Written by the Rev. Diana Coberly
Invocation
We approach you, O faithful God, assured of your welcoming attitude to all. You fearfully and wonderfully made each of us. We thank you that your love is with us, that nothing can separate us from your love no matter the way we see or hear, no matter the way we talk or walk, no matter the way we think or feel. Help each of us to be aware of how we exclude persons different from ourselves from knowing Jesus. As we gather in this place, awaken us to your goodness and mercy, that we may through the liberating grace you offer us, help create an attitude of inclusiveness for all. Amen.
MARK 2:1-12
REMEMBER THE FIRST TIME I felt shame about having a disability-about how I looked with a disability. It was when the newspaper reporters were taking my picture with Gene Autrey. I had just turned five years old, and a few months before I had been admitted to the hospital seriously ill with the polio virus. I was appalled about the fact that now I was going to be seen, all over Kansas, sitting in a wheelchair. I didn’t even have braces yet. In fact, my legs look fine in the picture because the atrophy of my legs had not yet begun to show. But I knew that I was no longer whole. Something was wrong with me, not just with my body but with me.
Now that sounds ridiculous! How could a five-year-old child, who had just recently become different from other kids, have developed a sense of shame about being handicapped? But I knew it was true. I not only remember the feeling, but I have the picture that shows my hand across my mouth, as if to hide from the camera. I know how this happened. It was because of the beliefs and attitudes of persons around me, including my parents.
In Romans 8:38-39, Paul tells us that absolutely nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. And yet, I have heard, over and over, stories of persons with disabilities feeling ignored, criticized, blamed, and scorned by the church-by its liturgy, by its use of the scriptures, and by its members and their attitudes. What truly handicaps people with disabilities are the attitudes of others. And “others” means us-the people of the church.
I believe that the Mark 2:1-5 passage of scripture models spiritual accessibility for all.
Humankind’s faith made Jesus accessible to the man who was paralyzed. We don’t know about the faith of the man on the mat, but we do know about the faith of the four people who brought him to Jesus. Nothing could stop them from gaining access to the love of God through Christ Jesus: not distance; not the weight of the man who was paralyzed; not dusty roads; not crowds; not blocked entry to the house where Jesus taught.
Today, most denominations have statements or resolutions calling for their local churches to provide physical access for per sons with disabilities. A 1995, a Twentieth General Synod resolution called on the United Church of Christ to be morally bound by the spirit of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1991 (most religious institutions, organizations, or local churches are not legally bound to the provisions of the ADA). Many churches have devised ways for folks to be present in worship. Notice, I use the word “present,” not “participate in,” because many churches do not furnish large-print bulletins, hymnals, or assistive devices for people with hearing disabilities or open pews so that people in wheelchairs don’t have to sit in the back or the front. However, little attention is paid to the concept of providing access to persons with disabilities to participate fully in the life of the church.
Persons with disabilities are often unable to participate fully in the life of the church, not only because of the lack of physical access to the social hall, classrooms, choir lofts, and restrooms, but also because of the attitudinal barriers erected by members of the church community. Most Christian traditions equate perfect bodies with wholeness of the spirit. As a result, a large number of parishioners relate to persons with disabilities from one of three models: the person or family has sinned and is to be shunned; the disability is a gift from God and the person is treated in a paternalistic manner; or misfortune has befallen the person, causing him or her to be seen as a charity case.
There are two other reasons why persons with disabilities are excluded from the faith community (all communities). We remind folks of the fragility and vulnerability of their bodies. There were many times I crossed a street or entered a store that I had no intention of visiting just because I didn’t want to look at or acknowledge the person with a disability who was headed my way. Years later, I came to understand that the person I didn’t want to see or acknowledge was me.
Secondly, many people do not know what to say or do when they meet a person with a disability. Particularly, folks do not want to hurt or embarrass that individual or them-selves. Just as the four men in the Mark text provided the man who was paralyzed access to Jesus, faithful members of a congregation can invite persons with disabilities to lead a seminar or a roundtable discussion as a way to educate the entire faith community.
In the process of examining why there is an impregnable wall between most commu-nities of faith and the community of people with disabilities, Brett Webb-Mitchell, in Un expected Guests at God’s Banquet: Welcoming People with Disabilities into the Church (New York: Crossroad, 1994), identifies one problem as the issue of the difficulty of living in American society as someone who is different from the normal person. Our society, including the church congregations and parishes, attempt to make the person with a disability like everyone else, instead of accepting that person just as they are.
Each of us has abilities; each of us seek fulfillment and wholeness; each of us has disabilities; each of us know isolation and incompleteness. In the way that the four men’s faith allowed accessibility for the man who was paralyzed, we are called to be Christian agents and to act on our faith by removing barriers of attitude, economics, communication, and environment.
Our churches cannot afford to be places filled with shamed people. If we are to take seriously that all of us are created in God’s image, then we must change attitudes and bring down barriers that prevent people from finding joy in themselves as God’s whole and holy people. May we lift the roof in praising God who created us, as we are, in God’s image.
Suggested Hymns
“Help Us Accept Each Other” 388 TNCH
“We Yearn, O Christ, for Wholeness” 179 TNCH
“When Minds and Bodies Meet as One” 399 TNCH
“Called as Partners in Christ’s Service” 495 TNCH
Questions
1. Remember back to when you were five. What were some wonderful experiences you had? What were some painful or hurtful ones?
2. What are the physical barriers of your place of worship for persons with disabilities?
3. What do you feel and think when you hear the word “disability,” or when you encounter someone with a disability?
4. What role does your faith play in your attitude of inclusion-or exclusion?
Women’s Mosaic Series 2002
UCC Women’s Resource
Margaret (Peg) Slater, Editor