My latest puppet
is a donkey with attitude...he's intended for a spirited performance of the
parable of the Good Samaritan (“No don't take my SCARF!” *thwak!thwak!* “I WILL
take your scarf"). But it's having to wait. I have been telling parables
using puppets amongst refugees camping around Central Methodist Church on
Greenmarket Square. Now I have been asked to cease and desist for fear of jinxing
peace negotiations. I am not sure how
telling Gospel stories puts a negotiated settlement in jeopardy, and nobody is
articulating any actual reasons. But for now I am limiting myself to praying
from a coffee shop table on the square. Where I am also writing this.
Just to be
clear. I have not been doing anything for the 500 women and children controlled
by the Inside-the-church gang. They asked me to preach on my initial visit but
I made the mistake of asking for permission from the minister. I was
immediately banned from doing anything inside the building...which I have reluctantly
obeyed. The building has become a contested site between gang 1, gang 2, and
the MCSA, although at the moment the church has lost all grip on the situation.
Nobody is treating me as a legitimately concerned party, and so nobody is
giving me any data. Or asking me for any insights for that matter. It seems as
if the church has just given up until the city clears the refugees out for
them. There is no sense that when we loose control and power we still have one
power left...the authority to tell a simple story, in weakness against strength
and in hope against hope.
 |
| refugee bedding stashed in a tree for the day at Greenmarket Square |
But I have being
asking permission from the gang 2 leadership (who control about 200 refugees
camped outside the church) and being given leave to tell my stories to anyone
on the pavements who want to listen. I have a constitutional right to tell stories on pavements, a right which I have tested against wave after wave of officious security personnel down the years - but at present there is a different sherrif in that part of town and I have to get his permission :( . However, now the District Executive of the
MCSA has been persuaded by the minister of the church to tell me to stop doing
even that. So we are back to where I started. People are struggling for
existence in and around a Church building and the one thing the church will not
countenance is a fat old man with a big beard telling the ridiculous stories of
a famous rabbi using a cast of silly puppets.
I know that
the church is the best that Jesus has been able to get so far. But sometimes I
get really depressed being part of it
There. A
small child has just waved at me in shy recognition. I've had to tell them the
church doesn't want me to tell my stories any more.
As donkey would
say, “HEE HAW"
