In Lockdown with the Galatians

INLOCKDOWNWITHTHEGALATIANS:

PAUL’SGOODNEWSFORBURDENEDPEOPLE

CO-ORDINATEDBY JOHNBOTTOMLEYWITH CREATIVEMINISTRIESNETWORKCONGREGATION

INCLUDINGAFOREWORDBY SEAN WINTER HEAD OF COLLEGE PILGRIMTHEOLOGICALCOLLEGE,MELBOURNE INLOCKDOWNWITHTHEGALATIANS: PAUL’SGOODNEWSFORBURDENEDPEOPLE

Published 2020 by CREATIVEMINISTRIESNETWORKCONGREGATION Uniting Church in Australia

Webpage: http://creative.unitingchurch.org.au/

Creative Ministries Network Congregation ISBN 978-0-9954357-2-8

Study Coordinator: John Bottomley Email: [email protected] Design and layout: David Bottomley Photographs: Margaret Neith ‘Jaffna Collection’

2 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be changed, without the prior permission of the publisher. 3 them where they belong: into FOREWORD communities of faith who read Scripture in order to discern the good To be honest, we aren’t completely sure news of the gospel in midst of their who the ‘Galatians’ were to whom Paul own historical, social and political wrote his passionate and influential circumstances. They were developed letter. ‘Galatia’ could refer to a region during the ‘lockdown’ months of life in inhabited by Celtic tribes or to a larger Melbourne in 2020. But the relevance of Roman imperial province. But we do this way of doing Bible study extends know that the Romans despised the far beyond those circumstances. The ‘Gauls’ and regarded them as useful format and content of each study will only in so far as they could be help you (note: the ‘you’ is plural. conquered, along with their territory. Bible study is best done in groups) to Recent studies of Paul’s letter to the grapple seriously with the text as well assembly of Christ-believers in the as identify the connections between region have emphasised that in writing Paul’s world and ours. By pointing to to a conquered people, Paul was the way this letter would have ‘landed’ engaged in what we now call politics. into the lives and experience of ancient Galatians is often read as a letter about Galatians, the studies help us to see theology: God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, how Paul’s gospel declares God’s salvation, the law, and all that jazz. But, power to defeat the ‘present evil age’ once we start to understand what life (Gal 1:4) in all of its manifestations. If was like for colonised peoples in the you work with the issues and questions ancient world, we have a chance to see raised, you will understand what really how theology and politics are always matters if we want to be faithful to God intertwined. Galatians is the great letter in the midst of struggle, oppression, of ‘justification by faith’. But that great and suffering. This faithfulness, that we theological theme should never be share with Christ himself, means living disconnected from ideas of justice, somehow in a ‘new creation’ (Gal 6:15), reconciliation, peace making, and one where ‘faith working through love’ resistance to the false claims and (Gal 5:6) is what really counts. That is promises of imperial power. as true for Christians in a modern colony like Australia as it was for those With that in mind, it is a delight to be in an ancient colony like Galatia. able to commend these Bible study resources prepared by John Bottomley Revd Associate Professor Sean Winter and the Creative Ministries Network. Head of College, These four studies take up those Pilgrim Theological College Melbourne 4 insights from scholarship and place limited by the real life challenges of a INTRODUCTION global pandemic, indeed life itself. The COVID-19 pandemic gives people If lockdowns are repeated due to a around the world the common second or subsequent wave, the loss of experience of being burdened by lock liberty and widespread unemployment down or quarantine, of being confined often causes distress and anguish. If the to your own home by government authorities try to deny the reality order. These studies explore the human imposed by a highly infectious virus burden of lockdown in two ways. First, and various missteps occur, this may we explore stories of study participants’ add confusion, anger and despair to a experiences of our liberties confined growing list of seemingly unanswered and our assumptions about identity and perhaps unanswerable questions. turned upside-down. These stories are not about being in lock-down, but they For Christians, the burning question are all told because they provide a “Where is God in all of this?” is not so window into our shared experience of much unanswered, as unasked. At Melbourne’s lockdown due to the present, the rush to use new internet global pandemic. But as our first technologies to maintain traditional pandemic study asserted, COVID-19 is church forms of worship appears not ‘unprecedented’. Rather, it foremost for many congregations. These confronts us with our vulnerabilities in studies have also been developed to a way they cannot be avoided. These take advantage of technologies such as studies address our real life challenges Zoom, which enabled the Creative brought to the surface by our need to Ministries Network Congregation of the better understand the challenges Uniting Church in Australia to meet wrought by a global pandemic. Then online rather than in each other’s homes we listen to St. Paul’s gospel to the as we normally do. Our focus is multinational gathering of Jesus’ therefore not on how to survive as a followers who live as conquered congregation, but how to endure as a peoples under the Roman imperial faithful people of God committed to governance in the province of Galatia. embodying Christ’s healing, justice and Here also there are real life challenges reconciliation. brought to the surface by a foreign invading power. Each study intends to This perspective frames the questions encourage participants to struggle with for our congregation, questions where what it means to be human in a participants opened their hearts to God community of faith burdened and to reflect on matters of power, powerlessness and prayer. 5 The questions follow on from our first it mean to be human when you are pandemic Bible study,Covid19: AN powerless? UNPRECEDENTED CRISIS? Creating a Safe Space for Faith, Reflection and Hope Session three: for Small Groups and Congregations. Prayer as agency: can prayer restore your humanity in times of suffering? (http://creative.unitingchurch.org.au/ wp-content/uploads/2020/09/ Session four: PandemicStudies-final.pdf) Pandemic: power, powerlessness and prayer. Each of the four studies in this series begins with testimony from our The study series seeks to explore our congregation members about a current context of being held captive by particular upheaval or challenge in the unseen power of COVID-19 their life that introduces a central through reflections upon Paul’s Epistle human struggle that opened their to the Galatians, written around 49 – 54 hearts to their faith reflection. You may CE¹. When I started my theological choose to read their testimony, or ask training in 1970, studying the bible had members of your study group to just begun to take seriously the volunteer to prepare a testimony that historical context in which each biblical speaks to the theme of the session. Our text was written. More recently, members found it helpful to prepare a understanding and interpreting biblical draft to discuss with me a little before texts has shifted to encompass the the study, and bring a complete script context of the reader. This shift has of what they would say. The members accompanied emerging global who did this each appreciated the challenges to traditional hegemonies of discipline of careful preparation, and western culture: capitalism, the encouragement to be clear about colonialism, sexism and racism. the disclosure they wished to share Studying the bible today may be less with the study group. You too are about learning and regurgitating the invited to open your hearts to God and faith answers of the past, as it is about to one another as you share on ‘being in discerning the truth of God’s Good lockdown with the Galatians’. News for our current circumstances. So today, I find myself drawn to biblical Session one: scholars from marginalised Power and (white) privilege. backgrounds, from Asia, and women. Their voices are challenging and Session two: informative: empire-critical, postcolonial, Powerlessness and agency: what does 6 and gender-critical frameworks for interpretation are now most pertinent to the context of our lives as we read Paul the present conversation. in the midst of lockdown and the limitations imposed by the global Perhaps being in lockdown during a pandemic, then I trust you may engage global pandemic will bring these voices with this study with an open-heart and more to the fore, reforming our faith an imaginative mind for the sake of more than at any previous time in Christ’s new creation. Christian history since Paul witnessed to nations which were wearied by the weight of Roman colonisation. Paul’s Our Congregation decided to publish this preaching of God’s gospel was a study because our prayerful discussions counter-claim to Roman propaganda became for us the horizon of God’s that Rome’s military power brought promised grace and peace for our lives. peace to all nations. So when Paul We pray that your work together greets the Galatians saying, ‘Grace to may be faithful to Christ’s calling, you and peace from God our Father and and that your prayer and faith sharing the Lord Jesus Christ’ (Gal. 1:3a), this is may set you free from our present the kernel of God’s good news: God, not age of crisis and despair so that you Caesar, is the giver of grace and peace, may find solidarity with the one Jesus is Lord, not the Emperor, and we came to know with Paul as the Lord Jesus is the Messiah, God’s anointed Jesus Christ. one who is to make Israel ‘a light to the nations’, who came to ‘give himself for our sins to set us free from the present John Bottomley evil age …’ (Gal. 1: 3b). Program Coordinator Creative Ministries Network Congregation So can we hear Paul’s greeting to the November 2020. gathering of conquered peoples in Galatia speaking to us in pandemic lockdown today? Can we hear Paul speaking to those life challenges that weigh us down or change our understanding of God’s purposes? If understanding our faith is shaped by

