Dear Inner Circle,
Love surrounded us last week; it was a good thing to be present to. Our vision of “Love over Hate” exists at the intersection of all the rawness of humanity, between the rich and the poor, the housed and the homeless, I could go on, but you get the picture. If we are truly to create a community where there is no ‘us and them’, then we fundamentally have to understand that we all need each other. The more I travel down the road of life, the more the realisation hits, that we are not so much human beings trying to be spiritual, but rather the opposite hold true, that we are spiritual beings, and our journey in life is to work out what on earth it means to be human. It is humbling and yet more life-giving than one could possibly ever imagine.
We move regularly between life and death here and the weekend was a tale of two chapel services, a funeral and a wedding. A life cut short after a decades long struggle of battling demons was lost. As we gathered with friends and family the tears flowed, as stories were told in typical Wayside fashion, moving between “I am lost without him around” through to “Who is going to cook the barbecue’s like him?” After we farewelled our gentle giant, I approached his parents and brother, and we embraced. “You know” his little brother observed, “When you live with an addict it narrows your focus to only seeing what they take, thanks for today, it was important to hear about all he was able to give.” It is a deep honour to hold a space to allow the full story of someone to slowly emerge, to claw back a little dignity in the face of overwhelming pain and loss.
On Sunday it was a pleasure to join two friends who I love in marriage. The preparation sessions have been a lot of fun, and when it got to liturgies, I was a little taken aback when they wanted the traditional ones to be recited – I normally skip past these and go from the heart. You may have guessed that I tend to wilt in the presence of notes, why would this progressive and amazing queer couple want these old words and blessings spoken over them? Then it struck me, throughout their lives they would have sat through many weddings, hearing those very words spoken over couples, knowing that those words were not for them. With this insight, what a joy it was to speak those words over them, with them surrounded by their wild community joined with friends and family. At one point I looked down and saw an abandoned pair of rubber thongs at the front, thankfully no one had been raptured, the owner walked up mid-ceremony, “Ahh, here they are!”
Words create our worlds, the ones we dare speak can construct horizons of possibility over weary souls, and can begin to heal lives marked by shame. The words we withhold also contain power, and once unleashed anew into the world, hold the power to change everything. Love can heal a fractured world, if we dare to expose ourselves to the rawness of our shared humanity. You really gotta swing by Wayside Chapel and check it out sometime, there’s always far more than meets the eye!
Thank you for being part of the Inner Circle,
Jon
Rev. Jon Owen
CEO & Pastor
Wayside Chapel
