'Inside or Outside' - Weekly Reflection 9th June 2024

 Reading through the payer request from Prison Fellowship’s Prayer Line (Prayer Line - Prison Fellowship) it becomes very obvious that many of the prayer  request are from people who are struggling with mental health issues.

(Since 2020, people in prison have been able to ring Prayer Line and leave a confidential prayer request that will be prayed for by local groups across the country)

In the various charities that I volunteer with I am hearing about a ‘new’ aspect of first aid, which historically has sought to offer help to physical injuries. This new aspect calls for mental health first aid. Inviting people to become trained much in the same way as people can be trained to deal with any physical trauma.

Consistently The Farming Community Network’s Helpline relates predominantly to mental health issues. (Currently finance is the top presenting issue, but I would argue that there is a correlation between those two and that one leads to other) Farming Community Network - Farming Community Network (fcn.org.uk)

 I recently raised the question about mental health when in a conversation recently and asked whether there has been an actual increase or is there more awareness and more reporting that have inflated the number. I was assured that when all those factors have been considered there is a statistical rise in mental health issues.  I mentioned a few weeks ago about ‘doom scrolling’ and the damaging effect that this can have.

https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-doomscrolling-5088882

For those Churches that follow the readings from the Revised Common Lectionary, today they would have read from Mark 3.20-35. (This is a ‘Markan Sandwich’, a device peculiar to Mark.  SANDWICHES - Enhance Your Reading of Mark's Gospel (simon-phipps.com)

This is interesting because we read…

^‘Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat.  When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.”

The story continues with some ‘teachers of the law’ accusing Jesus of being in league with Beelzebul.  Or, in other words, with Satan or the Devil. Mental health and ‘demon possession’ have a long history of being placed together.  For Christians, we accept both as a reality, but we need to tread with the utmost caution in attributing demonic activity to those struggling with mental health or illness.

A key to understanding this passage is in verse 31, ‘Then his mother and his brothers came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him.’  Link in this verse with verses 19/20 and the inference is that Jesus and ‘the crowd’ are inside, or at least some of them are.  And in the ensuing dialogue we see Jesus redefine ‘family.’ 

And this at a time and a place when the family was the most important unit, and not just the nuclear family, but broadening out to include many relatives.

Into this culture this is what we read…

Then Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him.  A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.”  “Who are my mother and my brothers?” he asked.  Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers!  Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”

“Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother” – and by inference this means those who seek to do God’s are related, part of God’s new family.

And here I want to suggest lies hope for those in our prisons and those in the farming community, indeed for everyone who struggles with mental health.  Because there is an invitation to become part of God’s family. To be part of a community. In prisons that can be made manifest through the Chapel guided by the Chaplaincy. Outside of prison it would be through the local Church, and this is where the work of the Welcome Directory can play a huge part. The Welcome Directory

Note that in this section of Mark we have those inside and those outside. (Not referencing prison now) Simply put those outside ‘blaspheme the Holy Spirit’ calling what is of God, to emanate from the Satan. Those on the ‘inside’ are those who do the will of God. (I will be exploring this a bit more when I preach on Tuesday 11^th June, and the sermon transcript will be put up on this blog)    

The hard work is to ensure that our ‘Faith Communities’ are committed at the core and yet open at the edges. Everyone is welcome, but they are welcomed into a journey, a journey where together we seek to work out what it means to do the will of God. That will set parameters and if some do not want to abide by those parameters, they set themselves on the outside, although I would also hope that there is always a prodigal son/daughter welcome ready and waiting for them.