¹B. Witherington III, Grace in Galatia: a commentary on Paul’s letter to the Galatians Grand Rapids, Michigan, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1998, pp. 8-13. 7 STUDYONE: POWERAND(WHITE)PRIVILEGE

• We will read Galatians 1: 11-24, and consider a commentary that WELCOME: suggests Paul experienced a major We acknowledge the (insert the name of humbling to his identity as a the local Indigenous custodians), the first powerful leader in the Jewish inhabitants of this place. We honour them community, and began on a new for their custodianship of the land, on path to be in solidarity with all which we gather today. those suffering under Roman imperial power as colonised This study has a particular challenge for people.We will discuss how this non-Indigenous Australians. It calls us to may inform our self-understanding reflect on our identity, and the extent to of our power, and what God may which our individual identity is tied up be calling us to when our power is with our personal power and (white) under-mined or humbled. privilege as non-Indigenous people. In this study: • Finallywewillreflectonhowyou feel about limitations on your • We will listen to a story of a man’s power and privilege caused by reflection on the experience of being this pandemic. What awareness humbled, where he realised his sense might God be calling non- of power and privilege had been Indigenous (white) people to upended. We will hear how he felt through this pandemic about our about that time in his life, and what power relations with Indigenous he learned from that experience that people burdened by the is important to him today. imposition of colonial power on their lives since colonisation? • You will be invited to recall any experience of your own where your • Weconcludewithasharedprayer power and privilege was humbled, of confession adapted from and what you have learned from that Indigenous theologian Garry experience. Then we will reflect on Worete Deverell. any times during the COVID-19 lockdown when you have felt 8 similarly. OURCONTEXT The house was a simple timber place built right to the edge of the road. I met Read this story, ‘The gift ofDemetrlo Jose's father Demetrio, his mother, his Aspiras’ from a CMN congregation wife and daughter, and his sister-in-law member who shares an experience and niece. I was given a comfortable where his sense of power and privilege chair and a glass of iced coke in a was humbled. sparsely furnished room, and we talked about who I had met and what I had Everything in life is a gift ... Things and learned about life in the Philippines. time, ability and the power to make Jose’s parents did not speak English, so decisions, are all gifts, and gifts are Jose translated what I said into Tagalog. essentially for opening life out and for making friends and for serving those in In the corner of the room I noticed an need, not for closing life in, for defending old valve amplifier sitting alongside an and protecting oneself. (Thomas Cullinan) old-fashioned turntable. When I asked the father about it, he became quite Manila, September 1977. animated and told me how it came into his possession. He then asked: would I I had been in The Philippines for three like to hear a record? weeks with thirteen other Australians, all of whom were involved with He selected a Hammond organ record development assistance and from under the turntable, and we sat development education agencies back back to listen. I was surprised at how in Australia. We were participating in good this relic of the electronics an Asian exposure program organised industry sounded, and told him so. He by Australian Catholic Relief and its obviously got great pleasure from the partner agency in Manila. music and was pleased that I also enjoyed it. Jose Aspiras, the driver who had been taking us around for the last three One year later my wife, Jenni, visited weeks, had just picked me up to return The Philippines on a similar program to our base. He said we were close to his organised by the same agency. Before family home, and asked whether I she left I gave her five of my records to would like to make a short detour and pass on to Jose's father. They were all in meet his family. I quickly agreed, glad good condition, and I felt sure he would that he saw me as more than just a enjoy that type of music. Most of them I tourist. didn't play much, but I did tape one before sending it off. I wrote him a letter sending good wishes to him and his 9 family, and asked a friend of mine, a Silent reflection for three minutes former missionary in The Philippines, to translate the letter into Tagalog. Recall the main feelings you experienced as you read of Barry’s Jenni returned home with a letter of experience. Then recall a time when thanks from Demetrio. It was not so you experienced your status or much the records that he was grateful privileged position being humbled, for, but the fact that I had remembered and how you felt. Reflect on what you him and his family after such a long took away from that experience. time. Members share their response without Carefully wrapped up with the note interruption, comment or questions. was his gift to me – a record, the same one he had played to me twelve Silent reflection months before! Recall any times during the COVID-19 I was embarrassed. That man had lockdown when like Barry, you given me his favourite record! And his believed you received an unexpected total collection would have amounted gift that had something of a sacred to no more than a dozen. quality for you.

He had given me a precious gift. In one Group members share their responses. simple act, he had stripped away my Our text: Paul’s letter to the Galatians 1: wealth and privilege and taught me 11 – 24 something about how to turn a gift into something sacred. He had reversed the One person reads the text. situation. He was the provider, me the recipient. “For I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel that was His generous act has continued to proclaimed by me is not of human influence my attitudes ever since. origin; for I did not receive it from a human source, nor was I taught it, but I BarryMitchell received it through a revelation of Jesus First published in Action for World Christ. Development, Victorian Newsletter, April You have heard, no doubt, of my earlier 1979. Updated August 2020 life in Judaism. I was violently persecuting the church of God and was trying to destroy it. I advanced in 10 Judaism beyond many among my Paul’s work, which is to reshape the people of the same age, for I was far boundary of Judaism so thatall true more zealous for the traditions of my followers of Jesus will be included ancestors. But when God, who had set in the new community of Christ. me apart before I was born and called The word ‘Christ’ is a Greek translation me through his grace, was pleased to of ‘messiah’, meaning ‘God’s anointed’. reveal his Son to me, so that I might Paul’s message is that through faith proclaim him among the Gentiles, I did in Christ’s resurrected life,God’s not confer with any human being, nor messianic community is for all nations. did I go up to Jerusalem to those who It is not confined to a privileged ethnic/ were already apostles before me, but I religious community. However, there went away at once into Arabia, and are some in leadership of the Jewish afterwards I returned to Damascus. community for whom this is heresy.

