Being open to different truths

Poatina morning tea devotion given yesterday

Tim Dyer came and worked with 6 of us the Friday before NRC. It was helpful, and out of that we recommended he come to NRC; and the NRC then recommended he be invited into the whole movement to get the right kind of dialogue going between us.

One thing he focuses on is validating each person’s experience. Realising it’s ok for each of us to experience the world the way we do. The only framework we have to interpret the world is our framework.

I think I began to discover the journey of realising we are different, the day I got married. Realising that people really, really, really are different.

The way we see the world is really different and studies keep on finding more and more research to prove it. There is apparently a learning disability about numbers called Dyscalculea and it is apparently as common as dyslexia. For some, we find it hard to understand that some people struggle with numbers. But those who are born with that, it dogs them from the day they are born. That because from the moment you are born, your brain is wired a particular way. It’s the same with dyslexia. In addition we all go through experiences which shape us, so not only is it that we are wired from birth but also shaped by experiences. Then we come and live in a community, with a whole bunch of people who think differently.

I know intellectually that we are different, but the only framework I have to understand you, is my framework. Yet even the words we use are different. So for us to be able to become a community is not simple. Nowen says, “Community is where the person you least want to be with, is”.

It’s interesting Jesus spent so much time talking about fellowship and the need for it. It’s really tempting to hang round just with people who think like you do. It’s one of the diseases of the Christian church; one of the weapons of Satan is to divide and conquer. We make it easier for him by grouping with people who think similarly.

The Cert IV Students last week studying “Pedagogy of the Oppressed”. One day, driving out of Poatina with Dad, I thought I’d give him some feedback. “I think we should take Pedagogy of the Oppressed out of the Curriculum”. He asked the obvious question, “Have you read it?” “No”, I said. So he said, go and read it, and if you still think that after reading it, come back and talk.

Part of the reason I hadn’t read it in C4 – you need to read it with a dictionary pretty close. – is because while it was written in reachable language in Spanish it was translated by intellectuals using words that are terrifyingly long – especially at the beginning. As I read it. I found myself really challenged. He said, dialogue cannot take place without humility – you cannot dialogue, if you see yourself as the owner of truth.

This whole thing about dialogue is not only the basis of Fusion’s’ work but it’s what faith is about. Faith is a dialogue with God about what’s happening in this moment.

The truth I see, is possibly different than the truth you see, and to allow the truth I see to be judged by the reality in front of me is what Friere is talking about. Nouwen says it is really important in fellowship with others, to create space. “Real fellowship if you allow yourself to be an unambiguous presence …”

I don’t know about you, I prefer marshmallow to iron. I’m not keen on having the reality I am seeing encounter the one you’re seeing. I’ve been allowing myself to read the God Delusion – to let myself read this book by the strident atheist, Richard Dawkins and to try and understand what he is trying to say and where it might be coming from. Part of the journey Tim will take us on is to recognize the different journeys and validating them.

I have been doing a series of devotions on Eph 4 – this is the 2nd last. It’s as though Paul packs a lot into a chapter and says, “This is the important stuff!”

“What this adds up to then is no more lies, no more pretense. Tell your neighbour the truth… When you lie to others you lie to yourself.

The Message says,”Go ahead and be angry. You do well to be angry, but don’t use your anger as fuel for revenge. And don’t stay angry…don’t go to bed angry. Don’t give the Devil that kind of foothold in your life.”

I think one of the greatest diseases in any community is gossip. It is when you’re telling your version of reality to someone who has no way of knowing whether your version of truth is true of not. So you are infecting them with you’re a view of reality that is personal to you, as though it was the truth.

I’m a bit scared at the moment. I’ve just sent out emails to a significant number of people to ask for feedback. There is a 360 degree feedback thing that it comes from. The feedback is collated into a report and you get a collated report. Part of the reason Jesus was so focussed on fellowship is there is something about “We have the mind of Christ’. There is something about creating the space to allow the different views of reality come together and then to draw out the themes.

If we are all doing our best at putting our view of reality up against all the other views, we have a chance of staying healthy. Paul says go ahead and be angry, but don’t sit on it. Get it resolved. Sitting on how you see the world doesn’t help.

My read is, we as a community have a way to go still of making sense of the last period of time but it is great to keep challenging one another – if you have an issue with someone go ahead and talk with them.

But avoid gossip. It is a cancer that kills.