Holy Inclusive, part I

Sermon by the Revd Dr Brutus Green
Readings: Isaiah 58:1-12, Psalm 112:1-9, 1Corinthians 2:1-12, Matthew 5:13-20

In these three Sundays between Epiphany and Lent, I want to look at what it means to be wholly inclusive. Or rather, what it means to be holy and inclusive.

 Now that Putney has joined the revolution, and having enjoyed the company of our new MP at last week’s service, his name is anathema; but the economist and advisor to Mrs Thatcher, Milton Friedman, began his signature work with an interesting claim that you can’t be socialist and liberal.  The two, he argued, have directly opposed impulses: Socialism to planning and centralised control; Liberalism to the rights and freedom of the individual. You can’t be socialist and liberal. Discuss! 

But in the same way, it could be argued that you cannot be holy and inclusive. Two weeks ago I mentioned that the Greek for church is ‘ecclesia’ – from ek-kaleo – literally ‘called out’. The church is defined as a people set apart; holy. You can read this in our architecture. From the West door to the high altar there are three steps. The space narrows. Holiness is selective. Only the few get to the high altar, mostly wayward children. In Holy Trinity Roehampton, where there are more steps, the feet of the priest celebrating at the high altar are higher than the heads of the congregation in the nave. That is the power play of holiness. Even in today’s Gospel Jesus talks of those who are least and those who are great in the kingdom of God, with the warning that our righteousness must exceed the scribes to enter.

But to be inclusive means to be all embracing. And here’s a little thought experiment. Consider for a moment what you think it means for St Margaret’s to be inclusive. We think perhaps of being more friendly, welcoming, accepting people as they come, having a ramp somewhere, we think of those happy words you read on church profiles, “vibrant”, “diverse”. Mostly, I think, when we think about being inclusive, we think about how we can accept more people into our way of doing things. This is how we do things; Come and join in.

 We are less likely to think: We are the diversity of the people here. And that means that over time we will change as the people change. Imagine if the Polish church fell down and suddenly we had 100 Polish families appear at St Margaret’s every week. Would we be happy introducing Polish hymns, having part of the service in Polish?

 That is unlikely to happen. But we might consider whether our version of inclusion is encouraging people to join our way of doing things, Or whether we’re open to incorporating difference in who we are and what we do. So we should ask – who is the in-group at St Margaret’s? Who is at the margins? Where people sit in church, I always think, can tell you a lot about how included they feel. how close they feel to the centre.

 As a church we want to be holy. We confess our sins, we pray for strength; we try to love our crooked neighbours with our crooked hearts.

But we are also seeking to be inclusive. The PCC at the end of last year unanimously agreed to a statement that as a church we ‘celebrate and affirm every person and do not discriminate’. That ‘we will continue to challenge the church where it continues to discriminate against people on grounds of disability, economic power, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, learning disability, mental health, neurodiversity, or sexuality.’

Helpfully our bishops have led the way on this subject. You may have read recently their pastoral statement on civil partnerships. They reaffirm in somewhat clinical language that the Church only approves of sex within heterosexual marriage, and not civil partnerships. Several bishops have spoken out against it, and there’s a clear desire to be inclusive; So they are also saying ‘God’s love extends to everyone, whatever their sexuality and how they express it, and everyone is welcome in church.’ It’s a somewhat confusing message, which was then apologised for leading to the priceless Times headline: ‘Archbishops ‘very sorry’ for sex advice’.

One always gets the impression of a very English situation. Perhaps there’s a couple of bishops in a drawing room somewhere sipping sherry, and one says to the other “ah yes, you hear Karen and Melissa have got married”
“Ah lovely. And how is baby Beaujolais?”
“oh yes, very sweet really. Darling.” And then some aide comes in saying a pastoral statement is needed about the new law changes on civil partnership, and someone gets out some large dusty tome on canon law and the bishops are very surprised but of course the rubrics in a seventeenth century prayer book really can’t be changed at this late stage so it is a matter of deep regret etc. etc. 

But, to be fair, inclusion here is not simple. The Church of England is part of a worldwide Anglican communion. When bishops make statements it’s heard across the world. In Africa and Australia society and the church are more conservative and they are highly wary of statements coming from Britain and America. Given our, and especially the church’s, colonial history in Africa the Church of England is rightly keen not to exclude these churches. It is very hard to be inclusive if you find yourself steering between the Scylla and Charybdis of colonialism and homophobia. That is the nature of politics and the difficulty of trying to speak across cultural and national divisions.

 But in the church inclusion today is too often restricted to the subject of sex. Isaiah, in some of his most wonderful passages in today’s reading, widens the call to inclusion:

‘is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them… If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, if you offer your food to the hungry, and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness’

There are many damaging things that exclude. Our language and assumptions about gender, sexuality, ethnicity, disability. But poverty has always been the most consistent and ruthless of exclusions.Hunger, homelessness, addiction, oppression, all close access to education, employment and society. For all that we are fixated today on issue of identity, we will have the most success in addressing inclusion if we are able to address the poverty that is within our own community. And lest we forget the visit by the foodbank, 36% of children in Wandsworth live in poverty. It’s a staggering statistic I hope we think about every day. And something we need to keep in mind as we’re thinking about the mission of this church for the future.

There is I hope not an open contradiction between holiness and inclusion. Faith is something that – if we are willing – will always take us deeper wherever we are. It’s call to be better, to develop virtue and honesty, can take all of us further.

But it is inclusive and if Jesus’ teaching speaks to anything it is that externals are of little consequence and he is concerned most of all for the state of our heart. And if there is a persisting negative strain in Jesus’ ministry it is his dislike of hypocrisy and judgement. His call to humility that leaves all criticism of others to God. I am aware enough of my own failings to know better than telling others where they are wrong. To avoid what Isaiah earlier described in ‘the pointing the finger, the speaking of evil’. CS Lewis had that great line that those who are looking down on others will never see the God that is above them. Equally, those who are too quick to give their own opinions, and those who with the established multitude are shouting the loudest, will not hear the voices at the margins of those who have also heard the call of God.

There is a call then to be holy and inclusive, to be wholly inclusive. We need to believe that we can be better. But we need to listen to the experience and voices of those who are different to us.

 Now I have heard from a couple of people that they would like a specific task to take away with them from the sermon.  So this is your homework this week. I’d like you to think about yourself and St Margaret’s. And ask yourself what is your, our unconscious bias? Who fits in easily here? Who might be excluded by our language, our music, our welcome and hospitality? Where can we find greater holiness? How can we be more inclusive?  Amen.