Anatomical revelation - A reflection on Body, Mind, Spirit by OTN Patron John Bell
John Bell is a hymn writer, composer, lecturer, broadcaster, an ordained minister of the Church of Scotland and member of the Iona Community. He works throughout the world, lecturing in theological colleges in the UK, Canada and the United States, but is primarily concerned with the renewal of congregational worship at the grass roots level.
In 2017, responding to the story of Lizzie Lowe, who took her own life in September 2014 because she was afraid to tell her parents about her sexuality, he came out to thousands on the stage at the Greenbelt Festival in August 2017 in a powerful talk called Rampant Heterosexualism, which concludes: ‘Those of us who… are gay and who know the love of God should not keep silent!’
SAVE THE DATE: We will host a Q&A with John Bell on Thursday 15th April 2021 7-8pm on Zoom. Watch this space for details or register for our e-news.
FEBRUARY is LGBT+ History Month, an annual celebration of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans & non-binary history. This year’s theme is Body, Mind, Spirit - We’ve asked our Patrons and Trustees to share their thoughts on this theme. Here is our Patron John Bell’s offering:
When I was younger and even more naïve, I once offered a workshop at a church youth conference entitled, 'Jesus had a penis.' It was quite popular with the participants, but equally upsetting to a local clergyman who made a vociferous complaint to the event organiser.
I wondered whether the aggrieved gentleman was in some form of unconcious denial. St Luke (with whom I'm sure he was well-acquainted) notes that Jesus was circumcised on the eighth day [Luke 2:21], a procedure which normally happens to only one organ in the body, and an event which some regions of Christendom is celebrate as a festival.
On the plus side (not that he would have recognised it) this dear cleric was dealing in himself with what might be called 'the scandal of the incarnation.'
In Jesus, God becomes not just available to humanity as a spiritual force, but inhabits human flesh in all its joy and vulnerability, is fully embedded in a culture with all its traditions and strictures, and is as prone to the passions of the mind and body as anyone else.
The significance of incarnation has sadly but conveniently been diminished in the interests of decency. The birth of Jesus, commonly celebrated as a baby fest is, in the creeds and songs of the Church, swiftly followed by his death.
Remember this on Sundays when the liturgy puts into our mind that Christ was ' born of the Virgin Mary (COMMA) suffered under Pontius Pilate.'
That comma eclipses thirty three years of lived life, the last three of which saw Jesus in the public forum where he was in physical contact with people who may have been contagious, as well as some whose sexual histories might have compromised his credibility. His language used everyday illustrations from the society of which he was a part. And he had a habit, when people became ultra pious, of directing them to the necessary existential action they would rather avoid.