Reflection: Disability/Gift

Alyssa Graber

“Each person is given something to do that shows who God is: Everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits. All kinds of things are handed out by the Spirit, and to all kinds of people! The variety is wonderful!”

Before I begin, I want to make the disclaimer that I am speaking as someone who has worked with autistic and disabled folks and has spent a lot of time listening to their voices, and not as a representative of those communities. What I am sharing is not the experience of every disabled or autistic person, so I defer to them in all cases. Also language around disability is tricky. Most disabled folks prefer “identity first language” so that’s what I am using. I also use us/them language since I am not a part of the disabled or neurodiverse communities, but I recognize us/them is far too binary and is not reflective of the wide spectrum of disability and neurodiversity. We’re just stuck with the language we have! Speaking of neurodiversity- if you are unfamiliar with this term- it’s an umbrella term that encompasses autism, ADHD, and other brain differences. While it is not synonymous with autism, I am using both terms today.

I have been on a journey of how I think about disability, and I know there really isn’t a destination. I have been a music therapist for 11 years, and up until 2 weeks ago, have spent that entire time working in a school for kiddos with autism. While it’s tempting to get into the weeds of the history of autism and how it has historically been viewed and treated, and how that has changed over time, we don’t have the time for that. I will say that even in the last decade that I’ve been working in…

Text: Mark 2:1-12Speaker: Mark Rupp

When we were planning ahead for this worship series on our Vision for Ministry, I noted that it would overlap with the end of our month of VBS activities and wondered if there was an opportunity to bring both themes together. Our vision for ministry, which you can read in full at the top of your bulletin, is a continuation from last year as we continue to focus on issues of “accessibility and inclusivity.” It was not a far leap to bring these themes together with Vacation Bible School when I realized one of the stories we would be looking at during VBS was the passage from Mark’s gospel read earlier. 

During VBS our kids got to meet Dr. Knowitall and her assistant, Rose, who were always working together on wacky experiments in their attempts to change the world. From pop-up houses made out of paper that could make sure everyone had a place to live to friendship bridges that would help people who are different come together, Dr. Knowitall and Rose had lots of good ideas even if their experiments weren’t working out quite like they expected. Even their Changemaker 5000 had to go through a number of revisions, and I’m not sure they ever got it working like they wanted. 

But along the way, they met different characters from the Bible. They talked with Nicodemus about the importance of asking questions. They met Peter and heard about how an odd vision helped him make a new friend. They talked with an Israelite woman who told them about Isaiah’s message from God to dream big about how the world could be. And they also met Candace and Theo, two friends who went to great lengths to make sure their other friend could get to see Jesus.

All of…

Text: Psalm 139:1-18Speaker: Sarah Werner

This morning I want to talk about embodiment, this miracle of creation that we allexperience every day as we move through the world. But first, I’ll start with aconfession. Being embodied has been hard for me to appreciate until quiterecently.In my life I have often retreated to the sanctuary of my mind. It has been atempting practice throughout my life. Whenever I was upset, when I felt like mybody was failing me, when I wasn’t sure what came next in my life—like a turtle Ipicked up shop from my body and moved inward. I would read and write storiesand make a home inside my head whenever the world felt too perilous, whenevermy body felt too painful to inhabit. The problem with this is that I was missing outon a large part of what it means to be human, what it feels like to be part ofcreation, a walking aspect of the earth. It’s not all bad, retreating into one’s mind.It became a sanctuary, like the chapel in the church of my childhood, all stainedglass and solid stone walls, quiet and peaceful inside, full of sacred possibility.But living entirely inside one’s mind can easily become confining. It becomesharder to connect with other people and with the world around us.A case in point. I remember when I was in college, one afternoon I went for awalk in the woods. I was ruminating on something, I can’t remember what, andhoped that time among the trees would help clear my mind. But when I got outthere, I felt just as lonely as I did in my room. There was a whole gorgeous forestaround me, but I couldn’t connect to it in any real way. I felt at a distance, like Iwas looking at a landscape but not participating in it….

Text: Matthew 7:7-12Speaker: Joel Miller

Around 5:30 on Wednesday, the church foyer was coming to life.  Parents were visiting with each other after their days of work and parenting.  Kids found their friends and were in various states of play.  It was the second week of Bible School, which would soon start with a meal in the fellowship hall, followed by programming in the sanctuary and other rooms. 

As I came out of my office to join in, I looked toward the front doors and noticed a person I didn’t recognize.  He had a bag at his feet and seemed to be taping something on the door.  Was he posting an announcement for a community event?  Was he here to ask for help?  Should I be concerned?      

I went out and introduced myself, and he introduced himself.  It turned out, sticking things on doors was his work.  He was a decal guy, here on a small job for our front doors.  The paper he had taped to the door was his notes, which he checked to confirm he had the correct instructions.  “It says here left door ‘Pray for Peace,’ right door, ‘Act for Peace.’  Does that sound right?”  It did, and I thanked him for his decal-ing before heading back inside for supper and VBS fun. 

Perhaps a few of you noticed his work this morning on your way in.  That longstanding message has been restored.  Pray for Peace.  Act for Peace.  It had been missing it’s second half ever since someone did a drive by sling shot from their SUV several months ago, shooting a rock right through the word “Act,” shattering the glass around it, leaving no clue of their motivations except that perhaps they didn’t like our actions and, if so, that they’re a really good shot.  It left…

Text: John 14:25-31

Speaker: Joel Miller

How are you feeling about the world these days?  Hold that thought. 

For the last several weeks I’ve been thinking about 1968.  This started before the assassination attempt on the former President, which makes the reference almost too on the nose.  1968 is a year I’ve seen discussed in multiple essays in recent years, the gist of which all go something like: “If you feel like the world is falling apart now, just remember 1968.”

For those of you old enough to remember, and for the rest of us who have learned the stories, it was indeed a time of upheaval and instability.

In 1968 the US and Russia were well into the deep freeze of the Cold War.  The Korean War was “over,” but in January North Korea captured a US Navy ship and held its 83 crew members in a POW camp.  The War in Vietnam was raging, with the Tet Offensive from the North also in January, and the US-led My Lai massacre in March, in which over 500 South Vietnamese civilians were slaughtered.  TV footage made the war increasingly unpopular.  As did the cries against it by civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.  One year to the day after he publicly spoke out against Vietnam, King was assassinated while leading a Poor People’s Campaign for local sanitation workers.  Memphis, Tennessee, April 4, 1968.  Riots, uprisings, erupted in over 100 cities across the country.  Two months later, Democratic Presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles.  The assassin later said he was motivated by outrage with how Kennedy approached the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. 

All that in just the first half of the year.

In October, Tommie Smith and John Carlos were kicked off the US Olympic Team for raising their fists in solidary with the Black…