This afternoon I was visiting one of my folk who is in hospital, and had a very pleasant half hour chatting with her and her husband.  As I was leaving she asked me to say 'hello' to one of the other patients, a piskie who worships on the edge of our patch.  Soon I was drawn into a conversation with her, realised that she, too is English (turned out we were born a few streets and a few decades apart) and she shared her life story.  As she told me about her father's wartime service the song 'Tonight' by Fun was blaring out of the radio in the bay where she and three other older ladies were patients...

Tonight, we are young

So let's set the world on fire

We can burn brighter than the sun

Whilst the song is not exactly my cuppa char, the chorus is very catchy

It just seemed a very odd juxtaposition of someone singing about hedonisim whilst an 80-something told me her father's involvement in the D-Day landings.  He was, evidently just turned forty at the time, and she knows the number of DUKW he was on, carrying munitions.

Once all these older people were young.  Once they dreamed of burning brighter than the sun. And because of them others are free to sing about nights of hedonism... hmmm.

As I looked at the next issue of Roots to begin thinking about the November preaching series, I was struck by the cover image and looked to see where it had originated.  The name of the website - stushieart.com - intrigued me, with stushie being a Scots word.  Sure enough this is a Scottish artist whose images are striking and thought provoking.  Well worth a look if, like me, you had not previously been aware of them.

Today's PAYG was a familiar New Testament story - Jesus healing a man of a spirit that had rendered him mute, and those who saw this accusing Jesus of driving out evil spirits in the power of Satan/Beelzebub.  What struck me was not the idea of literally muteness but rather that of metaphorical muteness - of having no voice, of being unable to speak up or out.

One possible understanding of the man's condition would be what is nowadays called 'selective mutism' whereby a person ceases to speak, usually as a result of trauma.  And that was what sparked my train of thought really.  Not just people who literally cease to speak, but people and groups who cease to speak up or speak out, who cease to particpate in the 'dialogue' of life or society because it has proved too traumatic, too painful, too costly.

It made me think about the contexts where I fall silent and fail to speak the truths that matter to me, and why that is - insecurity, lack of confidence, fear of rejection and so on.

In the story, Jesus gave the man back his voice, he was able to speak.  It is a story of liberation as much, if not more, than one of healing.  It is not necessarily the case that the man's vocal chords were repaired or his larynx renewed, maybe he was just released from being extremely tongue-tied, given permission and confidence to articulate his thoughts, freed from the binding of fear, anixety, guilt or trauma that had silenced him.

So, if we as the church are meant to continue the work of Jesus, how do we give voice to those who cannot speak?  Not, how can we speak on their behalf, though that is valauble as a step along the way, but how can we free them, empower them, to speak for themselves?

I guess if we did that the 'powers that be' might not be so keen, might think that we are involved in some kind of 'dark arts' giving speech to 'those people'.  Maybe afterall, we need first to be set free ourselves, healed of our own selective mutism, and only then can we do the same for others.

PAYG posed the question, 'what do you think the first thing you would say might be if you were the man?'  I think that's a REALLY good question to mull over, and as i discover my own anwer, it may shape the way I relate to other people.