Revisiting Biblical Narratives for a More Inclusive Faith Community

Embark on a transformative exploration with me, Tracie Corll, as we unearth the historical context behind inclusion and empowerment within ministry, particularly for individuals with disabilities. Drawing from the profound teachings in Beth Moore's "Breaking Free" and the academic insights of Chris Husslehoff, we scrutinize the ancient scriptures that have contributed to exclusionary practices and juxtapose them with the inclusive actions and teachings of Jesus. As we sift through a story of the Old Testament and the compassionate interactions of Jesus in the New Testament, we'll discover the powerful ways in which these narratives can reshape our approach to fostering a welcoming community for all.

This heartfelt episode serves as a beacon of hope, illuminating the path toward creating a church environment that celebrates the potential and contributions of every individual, including those with disabilities. We delve into the pressing need for inclusivity in our places of worship, following the exemplary model of Jesus Christ, who reached out to those often overlooked by society. By sharing stories of healing and acceptance from the scriptures, we reaffirm our resolve to cultivate a ministry that not only acknowledges but also embraces the unique gifts of each community member, ensuring that the church truly is a home for everyone. Join the conversation and be part of a movement that champions inclusion and empowerment in ministry.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:03

Hi, my name is Tracy Corral and welcome to Indispensable People. I'm a wife, mom, teacher, pastor and missionary, and I believe that every person should have the opportunity to know Christ, grow in Him and serve Him with the gifts that he has given, no matter their ability. Over 65 million Americans have a disability. That's 25% of the population. However, over 80% of them are not inside the walls of our church. Let's dive into those hard topics biblical foundations, perceptions and world-changing ideas.

Speaker 1: 0:48

Welcome to this episode of Indispensable People. I am so glad you have joined me. I am ready to jump into discovering our roots, not the kind that we're touching up on our hair but let's be honest, I've not ever dyed my hair, so I don't ever have to be concerned with that. But we are going to talk about our roots. And why are we concerned about understanding and knowing the roots of why we do what we do? It is simply because, to make changes to what we currently do, we have to understand the root of where it comes from. Right, and the basis of today is going to be in the book of John, and we're going to talk about how Jesus responded or chose to act in response to those with disabilities and how that can change the way that we approach or think or do ministry specifically. And I was reminded about a book that I read many years ago, early on in my marriage, when my kiddos were little and I wanted to be a better mom, I wanted to be a better wife, I wanted to understand what I was doing. That could be improved, and this book was called Breaking Free and I believe it was by Beth Moore and the whole idea of the book was of. The book was let's understand our past, which then creates patterns and choices for our current and understanding that will help us to look to change or improve. But we can't do that unless we know and understand where the root of this comes from. So, reading in the book of John, we see a couple instances where Jesus is healing other individuals. But what I want to do is actually go back to some Old Testament scripture and look at the root, the root of thought, the root of process, and we know that we find Jesus interacting with people with disabilities in all kinds of environments and settings, and we're going to talk very specifically about that. But the book that I am currently reading, which is called Jesus and Disability I've been in and out of this book several times, and I've actually mentioned it in previous podcasts, but it is.

Speaker 1: 3:28

The author is Chris Husslehoff, if I'm saying that correctly and he helps us to really engage in understanding the root, and so he brings up 2 Samuel 5, verse 6 through 12. And basically the background is where King David set his eyes on Jerusalem. He's ready for that capital city of Israel, but the town was occupied by the Jebusites and the thing is is, as they were getting ready to seize the city, they were being mocked, and basically they mocked David and they were telling him that even the blind or the lame could protect their city city. And at that point, david, when David captured the city, he it was, you know, the city of David, and he declared that the blind and the lame would never enter the house. So we have to look back at that statement and look for some root that maybe have led to the reasoning or thinking of recent years. So when we move from the Old Testament to the New Testament, we see the characters in the story shift from the focus on David to Jesus, and so we have to look at the change of where that went, and so we have lots of scholarly debate on the meaning of you know David saying that the blind and the lame will not enter the house.

