Sermon preached on today’s lectionary readings: Galatians 3: 23-29 (which we heard read as Nathan Nettleton’s paraphrase) and Luke 8: 26-39 and having watched this video:

Over the last six months or so I’ve become aware of a movement that you might have heard referred to in the video we watched earlier, it’s called Inclusive Church. Amongst other things the movement has made available resources to allow churches to reflect on how inclusive they are and a logo to use if they particularly want to promote their inclusivity as a part of their outreach.

They identify six area that churches might want to explore in regard to how inclusive they are:

• Disability
• Mental Health
• Sexuality
• Poverty
• Ethnicity
• Gender

I think at lest two more could easily be added to this list:

• Age
• Marital status

The movement is rooted in a number of passages in the Bible that proclaim the radical inclusivity of God. One of these passages is that which we’ve heard today which included the statement:

There is no longer any preferential treatment on the basis of your ethnic or religious background, your education or employment status, or even your sex. All of you are related to Christ Jesus in exactly the same way and are regarded by him as equals.

Galatians 3:28

Which, is of course translated more formally as:

There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Except that Nathan Nettleton’s paraphrase lifts the text off the page. Paul was making a statement about the radical inclusivity of God’s love as revealed through Jesus Christ. He rooted that statement in the context within which he was writing. What were the great divides in the society in which and for which he was writing? The biggest division, to the Jewish diaspora to which he was writing, was that between Jews and Gentiles. In the wider secular world of the Roman empire at the time another great divide was that between slaves and free. Finally of course there is that division between the sexes which has been such a source of division throughout most of recorded history.

But to be faithful to this text we need to lift it out of its specific context and look around at our world to day and see where there are divisions. When we identify those areas of division we need ask how can we honour what Paul wrote. How can we overcome barriers within our society and within our church. How can we truly accept that all of us are “related to Jesus Christ in exactly the same way and are regarded by him as equals.”

I think one of the big issues here is how we can bridge the gap between what we accept intellectually and theologically and how we react at an emotional and instinctive level as individuals and as a church. I don’t want to dwell exclusively on the sexuality issue, but as long ago as 1993 (26 years ago) in Derby our conference accepted this resolution.

Conference recognises, affirms and celebrates the participation and ministry of lesbians and gay men in the church. Conference calls on the Methodist people to begin a pilgrimage of faith to combat repression and discrimination, to work for justice and human rights and to give dignity and worth to people whatever their sexuality.

Regardless of such a strong statement, made so long ago, many in our congregations still find it difficult to relate to people who are openly gay or lesbian and to accept their role in ministry (at whatever level), let alone affirm or celebrate it. But radical inclusivity is not just about intellectual assent, it is about challenging ourselves to love all those who come through our doors, and all those who don’t. To be really radical we need to be prepared to change what we do in anticipation that it will make someone feel welcome and included rather than waiting for the situation to arise before we respond.

As an example, there was a mother in church with a young toddler while I was taking the service in the main building on Easter Sunday morning. They were sitting on their own at the front. The toddler wanted to move around and wasn’t silent but wasn’t particularly disruptive within the busyness of the first part of the service. It became a bit more obvious as I started to preach and, quite sensibly, the mother chose to take the toddler out a little way in. As she did so, however, there was an audible sigh of relief from the congregation. I think any individual member would have been horrified to think that their personal response was detectable, but when everyone released their tension at the same time it certainly was. What did that say about how much, collectively, we wanted that woman and her child as part of our congregation?

Intellectually we all want to be welcoming, but we often betray our instinctive and emotional response that church is for a particular sort of person, generally someone like us. The question isn’t so much, “How did we react at the time?”. The question is, “How could we have acted in anticipation?” Could someone have had a word with that mother about the service at the same time in CentrePoint which is less formal and has more people of her own age and family situation? Could someone have gone in search of some toys or suggested she sat somewhere where it would be easier to distract her child? Could someone simply have sat with her to reassure her that we wanted her and her child to be with us?

Part of the power of the gospel is that we do not just read about what Jesus believed and taught, we see how he lived and acted. There can’t really be a more archetypal depiction of the disruptive outsider than this man possessed by demons. He is different from us, so much so that he was forced to live in the tombs. He’s not just different though, he is also potentially disruptive having broken the chains that others had placed to constrain him.

Yet something had drawn the man to present himself to Jesus. The man had come to Jesus, not Jesus to the man. Jesus was a busy man with lots of things to do and could easily have brushed him aside to get on with more important work. Had he done so I don’t think anyone would have commented, they might have breathed a collective sigh of relief. But he didn’t, he spoke to him and asked what the problem was, and he did something about it. He allowed his own schedule and expectations to be disrupted in order to make that man feel welcome. The radical inclusive love of God is not just something to be preached about and debated, it is something to be acted upon.

What happens afterwards is also telling. There had been such a commotion that the people of the surrounding region came to find out what was happening. What they found was the man, dressed and of sound mind, just like them, sitting at Jesus feet. What was there reaction? They were afraid. They were afraid to find that this man who appeared to hem so different, who appeared to them to be so disruptive, was actually just like them. He was relating to Jesus Christ just as they did and regarded by them as equals. They were afraid that the psychological barriers that they had erected to define what is normal, what is acceptable, who is included in God’s love, are false and valueless. They were frightened to be reminded that we are all created in God’s image and, as such, are all bound to each other as His children.

There is also a missional element to this. As you know, Philip and I have been holding a series of classes for those who would like to know more about Jesus called Fresh Perspectives. We have to be honest and accept that it has not been particularly well attended, but those who have come along have generally responded really powerfully to what we’ve presented. The topic we talked about last Sunday was Jesus and Diversity. We talked about a range of different aspects of diversity and of a range of stories about how Jesus responded to a number of people who were different from them. But we also talked specifically about how the Methodist church lives this out and particularly about the resolutions that are being put before conference regarding relationships and marriage to our coming conference. The women who had come along were genuinely excited to hear of a church that was engaging so positively and inclusively with the world in which we live. One of my sorrows with regard to the current debate is that through focussing on internal tensions within our denomination we are missing glorious opportunity to proclaim an all-embracing God of love to those out there who most need it. St Emmanuel’s and St James at Didsbury did lose members as a consequence of choosing to preach a radically inclusive gospel, but they attracted far more. Theirs is now a diverse, growing and thriving congregation in which people can encounter together the God of radically inclusive love.

To end though let’s go back to the words of that older member of the congregation who was interviewed towards the end of the video clip. He talked of how he had been taught that the Bible regards homosexuality as wrong but that he has now overcome that, as he says, “I can see now it now. The people I talk to are just lovely people, and they love the Lord.”

Let’s go into the world, free ourselves from our preconceptions and what we have been taught, and treat every person we meet, no matter how different they are from us, as someone who might just be a lovely person who loves the Lord.