Southwell and Nottingham Diocesan Conference Luke 24:13-35 Things Seen and Unseen

Themes Attentiveness The speed of love and woundedness Hospitality The gift of sight and who sees Jesus Joy

Attentiveness

Questions for Discussion What is the focus of our hopes when we think about Jesus? What kind of Messiah do we portray/reflect in our ministry? How important is attentive listening in your ministry?

The Speed of Love

“God walks 'slowly' because he is love. If he is not love he would have gone much faster. Love has its speed. It is an inner speed. It is a spiritual speed. It is a different kind of speed from the technological speed to which we are accustomed. It is ‘slow' yet it is lord over all other speeds since it is the speed of love. It goes on in the depth of our life, whether we notice or not, whether we are currently hit by storm or not, at three miles an hour. It is the speed we walk and therefore it is the speed the love of God walks.” Kosuke Koyama

Woundedness

“That too mirrors not only my own journey but that of so many others, including Jesus himself, who asked the doubting disciple Thomas to thrust his hand into the wound in his side, which although no longer bleeding was nevertheless still visible. So too our wounds may heal, but they often leave traces that remain throughout our lives. That’s not necessarily a bad thing; in fact, it can be a good thing if it reminds us that suffering can be transformed into something that is life-giving.” Fr Michael Lapsley

Questions for Discussion If the speed of love is three miles per hour, what implications does this have for our discipleship both personally and within our church communities? Sufferings and wounds – how are we able to incorporate these into our own lives? How do we help others to do so? also?

Hospitality

Hospitable places allow room for friendships to grow. Food, shelter, and companionship are all interrelated in these settings. In such environments weary and lonely persons can be restored to life. Christine Pohl, Making Room, Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition

Hospitality “Sitting down at the same table meant becoming friends with them, creating a family. It was a way of life absolutely opposed to the values of a competitive, hierarchical society in which the weak are pushed aside.” Jean Vanier

Hospitality Most merciful Lord, Your love compels us to come in. Our hands were unclean Our hearts were unprepared; we were not fit even to eat the crumbs from under your table. But you, Lord, are the God of our salvation, and share your bread with sinners. So cleanse and feed us with the precious body and blood of your Son, That He may live in us and we in Him; And that we, with the whole company of Christ, May sit and eat in your kingdom

The Gift of Sight

Hospitality resists boundaries that endanger persons by denying their humanness. It saves others from the invisibility that comes from social abandonment. Sometimes, by the very act of welcome, a vision for a whole society is offered, a small evidence that transformed relations are possible. C Pohl, Making Room, Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition

Kitchen Maid with the Supper at Emmaus, Velasquez Velasquez

The Servant Girl at Emmaus, A Painting by Velazquez Denise Levertov She listens, listens, holding her breath. Surely that voice is his – the one Who had looked at her, once, across the crowd, as no one ever had looked? Had seen her? Had spoken as if to her? Surely those hands were his, taking the platter of bread from hers just now? Hands he’d laid on the dying and made them well? Surely that face-?

The Servant Girl at Emmaus, A Painting by Velazquez Denise Levertov The man they’d crucified for sedition and blasphemy. The man whose body disappeared from its tomb. The man it was rumoured now some women had seen this morning, alive? Those who had brought this stranger home to their table don’t recognize yet with whom they sit. But she in the kitchen, absently touching the winejug she’s to take in, a young Black servant intently listening. swings round and sees the light around him and is sure.

Questions for Discussion What is the role and place of hospitality in your ministry? Who are the people in our communities who can help us to see Jesus?

Joy