This a sermon I presented at the Adelaide West Uniting Church, South Australia, on the 12th January 2014.

The powerpoint presentation video:

Transcript of the sermon:
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You are watching a video taken in Bangkok in November last year.
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I feel this video best depicts my life!
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Often going against the flow of life.
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Taking things head on.
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It is not all smooth driving.
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It might seem dangerous but the alternative is more.
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At times going as fast as I can, hoping my camera man keeps up.
{{pause=4.0}} Going with the flow is dangerous.
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Many misunderstand my doings.
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Our onlookers can be horrified and blessed at same time.
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At times I have to wait.
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Yes, it is risky. But is it best to stay in your hotel room because the well-trodden footpath is not accessible?
{{pause=4.0}} Where is the justice in that?
Or do you to take a risk and see what will happen?
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In the reading we heard Isaiah describing God bringing and establishing justice on earth through His servant.
So, what has this got to do with a crazy wheelchair guy driving on the wrong side of the road in Bangkok?
Well, some might accuse me for using the sermon to show off my holiday videos and photos. And they may be right. Yet, others use this platform to show off their deeply-held, profound, painstakingly-learnt biblical knowledge and their beautifully crafted, well-articulated use of the post-modern English language, in their propagating of the message concerning Christ, the kingdom of God, and salvation. In other words, they love to use loads of big words to let you know that God loves you no matter what!
And do you know what? I love to listen to their roller coaster ride sermons! Nevertheless, this morning, I am going to use my holiday videos and photos to tell you that, God loves you no matter what!
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Let’s pray. Oh Lord, May you be the One who deeply and profoundly touches each and every one who is here today. May You be the One who speaks through the words and images shared today. Amen!
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So, who said God doesn’t have a sense of humour. He uses a man with severe disability and speech difficulties to travel and talk to hundreds of people to help deliver justice for the ones without a voice.
Justice we often think of as something that corrects and pays back. Though in the reading today we hear it described as God’s promised one as bringing justice. Another way of looking at it is that justice is about seeing the will of God come to pass. Yes, God is a loving God. God is also just. The reading teaches us that justice is not forced upon people. Jesus showed us how to bring justice, not by force, but through gentleness and love. As a side point, it really saddens me to see Australia is increasingly going down the path of using force of late in attempts to bring justice. Yes, a topic for another conversation.

