1/20 unfinished thoughts... #online Church has been dismissed for years: a ‘last resort’, a ‘pale imitation’, ‘only just better than nothing’ are 3 verdicts I've heard. Some say how much they #mourn the loss of meeting in church buildings. It's a heavy loss, a significant sorrow.

2/20 But, as with many who #grieve, in our sorrow we must be careful not to #wound others, as #mainstream #church struggles to inhabit what has been the lived, continuous (sometimes total) experience of #disabled #christians, Christians with #mentalhealth struggles...

3/20 ...Christians who are #carers for those who can't #access #Church as we knew it & Christians who work shifts. In our thrashing about in this new arena, we should be careful not to push out those whose #spiritual #home this has been for a long time...

4/20 ...careful not to start able-splaining to them & others how it’s done, careful not to diminish the #spiritual reality of the presence of #God in this format just because it may be new & uncomfortable to us.

5/20 Is #onlineChurch #harder? Harder for all, or just for the part of church used to meeting in other ways? Is a time-limited, space-limited, ephemeral expression a superior way of #meeting #God to an always-available, everywhere available, permanently available expression?

6/20 Let's try starting from a different premise: that #disabled #Christians are not, & should not be seen as, the beggars at the feast. That this #pandemic moving #Church online is not merely a reversal, in which Lazarus is blessed & elevated & the rich man pleading for #access

7/20 ...not merely a ‘serves us right’ or a ‘now you’ll notice & care about people who can’t access church because you are forced to #suffer too’. That this #shaking of the aspects of our #faith we thought ever-present may produce fruit in us, tragic & terrible though it may be..

8/20 ... #fruit already in evidence in those ahead of us on this path. When we picture #Jesus in ministry, the images are often quite physical & crowded: Jesus #touching, in a crowd, surrounded by his disciples, sharing bread. But in the Bible Jesus did do #remote #ministry!

9/20 Startlingly, quite a bit, given the nature of the times in which he lived. Not only that, his moments of remote #ministry give rise to what #Jesus articulates as the greatest expressions of #faith & #worship. In Matt 8:5-13 a Centurion approaches Jesus. His servant is ill...

10/20 This #outsider to God’s people can't enter the same building as #Jesus or he'll defile him, but he asks for a healing. Jesus is prepared to go to where the servant is, but the Centurion replies, ‘Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only speak the word

11/20 & my servant will be #healed. For I also am a man under #authority, with soldiers under me; & I say to one, “Go”, & he goes..' When Jesus heard him, he was amazed & said to those who followed him, ‘Truly I tell you, in no one in Israel have I found such #faith.’

12/20 This man is lauded for great #faith because he didn't require presence or the involvement of his senses: he trusted Jesus’ #power was absolute, & it was.
Who else does Jesus praise for faith? In John 20:24-28, Jesus has risen & 10 disciples in a locked room have seen him.

13/20 Jesus presents himself to Thomas’s senses & Thomas makes his declaration of #faith, but Jesus adds, ‘Have you #believed because you have seen me? #Blessed are those who have not seen & yet have come to believe.’ Then there is the woman at the well in John 4.

14/20 She raises the issue of where #worship should be offered. “Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” #Jesus replies, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father..

15/20 ..neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem... true worshippers will worship the Father in #spirit and #truth." Timely words for us perhaps.

16/20 Or #Jesus speaking against the social #weaponising of #public #ceremony in Matt 6:5-6, “whenever you pray, do not be like the #hypocrites; for they love to stand & pray in the synagogues & at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others....

17/20 Truly I tell you, they have received their #reward. But whenever you pray, go into your room & shut the door & pray to your #Father who is in #secret; & your Father who sees in secret will reward you."

18/20 What do these words of #Jesus have to teach us about the faith of #disabled #Christians who, week after week, month after month, year after year, nourish their faith online? Surely the highest accolade Jesus can bestow is theirs:

19/20 #Blessed are those who have not seen, not heard in person, not been present, not been able to touch, yet have #believed. Your #Father who sees in secret will reward you. Truly I tell you, in no-one in the #mainstream churchgoing population have I found such #faith.”

20/20 Why, then, do we as a #Church place in-person #Sacramental reception as the pinnacle? Why kick so violently against valuing & sharing an experience that produces in its hard ground & lonely way such #riches of #faith? Just wondering... @ChurchTimes
@DisabilityJ @chelmsdio