A Simple Welcome Will Do
Nate is the group leader for the Roots & Wings Bible Study hosted by University Presbyterian Church in Seattle. He is a long-time parishioner serving at Holy Spirit Lutheran Church, and the message we share here we fervently hope will relate to you how valuable and beautiful a gift those with disabilities are to the body of Christ.
“My name is Nathan. I have no idea what my colleagues at Bridge Disability Ministries might have told you, but I am not the kind of hero with fire on his fingertips and light beaming from his eyes. Far from it. I am but a common man in a rather uncommon position. I am a person with a disability. I’ve been a regular parishioner at Holy Spirit Lutheran Church for over two decades now. And like many of you, I’ve had hopes, dreams, aspirations that lay elsewhere. I never once thought I’d be doing this: Start as a capable hardware tech and continue as a student and teacher of God’s Holy Scripture. But that, friends, is exactly where I am. How is this so, you ask? I don’t have an answer for you. What I do know is that the journey began 20 years ago. And the only thing I did was to roll in the door. From that moment on, I could never have predicted what was in store for me. Clearly, I was not the first such person to do so, but I wasn’t the last. I gladly share with you how I was welcomed without question, as if no one saw the challenges I clearly faced.
Within weeks I was placed in a small group study. More duty soon followed, and I took Pastor Mike’s spin on the Crossways curriculum (a complete Bible study) for the first time while I was also a student at what is now Bellevue College. Looking back on it now, I realize that the Bible and my passion for history and for learning went hand-in-hand. At one point, it even played out into a six-week course on the history of Christianity; and then another six weeks on the history of the Reformation. So much stuff, and I just wanted to soak it all in.
But my story is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Holy Spirit Lutheran Church and folks with disabilities. Seems to me that when I rolled into the sanctuary 20 years ago, the groundwork was already in place. Within a few years, a tiny young girl and her equally reserved family came aboard. Again, you would not know she was disabled but for her power wheelchair and her surprisingly small frame. As I came to know them, the girl‘s mother told me that she was born with a rare form of muscular dystrophy, as it usually never targets females. That girl is a young woman of 21 now; and from within that small frame, a powerful soprano unlike any you will hear. She is one of our cantors.
A few more years, and a family with a disfigured teenager becomes a staple of church life. She brought a childlike innocence to our ranks. Though she passed away some years ago, the family still remains active. And then, there’s the storyteller from the far east — an Indian man suffering the ravages of a disease long thought dead. Though he admittedly struggles in day-to-day life, I’d like to think that he finds a certain peace in simple pleasures. His many travels around the world would write their own book, and the way he reads through it is worth every second of every page.
And the list goes on. We’ve had at least two blind assisting ministers, and even one with spina bifida and a rather snarky wit. Wait, that doesn’t belong in a church. Or does it? We would tell you that it does!
By telling these stories, it is my fervent hope that the churches in our communities will begin to take the first steps toward inclusion of persons with disabilities. The Bible may have stories of a paralyzed man able to walk and blind men suddenly able to see; but truly I tell you, reading these stories at surface level as the miracles that they are kind of misses the point of these stories altogether. Christ recognized that these people had faith or would receive the gift of faith and would be able to share it with the world. So, too, must we recognize the disabled as members of the body of Christ, each with unique gifts meant to be shared. And all that is needed for any relationship with others is a simple act of welcoming them in.”
Categorised in: Bridge Story