Then after three years I did go up to Paul asserts his difference from his Jerusalem to visit Cephas and stayed opponents: he is not preaching from with him for fifteen days; but I did not self-interest, or political ideology. His see any other apostle except James the message is a direct revelation from Jesus Lord’s brother. In what I am writing to the Messiah/Christ of God. Then he you, before God, I do not lie! Then I mentions his Damascus road went into the regions of Syria and experience, but we need to hear it Cilicia, and I was still unknown by sight differently from the traditional Sunday to the churches of Judea that are in School version that portrayed the Christ; they only heard it said, ‘The one Damascus road event as Paul’s who formerly was persecuting us is conversion from Judaism to now proclaiming the faith he once tried Christianity. Rather, it can be to destroy.’ And they glorified God understood as Paul’scalling away from a because of me.” position of privileged power in the Jewish community, and into a ministry of NOTESABOUTTHETEXT solidarity with all those powerless under colonial rule. Group members read a paragraph in turn. Under Roman colonial rule, Jewish The Epistle to the Galatians begins with leaders had reached an accommodation the battle-lines of conflict sharply with the Romans about maintaining drawn. A group in the assemblies of order amongst their people in return for Galatia have been sowing the seed of some extra freedoms for their another gospel in opposition to Paul’s leadership. Paul confessed he had preaching. They are undermining earlier fitted in with this political 11 bargain and was licensed to persecute power structure. He moves to a Jews who threaten the status quo. Paul powerless position of solidarity with all persecuted the followers of Jesus oppressed nations/Gentiles.This call because their claim that Jesus was the becomes the heart of Paul’s new life and Jewish Messiah threatened to put the purpose in Christ. whole Jewish community at risk of Roman persecution for treason. The INTEGRATION Jewish leadership could not afford to • Underline any phrases or sentences have a faction in their midst who that you connect with our earlier worshipped Jesus as God’s anointed, conversation. Share with the study whenthat was the very claim the Emperor group, and why the phrase connected Caesar made for himself. It was with the earlier conversation. When treasonous for the Jewish community all have shared, reflect on common to appear to be undermining the themes. Emperor’s claim to be anointed by the gods. • Then discuss: How is it that having privileged power can be a barrier to Whatever critical event that happened relationships with others, and that to Paul on the road to Damascus, it is being in solidarity with powerless not of concern to him. His only others can have what Barry described testimony is that he was dramatically as a quality of sacredness or blessing? encountered by the God of Israel who revealed the crucified Jesus to him as • During this pandemic, have you the Messiah of the Jews. Paul rejoices experienced any times of sacred thatthis humbling event was a blessing, quality, or receiving a blessing? which called him to a new task. Hewasto Have you been aware of God’s preach God’s good news that Jesus’ presence during the pandemic? messianic purpose as a Jew crucified by the Roman state was to bring God’s WHITEPRIVILEGE freedom and peace to the Gentiles, that is, all peoples conquered and colonised An Indigenous person has reflected by the Roman Empire. God’s messiah that being in lockdown for COVID-19 was in solidarity with all oppressed gave non-Indigenous Australians a peoples. sense of what it is like for Indigenous people to live their whole lives under Paul undergoes a fundamental change colonial rule. What do you sense God of heart, believing he has been called to may be calling non-Indigenous abandon the privilege and power of his Australians to in our (white) privileged 12 participation in the imperial Roman power relation with Indigenous people Now the land is sick, and the created through this pandemic?For discussion. order has turned against us. The land weeps and cries out in pain, and the APRAYEROFCONFESSION natural order has turned against us. FORUSEBYTHESETTLER Plants and animals, the rich tapestry of CHURCHES its eco-systems, are burning up for lack of nourishment and care, and a deadly Group members read a sentence each. virus devours human lives here and God of Jesus Christ we come to you across the world. And it is our fault. because there is no-where else to turn. Teach us, O God, to amend both our There is a sickness in our land, a lives and the political and economic sickness with regard to living and systems in which they are embedded. telling the truth. Teach us to treasure the First Nations of this land and their wisdom about how We confess that we invaded this land to live here with respect and sensitivity. and enslaved its peoples, the people Teach us to treasure the country and who have cared for this country and its waterways on which we depend, its waterways for thousands upon cycles and seasons, its plants and thousands of years. animals, its fragile and beautiful ecosystems. Teach us to call our political We confess that we have wilfully and religious leaders to account. Teach ignored the wisdom of the First Peoples, us, O God, to live and tell the truth. wisdom about how to live in this country in a way that honours and God of Jesus Christ, we come to you preserves all life, that we have trampled because there is no-where else to turn. Have their knowledge underfoot and treated mercy on us and free us from our sins. it with contempt. Amen.

We confess that we have treated the Adapted from a prayer offered to the settler land itself with contempt, and its seas churches by Garry Worete Deverell, a and waterways also. Trawloolway man and Anglican priest from Trouwerner (Tasmania, Australia). We have not cared for it as we ought to have done. Instead we have exploited and raped it to feed our selfish appetites.

13 14 15 STUDYTWO: POWERLESSNESSANDAGENCY: WHATDOESIT MEANTOBEHUMANWHENYOUAREPOWERLESS?

