{"id":712,"date":"2024-07-20T22:39:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-20T21:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rebelrebel.org.uk\/?p=712"},"modified":"2024-07-20T22:39:01","modified_gmt":"2024-07-20T21:39:01","slug":"learning-from-lionel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rebelrebel.org.uk\/?p=712","title":{"rendered":"Learning from Lionel"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Mini-Reflection #83 (25th February 2024 at Essex Church \/ Kensington Unitarians)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The theme of morning\u2019s service was chosen in connection with this being the last Sunday in LGBTQ+ history month \u2013 this is a time for all of us to remember and celebrate the lives and achievements of our spiritual ancestors in the LGBTQ+ community \u2013 trailblazers and pioneers (or, to borrow a word that I first picked up from my friend and church member Gaynor \u2013 \u2018qheroes\u2019 \u2013 short for \u2018queer heroes\u2019). So, in that spirit, today\u2019s service is titled \u2018Learning from Lionel\u2019 \u2013 we\u2019re going to spend the next hour reflecting on what we might learn from the wit, the wisdom, and the marvellously messy life of one of my all-time spiritual qheroes, the Rabbi Lionel Blue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I love Lionel Blue \u2013 I think that much is probably clear by this point \u2013 and he\u2019s been a hugely influential figure in my own spiritual journey. It\u2019s not so much his teachings, as such, though I enjoyed his Thoughts for the Day well enough. What really fascinates and inspires me is the story of his life and the way he lived it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s why I wanted to share that long excerpt from the interview<\/a> \u2013 to give you a sketch of who he was \u2013 though I\u2019d really recommend reading his autobiography, \u2018Hitchhiking to Heaven\u2019, if you can get hold of a copy. It\u2019s out of print now but you can still find second-hand copies online and I think we do have at least one copy of it in the church library. I was lucky enough to download the audiobook years ago (it is inexplicably and sadly unavailable now) and it\u2019s wonderful to hear him telling his own rich, varied, and messy life story in his own voice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I just wanted to take a few minutes now \u2013 this is just a mini-reflection \u2013 to highlight a little of the wisdom I reckon I have learned from Lionel down the years. Here are my top three take-aways:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First off: I\u2019ve learned that it is important to be real, to be authentically yourself, even if the reality of your life is messy. And by all accounts (including his own) Lionel Blue was a bit of a mess \u2013 physically scruffy, often personally chaotic, and he had to do a lot of work on his own psychological troubles \u2013 he endured a lot of turmoil and suffering, including a major breakdown, in his youth. But my hunch is that this life experience \u2013 and his willingness to be so very open about it \u2013 was perhaps what made him such a relatable and compassionate voice for so many people. He ultimately embraced life\u2019s contradictions, and crossed boundaries all over the place, though always for the greater good, I reckon, and as he broke free of various constraints he invited others to join him on the journey of liberation. Most obviously, he came out as gay, in the sixties, when it was a very risky thing to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second thing I want to highlight is Lionel\u2019s relationship with God. It seems to me that this was absolutely his compass, his reference point, and whenever life was tough and he didn\u2019t know what to do, he would instinctively call out for help. And I think it\u2019s what enabled him to go against the grain, and do things that were a bit counter-cultural, against the rules or the norms of the time. Lionel spoke of his first major religious experience as \u2018falling in love with love\u2019, that was his primary understanding of the nature of God, and I think it led him to ask in every situation \u2018what would love do?\u2019 And he would do his best to follow God, or love\u2019s direction, even when it was hard to do so. In the opening pages of his autobiography he acknowledges the many names he uses for the divine: \u2018heaven, my soul, Inner Voice, Whomsoever Whatsoever, JC, Fred, God, another dimension, Old Smokey, Holy Spirit, He, She, It and possibly more. I have used so many because my beliefs have not stood still in the last half century, nor have my needs. They are all pointers in the same direction.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The third and final thing I learned from Lionel is a certain sort of religious pragmatism. On the front of today\u2019s order of service I put a quote taken from an interview in the Independent back in 2004. I want to share just a slightly longer quote from that article (written by Paul Vallely) now. He writes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018To judge from his massive Thought for the Day postbag, he says, most people come to religion out of need. “There’s some problem in their life. They’re no fools. They know that a little prayer is not going wash the problem away. But they want to know if religion can help them to understand it, to cope with it, live with it, be creative about it. By and large, they don’t care about the provenance of the solution so long as it works.” The same could be said of Lionel Blue himself. As you enter his home in Finchley, by the front door there is a mezuzot, a Jewish scroll symbolising that God is in the house. Inside there is an Orthodox Christian icon from Bulgaria. A Hindu saint presides over the breakfast room. Elsewhere, the whole of the Koran is framed. But there are no “might have beens” among the items: “I have found at various times that these have all been helpful.”\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lionel took religious wisdom and comfort from wherever it could be found \u2013 he once wrote a book titled \u2018My Affair with Christianity\u2019 \u2013 even when he was at seminary, studying to become a rabbi, he went on holiday to a monastery and was worried about his teachers finding out. But when he owned up his teachers told him \u2018Lionel, Judaism is your religious home, not your religious prison\u2019 \u2013 I feel that he really took that message to heart (and it\u2019s a phrase that made a big impression on me too). It’s worth noting that he founded the Standing Conference of Jews, Christians and Muslims in Europe and indeed he has some real tales to tell in his autobiography about the slow work of creating the conditions for dialogue and building the relationships which might one day bring about peace. While I was researching this service I came across one of his \u2018Thought for the Day\u2019 slots from over 30 years ago in which he speaks movingly (and bluntly) on the long road to peace and justice in Palestine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could go on and on about Lionel Blue but that\u2019s all we\u2019ve got time for today. After the service I\u2019d be interested to hear about your spiritual heroes (and qheroes) too \u2013 the ones that came to mind during the meditation earlier \u2013 maybe we could have another congregational service before long where you tell us about some of those great souls who have meant a lot to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reflection by Jane Blackall<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

An audio recording of this sermon is available:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\nhttps:\/\/www.kensington-unitarians.org.uk\/pod2011\/KU_jane.blackall_hybrid_sermon_25.02.24.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n