The sermon today…
"A good sermon is one side of a passionate conversation. It has to be heard in that way. There are three parties to it, of course, but so are there
even to the most private thought – the self that yields the thought, the
self that acknowledges and in some way responds to the thought, and the
Lord. That is a remarkable thing to consider."from Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
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Maggi has kept a blog since September 2003, writing about theology and faith, the arts and literature, and a little about life and random nonsense...
In an increasingly secularised society few people have a good working knowledge of the Bible. Yet a great deal of our culture is built on stories or ideas that come from the Bible. Literature, art, music, language and even the fabric of our society - such as our justice system - are built on Christian concepts and biblical references. The Writing on the Wall provides a fascinating introduction to the Bible's best-known, and most influential, stories. Each chapter gives some background to the text of the Bible, and shows how the stories have become enmeshed in Western culture. Adam and Eve, the ten plagues of Egypt, The Prodigal Son and Mary Magdalene all feature - along with how the Bible has influenced everyone from Shakespeare to Monty Python, and Caravaggio to Banksy. 
Giving It Up explores the Lenten idea of 'giving up', taking it beyond the traditional idea of simply abstaining from something, and suggesting instead that what we need to give up is our existing ideas about God. With a daily readings for each day of Lent, from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday, it follows the heroes of the Bible who had to give up their own too-small ideas about God.
This is Maggi’s bestselling book of daily readings for each day of Advent, Christmas and Epiphany. Advent is the beginning of the Church year, and marks the anticipation of the coming Messiah. These readings explore how beginnings and endings in our own lives are illuminated by the different Gospel narratives of Christ's coming.
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I’m half deaf, and possibly my most controversial sermon (even more controversial than ‘Thou shalt not shop at Tesco’! which was definitely challenging local idols) was when I said I expected to remain half-deaf in the afterlife. My point being that it has become such a part of my ongoing identity that I doubted I could still be ‘me’ if it was cured. Lots of people objected to that, some on good grounds (a longing to be healed), some not so good (a refusal to accept difference).
There’s no magic cure but rehabilitation is possible. I read somewhere an appropriate phrase, “learn to nagivate the social world intellectually rather than innately”. It’s a long hard path but I kept all the gifts.
Good friends I deserved not, dragged me kicking and screaming into the real world over the course of a decade, and you don’t need me to tell you it’s really complicated! The world of expression possible in eyebrows. The delicate balancing act in gentle joshing vs pisstaking. “Getting” private eye. I never thought I’d be where I am now.
One of the questions that comes up with frequency over at GayChristian.Net is the perennial, “If you could take a pill for it, would you want to be straight?”
As you might expect, especially given the demographic of “people of faith” who’ve had to struggle mightily with their sexuality, the answers fall all over the map.
But the ones who seem to have come through the maelstrom, faith intact, as mature children of God uniformly respond to the question the same way you responded in this blog (with some )
“some people have asked me in person whether I would wish for a cure for . That’s a very hard question to answer. Of course sometimes I would love life to be easier. In other ways, though, it’s precisely the fact that “” that makes who , and if were cured then some of the aspects of personality which are genuinely lovely despite being a little quirky, would disappear.”
I thought his essay was lovely and well articulated. He shed light on what his experience is like and that’s really helpful.
As someone who lives with long term chest illness I have often wanted an instant cure. However after several years I have realised that what we want and what is good for us are often very different things. If I had been instantly cured I would have carried on living in the same way and never learnt the lessons of patience and understanding that I needed. I may never run another marathon but I hope I have progressed in my spiritual life.
Hi Maggi (and Ben if you’re reading along),
Asperger Syndrome is not a disease; it’s a way in which we’re different from other people. But you can see that the other way around too: Not having Asperger Syndrome means other people are different from us! Would they wish for a cure for that?
We have a problem of fitting in with other people, but that’s not because what we do is wrong in any way. It’s mostly because people live in a way that works for most, but not for us.
If it were the other way around, you’d have a class where most people had Asperger Syndrome, and everything would be explained clearly and completely, but only once. That way, for us there would be no unsolved loose ends filling up our head. But the pupils without Asperger Syndrome would need guidance because the tempo would be too high for them.
Well, that’s not the way it is, so we’ll have to learn to fit in, with some help from people around us. But if anyone doesn’t believe that it’s just a question of who is in the majority, let him or her invite three people with Asperger Syndrome for a game of Pelmanism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelmanism , in case you use a different name). Ending up in fourth place a couple of times in a row should show quite clearly that it can be a problem if you don’t have Asperger Syndrome.
Peter
I’ve just finished my dissertation on personhood in relation to mental illness(health) in the context of who we are and who God is. as you can imagine i just felt like i scratched the surface of the surface. but i approached it having experienced mild mental health issues myself (anxiety disorder) and feeling strongly that this has/does inform who i am and is part of me to the point that i wouldn’t have chosen something different (i think stephen fry says much the same about bipolar) – but it is more than just about ‘me’ i also believe that the experience of God that we have, that is personally mediated to us and is personal to who we are, is then mediated to those around us. the experience of God that we have from those around us can only be experienced through a ‘particular’ person, and if we choose to lose the ‘others’ in our communities, then we lose something of the revelation of God that can only be grasped through the inclusion of those we consider ‘other’ to us.
sorry, a bit complicated perhaps, but it is a hugely philosophical question