WELCOME: Australians still suffering today the We acknowledge the(insert the name of effects of colonisation. the local Indigenous custodians), the first inhabitants of this place. We honour IN OUR SECOND STUDY: them for their custodianship of the land, on which we gather today. We enter more deeply into our experiences of powerlessness as we In the first study, we explored how our listen to a story of Jamie’s reflection on sense of privilege and power can be his own powerlessness and humbled and a gift of grace emerged. deteriorating mental health and what The apostle Paul believed that being he discovered about his humanity. humbled from his powerful position as a persecutor of Jesus’ followers was the You will be invited to recall any call of Christ. We learned Paul moved experience of your own where you from a position of power to a position experienced powerlessness, and what of powerlessness to be in solidarity you learned about your humanity from with the many diverse ethnic groups that experience. Then we will reflect on conquered by the Roman Empire in any times during the COVID-19 colonised Galatia. Then we reflected lockdown when we have felt similarly. on times when power had become a barrier to our relationships, and how in We will read Galatians 2: 11-20, and accepting being humbled we examine a commentary on how Paul experienced the sacred quality of being understands faith in Jesus Christ as the in solidarity with powerless others. We death of his old life and the gift of a looked at what Paul’s preaching means new life in the power of God’s love. for non-Indigenous people in the midst How does this inform the experience of of limitations on our power and our current powerlessness in privileges imposed by COVID-19, and lockdown, and what may our faith may for our relationship with Indigenous be calling us to through this global pandemic? 16 We conclude with a shared prayer. Over time I began to lose confidence and competency. Things that were OUR CONTEXT normally easy became harder. My worsening performance and lack of Listen to this story from Jamie who confidence carried over to my other shares the experience of powerlessness workplace as well. I felt quite (helplessness) and deteriorating mental humiliated there, as it was a fairly health in his life, and what he public venue. Also I felt I was being discovered about the wholeness of his watched intently by my employers. To humanity. an extent this was true, but also I was JAMIE’S STORY becoming paranoid. The fears and anxieties that went with this were I was working as a swim coach at two extremely distressing. different venues under two different bosses, when under the stresses my As all this was going on, I was doing a world began to fall apart. The number of things you would think experience with one of those guys was would help my mental health. especially unpleasant, where I felt Swimming regularly, going for walks, increasingly powerless. Tai Chi, meditation and prayer. In fact I was putting more effort into all these I was coaching young swimmers, and things, hoping they would help, as I was told by my boss he had been was getting increasingly desperate, watching me from a room above the including feeling quite trapped. There pool deck, and that I wasn’t coaching came a point where the actual how he expected me to. Contrary to experience of doing these activities tradition of allowing coaches a high changed to the negative. With Tai Chi, I degree of autonomy, he became very lost my sense of balance and specific and directive about what he coordination. This was incredibly wanted me to do. I felt under extreme disheartening, as I had worked hard to pressure as he was pressuring me to improve my Tai Chi over a couple of push kids way past their comfort zone. years, and had become quite good. I resisted as he became even more Similar problems happened with insistent, sending me emails detailing swimming. I even became fearful of the what I had to do. These directions were unknowns of meditation. interspersed with accusations that I was a terrible coach. It was distressing to In both work and the self-help activities, me. my answer was to just keep going, “try harder”, even as I felt myself slipping. Things got worse and worse. 17 I eventually allowed myself to be given a hard time by a Committee terminated by both these employers. I member. This young community stopped leaving the house. I stopped worker patiently and methodically looking after myself in any way. And I talked me through my options, and completely stopped all the helpful what the steps were to take whichever activities. choice I made. This helped me get through what was happening, and it My family would visit and bring food. was a crucial breakthrough, as it was They lobbied health services to do my first major challenge in a new job. something. After quite a long time of sitting in my flat doing nothing, the What have a learned about my health services made me an humanity from this? Firstly there is a involuntary patient, and I was taken to conundrum for me. Unsurprisingly, I a locked ward of hospital. At one level am interested to nail down what would this was demeaning and humiliating. I do if I get into the same situation It was also terrifying, as I feared that again. I often amuse myself by saying eventually they may give me ECT. that my advice to anyone going Another part of me just relaxed and got through a similar experience is, "don't used to being there. do what I did". Don't stop all those positive activities of exercise, Eventually, after having fought against meditation, Tai Chi prayer, etc. it, I was given ECT. After a relatively However the conundrum is that they long period of time in hospital I didn't work when I did them. eventually recovered. I cleaned myself up, and started looking for work and When I talked to a friend about this, he found a part-time job swim coaching. challenged my thinking on this - Something else very positive pointing out how my approach to happened. I was allotted a community something not working had been to mental health support worker, who I just try harder. With the work visited weekly or fortnightly. For a situation, I didn’t know who to turn to - time I discounted that there was any who to talk to - where to get help, so I point in this interaction. She was just put my head down and tried young enough to be my daughter. harder. My thoughts are that it wasn’t How on earth could she know necessarily that in my self-help anything, and be of any help? On the activities I was doing the wrong thing, contrary, she was wonderful. She was but it was my attitude that was the supportive, caring, and wise. There problem. I was working desperately to was one example of an incident early survive in the bad situation I was in. I 18 on in my new job, where I was being didn't want to transform my worldview or situation; I just wanted to Silent reflection keep doing the same thing and be able tocope. Recall your main feelings when listening to Jamie’s experience. I think part of the discovery of my Then recall an experience where humanity was being forced to allow you experienced powerlessness and and accept others to do things for me, to helplessness, be aware of what support me; this included the persistent transformed that experience or brought and determined support of my family, it to a resolution, and how you felt for which at the time I showed no at different times as the experience appreciation or gratitude. And the faith unfolded. and hope of friends and family who kept coming to see me. Whilst I had The leader then asks members to share their given up on myself, others didn't. response with the whole group. It is important for each person to speak without I've never had much faith in mental interruption or comment. health workers, and my views are still fairly sceptical. However, I found Invite participants to then reflect on through this whole experience they what connections they had with other were incredibly patient and caring. members’ shared reflections. Eventually they took things out of my After a brief time shared in silent reflection, hands, especially at the treatment level. invite individual comments on what they I have to admit and accept that connected with and why it resonated eventually the methods they used with them. possibly, or even probably, contributed