Health Promotion Sunday: A Theology of Safe Places

God is our refuge - our safe place. Daily we need rest and relaxation. We need a place where we can rejuvenate and reconnect with God. In this context, a safe place might be a quiet room and half an hour set aside each day. That time could be used to pray, to sing, to do whatever it is that brings back energy, life and meaning. The important point here is to give ourselves and our bodies time to "be."

Sometimes "safe space" means more than temporary refuge from a busy day. There are times when the entire world around us does not feel safe. When we consider what is happening to our environment, the weapons we are building for warfare and the economic imbalances and injustices among the peoples of the world, "safety" can quickly become a relative term.

Perhaps we do not feel safe because of our differences from others, or we fear that if people really knew who we were they would not accept us. We might lose friends or be judged or condemned. We take risks when we "open up" and let people know who we really are, what we really think, or what is really happening in our lives. Are those risks worth the trouble? Is it really necessary to take such risks? Let's keep these questions in mind as we continue to think about safety in the midst of differences.

Some people have little or no control over the circumstances which put them in unsafe places. For instance, because of the very real problem of racism, a man with very dark skin might feel unsafe working in an office where all the other people have very light skin. In another instance, an eighth grade girl may feel unsafe at school because she has deep scars on her face from a childhood accident. Perhaps she fears other students will make fun of her, or exclude her because she looks different. Imagine a 42-year-old woman coming to your church in a wheel chair. Would she feel physically safe as she moved from place to place, removed her coat, or reached for a cup of coffee at the counter in the fellowship hall after worship?

God calls us, as church communities, to make safe places for each other to be whole - fully human. Beyond that, God calls us as individuals to risk being fully honest and open within our church communities. God sees us as whole people, even though our wholeness includes brokenness, sin, illness, fear and past failures - aspects of ourselves we seldom show in our church communities. God gracefully and lovingly calls us to bring our whole selves into the church. At the same time, God calls the church to gracefully and lovingly respect all individuals as whole children of God, both flawed and gifted. Bringing our whole selves, flaws and all, into our participation in the church community, can be a very vulnerable experience. Yet it is specifically that vulnerability which has the potential to unlock opportunities for transformation and redemption in our lives, and in the life of the church. When one person talks about a struggle in his or her life, others learn from it, gain insight from it, and may often meet God in the events which come to pass, as the community seeks God's will together. Some struggles can be learning experiences. Other struggles may seem like nothing but pure suffering; it is indeed these struggles in which God calls us to be with one another, even when there are no answers - no obvious meaning or sense to one's suffering. God did not send Jesus to fix all of our problems. Jesus came to us as Immanuel, "God with us." This is God's gift to us - that we can be with each other in our faith.

One might ask, at this point: if we focus on making the church a "safe place" for everyone, what happens to our sense of morality? How can we maintain a sense of wrong and right if we are discussing everyone's problems in an environment where making them feel safe is such a high priority? This is a good and important question. Our creating a safe place for people to flourish in the church is grounded in our faith in God. Our faith calls us to discernment, but not judgement. We are responsible for "being with" other's in their suffering not in solving their problems or placing blame. God created each one of us in God's own image (Genesis l:26), and God has put the law in our minds, and has written it on our hearts (Jeremiah 31:33). Our responsibility then, as a church community, is to open ourselves to the possibilities of revelation and transformation offered in every human experience - not just the good news, not just the happy occasions, but every human experience. We are called to guard the dignity of each individual, respect her potential for sainthood, believe in his ability to discern the will of God within his heart and with the help of a loving community. We listen. We stand with. We love as Chris loved - unconditionally.

Safe places allow us to embody all of the potential revelation of God in our lives. Safe places allow us to embrace our whole selves, brokenness and all. God already knows who we are. When we can safely share our whole selves we enable others to know who we are, and who God would have us be. Whole individuals create life-giving communities. That is the good news of safe places.

If you have found this theology of safe places and the Sunday school lesson in the Health Promotion Sunday packet helpful resources, you might consider using the following activity as a way of tangibly experiencing the message of these resources. This foot washing celebration is intended to help participants feel the vulnerability of asking for help as well as the effort needed to create a safe place.

Hold a foot washing service which models the process of asking for help, healing and wholeness. Begin with five or so empty chairs, each with a wash basin and towel next to it. When a person is ready to "ask" for someone to wash her or his feet, she or he will go sit in the chair and wait for someone to respond by coming forward to wash her or his feet. The act is not reciprocated. Each person in turn, when ready to request help in healing, will come forward and wait for someone to come wash her or his feet. Someone might wash three or four other peoples' feet; someone might not wash anyone's feet. But the group must agree as a whole that someone will respond to the implied request of each individual who comes forward for foot washing.