PostScript: Disturbing love

The kingdom of God welcomes – and challenges – all (Mark 1.21-28)

This week's news

A community disturbed   

As if the congregation at Capernaum weren't sufficiently ‘astounded’ by Jesus' teaching, things become even more shocking when a man bursts violently into the midst of their study session, shouting in anger and fear (Mark 1.21-28). Good news, it seems, is not always met with a warm welcome. Change is often a deeply disturbing prospect, and something within the man recognises that Jesus is bringing change and cannot bear it.

It is not just the troubled man who is disturbed, however. Change is coming to the community too. It would have been understandable, perhaps, if some among the crowd had been so frightened or affronted by the disturbance to their time of worship that they had taken the man by the shoulders and thrown him out of the door!

Instead, Jesus steps in and takes control of the situation, calmly demonstrating his authority not through an act of rejection, but one of restoration, releasing the man from his torment with a simple command. The ‘unclean spirit’ is rebuked and sent away but the man can now stay and take his place within the community, rather than on its fringes.

At the fringes of society

This week has seen a number of headlines focusing on how – and to what extent – our society should help its most disadvantaged and excluded members, those who live on the fringes.

In the House of Lords debate has focused on the proposed caps to benefit in the Welfare Reform Bill (with Church figures arguing both 'for ' and 'against ' and how this might affect the poorest families and their housing needs in particular. An appropriately timed debate, perhaps, for Poverty and Homelessness Action Week .

Alongside this comes news of problems in foster care, where shortages of placements, especially for those children with the most complex needs, have risen to high levels – between 8,000 and 10,000 according to the Policy Exchange think tank's report 'Fostering Ambitions '. Coverage of the report in The Times highlights the growing need for specialist foster carers, with as many as half the children in care having ‘a diagnosed mental disorder’ and others having ‘emotional or behavioural problems or special educational needs’. Yet, as the problems of children in care grow more extreme, and the job of caring for them becomes ever more challenging, the support available for carers has allegedly dwindled thanks to a ‘shambolic system’. As experienced foster carers retire, fewer new people are willing or able to come forward to take on the difficult but important work of helping to restore some form of family life to children who need it.

Finally, against a backdrop of further reports into failures in local council social care BBC Radio 4 File on 4, 'Foster system held back by council fear of criticism ', a new three-part television series from BBC2 and the Open University will begin on Monday 30 January, following social workers in Bristol. Protecting Our Children promises to help the general public to better ‘understand the complexities behind the work’ of child protection officers working on the frontline to try to help some of the most disturbed and damaged families and children.

As demonstrated by the way bishops and clerics have taken to either side of the benefit cap debate, our faith provides no easy right and wrong answers when faced with the real, messy, disturbing issues raised by damaged or disadvantaged lives. But it does demand of us that we engage with those issues – and more importantly – with the people affected. Jesus saw the potential of the man beneath the spirit of anger and fear and reached out to restore him. However difficult and discomforting it might be, that is how we too must aspire to respond.

Prayer

‘…anyone who loves God is known by him’ (1 Corinthians 8.3)

A prayer of confession for times when we have denied others as undeserving or undesirable

Anyone who loves God is known by God,
so, loving Lord, you know my discomfort and disgust
when I come face to face with the parts of life I do not like.
Forgive me when I turn my face away from your precious children
because they do things I cannot stand or understand.
Forgive me when I push away those who need help and support
because I do not think them worthy or capable of change.
Help me to see them as you see them, known and loved by you,
ever able to change and be changed by the power of your love.
Amen.

A prayer for release when we feel distressed and damaged

Anyone who loves God is known by God,
so, loving Lord, you know my disappointment and distress
when I come face to face with the parts of myself I do not like.
Release me from the fears and damage that others have brought upon me,
through their cruelty, through carelessness, or through neglect.
Release me from the fears and damage that I have brought upon myself
through wrongdoing, through weakness, or through forgetting your love.
Help me to see myself as you see me, known and loved by you,
ever changing and forever changed by the power of your love.
Amen.

Intercessions

You could use the words ‘love builds up’ from 1 Corinthians 8.1 as a response to some simple intercessory biddings, for example:

We pray for those who work in social care – Love builds up!
We pray wisdom for them – Love builds up!
We pray for peace and sleep at the end of a difficult day – Love builds up!
We pray for children in foster care, that they may be shown love and given hope – Love builds up!
…and so on.

Questions

If we had been in the congregation at Capernaum, how might we have reacted when the man first burst in? Be honest! And after he was healed?

Have we ever backed away from good news? Why? Are there aspects of God's love that scare us?

Action

How can we support those in our congregations and/or communities who work in social care, whether as social workers, foster carers, in healthcare or in other frontline caring roles? One social worker talking to the Times in a piece relating to the BBC documentary series says that what she sees in her work ‘gets into your dreams and subconscious, where I don't want it to be’ while another, remarking on how her work has put her in personal danger describes it as ‘horrendous but not as horrendous as the life these children were living’. ['Face-to-face with families in chaos', pp.4-5, Times 2, 24 January.] Faced with such challenges in their daily work, prayer for strength, peace – and even just for a good night's sleep – can only help. Obviously care workers will not be able to share details of the confidential real-life situations that may be affecting them, but you could simply ask those within your congregation to stand up together while you pray for them as a church. Some in the congregation may also wish to commit to long term regular prayer for those working in these spheres.

You could also consider ways to help welcome in those on the fringes of your church community, or who may be finding life and/or church life difficult. It could be as simple and practical as having one or two people who are good at putting others at their ease assigned to 'welcome duty' each week to keep an eye out for newcomers, not just while handing out hymn books, but after the service too, when new people may be hoping to find a way to get to know others; or, if you have or can find the right skills and resources, it might be as challenging as setting up a depression support listening group, or running a CV clinic to help jobseekers look for work.

Young people

What situations – or people – do we want to back away from or avoid, perhaps even as angrily as the way the disturbed man recoils from Jesus in Mark's Gospel? On reflection, do any of these people or situations represent a challenge that we know we must face in order to grow? What support might we need to do this?

Thinking about the people we mix with at work, school, or church, who are the people with authority – and in particular, authority that we can respect? How can we learn from them? Who are the people who are disadvantaged and on the edge? Are there ways that we can help them?

Are there situations where we have authority over others? How can we resist the temptation to abuse our authority and how can we use it, like Jesus, with love?

Rebecca Froley was the launch editor for www.rootsontheweb.com 10 years ago and has recently started a new role as Web Manager for an online investigative journalism start-up in London.

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