Jack McKinney and Nancy Petty
Pullen Memorial Baptist Church
May 4, 2008—Seventh Sunday of Easter
Text: 1 Corinthians 12:4-7, 12-14
Our Vision of Inclusion
Part One
Jack
Martin Copenhaver, pastor of the Wellesley Congregational Church in Wellesley, Massachusetts, recently wrote a delightful article for The Christian Century where he looked at the ritual of shaking the preacher’s hand as people depart at the end of worship (“Handshake Ritual: Ministry at the Back Door,” The Christian Century, April 8, 2008). Copenhaver noted some of the comments he receives after preaching and the interpretations he places on those comments. For example, he says when a parishioner remarks, “Well, you certainly gave us a lot to think about,” Copenhaver says what that really means is, “I don't agree with what you said this morning.” Or it could mean: “I didn't understand what on earth you were talking about.” And to those two interpretations I would add one more possibility: “I stopped listening about two minutes into the sermon and started making lunch plans.”
What I find fascinating at Pullen is how diverse the after-church comments can be as people shake my hand leaving. Recently, on the same Sunday, I encountered two veteran Pullenites about three minutes apart as they came through the line. Both of these people have been here a long time. Both are good friends of mine and are encouraging in my ministry. The first person came through the line and said, “I think that is the best sermon you have given since you have been at Pullen. It really touched me.” Three minutes later the other person came through and said, “You know I tell you when I appreciate a sermon, so I owe you the truth when I don’t. I didn’t agree with today’s sermon and found it offensive in places.” Two people with similar profiles in our church, on the same Sunday, heard the same words. One went away strengthened and encouraged, and the other went away offended and discouraged. How can this be?
The Apostle Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 12 give us a clue as to how these things can be. He summarizes our scripture reading this morning with this simple acknowledgment: “Indeed, the church does not consist of one member but of many.” And it really is that simple. Any church is a collection of individuals with their own histories, their own needs, their own psychoses, and their own gifts. Church is like a big stew where we bring all of those individual elements and throw them into the pot. And what bubbles up is satisfying to some and not to others.
Paul would know that better than most people. If you want to give a correct title to Paul’s ministry it would be “church planter.” He went out into the world and helped start churches in small towns and big cities. And the church in Corinth was perhaps his greatest success and greatest challenge. Located in a major seaport of the day, the church at Corinth was larger than most early Christian communities and produced some important leaders in the first-century church. It also appears to have been the closest thing Paul had to a home congregation seeing as how he spent a great deal of time there.
But the church in Corinth had difficulties because it was such a diverse community. There were slaves and slave-owners in the congregation. There was a huge debate about eating meat that divided the church. And there were people who claimed to be more mature spiritually than others, which, as you can guess, didn’t make the potlucks much fun. Different socio-economic statuses, different ethical understandings, and different spiritual needs produced factions and hard feelings.
And it is always easy to look at someone else’s situation and say, “Why can’t those folks just get along.” Well, if you want everyone to get along in church you have to make sure two things always happen: make sure your church is made up of people who are all alike and make sure you never talk about anything too controversial. The church at Corinth, like Pullen, failed both of those standards for creating a tension-free community.
On this Sunday when we are highlighting the importance of inclusion in our church we must begin by acknowledging we come here with different stories, different needs, and different gifts to offer. Some of us walk into this place and our stories are heard, and our needs are met, and our gifts are embraced. And for others, we feel differently. We struggle to find our place, or to feel heard, or to find a way for our gifts to be honored. As a pastor I’m always thrilled to hear when people find what they are looking for at Pullen, and it saddens me when that doesn’t happen.
The greatest successes in Pullen’s history are rooted in our willingness to acknowledge the truth of Paul’s statement: “the church does not consist of one member but of many.” We have celebrated diversity and invited people to bring their different stories and needs and gifts into our community. But in doing so I wonder if we have always appreciated the implications of such a broad and sincere welcome? Because once you swing open the doors and say, “Y’all come on in,” and people believe you mean it, then things get interesting. And I’m not just talking about a church that welcomes people of different sexual orientations or gender identities. I’m talking about what happens when people come here because their theological views are not condemned, but then they realize their political views are in the distinct minority. Or what happens when you can sit next to the one you love in church without condemnation, but you find the worship style torturous. And I could name many other examples of the challenges we face at Pullen because we believe in diversity and preach the importance of inclusion. And people believe us when we say it. So they bring their stories and needs and gifts with them and say, “Here we are.” How do we build a community out of so many different individuals? How does inclusion become real when what we need is not the same? What principles must we adhere to make a stew that will be satisfying to most if not all?
