Ann Morisy morisybtinternet com COULD WE SHOULD WE

Ann Morisy morisy@btinternet. com COULD WE? SHOULD WE?

GETTING A CLUE FROM THE CALENDAR GIRLS

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

WHEN WE ARE ANXIOUS …. � 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

RESPONDING TO HIGH LEVELS OF ANXIETY � Important to be able to manage one’s own reactive tendencies � Able to be a ‘non-anxious’ presence � Awareness of the danger of overfunctioning � Doesn’t fall prey to blaming � Uses fun, play and festivity (the precious gift of ‘Let’s…!)

DISCIPLESHIP … NOT JUST DOING JOBS IN CHURCH � 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 � Affirms time theological imagination our ability to do things for the first

� 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)

VENTURESOME LOVE MAKES FOR HEALTHY RELIGION � Does not indoctrinate, but encourages us to think for ourselves � Invites humility about what we think we know � Invests against in what it is for and not what it is

THE HALLMARKS OF A HEALTHY RELIGION � enlarges the imagination � teaches and encourages wisdom and holiness � opens us to the new � deepens our sympathies � fosters resilience and is. .

CLASS TREASON! STEPPING OUT OF THE PLAYPEN 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

COMMUNITY MISSION MODEL FOUR ASPECTS � Creating a 'structure of participation' (project I rota etc. ) which enables people to respond to an issue of concern and express discipleship � Extending 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 commitment � Encouraging people to reflect on their experience of being alongside those who are powerless

APT LITURGY: Enables people to trace God’s involvement in their concerns � 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 in need � Calls the stories of Jesus which resonate so strongly with those for the role of priest i. e. takes seriously the priesthood of all believers

DAVID BOSCH IN TRANSFORMING MISSION OBSERVES 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

LEARNING FROM THE LIFE OF JESUS � 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

GRACE CASCADES 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