Getting up after falling

When we fall down what helps us get up again?

There is a story told by father Bede Griffiths, a priest and scholar of Buddhism and Christianity — an old monk was standing at the gate of a monastery when a stranger walked by “What do you do in there all day?” The stranger asked, the old monk replied, “We fall down and we get up again.”

I wonder what he meant and how the stranger received this? Did the monk who was old refer to physically falling down and getting up again? Of which he was probably quite familiar, and for those of us in our senior years we know it’s best to get up slowly. Or perhaps he was talking about prayer getting down on one’s knees humbly before god and then rising to go about the duties of the day? I like to think the old monk in the story was referring to one’s faith journey in general, as a series of events, states, and moments when we fall down or have a sinking feeling or experience, and then get up again.

Our scripture readings bring to mind the human experiences of falling down. In the Genesis story the younger Joseph, his father’s favourite (I wonder if he was mum’s favourite or not?) Yet his brothers despised him. They plotted to get rid of him, throwing him down a pit. Quite a fall! One brother Reuben has a conscience and prevents fratricide, the opposite of brotherly love. Yet the situation in the story continues to look grim as Joseph is sold into slavery. One thing that is not said in this story explicitly yet is part of the larger Joseph saga is that Joseph does not lose faith in God or himself; into the future he is able to make the best out of a bad situation.

For many of us in Australia if we trace our ancestry, we might find there are convicts in our past. People sent to Australia for small crimes who suffered and survived dreadful experiences. I have at least one convict in my family tree, a woman who came on one of the early ships and later married a free settler and settled in Hobart Town. Such stories of those banished from their home country continue today. Not everyone is lucky and finds a new future. Many who came did not survive and went through life-threatening situations. Some have made a new life and many have come to find a faith.
In my clinical pastoral education group, one student was a Vietnamese refugee and on finding freedom and a new home in Australia had become a priest. I will never forget his authentic faith born of facing circumstances I can only imagine, like pirates on the high seas.

Such real-life stories of people falling and then rising up to find a new purpose and life are humbling for those of us who have live fairly settled lives. Yet they can remind us that in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds such stories of leaders emerging with courage still occur and are often quite close to us. Those who have suffered and survived can inspire us to also to rise up from our complacency and to act in caring ways.

The story of Joseph and many stories in scripture and life remind us that God does not abandon the outcast, the downtrodden, there is a covenant promise and in songs like the Magnificat in Luke chapter 2 we see that God blesses and raises up the little ones of this world.

So, too in the story of Peter sinking in the sea, worried about the waves and the deep water. We see the hand of faith in action, as Jesus reaches and lifts peter up. Peter’s experience in the gospel story of falling down yet looking up to Jesus and hearing the challenge to have faith, he takes courage and connecting with Jesus he is able to rise up.

Falling down and getting up! These can be our experiences too. How can we draw on our faith or receive a faith booster in this COVID-19 time? What gives us courage to rise up and not sink downwards? I suggest we too might need to focus in on our sacred stories in scripture and life where Christ and people in history, including us, can give a ‘hand up’ and not just a ‘hand out’ to those who are feeling low. For we can, like the old monk in the story find that there is still much to learn each day in the experiences of falling down and getting up again.

I leave you with a saying of the medieval mystic Julian of Norwich, a woman of deep faith in the book showings which tells of her spiritual visions and experiences in the midst of life’s finitude:
‘First the fall and then the recovery from the fall and both are the mercy of God.’
Amen.

Rev Lynette Dungan