LIBERATION LECTIONARY - DISABILITY PRIDE MONTH

Many Bodies Make One

“Our freedom lies in the fact that we are not at the mercy of some “natural law”, but we are part of a social order which is by no means fixed…. This is not about adaptation, this is about self-transcending creativity. Moving beyond “Adapt or Perish”, that is, simply accepting one’s environment as permanent and then adapting to it. It is to move into a realm where one seeks to transform the inequalities.” - Marta Russell

Meditation: “Proverbs of Ashes”

“Violence is resisted by those who reverence the sacred presence of human beings and themselves embody such presence in the world. Individuals and communities protect life by taking actions that keep faith with their knowledge of something other than the lesson of oppression, or abuse, or violence. The practice of loving involves more than obeying an ideal, applying a principle, or imitating a model. Love acts emerge from the grace we have come to know in the presence of one another. It is by being faithful to the power of presence that we learn to love.

Loving resists violence by introducing in the flesh the truth that violence denies. We counter violence, not with words or arguments, but with our very lives, enacted in daily, ordinary deeds of love. Knowledge that is disrupted or destroyed by violence is restored through actions that embody love. This is the liberating quality of truth. ‘You will know the truth and the truth will make you free’ (John 8:32).”

Reading from “Proverbs of Ashes” by Rita Nakashima Brock & Rebecca Ann Parker

Reflection: Disabling Dignity

Facing this kind of violence can often lead us to desire revenge. God’s invitation to us is to seek power by staying close to the source of love. The Holy Spirit can use our fierceness to fight fire with fire, but when that happens it is through mass protest, policy making, and community based efforts, not through solitude or isolation, and often not through the same bodies that have suffered the violence we seek to end. Discrimination is a despising of God’s image imprinted on our natures. It happens because of how we look, how we communicate, how we move or do not move. And when it happens to one part of the body, it must be addressed by all the parts of the body. 

Some parts must protest the patriarchy so other members of the body can strive for policy change in a world manufactured for the masculine. Some parts must advocate while others agitate. Some must distract while others advance. We hold each other in love and consideration so that while some heal from the injuries of systemic suffering, others are well enough to bless and not curse, to heap burning coals on the heads of our enemies, and refuse to wish upon them the same violence they have done to us. There are as many different inner workings in the body of faith as there are in a human body. Each of us must find our role, and recognize that it is part of staying humble, part of being willing to be transformed in service of the work.

Daily Readings from Romans 12

Sunday Romans 12. 12-13 "Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers."

Monday Romans 12. 1-2 “I appeal to you therefore, people of God,, on the basis of God’s mercy, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable act of worship. Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Tuesday Romans 12. 3-5 “For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another.”

Wednesday Romans 12.6-8 “We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; the encourager, in encouragement; the giver, in sincerity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.”

Thursday Romans 12. 9-13 “Let love be genuine; hate what is evil; hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lag in zeal; be ardent in spirit; serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope; be patient in affliction; persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; pursue hospitality to strangers.”

Friday Romans 12. 14-18 “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be arrogant, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.” 

Saturday Romans 12. 19-21 “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord.’ Instead, ‘if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink, for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

Music: Imagination Works

Listen to the songs “Saturn” by Stevie Wonder

and “I Didn’t Know My Own Strength” by Whitney Houston