to my recovery. Again, the young Next, recall any times during the woman from the Community Mental COVID-19 lockdown when you have Health service was wonderful. experienced your mental health slipping, and you felt more anxious, There are still some unanswered depressed, or stressed than previously. questions: where does exercise, meditation, etc. fit in - surely it has a After shared responses, discuss: place? Returning to something I mentioned earlier. Maybe it is in the What is it in your experience of purpose or reason you have in doing lockdown that is similar to/differs from them. Rather than as a way of steeling other experiences of feeling your mental myself against the pain of the world, wellbeing was at risk? they can be used to open yourself more, to the world, other people, and God. 19 Our text: Galatians 2: 11 – 20 have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ One person reads the text. Take a who lives in me.And the life I now live moment to underline any phrases or in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of thoughts that catch your attention. God, who loved me and gave himself for me. But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he A NOTE ON THE TEXT stood self-condemned; for until certain people came from James, he used to eat Group members read a paragraph in turn. with the Gentiles. But after they came, he drew back and kept himself separate Paul is at odds with Peter/(Cephas) for fear of the circumcision faction. And about Jewish identity. Remember that the other Jews joined him in this Jesus was a Jew, and Paul believed hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was Jesus as God’s Messiah (anointed) had led astray by their hypocrisy. But when fulfilled God’s promise to Israel (the I saw that they were not acting Jews). So Paul and all the first followers consistently with the truth of the of the risen Christ were still members gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, of the Jewish community, which was “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile growing mainly through new members and not like a Jew, how can you compel who were Gentile converts. But Jewish the Gentiles to live like Jews?” We community leaders were becoming ourselves are Jews by birth and not anxious about the growing number of Gentile sinners; yet we know that a converts because the growing person is justified not by the works of community of Jesus followers was the law but through faith in Jesus drawing the Romans’ attention due to Christ. And we have come to believe in their worship of Jesus as their Lord, Christ Jesus, so that we might be rather than Caesar. This was justified by faith in Christ, and not by treasonous and a crime against the doing the works of the law, because no Roman state, punishable by crucifixion. one will be justified by the works of the So a number of Jesus’ followers within law. But if, in our effort to be justified in the Jewish community were pushing Christ, we ourselves have been found for Gentile converts to be circumcised, to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of thus taking on a well-recognised sin? Certainly not! But if I build up marker of male Jewish identity. “If he again the very things that I once tore looks like a Jew, worships with Jews, he down, then I demonstrate that I am a must be a Jew.” This line of thinking transgressor. For through the law I died was designed to remove any anxiety 20 to the law, so that I might live to God. I that the growing Jewish community still ourselves by our own efforts, even held to the Jewish leaders agreement for when our hard work involves religious some favours by not openly challenging observances. What Paul once believed the divine status of the Emperor. This to be self-righteous work or effort - faction of Jesus’ followers was maintaining the purity of Jewish advocating ‘softening’ the gospel so the observances - he now declares he is Jesus followers appeared to fit in with dead to this way of thinking and being. the Jewish leaders’ accommodation Recall that when Paul was assiduously with the Roman Empire, which needed carrying out the violence and self- to maintain the perception Jews were righteous letter of the religious loyal to the rule of the divine Caesar. requirements of the law, he was confronted by its destructive spirit. On Earlier, Peter had welcomed Paul’s the Damascus road, his world and work amongst the Gentiles (2:1-10) beliefs came to an end. without requiring the converts to be circumcised, but under pressure from Paul understands the severity of the the ‘Judaisers’ faction (v.12), Peter had judgement against him. It is a death separated himself from fellowship with sentence on his life to that point. So the converts (2:11-12). Paul doesn’t mince complete and final is the end of his his words, accusing Peter ‘to his face’ former life that Paul describes it as a (v.11) and reproaching Peter’s circle of crucifixion: degrading, humiliating, hypocrisy. Their hypocrisy is denying violent. Yet Paul has come to see that in ‘the truth of the gospel’ (v.14). Paul this traumatic Damascus road incident, accuses this faction of trying to justify he has been crucified with Christ. This themselves by ‘works of the law’, that says to me that no matter how shameful is, trying to put things right before God this time in Paul’s life was, he came to by their own efforts, while secretly understand he was not alone, and that bowing to civic religion and order by in some mysterious way, the crucified insisting on Gentile converts to be Christ was present in solidarity with circumcised. him. I suggest it is this experience of God’s solidarity with him in Christ that Against this belief, Paul says only faith overturns Paul’s understanding of what in Jesus Christ puts our lives right. it means for him to be a Jew. God is a Faith in Christ justifies or puts right all God who desires to liberate people from relationships. Faith may be better oppression to demonic powers, and understood as ‘trust’, that is, we are does this through the power of love. called to trust that God’s Son loves us, This is not the God Paul had been even while we are sinners. This strange worshipping, a God who supported language declares we cannot save 21 those in power and maintained the • A word or phrase that in the text or status quo by violent means. commentary that brings to mind a thought sparked by the discussion Christ’s presence opened Paul’s heart question. and mind to the mystery of God’s grace: he was given a new life as a gift • Either of the above, but it is of God’s forgiveness and love. This disconnection or contradictory new life was not his old life spruced up, feeling or phrase between the text or but was the resurrected life of Christ commentary and the discussion alive in him. Paul trusts the life that is question. in him is the same gift of God’s love that animates the resurrected Christ. Then discuss: Faith for Paul is trust that God’s power • Paul believes it is futile to think we of life-giving love puts relationships have been justified (put right with right with God and with the ‘other’ God and neighbour) by our own (i.e., the Gentiles) in service of God’s work. What does this bring to your desire for justice, reconciliation, healing understanding of your experiences and peace. It is a 180 degree change of of being powerless, anxious and of direction for Paul, and a new way of keeping things that trouble you to living and being. yourself? Are there times during INTEGRATION lockdown when you felt your mental health slipping but you Underline any phrases or sentences that believed you shouldn’t burden you connect with our earlier conversation anyone? about what it means to be human when you are powerless and your mental health feels • Have you experienced a moment at risk. Share with the study group the of grace or the gift of another’s phrase/sentence with which you connected. love or concern in your life during Consider how you may bring the part you a time of powerlessness, connected with to the discussion of the two depression or anxiety? Has this following questions. Sometimes a happened to you during connection may be: lockdown? How did that affect your relationship with God or • A feeling in the text or commentary Christ? that connects with a feeling evoked by the discussion question.

