Singing God’s Song
Canon Felicity Lawson is chairman of the ReSource Trustees. She is Vicar of St Peter’s, Gildersome in Leeds and also co-author of Saints Alive! and Emmaus.
'Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven,
and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.’
Matthew chapter 16: 19b
I was sharing with a good friend the enormous struggle I had been
having when, after 25 years of accredited lay ministry, my Bishop asked
me to think about ordination. We were due to spend a month together
ministering in Uganda and I wanted Margaret to know what was happening
in my life. At the end of our conversation we stopped to pray for one
another and for our trip. Our prayers wound into a comfortable silence
when Margaret said, ‘I think God is asking me to say to you
that you are released from your lay ministry.’ The floodgates
opened and I wept copiously as God touched something deep within. I
realised the awesome sense of responsibility I felt for having carried
the flag for lay ministry both locally and nationally.
Margaret’s simple words set me free to pursue a new vocation.
They were words given by the Spirit.
A voice silenced
Sometime later I was preparing for ordination to the priesthood. I was
enjoying serving my title as honorary curate at Wakefield Cathedral but
there was one blot on the horizon. Being a cathedral, various parts of
the Eucharist were sung and I didn’t sing, at least not in
public and certainly not solo! When I was about seven I had attended a
Roman Catholic convent school. I had vivid memories of being lined up
in the school hall singing ‘Early one morning just as the sun
was rising’ and one of the nuns working her way along the
rows, hand cupped to her ear listening to us. When she got to me she
told me to be quiet because I couldn’t sing. And from that
day on whenever I thought anyone was listening, I mimed. At the
prospect of singing in church I literally froze!
Free at last!
Feeling sick with apprehension, I booked a session with the college
singing tutor. I also asked some friends to pray with me. As they
prayed and released me from the effects of that nun’s words
something happened within me. I clearly felt three
‘things’ (presumably demons) moving around and
then, as we prayed further, leave. We praised God together –
in song! Although that had not been her intention, the nun’s
words had acted like a curse they had bound me mentally, emotionally,
physically and spiritually and I had needed to be set free.
The authority to bind and to loose given to Peter in Mt 16:19 is
extended to the other disciples in Mt 18:18. Traditionally this has
been interpreted as referring to the Church’s authority to
forgive sins, or, following the rabbinic use at the time of Christ, to
authoritatively interpret and apply the Scriptures. But my experiences
of being released, together with my experience of praying for others,
made me look again at these passages and wonder whether our
interpretation is too narrow?
Our potential in Christ
Following his confession of Jesus as Messiah and Son of the living God,
Peter is given ‘the keys of the `Kingdom of
Heaven’. Behind this lies Isaiah 22: 22 and the idea of the
faithful steward who holds the keys of the household. What does it mean
for Peter to be given the keys of the Kingdom? Is it perhaps about the
many different ways people enter the Kingdom and the Church’s
potential to help or hinder that process? That is certainly what Peter
did for Jews on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:41) and for Gentiles at
the house of Cornelius and the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 10 and 15).
Is it perhaps also about how the Kingdom grows in a person’s
life and the barriers that need to be removed if we are to reach our
full potential and stature in Christ?
Is my experience of having been bound not by a malevolent curse but by
the negative words of a well-meaning person, more common than we might
think? Anyone involved in the ministry of deliverance will be familiar
with the practice of binding the powers of darkness before releasing
individuals or places from their effects but I wonder whether as
Christians we don’t have the opportunity to release people
into the Kingdom more often than we realise? And conversely whether by
negative attitudes and expectations we unintentionally bind people and
inhibit God’s action in their lives?
