7 minute read
A Path to Change
As we move through a year of huge struggles and challenges, how might we be part of bringing healing, hope and justice to a broken world?
Words Jess Bee
This year, our world has been fl ung into a greater vortex of pain, injustice and oppression than some of us have ever experienced. And for many of us, our eyes have been opened to ongoing struggles and challenges. So, how do those of us who follow Jesus respond with love, peace and justice? One way is to demand change – the desire for transformation, so that we and others are happier, freer, kinder; more peaceful, more aware, more concerned with justice; so that the oppressed are set free, the lost are found, and so everyone is treated equally. We often look to others for change – but the Bible asks us to fi rst make this journey ourselves.
LOOKING INWARDS
The Ninefold Path resources refl ect this desire to see change and restoration in a world full of imbalance and inequality. The invitation to see things diff erently is captured in Jesus’ opening to the Sermon on the Mount: the beatitudes. Mark Scandrette, part of the NINE BEATS Collective and co-author of the Ninefold Path Notebook says: “The beatitudes … give a table of contents for the areas of human experience that Jesus is addressing through his life and message … he’s naming the illusions or distortions that keep us captive, and [he is] calling us back to what’s most real and true, and inviting us in to a new way of life.”1 The beatitudes
cause us to rethink the world – to refi gure what’s important and valuable. Jesus lifts up those who don’t fi t into the template of what our culture deems worthy: the poor, those who ache with sadness, those who are humble. Jesus also raises up people who chase after justice, who show mercy, who are pure, who walk in peace, who suff er for doing the right thing. And as we rethink the world, we must look at ourselves and our place in it. Danielle Welch, co-author of the Ninefold Path Notebook, explains: “Talking about the need for change came easy to us,” she says. “But as we talked about the beatitudes, a new and less comfortable truth began to emerge: we don’t change the world ‘out there’ without changing the world that’s inside us. All the ills that we identify around us are mirrored in our own journeys. If we want the world to be diff erent, if we want change, it has to begin with us.”2
JOURNEYING TOGETHER
The Ninefold Path Learning Lab and Notebook off er an experiential journey that takes the user through the “nine beats” of the sayings of Jesus known as the beatitudes, exploring how these statements relate to struggles and opportunities in our lives. These resources can be used individually or in a group, in person or online, and are adaptable to diff erent contexts and timetables. For each beatitude there is an invitation or question to help spark group conversation. “From the start, you get the sense that this isn’t just about what the Bible says, but also about the story of our lives – and how the words of Jesus might speak life into our circumstances,” says Mark. In the Ninefold Path Learning Lab, group exercises are included, and participants are invited to try practices between sessions to see what might happen if we follow the teachings of Jesus. “It’s a balance between
1Episode 57: Back to Reality with Mark Scandrette, Mid-faith Crisis podcast, 8 December 2018
2We don’t change the world ‘out there’ without changing the world in us, www.christianitytoday. com, Danielle Welch, 26 March 2019
A group in Adelaide (left) and Mark Scandrette leading a group in London (right)
The Way of ... Trust
Lament
Humility
pattern, practice and action, and a more refl ective, accountable, journaling approach,” says Cornelia Gaie from Lifewords. “There is a curriculum to follow, but it’s organic, leading the users to go beyond head knowledge into something experience and practice-based.” Kaye and Darryl Schelback from Sydney, Australia, led a group in their church community last year. “It was wonderful,” says Kaye. “Quite revolutionary, really. It challenged our beliefs into action and built relationships between participants in unexpected ways.”
OUR WORLD NOW
The coronavirus pandemic has caused many of us to think more deeply about our lives, communities and the wider world. “As we’ve done these groups during Covid-19, we’ve noticed that the beatitudes name current life struggles and people feel invited to consider another way they can navigate these diffi culties,” says Mark. “The Way of Trust [blessed are the poor] addresses the uncertainty and economic diffi culties many of us are
Justice
Compassion
facing. The Way of Lament [blessed are those who mourn] invites us to not run from what is hard, but to sit with our pain and wait for divine comfort.” Mark continues: “We recently fi nished two Ninefold Path groups that started just after George Floyd’s killing in America. Current racial justice struggles have been the backdrop for these groups. A lot of the practices people have taken on have been related to how we can use our power for good.” In a Ninefold Path group in Adelaide, Australia, Rhanee Lester led 28 white middleclass – mainly male – pastors in a lament for Aboriginal people. “We had a beautiful opportunity to be led by Rhanee, an indigenous woman who is a church leader and signifi cant voice for Aboriginal Christians trying to make sense of what she called ‘white-man religion for an indigenous woman in modern times’,” says Dan Hardie, Lifewords Australia Director. Through her refl ection and a poem that spoke of being silenced, of violence, of brokenness,
Right Motive Peacemaking Surrender Radical Love
and of the harm caused by colonisation, she lamented the pain and injustice suff ered by her community for over two centuries. “She subverted the normal script of our white western society that is centred around white male leadership,” says Dan. Michael, who was also at the retreat said: “The beatitudes retreat was one of the best I’ve been to in all my years of ministry – and boy, have I been to a few! It opened my eyes and heart to a way of Jesus that was so centring and peace-producing.” It’s in these moments that we see the unique opportunity Ninefold Path off ers – for raw, honest, sometimes provocative refl ection that leads to a new openness and vulnerability.
NINEFOLD PATH NOTEBOOK
A new edition of the Ninefold Path Notebook is now available at the lower price of 5 copies for £15. So why not take this opportunity to explore the beatitudes? Visit www.ninefoldpath.org for more information, to order resources, and to access free online and video content. And watch this space for Ninefold Path events happening in the UK this autumn.
FULLNESS OF LIFE
“The only way to really experience the fullness of life we were created for is by learning to apply the words of Christ to the messy details of our lives,” says Mark. “There is a huge gap between how Christ calls us to live and how we actually live. Ninefold Path is designed to address that gap in gentle and life-giving ways. For both Christians and those who don’t identify as Christians, the Ninefold Path off ers an opportunity to explore the way of Jesus with curiosity.” In a world crying out for change, the beatitudes off er a way to make change happen, starting with ourselves.
PRAY
Praise God for the Bible and the words of Jesus that show us how to be human.
Pray for all those using the Ninefold Path, that they would be transformed.
Pray for our world and for the opportunity we have to bring
change.
