachingideas-disabilities ) St Paul in his letter to the Corinthians (2 Cor 4:7) writes We have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. Disability happens as a result of genetics, illness, or accident. It is not uncleanliness or evil or sin. It does not prevent us from the love of God or of fulfilling God's purpose for our life. Healing is not cure. Instead it is being brought back into the body of Christ, having a place at the table. That has implications for the body of Christ. Ministry is with, not to persons with disabilities. Ministry takes place in the practical details of everyday life. (it goes on to describe some of the ways it might take place). 4
This fits with our idea of serving the world, includes those of us who work in our jobs with people with disabilities, carers of family members or friends or neighbours as well as stuff done through church. It includes practical help, advocacy for disabled people's needs, and (again from the sermon) inviting all God's people, including the disabled, to participate not only in worship but in all aspects of the life of the church. Disability is the elephant in the room that we may all wish to ignore. We may be frightened by disability because it reminds us of our own individual and communal vulnerabilities. But our task is to embrace disability as the prophetic voice that reminds us of the full inclusion of all God's children in the body of Christ. Many of you know that we have a young family member who has Asperger syndrome (he's given me permission to share this with you). Aspergers is what is known as an Autism Spectrum condition. I'll read you a bit from the Autistic Society website. (http://www.autism.org.uk/ ) National Autism is a lifelong developmental disability that affects how a person communicates with, and relates to, other people. It also affects how they make sense of the world around them. It is a spectrum condition, which means that, while all people with autism share certain difficulties, their condition will affect them in different ways. I'd like to share with you a few of the experiences of my family in relation to disability. I'd like to stress that these are just our personal experiences of one type of disability- you will have different experiences. Through having a family member with Aspergers we have come into contact with lots of other people who are on the Autistic spectrum through groups he attends 5
and have become more aware of disability issues. The people who work in these groups are brilliant. The pressure is off for the kids because they all know what they are doing. However I wouldn't want to give the impression that things are always easy, school can be a struggle, especially socially. The schools our family member has attended have been pretty good but sometimes we need to negotiate to make sure his needs are met. The family member shared how much he enjoys going to youth club because people like him there. (as I said earlier- it s not all about helping people, friendship is key) A sibling's view: People with disabilities are not much different to other people, they just need a bit of help. Disability Sunday Website: The church has a God-given mandate to lead the way in recognising the needs and abilities of disabled people, to bring about positive change, and enable the full inclusion of disabled individuals within church and community life. Let us pray Lord we bring before you our experiences of disability, and ask you to be our rock, give us strength through a foundation built on you. We pray for those we care for and support in our families, church amongst our friends or at work. Show us as individuals and as a church where we need to change whether in attitudes or in actions. Help us to build relationships, to build friendships. Help us to be those who hear what you say and do it. Amen 6