Inclusion And Exclusion

She said it quite seriously. “John, there are some people I just don’t want to be in heaven with.” I was surprised, but I guess I shouldn’t have been. I sometimes see a version of that in myself.

For many, an important part of their personal credo goes something like this: “I may not be great, but at least I am better than…” As I have mentioned before, this premise is based upon the assumption that somehow God grades on the curve. “Sure, I sin, but my sins are not as bad as theirs.” We count on our being better than somebody else as our entry card.

Father and son Christopher B. Hays and Richard B. Hays, in the introduction to their book The Widening Of God’s Mercy offer these thoughts:

“The belief in human sinfulness can become a weapon, however, when it is? wielded by those who believe that other people’s sins are more significant than their own.”

The flaw I see in this system is the assumption that we view ourselves as above the cut line, that spot that determines who’s in and who’s out. Furthermore, we act as though we know exactly where that division is or where it should be. For me, at least in my better moments, that is not an adequate basis for faith, and I am not alone in believing this.

Again from the Hayes:

“A gay acquaintance tells the story of when he was first coming to grips with his sexuality as a grade-schooler, and his Sunday School teacher gave the class a coloring sheet with a little messy kid on it and the words, ‘God doesn’t make no junk.’ Most of the sheets probably wound up in the trash fairly soon, but he hid his under his bed. He would take it out occasionally, when he needed a reminder that he had been created as he was, and he’s never forgotten it. No one forgets when the church manifests the love and joy God feels toward creation, nor do they forget when it doesn’t.”

Rev. Kelly Brown Douglas puts it this way:

“Some argue that Christianity is under attack in our society, and in some ways, they are right. Christianity is under attack—not by secularism or discrimination from outside forces—but by the very forces that misuse it as a ‘sacred canopy’ to legitimize actions that trample over the well-being of others.

To ignore the struggles of immigrants, to dismiss the histories of others and to deny the very existence of trans and nonbinary human beings betrays the spirit of Christianity and the teaching of Jesus, who calls us to love one another as God so loves us all.”

Leslie Weatherhead, writing in his book In Quest for The Kingdom, devotes a chapter to the parable of the Prodigal Son. As a part of that discussion, he wonders what would have happened if the returning younger brother had run into his older brother before he was greeted by his father. Most likely he would have been turned away, leaving him to assume that was their father’s preference as well. Then he would have missed the opportunity for the loving reconciliation which the father intended. One wonders how often modern day examples of something like that occur.

He goes on to say in describing the older brother:

“So we see that the only man in real danger of remaining outside the kingdom is the man who thinks he is safely inside; that the most dangerous drug to take to deaden the pain of God’s awakenings is a pseudo religion that is not Christianity, since it is not based first and last on relationship with Christ; that the deepest dugout in which to hide from God is that of good deeds done to buy his favor and win a reward, while all the time you remain outside the love relationship and repudiate the obligation of the family, in regard to God and to his other children.”

This from Frederick Buechner’s Whistling In The Dark:

“And when Jesus comes along saying that the greatest command of all is to love God and to love our neighbor, he too is asking us to pay attention. If we are to love God, we must first stop, look, and listen for him in what is happening around us and inside us. If we are to love our neighbors, before doing anything else we must see our neighbors. With our imagination as well as our eyes, that is to say like artists, we must see not just their faces but the life behind and within their faces. Here it is love that is the frame we see them in.”

There is more involved here than just church. Writing in Wishful Thinking, Buechner offers this admonition which seems especially appropriate now:

“If democracy is to flourish, we must cultivate democratic dispositions in which we, along with others, demonstrate in our doings a caring outlook toward others and assume the responsibility for setting forth intelligently some ideal of a collective good life.”

In short we are called to more than just a sort of spiritual or relational “one-upmanship,” using the shortcomings of others as some sort of stepping stone to God. We have an important responsibility to evidence a larger view of humanity. There is more involved than just being satisfied with “I’m in and you’re out.” In such excluding, we risk separating ourselves not only from those around us but from the intention of the very source of all life.