East Midland Ministers’ School Presentations
Session One: Laying the table(slide one/two)
Richard intro script
When Grace and I were approached to facilitate your thinking at this Ministers’ school it was so that I might offer you some thoughts on the topic of discipleship and Grace on social justice. We have chosen to collaborate on all the sessions because our conviction is that our following of Jesus personally and collectively plunges us inevitably into issues of social justice. As we search the scriptures for how we might live faithfully we are time and again forced to evaluate the structures and assumptions with which we live in the light of the Gospel.
As Micah puts it: He has told you, O mortal what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God. 6.8 Some of the fundamental questions are how shall spend my money, use my vote, conduct my relationships, read my Bible as an expression of my discipleship?
The bible in particular has been manipulated and misused to support colonisation, slavery, genocide, ethnic cleansing, sexism and a whole host of other forms of oppression. However, it has also been the touchstone of liberation and hope for millions of people. (Black Beauty- Tutu story) So our discipleship undertaken personally is intended to resonate socially and contribute to the creation of the Common Good – something which we shall return to in the last session as we consider what the blessed community might look like.
We want to explore these linked themes by using two powerful symbols (SLIDE 3 and 4)from John’s Gospel. In John 15. 1 – 11 Jesus called himself the true Vine and in John 6.24 – 35 he refers to himself as the Bread of Life. Wine and Bread ...those things which sustain life and bring joy to living. So we have called this session setting the table because through it we hope thatwe can lay out some of the themes of the school which we will explore over the next few days.(Slide 5)
FILM CLIP: Amazing Grace
Elapsed time: Chapter 6; scene begins at 0:25 00:26:33, and ends at 0:29:09
If you haven’t seen it before, the filmAmazing Gracechronicles William Wilberforce's efforts to end the British Transatlantic slave trade during his tenure in Parliament in the 19th century. Obviously you might not immediately feel God calling you to grapple with something as dramatic as the abolition of the slave trade, but what I love about this scene is that it captures precisely the challenge the gospel presents to all those who wish to take it seriously. It’s the constant call to recognise our interconnectedness as a human species, and our need to be involved in efforts which bring an end to the suffering of others – not simply because they need us to, but because we need to engage in Praxis to be fully in communion with Christ.
This is something John Stott touched upon in an interview in Third Way magazine and is precisely the tension that Richard and I want to unpack with you throughout the rest of this week.
Some people might divide your ministry into two halves, one focused on pietism and one concerned with the very broadest social, cultural and economic aspirations of society. What caused this change?
Granted that it was something inherent in me from the beginning, I don't honestly think there was any individual or group. I think it was reading the Bible. As I read and studied and meditated, my vision of God grew and I came to see the obvious things: that he is not just interested in religion but in the whole of life and - in the old phrase - in justice as well as justification.
I don't see any dichotomy between the 'pietistic' and the cultural and social. To me, they're two aspects of the same thing: a pursuit of the will of God. I have always been moved by the phrase 'to hunger and thirst after righteousness'; but righteousness covers both personal holiness and social justice.
...So we’re not here this week to bang you over the head with a range of causes and issues that you need to go and do something about. What we’re interested in is what justice looks like in your particular setting and how engaging with it can help nourish, rather than overburden, your ministry.
Practical exercise:
You’ll find some felt tip pens and paper table cloths around the tables you are sitting at. We’re going to be building up a patchwork quilt of words, pictures and stories over the next week that looks at the questions we’ll be asking - we want you to take some time now to reflect on this question of praxis;
- Draw/Write about the first biblical story of justice that springs to mind
- Draw/write about what justice means to you in your particular ministerial setting
- Draw/write – about a moment when your life of faith has been used to bring justice into an unjust situation.
Conclude
Let every word
Be the fruit
Of action and reflection.
Reflection alone
Without action
Or tending towards it
Is mere theory,
Adding its weight
When we are overloaded with it already...
Action alone without reflection
Is being busy
Pointlessly.
Honour the Word eternal and speak
To make a new world possible.Amen