Ann Morisymorisy@btinternet.com

COULD WE? SHOULD WE?

GETTING A CLUE FROM THE CALENDAR GIRLS

EXPOSES AND MAKES VULNERABLE WHAT IS NOT ALIKE,LEADING TO SCAPEGOATING

We handle conflict by emotional distancing (cut-off)

We are inclined to ‘herd’… taking on the hurts of others

We forget how to have fun together

WHEN WE ARE ANXIOUS ….

Important to be able to manage one’s own reactive tendencies

Able to be a ‘non-anxious’ presence

Awareness of the danger of over-functioning

Doesn’t fall prey to blaming

Uses fun, play and festivity (the precious gift of ‘Let’s…!)

RESPONDING TO HIGH LEVELS OF ANXIETY

Begins with “Could I? Should I? / Could we? Should we?”

Interrupts our sense of being in control

Discipleship (of the venturesome love type!) needs a structure or colleagueship for it to be expressed

Provokes theological imagination

Affirms our ability to do things for the first time

DISCIPLESHIP … NOT JUST DOING JOBS IN CHURCH

Informs decisions across generations

Enables us to see the ‘face of the other’ (Lévinas) counters prejudice, blaming, and over hasty judgements – a disclosure moment

Significance of being ‘ordinary’

“I suspect I started to volunteer to serve breakfast to the homeless as a way of being a more faithful disciple. I did not volunteer to have my heart broken. However, at the basement door I have come not to a greater confidence in my own good works, but to a deeper awareness of my personal sins and my complicity in sinful systems, as well as to a greater dependence on the grace of Jesus Christ.

In many ways the basement door is a joyful place – a place of handshakes and conversation and fellowship. However, the door also brings with it times of conflict and, almost always a sense of failure and a glimpse of the cross. The person working the door is the one who has to say “No, you can’t come in yet…there’s no room at the tables…No, you’re too late, we’re not serving breakfast any more.” …

What a revelation this has been! I had always assumed that discipleship followed the confession of sin and the acceptance of forgiveness. The faltering hospitality offered via the basement door has taught me that the process is actually reversed: we do not fully know the depth of our sin and the reality of God’s grace until we follow the way of Jesus.”

Stanley Saunders and Charles Campbell (2000) “The Word on the Street”, Eerdmans)

Does not indoctrinate, but encourages us to think for ourselves

Invites humility about what we think we know

Invests in what it is for and not what it is against

VENTURESOME LOVE MAKES FOR HEALTHY RELIGION

enlarges the imagination teaches and encourages wisdom

and holiness opens us to the new deepens our sympathies fosters resilience

and is.........

THE HALLMARKS OF A HEALTHY RELIGION

Discipleship: Venturesome love that faces up to the anxiety of the raw, abrasive aspects of life ...

Essential for the survival of the species – and the Creation

CLASS TREASON!STEPPING OUT OF THE PLAYPEN

FOUR ASPECTSCreating a 'structure of participation' (project I rota etc.) which enables people to respond to an issue of concern and express discipleshipExtending an invitation to those from outside the church to participate (Raymond Fung)

The Isaiah Vision: "That children do not die; That old people live in dignity; those who build houses live in them; and those who plant vines receive the fruit of their labour" Isaiah 65 w 20 -23

Introducing occasional 'apt liturgy' into the project in order to provide opportunity for people to consider ways in which God may be alongside them in their struggle and commitmentEncouraging people to reflect on their experience of being alongside those who are powerless

COMMUNITY MISSION MODEL

Counteracts the tendency for church related projects to adopt a materialistic approach

The art is in identifying (or creating) the appropriate occasion for apt liturgy

Is short and simple and often takes place in mundane environments

Evokes emotions and gives people material to ponder in their hearts

Relishes the stories of Jesus which resonate so strongly with those in need

Calls for the role of priest i.e. takes seriously the priesthood of all believers

APT LITURGY: Enables people to trace God’s involvement in their concerns

Our understanding and practice of mission has changed throughout the history of the Church

Holistic mission calls for the close interplay between working for the Kingdom of God (social action) and witnessing to the salvation that Jesus brings

In the west we have allowed ‘salvation’ to be dominant – we read the Gospels as if they were ‘long introductions to the death and resurrection of Jesus’

Holistic mission needs equal attention to the life of Jesus

Enabling people to discover Jesus and his contribution to our salvation and enabling the flourishing of God’s Kingdom: Not to be achieved sequentially!

To achieve holistic mission David Bosch recommends that we take the life of Jesus more seriously

DAVID BOSCH IN TRANSFORMING MISSION OBSERVES

Eschewing power

Able to be a non-anxious presence

Subverts ‘taken-for-granted’ ways of the world ... Including the dynamic of scapegoating

Wide fraternal relations

Avoiding ‘tit-for-tat’ behaviour ... His last command... “Put down your sword”

Invests in the most unlikely

Communicates by story and analogy

LEARNING FROM THE LIFE OF JESUS

When we ‘perform’ like Jesus, even in a modest way, we discover a generous economy that is characterised by a

cascade of grace, providing a way into a gracious economy of abundance rather

than scarcity.

Graced actions are our share in Christ’s work and they open up to us, and to others, a

portal into the generous, generative economy of abundance as viable as the economy of profit, power and status

GRACE CASCADES