22 CLOSING PRAYER

One member reads the words in plain type. The study group respond with the words in bold type.

You desire truth in the inward being; thereforeteachmewisdominmysecretheart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have crushed rejoice.Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. Deliver me from bloodshed, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your deliverance. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.

For you have no delight in sacrifice; if I were to give a burnt-offering, you would not be pleased. The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Amen.

Psalm 51:6-17 23 24 STUDYTHREE: PRAYERASAGENCY: THESTRUGGLETOBEWHOLE INPERSONANDCOMMUNITY.

WELCOME: is the only power worth trusting. Members recalled moments of grace or We acknowledge the(insert the name of insight in our lives during a time of the local Indigenous custodians), the first being powerless, and shared times inhabitants of this place. We honour during lockdown when our mental them for their custodianship of the health was being compromised. We land, on which we gather today. concluded by praying a psalm responsively. In our second study we heard Jamie’s story of being powerless, experiencing IN THIS STUDY: deteriorating mental health, and the lessons in life and faith he gained from • We enter more deeply into our the experience. Then members shared experiences of powerlessness, life their own experiences, beginning from challenges, and struggle as we where Jamie’s story touched them. We listen to Susan and Sam’s stories reflected how in Galatians 2:11-20 Paul reflecting on their experiences of reacted strongly against Peter and prayer/meditation and movement others who appeared to have weakened towards inner peace and peace their faith in God so that they could around us. claim a ‘safer’ Jewish identity. Paul • You will be invited to recall any declared we cannot save ourselves by experience of your own where you our own efforts even when our hard experienced life as anxious, work involves religious observances. challenging and/or requiring you We talked together to better apprehend to face a difficult circumstance, that for Paul, faith in Christ Jesus meant and what you learned through the death of his old life of fitting in with your struggle that led you to a religious observances designed to place of inner peace and accommodate the Roman idolatry of reconciled relationships. Then we Caesar. For Paul, the gift of a new life will reflect on any times during as a follower of the Messiah Jesus is the COVID-19 lockdown when received through believing God’s love you have felt similarly. 25 • We will read Galatians 3: 23-29 The feelings I had around this decision and explore a commentary on were a long time coming. They were a how Paul understands faith in whole mix of things. I’d not done Jesus Christ as an inheritance of anything about this earlier in my life relationship with God, and because I wasn’t ready - because I felt I baptism into a new community of probably wasn’t good enough to get in reconciled relationships. We will to the film course (what did I know?), I discuss how this may inform our felt too naive, young and current challenges to experience inexperienced, (I remember knowing interior and public peace in often that I didn’t really have opinions lockdown, and what our faith on things) and I just wasn’t brave may be calling us to through this enough to even try. global pandemic. But after the travelling and working I • Weconcludewithprayer. had gathered together more confidence and life experience and knew I could OUR CONTEXT cope with certain things. The imagining of going to Australia to study film Listen to these stories from Susan and (animation specifically) felt like a very Sam, who share their experiences of burning and right choice to make. It prayer/meditation in times of was tinged/loaded with fear (at powerlessness, challenge and struggle making such a big change to my life - in their lives, and what they discovered leaving NZ, moving to a city where I about being whole in person and only knew 2 people - my cousin and a community. friend), but I felt if I didn’t try for this SUSAN then I would have fallen into a great depression - like I would have been I’m going to talk about a time in my life wasting my life and really, what else where I made a big life-changing could I do if I didn’t do this? - this is decision. The decision was about exactly what I wanted to do…(felt I imagining (for a start) of going to needed to do). Australia to study film. I was 26-28. I had been living in Wellington for a few This has happened a couple of times in years before I went travelling. I then my life where it felt most clear and lived in London for a year and then palpable that this was the way I needed China for about a year too. to go. By even trying for it, by making the motion to do this, was placating some truth/deep (perhaps a) more 26 knowing part of myself. So the feeling I have, when I’ve had to learning/trying to just leave a space, an make VERY big decisions like this for openness for uncertainties/questions to my life, is that I’m almost on a be in…to be considered, not by me conveyer belt and all the steps in the even, by something bigger, that pure process went as best as they could. In sacred space, by God…(?) this example (when I applied to come to Melbourne to study animation); I SAM felt like the idea and the feelings were My son Graeme has been an inpatient in all absolutely aligned and right, there hospital on eight occasions since 2014. was no internal resistance to the idea or This doesn’t include all the times that he doubt - there were nerves and anxiety has had hospital appointments as an (because of the big life change) - but I outpatient. Last year he was admitted knew it was right. to a Melbourne Hospital diagnosed The steps therefore were like so: The with first episode psychosis. He has ideas came generously for the been hospitalized four times since then application process - it flowed, was fun – including two weeks as a resident at a even. I was offered interviews at the Youth Mental Health Service, and then two places I applied and I got accepted Graeme spent six weeks at a at both the places. I almost knew it was Preventative and Recovery Centre for going to happen (without being people with a mental illness. arrogant at all, it just was this How did I cope during this time? strong palpable, almost out of my Maybe it comes from the traditional control feeling). At the time (there is no style of masculinity that I grew up with. way) I would have thought this was I believed I could take control and fix it God - I may have thought the universe for my son (make Graeme better). is aligned or some such (although However, this approach to Graeme’s somewhere deeper - I would have let a illness - and anything that I tried - did glimmer of a thought say it was God) not appear to make that much but I wouldn’t have used those words difference. I felt helpless and powerless back then, vocalised that or said the because there wasn’t anything that I thought clearly to myself. could do to make Graeme better. Also, more recently I have been I felt helpless, exhausted and very questioning my purpose and have seen anxious. Since late last year, Graeme a life coach person off-and-on this year. (after a time in hospital) would recover This has tied in with my trying a new to the extent that he was discharged Christian meditation method (and also home, and then unfortunately after a meditating more generally) and 27 few weeks would relapse again and be What has stayed with me since the back in hospital. Where was God in prayer is that I now believe the best my experience of being helpless and way for me to support Graeme is not powerless? I felt like I couldn’t keep trying to fix him, or to fix things, but my head above water - it felt like I was just to be present to him. I can listen drowning. I prayed and reflected on and step back a bit before I respond. the scripture reading for that week, Hopefully I can take a deep breath so I which was Matthew14:22-33, where don’t respond out of my own anxiety, Jesus walks on the water. but respond to what is important to Graeme. Therefore I feel that my day- In my prayer as I sat with my feelings to-day conversations with Graeme now of powerlessness, I had an image of have had a sense of joy and less anxiety. myself in the water struggling to stay Graeme has the awareness to let me afloat. And then as I struggled - I knew know what he needs, which often that my struggle was in vain – I involves playing and listening to decided to “let go”. As I did this I felt music. myself slowly falling and drowning. It actually felt quite peaceful because I I am not sure if the image of the hand/ was no longer struggling. Then a large boat is still as relevant for me. The hand entered the water and pulled me image of the helping hand has an out and into a boat.The large hand I element of being a heroic image of saw as the hand of Jesus. It lifted me into Jesus/God saving me from drowning the boat (it was a small speed boat - a in the murky waters. However, while motorised boat - so certainly not the image does not hold as much identified as a first century Hebrew boat). power for me, it still holds some comfort and reassurance. At times I Once in the boat and in the presence of may feel overwhelmed and exhausted, Jesus I felt comforted and relieved to be but I don’t feel like I am drowning. out of the water. I was very thankful to be alive. I reflected that when I let go Supporting Graeme by being there and and realised that I couldn’t stay afloat not trying to fix him has been very through my own efforts - that is when helpful, and it does make me feel more God came to me. However, I did relaxed and comfortable to enjoy our experience some anxiety as the boat father/son relationship. However, was travelling towards land. It was every day is still a struggle; I am travelling back to the reality of my life relieved that Graeme is recovering and the day-to-day reality of all the joys well. This is promising. COVID-19 has and struggles that my life entails. alsomadeittough. 28 Silent reflection normal way of life needed to change? What has been important for you about Recall the main feelings you the discussion to this point? experienced as you listened to Sue and Sam’s experiences of prayer. Then Our text: Galatians 3: 23 – 29 recall a time where you experienced a sense of wholeness and peace following A member of the group reads the text. a time of struggle. Be aware of what Now before faith came, we were shifted within you to bring your imprisoned and guarded under the law struggle/challenge to resolution, and until faith would be revealed. Therefore how you felt at different times as the the law was our disciplinarian until experience unfolded. Christ came, so that we might be The leader then asks members to share their justified by faith. But now that faith has response with the whole group. It is come, we are no longer subject to a important for each person to speak without disciplinarian, for in Christ Jesus you interruption or comment. are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into After all have shared as they are able, Christ have clothed yourselves with invite participants to then reflect on Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, what connections they hadwith the there is no longer slave or free, there is shared reflections of others in the no longer male and female; for all of group. you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are After a brief time shared in silent reflection, Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to invite individual comments on what they the promise. connected with and why it was a connection for them. A NOTE ON THE TEXT

Next, recall any times during the Group members read a paragraph in turn. COVID-19 lockdown when you have Take a moment to underline any phrases or experienced your normal way of life thoughts that catch your attention. being called to change. Recall how you felt facing a new future. These verses conclude Paul’s argument in chapter 3 about how important After shared responses, discuss: Abraham’s faith is for Paul’s new community of Jesus-followers. What is it in your experience of Abraham’s story dates from 2,000 BC lockdown that is similar to/differs from approximately, a good 500 years before other experiences of feeling your 29 the Moses exodus story from Egypt. children of God. All humankind may Paul recalls that Abraham left the be children of God through faith. This country of his birth, its security and the claim directly challenges the Roman gods of his birthplace to follow God’s foundational myth that had posited a call. Paul argues that God’s blessing genealogy for the unity of nations promised to Abraham is fulfilled in under the one ‘fatherhood’ of the Jesus Christ, so that followers of Jesus divine Caesar. But the Father of Jesus from all nations need to be recognised Christ has established an alternative as children of God because they too are genealogy through Abraham that legitimate inheritors of God’s promised promises peace for all through God’s blessing to Abraham. grace.

