Exclusive or Inclusive?

My 'Richard's Reflection' yesterday, on the issue of Security Concerns, raised several other matters, certainly in the minds of a number, who raised them with me! 

For instance, is there a place for a feeling of racial superiority? 

Are mixed-culture marriages a good thing? 

Should membership of the Christian community be exclusive (on whatever grounds we may choose) or can it become inclusive? 

To address all these matters in one Richard's Reflection is way beyond me! 

All of this comes down to how we read and interpret Scripture, alongside our own prejudices and hang ups.

How we read Scripture is very important. A brilliant book on this subject is 'The Blue Parakeet', by Scot McKnight, which has the additional comment, 'Rethinking how you read the Bible'. I can lend my copy to the first person who asks.

In short, those topics were all very live issues in the growing early Christian communities, as the Good News about Jesus spread around the Mediterranean in the period recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, roughly from 30AD to about 63AD.

There were many from those earliest Christian communities, who had been brought up in exclusively Jewish environments, who wanted the Christian community to be run on exclusive Jewish lines. They believed that any non-Jews who became followers of Jesus should live like proper Jews, and the men should be circumcised. There was much debate and St. Paul was relentlessly attacked by the extreme Jewish party within and outside the Church.

St. Luke records, in Acts 15, the Council of Jerusalem, where the issue was settled, such that non-Jews were not forced to live like Jews, as the Church was to be an inclusive community. 

St. Paul summarises that position in his letter to the Colossians, 'Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.' (Colossians 3.11) To the Church in Galatia, where there had been a fierce fight with the extreme Jewish group, he is very clear. 'There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.' (Galatians 3.28) Cultures and national identity may divide, but Jesus brings people together.

One of the wonders of the modern era is that we can see that around the world, there are indeed Christian people from every tribe and language, culture and nation, who find unity and fellowship together within the one Body of Christ. God forbid that we should be an exclusive club for 'people like me'!

As we thank the Lord for this astonishing privilege, let us do all we can to welcome others into the family of the Church.

Best wishes,

Richard