Inclusion of the excluded

 How often has the church been labelled as being exclusive and not welcoming of the other within its doors? For many the Church is perceived as being exclusive (which it is) but they often forget that it is actually extremely inclusive. How does this work? and how do we undo the work of ages to break down the barriers so that we who are within can see that our exclusiveness is not a barrier and should never be a barrier to inclusiveness. It is perhaps a condition of modernity that we only see the barriers rather than the pathways that lead us beyond the rules and regulations that are perceived as being barriers.

This seems to be getting very complicated but is in actual fact very straightforward. The reading from James speaks of a congregation that privileges those they deem to be similar to themselves or better (James 2.1-3). This is what we do regularly in many Christian congregations we place a barrier up to say you are not welcome. Indeed the first barrier that we tend to put up is that of baptism. Then we note those who are acceptable to our criteria, you have to speak in tongues, you cannot be LGBTQ, you can not be divorced, you have to accept..., you have to deny...and so our rules multiply much as the pharisees made rules which appear to conform to their way of thinking about God. In doing so we make our selves an exclusive club as you cannot be part of us unless you fulfil the criteria. Our rules are required otherwise there would be no order. It would be a farce as we actually would not know who belonged and who did not. Yes, sometimes rules are required but the rules are there to guide us not constrain us when they are given to us by Christ and God. Too often we use the rules to our satisfaction and benefit so that we can retain the power or authority or leadership in a manner that is beneficial to us and not the community we serve.

Who are we kidding when we say we are inclusive?

The two commandments we are given are simple love God and love our neighbour as ourselves. In trying to do the latter we create our comfort rules. God requires us to be inclusive because how can we love our neighbour as our selves unless we are inclusive. That means that our petty rules need to be abandoned for God's ever present love. We need to reflect on our own inbuilt barriers to inclusiveness. These can range from not accepting someone because of who they are to something simple like telling someone not to sign a card because they haven't contributed. God accepts all people including, and probably more than anyone, those who are outside of the system. We just have to look at Mark (7.24-30) to know that it is irrespective of who someone is as to whether they are loved by God or Christ. Is it right to set our barriers to the norms that we require?  No, its not. Those norms are often than not set by tradition rather than by the present. Tradition that we often cling to to preserve our walls and barriers for comfort sake. This is what our institutional community requires of us as it is often built on tradition. In these cases we exclude but we need to work around the corners to show that God includes them all.

No matter how we look at it some denominations are more exclusive than others. Simply because they adhere to a stricter form of human laws. If we are to truly to follow Christ we will be the includers in a regime that is fully inclusive of the whole of humanity. That is who we should be but we often see the wood rather than the trees. We keep to the rigid patterns of inclusion and exclusion thinking and perceiving that we are correct but not realising the fact the God has changed all the rules on us. Baptism is asked of us not as a requirement but as a choice. Membership is asked of us not as a requirement but as a choice. We do not exclude as a result as we are more than willing to accept all people, it is only a perception of yours that we exclude. In that perception we create the division that is the barrier to inclusion.