But the Jews of Paul’s day believed To understand why all those of Jesus’ God’s promise to Abraham was new community (both Jews and Gentile exclusively for them because of their converts, slaves and free, male and obedience to the (later) laws of Moses. female) are heirs of Abraham’s Against such exclusivism, Paul’s gospel promise, consider the importance of extends Abraham’s promise to all creation myths in Australia. The nationsfor all who have faith in Christ. predominant story is that Australia was On this basis, faith means unity ‘discovered’ by Captain James Cook amongst God’s people. This argument (1770) and a colony was established undermined the Jewish leaders claim to under Governor Arthur Philip (1788). be an exclusive community that However, Indigenous Australians’ justified them receiving exceptional stories begin with their dreaming treatment from the Roman Empire. myths, and these truths endure and are Paul calls this out as idolatry: you can’t the cultural foundation for Indigenous claim to worship the one true God people today. The story of the while turning a blind eye to Caesar’s colonisers hides the violence of their claim to be divine, and in fact living conquest, and seeks to wipe out (or like slaves of the colonising Romans. forget) the Indigenous story. Similarly to Indigenous creation stories, Paul While the Mosaic law had served as a recalls an event from time immemorial guide to following God’s purposes, the for Jewish people to remind them their promise to Abraham precedes Moses God’s purpose from the beginning was by perhaps 500 years. Paul says faith in to be a blessingfor all people. Christ is a game-changer for what it means to Jewish. The many nations Paul asserts a person is an heir of that comprise Galatia are members of Abraham and child of God through 30 Abraham’s one multinational people as ‘baptism into Christ’. Belonging in Jesus’ community becomes a matter of situation in ways that heal their wounds faith rather than the privilege of blood and transform the social and political ties, and faith in Jesus is made public factors that contributed to their through baptism. Dying and rising in experience of injustice and suffering. baptism is imagined to be a Peer support is intensely personal, but it transformative personal and political also gives voice to the suffering dynamic. Perhaps the personal experienced by victims of injustice, dynamic of baptism could be likened to speaking truth to power about the need the dying of one’s ego? For Paul, for relationships and institutions of care baptism into Christ also marked the end that meet their needs.3 of his enslavement to the fear and violence of the imperial world and the INTEGRATION beginning of his life’s work renewed in Underline any phrases or sentences that the power of God’s love in solidarity you connect with our earlier conversation with the one people of God. about prayer as human agency and our So baptism is no individualised struggle to be whole in person and in spirituality. All the divisions and community. Share with the study group enmities of the imperial world order are the phrase/sentence with which you transformed. There is to be a new connected. Consider how you may bring the creation: a union of people from part you connected with to the discussion of conquered nations who receive the the four following questions. Sometimes a blessing of God promised to Abraham. connection may be: Perhaps today there could be in Paul’s • A feeling in the text or commentary gospel echoes of what we call peer that connects with a feeling evoked by support, which is ‘a system of giving the discussion question. and receiving help founded on key principles of respect, shared • A word or phrase that in the text or responsibility and mutual agreement of commentary that brings to mind a 2 what is helpful’ amongst people with thought sparked by the discussion similar experiences. Peer support can question. help people to better understand their

2Shery Mead, David Hilton, and Laurie Curtis, ‘Peer Support: a theoretical perspective’, Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal 25, (2001): 135.

3John Bottomley, ‘The transformative journey to sustainability for Australia’s compensation systems: how peer support and restorative justice interventions are creating a new inclusive narrative’, in Beth Crisp and Anne Taket (2020),Sustaining Social Inclusion. Palgrave. 2020.. 31 • Either of the above, but it is Closing prayer disconnection or contradictory feeling or phrase between the text or Participants are invited to name in a word commentary and the discussion or sentence any whose concerns are close to question. their heart. When all who wish have offered their prayer, conclude with the Lord’s Then discuss one or more of the Prayer. following:

• How does Paul’s view of Abraham’s blessing through Lord’s Prayer Christ inform your understanding of Sue’s conviction that she shouldstrike out on her own to Our Father in heaven, hallowed be embrace a new future? Have you had a similar experience? your name, your kingdom come, your

• How does Paul’s view of the will be done on earth as in heaven. transformation of relations between Jew and Greek, slave and free, male and female inform your Give us today our daily bread. understanding of Sam’s awareness of the importance of Forgive us our sins as we forgive those being in solidarity with his son, or a similar experience of your own? who sin against us.

• What does it mean for your Save us from the time of trial and congregation to be like a peer support community to all people for your personal and/or deliver us from evil. community wholeness during this pandemic? For the kingdom, the power, and the

• If you accept that through Christ glory are yours now and for ever. you are a child of Abraham, how does that inform your understanding of the alternative Amen. creation myths for being an Australian? 32 33 34 STUDYFOUR: INTERGRATION: PRIVELGE,POWERLESSNESS ANDPRAYER.

WELCOME: IN THIS STUDY:

We acknowledge the (insert the name of We seek to integrate our experiences of the local Indigenous custodians), the privilege, powerlessness and the first inhabitants of this place. We struggle of prayer as we listen to a story honour them for their custodianship of reflecting on the unmaking of the spirit the land, on which we gather today. of violence embedded in western capitalism’s patriarchal culture. In the third study, we listened to Sue and Sam’s story of challenge and prayer You will be invited to recall any and the lessons in life and faith they experience of your own where a gained from their experiences. Group characteristic you grew up with and members then shared their own valued turned out to be a barrier to experiences, responding to where your human wholeness, and find out something from either story touched where that led you. Then we will reflect them. We reflected how in Galatians on any times during the COVID-19 3:23-29, Paul continued to build an lockdown when you have felt similarly. inclusive congregation that resembled a peer support program for vulnerable We will read Galatians 4:12-20 and people. We talked together to better consider Paul’s recollections of being understand Paul’s metaphor for faith in cared for by the Galatians when he was Christ Jesus as baptism, a radical vulnerable, which highlight the transformation of life from the old importance of mutual love and respect imperial order of violence and fear to a for birthing Christlike solidarity in a life in solidarity with a new community violent world. We will discuss how this of unity, Jew and Greek, slave and free, may inform our current need for greater male and female. We concluded with community solidarity in lockdown, and free prayer for those close to our hearts what Paul’s gospel of solidarity may be and with the Lord’s Prayer. calling us to through this global pandemic.

35 We conclude with prayer. During one very long night, I allowed myself to reflect upon my nightmares OUR CONTEXT and remembered that after my previous open-heart surgery in 1993, I Listen to the story from John, as he had been troubled by the realisation shares his experience of personal that my heart had been actually held in vulnerability, and what he discovered human hands. It bothered me that about the transformation of his identity none of the doctors had mentioned this in solidarity with God’s grace. beforehand, and it somehow felt like I At my annual heart health review in had been complicit in a violation of the December last year, my cardiologist divine order. Now, this feeling had told me the echocardiograph had returned even more strongly. But as I identified an aneurysm in the aorta. endured my long night, it came to me This was a swelling in the main artery that this time I had knowingly and pumping blood from the heart which if fully consented to the violence of open- not treated, would bubble and burst, heart surgery. I was both a silent ending my life. I was booked for witness to and complicit participant in surgery at the earliest opportunity, the an act of violence against the Creator of end of January 2020. all life and death. In my nightmare I was a witness to my own death, but I After my surgery, and while in ICU, I had chosen to put off death. In this suffered several frightening, vividly long night of the soul, I accepted the coloured nightmares, where in several truth of my feeling broken and guilty of hallucinations I was a witness to violating the God-given integrity of my criminal violence, and in another, I body and soul. My yearning to prolong watched sand falling on my coffin at my life brought me face to face with my my own burial. This was unsettling to capacity for self-justifying violence – I the point that I became too frightened had consented to my surgeon carrying to sleep in case the nightmares out surgery, which I realised involved recurred. Also, as I was confined to my me in a violent invasion of my body bed by the wires pacing my weakened and a transgression against the Creator heart and other devices, I felt helpless and giver of life. The sum of all that I and sometimes hopeless. One night I had consented to and was complicit in wondered if I would be better off dead. was truly traumatic. I was sick of being sick. This was my ‘long night of the soul’. It is a painful This shocking truth about my self- place, if for no other reason than the image as a ‘nice man’ and a ‘good man’ painful truths it revealed to me. led me to question whether my consent 36 to the violence of open-heart surgery continued for about two weeks, and was forgivable. After wrestling with only gradually resolved as I shared my this question for a time, I sensed God story with Marg and a ministry would forgive me my complicity in my colleague, who comforted me with violence against both self and God: this practical and spiritual care. act of taking control of my life and making the decision to knowingly give My prayer is that others may know my heart again to be held by human what it means to be dependent on the hands for my life’s sake. But still it did grace of another’s love for the gift of not sit well with me, and I asked for a holistic justice and the treasure of visit from the hospital pastoral care human dignity. team. John Bottomley A lay chaplain came on my final Silent reflection morning in ICU. After the briefest of introductions, I poured out my heart to Recall the main feelings you him for about 15 minutes. He only experienced as you listened to John’s spoke a few words, but every word assumptions about his privileged male showed a deep understanding of my identity being broken open as he was shame at my resort to violence against plunged into powerlessness and God and myself to preserve my life. I despair, followed by his long night of dissolved into tears of relief and release: struggle in prayer. Note any feelings balm for my wounded soul. evoked by his encounter with God, a pastoral care staff person and his The illusion of my personal autonomy ministry colleague. Then recall a time and masculine power to determine my where you experienced any of these life evaporated in front of me. I knew feelings in your own life. Be aware of the gift of my dependence on God’s what it was like for you to hear another forgiveness for my complicity in an act person’s feelings that resonated with of violence, and the gift of the your own struggles. acceptance of others for the wholeness of my life. I later took the time to The leader then asks members to share their discuss this with my surgeon, and he response with the whole group. It is acknowledged that other patients had important for each person to speak without expressed similar thoughts. Again, his interruption or comment. understanding of my grief evoked a profound sense of trust between us, and After all have shared if they wish, invite I left the hospital at peace. However, participants to reflect on what the panic attacks going to sleep 37 connections they had with the shared them to me. Have I now become your thoughts of others in the group. enemy by telling you the truth?