We can see in the reading, and I know in my own experience, that when God gives His servants tasks to do, He always provides the means to do it. This really struck home to me through numerous circumstances in the last few months.
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Last year I felt very blessed! I got to go on two overseas trips in as many months. I was blessed by having many cultural different experiences and connecting with the people working in similar fields as I am.
For both trips I was assisting various enterprises to promote AAC, which is an acronym for Augmentative and Alternative Communication. You might ask; what is that? It refers to alternative ways of communicating which people who have difficulties with communicating use. For instance, this computer generated voice I am using is a form of AAC. It can be simply paper and pen or a piece of paper with symbols or letters on that a person can point to. Or it can be high tech like the two I am using today.
A large company in Austria which provides technological solutions to people with disabilities invited me to present a paper at their bi-annual conference. Not one to let an opportunity go by, I grabbed it. From there I was invited to speak in Poland while I was visiting friends. A few weeks before the trip, I was also invited to speak in Thailand on my way home. Thailand turned out to be a separate trip two weeks after my European trip. On the first trip I took Stephen, a friend from University, and on the second trip I took Ferg.
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I remember one day when I was praying on the way to church. I was shouting at God asking Him, Why won’t you use me? I wanted to do His will. Hey, you do know that it is ok to shout at God? I do it often. When we do, I think, He just leans back and smiles at us with love. But, anyway, I was shouting away at Him. People seeing me probably thought I was a right old nutter! But, He really spoke to me and said. “I am {{Pause=0.25}} using you! Look at the people that you are touching on the way to church and people at church just by being your crazy self.” Thinking about it now, if we all really knew how much He uses us to do His work, we would probably demand a pay rise!
So, be warned. If you ask God to use you in his work, He will!
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The first trip was to Austria to present at a conference with over a thousand delegates. The largest group of people I have presented to. The event was very well organised with a series of speakers through the day. Kathrin from Germany, who has a similar disability to mine, and I were the main presenters of the day. Kathrin is an amazing person. Very outgoing. She is bilingual, knowing German and English. As Kathrin has little speech, she uses eye gaze systems to communicate, similar to the one I have up here.
Through the power of storytelling, she shared a typical day of hers. Using video and her speech generating device her presentation was pretty slick and professional. I had someone interpreting for me from German to English. The standard of her presentation blew me away and gave me a new level to aspire to.
I was soon after Kathrin. I had spent months preparing it and I had to have it translated into German, which added another level of complexity. The first day in Austria I spent the whole day going through the presentation with my hosts making sure it was ok. Many hours goes into a presentation such as this sermon has taken over a hundred hours to prepare. Add to this the complexity of having to translate it into a foreign language.
Well, the presentation was going extremely well. The response from the thousand plus delegates was what I was hoping for. They were laughing at the right time. As you can see today, I like to move around while I am speaking. In Austria, I knew it was going to be a challenge to make the gestures I needed to accompany what I was saying. Suddenly, midway through I started to think about the moment. I felt alone on a stage of an opera theatre with my words bellowing out in a strange language and having a thousand people all looking at me. I started to doubt my ability to be a public speaker. Self-doubt began to set in. Doing God’s will does not always go smoothly. But I persisted in my pursuit of justice. I got my mind back to the job, letting God do his thing and all went smoothly.
Kathrin and I were helping to bring justice by simply sharing our daily routines, hopes, dreams, ambitions. Many were educated about the abilities of people with complex communication needs and we remain hopeful that it helped people have higher expectations of the people they assist.
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Whilst in Europe, I went to Poland for holidays, to catch up with friends and to do four more presentations. Anyone who really know me is aware that I have a soft spot for Poland. When I am there I feel at home, but that is for a later conversation.
Two of the presentations were quite formal using the same technology as I am using today. Unfortunately, the technology was not playing nicely with me and I had to overcome some serious problems. Yet, I did not allow that to stop me. One was at a brand new five star hotel and was a university ceremony. I should have seen disaster looming when the sound system was cutting in and out and playing the wrong anthems at the wrong time. Without the usual preparation and warning, I heard in Polish that I was being introduced. I was on. I was being told to get up there. It started well but things got progressively worse! With sound failures, freezing screens and the computer suddenly re-booting during my presentation, plus, the English to Polish interpreter becoming agitated and anxious, things got nightmarishly scary! The room was filling with tension by the minute and no one wanted to take control! Once again, I was in front of a lot of people yet felt alone and self-doubt was settling in. I had two options. To push on. Or, race out the door shouting a Polish word, which would be inappropriate to use today in church. I chose to push on. Using my device I typed and had it say. Technology! And threw my hands the air! All of the sudden the tension dissipated. The shared frustration turned into relieve. I kept going. Afterwards, my polish catholic friend wasn’t impressed with me making a bee line to a bar for a shot of vodka to calm myself. Yes, a nightmarish experience for all there. However, I got the sense that justice, God’s will, had been accomplished through the difficulties. Perhaps even because of them.
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The other presentations involved talking to two groups of young Polish people with disabilities. I spoke using my own voice with my friend, Stephen, re-voicing what I said and someone else translating into Polish. Leaving both these events I felt so blessed. I wish I had more time to share with you the experiences I had with these young people. Once again the Lord was definitely working through His people!
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The Thailand trip was also full of great experiences, which Ferg accompanied me on. He has gone overseas with me several times now and would soon tell you that going away with me is no walk in the park. He would explain to you that it is hard work, underpaid but extremely fun and rewarding. It was great to travel with him after two years, but please don’t tell him that.
Andrea, Ferg’s wife, and Sam, his son, also took the opportunity to go to Bangkok at the same time. They stayed with her brother as they travelled around the place. On occasions, we would go places together which was always extremely enjoyable. I’d like to share two incidents in particular.
The first is when Ferg and I went for a walk down the street near our hotel soon after we arrived. As mentioned in the introduction, most of the footpaths are not very friendly for wheelchairs. One particular gutter we came across was easy to get down but on our way back it was too high for my wheelchair to climb. Worried about Ferg’s back, I did not want him lifting the front of my wheelchair. So, I looked around, and there leaning against the fence just happened to be a branch exactly the right size. There were no trees in sight. I asked Ferg to place it in the gutter and the chair was able to climb it easily. As we went on our way I felt God saying that no matter what happens He always provides a way, I just have to look for it. Something I think God had been showing me since the first trip.
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The second story is about some kids we met. One evening one of my hosts with Ferg and I went out for dinner to a Thai restaurant which was located in a shopping mall. There were some young kids playing outside in the plaza on their roller blades. Although, the video is quite dark I hope you see it. I decided it would be fun for them to be towed around the plaza by me. Plus, it would be another way to share love with them, not to mention to educate them a little. By this time I had about six pairs of young eyes looking at me and my wheelchair, all trying to make sense of what they were seeing. So, I requested my host, Moo to ask the kids to hold onto the back of my chair while I slowly drove in a large circle. Some enjoyed the ride. Some thought they were actually pushing me. Though, once again, I feel that God’s justice was fulfilled not just to those kids but people surrounding, and their parents. The simple act of sharing the love and displaying justice.
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In conclusion, I would like to make 2 points. The first: Justice means different things for different people. Jesus is recorded as having said ‘I have come that you might have life And have it in all its fullness’. The technology that I have been using this morning allows me to experience more of life in its fullness than I otherwise would. For me to be used by God to help make the availability of that technology better known and more widely used means that God is using me to bring justice to people who share my disability.
And secondly, be warned. When you pray the Lord’s Prayer, you say, “Your kingdom come here on earth as it is in heaven”. You are asking God to bring about his justice here. And if you ask God to do that, beware! God may just choose to use you! You see God can use your disabilities, as well as your abilities. So be careful not to hide behind your disabilities or perceived lack of ability. It would have been very easy for me to do that, but I’m just so happy that I didn’t. Look where it has led me.
God is genuinely interested in using each of us, wherever we are, with whatever skills and abilities we have. Every day. In every situation we find ourselves in. With every person we meet. So don’t be afraid. The Kingdom of God is coming and we all have a role to play in bringing it.