Part Two
Nancy
In a rare role reversal this morning, Jack has the questions and I have the answers. Seriously, how might we respond to the questions he has raised of building community out of so many different individuals, of inclusion being real when what we need is not the same, and what principles must we adhere to in order to make, in his words, “a stew that will be satisfying to most if not all”?
Vision statements can be wonderful because they point us toward an ideal. They offer us an image—a picture if you will—of how we wish to live in this world. The prophet Isaiah does such with his peaceful kingdom vision statement. With words, he paints us a picture of a peaceful world: a world where “…the wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them.” It’s a powerful vision statement—a powerful picture—of a world that lives in peace. But what strikes me about vision statements—Isaiah’s and all the others I have read—is that they don’t give us specifics; they don’t spell out for us the “how to” part. That is not their purpose. Their purpose is to inspire us, to move us, to motivate us to live into a higher ideal. I like this about vision statements because it means that we—the hearers—must struggle and dig deep to discern the “how to” part. And it is my experience that when we engage in doing that work, the “how to” work—that it is then we become the vision we see. So this morning, I want to speak about the “how to” part of our Pullen vision to be an inclusive church.
In our text this morning, Paul writes, “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.” It is this phrase, “so it is with Christ,” that I want to focus on. I want to wonder out loud with you about just how it was with Jesus, the Christ. I want to look at his way of life to get at how we might more fully live out a vision of full inclusiveness. To do so, I want to change one word of Paul’s statement. Instead of “so it is with Christ” I want to us to consider “how it is with Christ.” How did he create a community where all were welcomed? How did he live out his vision of inclusiveness? How did he value “all members,” “the many members” of this “one body”? Here’s how I think he did that.
I think Jesus was able to live out his vision of inclusiveness because he fundamentally believed that every single human being is a child of God; made in the image of God and a part of God. For him, it seems to me, there was no second-guessing this truth. His compassionate and gracious ways, how he treated people, indicate to me that he believed with all his heart that when he was in the presence of another human being, he was in the presence of God. No matter who they were, what they believed, how they looked or what they had done—he approached every single person as someone worthy of his attention, his love, and his care. That was his starting point.
It also seems to me that he wasn’t afraid to enter into another person’s world. He didn’t keep his distance but rather he chose to fully engage people where they were—literally and figuratively. By the city gate where outcasts were left to beg, he was there; touching those labeled unclean, to them he made himself available; the ones dead in spirit and those thought to be demon possessed, he was there with them entering their world, blessing them and including them. No, his was not a “hands-off” ministry. He didn’t leave such work to others. He entered fully into the lives of those whose path he crossed. He listened to their stories, he entered their pain, he asked them questions (even when the questions were obvious), and he treated everyone with extravagant love, compassion and respect—as if he fully believed they were a part of God.
The “how to” part of living out a vision of being an inclusive community seems so obvious when you look at Jesus’ life. But while it may seem obvious, easy it is not! Why is that? Because it goes against the values of our culture and society and simply put, we are products of our culture. Our culture values sameness. Our culture values efficiency. Our culture values conformity. Our culture values power. Our culture values appearance. To follow Jesus’ way of inclusiveness we must at times be willing to step outside of our world and enter that of another; we must be willing to stop and listen—truly listen to the experiences that are different from ours without judgment; we must be courageous enough to offer extravagant love and compassion and respect even when we don’t understand another; and we must be willing to invest our time in getting to know each other—to know what truly matters to the person sitting beside us or across the room from us; to know what causes them pain and joy; to know the struggles and the successes that have shaped their lives. Fundamentally, to be a fully inclusive community, we must believe—truly believe—that each human being is a child of God; made in the image of God and a part of God. And that belief must shape all that we say and do.
Jesus never had the task of trying to hold together the institutional church while welcoming all and being fully inclusive. But I believe that if he had, he would have done so by inspiring his congregants to treat each as children of God, made in the image of God and a part of God; and he would have inspired them to treat each other with extravagant compassion, love, and respect. We are his people. May we follow his way!