Speaker 1: 5:22

But Jewish writing kind of alludes to the fact that the encounter and the statement may be where or the root of the exclusion of people with disabilities from the temple. But again, we look at David, who was looking at exclusive, he was holding out, he said they would never enter and that could be a root cause of the thought processes of separation and keeping them out and never entering the temple. There are some other roots, of course, that were in there, some other roots of course that were in there. But we need to look at David as kind of the excluding factor and then hopefully, as we look to Jesus, we see the including factor and that helps us as we formulate our ministries and serve people with disabilities and their families and serve people with disabilities and their families. So, looking on, let's talk about this encounter in John, chapter 5, where Jesus heals a lame man at the pool of Bethesda, and so we really need to take some understanding and get some background about Bethesda and we need to understand a couple of things about this.

Speaker 1: 6:55

First, we need to notice that Jesus made an appearance at a place that a lot of the religious leaders would never, never, never have gone. Why wouldn't they have gone there? It was a place where people with disabilities were brought Okay, and in the possibility it was said that you know the first person that would enter the healing waters. They would be healed, okay, so it was. It was a ritual, it was almost like a cult-like thing, and the man, when he had the interaction with Jesus, he said that he couldn't be healed because he didn't have anyone to put him in the water or they would have been considered like healing poles and things like that. The religious leaders would have actually, straight away, they wouldn't have been in approval of those types of things.

Speaker 1: 8:00

But here's what we understand and know about Jesus. Okay, when he was doing his ministry right, he didn't go where the rich, the famous and the powerful were. Right, he went to meet with those who were in need and he visited those who others would not have sought out, and the religious leaders of that day would have actually been very, very uncomfortable in those situations. But Jesus didn't fall under those constraints. He was going to the place where a religious leader may never have gone and he, the religious leaders, may have actually, you know, rebuked or yelled at people or sent them in a different direction and look down upon them for going to those types of things. They would have just been maybe appalled by the fact that those things were happening. Maybe appalled by the fact that those things were happening, and so we need to know that Jesus I love how Chris Husslehouse says this. He says Jesus willingly and purposefully went to the places that teemed with the marginalized and stigmatized of culture, and he could be found in the places that others would not go stigmatized of culture, and he could be found in the places that others would not go. He did not let fear or popular opinion dictate the direction of his ministry.

Speaker 1: 9:36

And listen. This is a really important thing for the churches to consider, because churches can be guilty of that very same fact. For example, a new program that has been out for a couple of years is called Celebrate Recovery, and it's an incredible program that helps people through addictions and things like that. And one of the major concerns is if we do this in our church, what type of people will it bring? Well, don't think that that kind of thinking doesn't seep into or direct the choices of whether or not ministering to people with disabilities should be a priority in the church Because, listen, if you open the doors to minister to these types of people, these types of people will be in your church. And here's the thing, as Chris also says. Here's another quote from the book. It says culpability is enlarged if the purpose of this prioritization reflects a fear of how a program like Celebrate Recovery might alter the human dynamic of the church. However, what was the human dynamic meant to be? Not a select few, not those famous, powerful, rich. Have things all in order, right? We've all heard this statement that the church is not a place for the healthy, it's a place for the sick. And we are doing the complete opposite if we're blocking programs because we're concerned that those people might be inside the walls of our church.

Speaker 1: 11:22

Now, listen, let's talk about that gentleman at the pool of Bethesda. Okay, because he was paralyzed right. And as we go back and we look for more information, we know that Jesus healed him. We know that he says that he didn't necessarily had someone to put him in the water, which would kind of there's kind of a conflicting thing there, because how did he get there? Did he just live there? And if he lived there. What was the living like? Take into consideration the idea that if he was paralyzed, he didn't have anyone to put him in the water. He also didn't have anyone to help him to the bathroom. So was he living in his own feces? He would not have smelled good. I'm assuming that he is getting by, probably very minimally, based on the charity and the kindness of others. However, not enough that he's made a connection with someone who can put him into the water. So let's go specifically a little bit more into how this whole story plays out.