After a brief time in silent reflection, invite They make much of you, but for no individual comments on what they good purpose; they want to exclude connected with and why it resonated. you, so that you may make much of them. It is good to be made much of for Next, recall any times during the a good purpose at all times, and not COVID-19 lockdown when you have only when I am present with you. experienced your vulnerability and/or mortality. Recall any moments of grace My little children, for whom I am again you have experienced over the four in the pain of childbirth until Christ is sessions of this study program. formed in you, I wish I were present with you now and could change my After shared responses, discuss: tone, for I am perplexed about you. What is it in your experience of A NOTE ON THE TEXT lockdown that is similar to/differs from other experiences of feeling Group members read a paragraph in vulnerable or awareness of your turn. Take a moment to underline any mortality? What has been important phrases or thoughts that catch your for you about moments of solidarity attention. during COVID-19? In these verses, Paul seeks to humanise Our text: Galatians 4: 12 – 20 a conflicted situation. He reminds the Galatians that when he was vulnerable, A member of the group reads the text. they cared for him. This is the new order for the messianic community of Friends, I beg you, become as I am, for I Jesus: we are all neighbours to each also have become as you are. You have other in our vulnerability. In fact, when done me no wrong. You know that it we welcome those who are vulnerable was because of a physical infirmity that and/or despised, we welcome an angel I first announced the gospel to of God, indeed Christ Jesus. How you; though my condition put you to could this goodwill disappear? the test, you did not scorn or despise me, but welcomed me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus. What has become of the good will you felt? For I testify Paul is puzzled and frustrated that the that, had it been possible, you would solidarity he enjoyed on his first visit 38 have torn out your eyes and given with the Galatians seems to have been replaced by a divisive spirit. Most and as a male formed in patriarchy he likely this is due to the push by a Jewish seeks to be in solidarity with faction to impose the need for subservient, objectified females. circumcision on Gentile converts who have become followers of Jesus. For Paul is labouring to bring the Galatians Paul, imposing circumcision on the back into conformity with the one who Galatians is self-serving for the faction died as a despised and broken person in that wants to fit in with Rome’s civic solidarity with all who are oppressed, religion, because it will either force and to wean them away from conformity to Jewish law on the conformity to the violent politics of converts or push them out of the domination. Paul’s gospel proclaims an community. This shapes up as a uncompromising solidarity with the political problem because it enslaves the ‘other’, that is, those different from his Jewish community in idolatrous former self and marginalised from obedience to the ‘divine’ Emperor, power, and to that extent, imagines fosters division in the messianic himself doing female labour in a community of Jesus’ followers, and violently patriarchal world. Paul causes violence to male Gentiles. describes his efforts to form the Galatians with a Christlike spirit in Paul then compares himself to a woman terms of ‘mothering’, addressing his in the pain of childbirth, bringing to congregation as ‘my little children’ and birth the spirit of Christ in the hearts of giving birth to their new and life- the Galatians. This is a striking image affirming identity. of self-humiliation for a male with a previously proud reputation of fame INTEGRATION and notoriety in Roman patriarchal Underline any phrases or sentences that society, where women had no rights. you connect with our earlier conversation Females were the property of their about the pain of unmaking a culturally father and then their husband. Married conditioned identity and integrating your as young as twelve, their main duty was new identity as a transformed and to produce children. They gave birth to transforming follower of Christ. Share four or five children, and many women with the study group the phrase/sentence to died in childbirth before reaching the which you connected. Consider how you age of 20. Here, Paul completes the may bring the part you connected with to transformation of who he is called to be the discussion of the three following in solidarity with: as Jew he is in questions. Sometimes a connection may be: solidarity with Gentiles; as a free citizen of Rome he is in solidarity with slaves; 39 •A feeling in the text or similar during this pandemic commentary that connects with study? a feeling evoked by the discussion question. To conclude: what has been the most helpful part of this study - from the •A word or phrase in the text or perspective of both your personal commentary that brings to experiences and Paul’s gospel for the mind a thought sparked by the Galatians – in supporting you to live discussion question. with the many challenges of COVID-19?

•Either of the above, but it is Closing prayer disconnection or contradictory feeling or phrase between the Participants are invited to express in a text or commentary and the word or sentence your gratitude for gifts of discussion question. God’s grace. When all who wish have offered their prayer, conclude with the Then discuss one or more of the following prayer. following: God, give us grace to accept with serenity •What is the importance of the things that cannot be changed, human vulnerability in Paul’s Courage to change the things which gospel? How does your answer should be changed, and the Wisdom to inform your response to living distinguish the one from the other. with this global pandemic? Living one day at a time, Enjoying one •How could men look at Paul’s moment at a time, Accepting hardship willingness to identify with as a pathway to peace, Taking, as Jesus female realities to understand did, this sinful world as it is, Not as I the importance of unmaking the would have it, Trusting that You will spirit of violence in patriarchal make all things right, if I surrender to culture? Your will, So that I may be reasonably happy in this life, and supremely •What may your congregation happy when Your kingdom comes on do to encourage men to earth as it is in heaven. Amen embrace and contribute to understanding how men may Based on a prayer of Reinhold Neibuhr. grow into a Christlike identity at home and in their workplace? Have you experienced anything 40 FORFURTHERREADING Elliot, N.Liberating Paul: the justice of God and the politics of the Apostle. (Great Britain, Sheffield Academic Press, 1995)

Kahl, B., Galatians Re-imagined: reading with the eyes of the vanquished. (Minneapolis Fortress Press 2014).

Lopez, D.,Apostle to the Conquered: Reimagining Paul's Mission(Paul in Critical Contexts; Minneapolis: Fortress, 2008)

Witherington III, B.,Grace in Galatia: a commentary on Paul’s letter to the Galatians (Grand Rapids, Michigan, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1998)