God Helps us in our Infirmities

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. God is one. Amen

The epistle today from the opening verses of chapter 15 of the book of Romans states firmly, and I quote: “…We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak, and not just please ourselves….Everything that was written in former times was written for our instruction, so that through endurance and through encouragement of the scriptures we may have hope. Now may the God of endurance and comfort give you unity with one another in accordance with Christ Jesus, so that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Receive one another, then, just as Christ also received you, to God’s glory,” concludes the epistle.

The translation of this epistle is from the recently published, excellent and inexpensive N-E-T Bible. The context is about how to treat those new Christians who were not observing the dietary laws of the first century Jews and were eating food that had been sacrificed to idols. The advice from Romans 15 is firm, and I quote: “Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food.” 

There are many different ways in which being strong or being weak can be defined—spiritually, intellectually, emotionally and physically. The goal of being in “unity with one another in accordance with Christ Jesus” requires us to “receive [and support] one another, just as Christ also received [ and supports us].” We will each have strong traits and weak traits, but whatever our own balance of strengths and weaknesses, we can all love and support each other, both in prayer and in action.

It is because of our weaknesses that we need to rely on the Lord to help us achieve salvation—to help us live a life on earth that prepares us for heaven. Consider Philippians, chapter 2, verses 12 and 13. Of those two verses, St Augustine wrote, and I quote: “We should not suppose because [Paul] said, ‘For it is God that works in you both the willing and the doing,’ that [God] has taken away free will. For if that were so He would not have said [in the previous verse] ‘Work out your salvation with reverence and trembling,’ concludes St Augustine (On Grace and Free Will 21). That is a bold bringing together of two important ideas. On the one hand, we each “work out [our] own salvation “with reverence and trembling.” And yet, at the same time, God “is making active within [each of us] the willing and the doing of that which is clearly desirable.” In a sense then, once we begin to seek salvation, God guides our wills and our actions to achieve that salvation. The salvation of each of us is a joint work between us and God.

Furthermore, Marius Victorinus writes, and I quote: “By taking thought and showing concern for others we work out our own salvation all the more,” reflects Marius Victorinus. In other words, part of God’s plan for our lives is that we should help others to work out their salvation, and that is part of our salvation. We each have our own strengths and weaknesses, which may well change throughout our lives. The Lord accepts us as we are; and at the same time helps us to grow as persons and to grow in faith in Him.

What I am searching for is to understand what it means to be strong or weak through “a practical theology of disability.” That phrase, “a practical theology of disability,” is drawn from a newly published book from Ancient Faith Publishing entitled Of Such Is the Kingdom by Summer Kinard. The author is an Antiochian Orthodox theologian and mother who is autistic herself and who, with her husband, is raising autistic children. She points out that: “At a time when at least twenty percent of people [in the world] live with disabilities and two percent are autistic, there is an urgent need to apply Church teachings to questions about the care and inclusion of persons with disabilities as full members of Christ’s Body,” reflects Ms Kinard (p. 295).

She cautions, and I quote: “We would prefer to deal with some people once they’re already healed in the Resurrection and we have not considered that they are already holy in God’s name. We have not considered that we have all entered the suffering of Christ in baptism, and we need not fear to embrace our fellow members of His body who suffer. It is only through perfect communion with one another in Christ, through shared sacraments, prayer, humility, and love, that we will experience salvation…. The works of God are manifest in us when we as a community imitate the Savior’s love and humility in making space, teaching so that everyone can learn, practicing prayers that all can pray, ministering to one another, and welcoming one another into fellowship as we welcome Christ,” (pp. 261-262) concludes Ms Kinard.

The disabilities we each experience might be small or as significant as the autism in the Kinard family or the blindness and inability to speak of the three persons whom Jesus Christ healed in the Gospel reading today from the ninth chapter of the Gospel of St Matthew. That Gospel begins with two blind men following Jesus. When He entered a private house, the blind men shouted out to Him, “Have mercy on us, Son of David.” A note in the N-E-T Bible Full Notes edition explains that “‘Have mercy on us’ is a request for healing. Implicit in the request is the assumption that Jesus had the power to heal them and restore their sight.”

Jesus Christ confirms their faith by asking the two blind men, “‘Do you believe that I am able to do this?’ They [replied] to him, ‘Yes, Lord.’ Then he touched their eyes saying, ‘Let it be done for you according to your faith.’ And their eyes were opened….” St John Chrysostom gives us an important insight about this Gospel passage. St John asks, and I quote: “For what purpose did it happen that while [these men] are crying out, [Jesus] delays and questions them further? Here … Jesus is teaching us utterly to resist the glory that comes from the crowd,” concludes St John. Today, we would say that Jesus Christ teaches us “utterly to resist the glory that comes” from chasing ‘likes—l-i-k-e-s’—on social media.

In working out “a practical theology of disability” Summer Kinard shares with us an earlier experience in her own life. She writes, and I quote: “Years before I became a mother to five autistic children, I was walking alongside my student who drove a motorized wheelchair along a sidewalk [or pavement] on our university campus. She was the brightest student in her class, and we were discussing a fine point in one of the works of St Gregory of Nyssa as we went. We paused as a car slowed beside us and a young man got out to stand in front of us. ‘May we help you?’ I asked. ‘Miss,’ he said to my student, ‘If you will believe in Jesus, you can stand up out of that wheelchair and walk.’ My jaw dropped…. How dare he attack this woman, who has devoted her life to studying the Lord, as though she lacked faith? Thankfully, before I could draw breath to tell the man what I thought, my student spoke up. ‘Sir,’ she said, ‘this wheelchair is an answer to my prayers. I know Jesus, and He gave me this wheelchair so I can fulfill the call He has placed on my life” (p. 14).

I think Summer Kinard’s experience with the student in the wheelchair offers us the key to working out our own personal “practical theology of disability.”  Whatever our own abilities or disabilities, whatever the abilities or disabilities of others, if we pray and cooperate with the Lord, He helps us “to fulfill the call He has placed on [each of our lives]” Let us pray that we will each learn more about the call that God has placed on each of our lives and how we can fulfil that call.

And so, we ascribe as is justly due all might, majesty, dominion, power and praise to God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, always now and ever and unto the ages of ages.              Father Emmanuel Kahn