Speaker 1: 12:53

So we know that Jesus made his way to Jerusalem. He was coming for some type of Jewish feast and he was going to. He went to the pool of Bethesda and it was they gathered by this place, by the gate where it was kind of where the sheep were brought in, and this man who, a place where many not just this man but others who were lame and blind would have gathered. And they went there because the pool supposedly had healing properties. And they went there because the pool supposedly had healing properties and when the water moved, the first one to be in the water would be healed. And Jesus said to this man he said do you want to get well? And the man didn't respond yes or no. Like I've already mentioned, he said listen, I've got nobody, I don't have someone to put me into the water, and that's why I'm not healed. And right then he he and Jesus said get up, pick up your mat, walk. And then Jesus just disappeared. So the man was healed and he walked away.

Speaker 1: 14:10

And one of the first things that happened was he ran into those religious leaders who were like, excuse me, sir, you're not supposed to be carrying your mat on the Sabbath. Me, sir, you're not supposed to be carrying your mat on the Sabbath. And the man who is now healed says to him he's like, yeah, but you know, this guy who healed me told me to do it, and so he didn't know who the person was. That healed him and he later Jesus, ran into the man in the temple and told, and Jesus told the man to stop sinning so that something worse would not happen to him. And the man, the healed man, found the religious leaders and then he told them hey, jesus healed me. He's like you know, this is the guy.

Speaker 1: 15:00

And there are lots of things that we can pull from that, but I want you to think about this man who was? Who claimed that he had no one to place him in the water, which meant that he was probably very lonely, he probably didn't smell very good, he probably didn't have a lot of potentials for considerations as moving forward, probably didn't have a lot of potentials for considerations as moving forward. You could say All hope was lost. Right that he was living in a place where this Looking forward to the future wasn't a positive thing and he would have lived To beg, just to survive and not surviving well, but minimally surviving.

Speaker 1: 15:54

And one of the positive and almost top priorities the church can offer through reaching out to people with disabilities is providing hope. I'm going to read you another quote from the book, to read you another quote from the book, and it says a church that provides healing for mental and social wounds of disability is an emotionally restorative environment for the disabled. In this atmosphere they will come to find joy and hope. They thought they had lost had lost. So hope. We have hope. We have Jesus, we have the promises that he provides us, and we know that Jesus is not. He didn't respond like David by saying they will not come in my house.

Speaker 1: 17:00

Jesus went to this man. He was inclusive, he chose to step up to this man, he chose to walk over, he sought him out. So we need to understand that, as the church, we don't have to wait for them to come in. We can go find them, and scripture tells us in Luke that they were compelled to come in. So we find evidence that says go out, go, bring them. These are your people, because they are God's people from the exclusionary, which is what society lived on for years and years and years. Right, people were institutionalized, they were kept aside, they were hidden, and you talk about other cultures and it's shame and it's all these things. But Jesus claims them, jesus takes credit for their existence, jesus seeks them out. He doesn't, and in that he didn't stand there and say to the man and now you owe me this, or now you should do this, or now. He wasn't looking for a return. However, when they did meet up, he not only took care of his physical well-being, but then he spoke to him about his spiritual well-being and told him to stop sinning and was able to build upon that relationship, as he then found out who Jesus was.

Speaker 1: 18:41

So we need to understand that Jesus went to the uncomfortable places. He didn't exclude or keep people out. He looked for their needs, he met their needs and he gave them hope. And those are all things that we can do as the church. We don't need to be concerned about what our church will look like, what the makeup of the individuals in our church are, because God will bring people. God will draw people to the church.

Speaker 1: 19:15

If we are doing these things, we are including, we are providing hope. We are not concerned about what you look like, smell like, think like and how much money you can put in the offering plate on Sundays. We offer hope and Jesus takes care of the rest. That is something that we need to continue and be our focus. So we move from the exclusionary and we move to the inclusive and we see the model of Jesus through each and every step of that, and the church can follow that model. Do I know everything about disability ministry? Do I have all the answers? Have I done everything perfectly? I have absolutely not, but we are going to continue this conversation so that people of all abilities can have the opportunity to know Christ, grow in Him and serve Him with the gifts that he has given them. Thank you, bye.