ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
June 28, 2025
As I read through the Bible, I repeatedly encounter numerous instances when God seems to announce inclusion, even in spite of the chosen people of Israel, the disciples, and the early church choosing an attitude of protectionism through exclusion. Of course, claiming we are better than everyone else, and if you disagree, we will kill you was sort of the norm in ancient times. Though let’s be real, has anything changed? My point is that when stories in the Bible appear to reflect the worst of humanity’s arrogance rooted in insecurity, we can probably assume that is not a reflection of God’s best.
There are clearly places in scripture that make us uneasy, even turning our stomachs because of the horrific way God and God’s people are portrayed. We struggle to defend what appears to be a God telling one group of people to kill all the people of another nation—both adults and children. There are instances when God appears to be ambivalent about, or even rewarding, rape. There are hundreds of places where God seems to support the system of slavery, including the selling of one’s daughter into slavery when the family’s finances get tough. It’s all in the Bible, and please don’t say something like, “Well, that’s the God of the Old Testament.” We didn’t get a new God when the New Testament was written. God is God!
I believe the Bible to be a living library of human experience. Story after story of people trying to make sense of daily life, including the most painful moments through the lenses of long-held traditions and the ongoing questioning in life brought about by new experiences that challenge those old traditions. Yet as I said at the beginning of this Etching, there are these amazing moments where God announces inclusion in such a way that it would have sounded absurd to those who first heard it. It didn’t just challenge traditions and commonly held assumptions, it obliterated them. For that reason, there were always and have continued to be those who couldn’t quite believe what God was trying to communicate. In that discomfort, some have chosen to hunker down and cling to old ways of thinking.
In John 14, Jesus told his disciples how those who believe will do even greater things than he was able to do. I do not think he was simply saying the next generation will be able to do greater things, and then God will lock down everything from that day forward. Every generation, including our own, assuming we believe that God continues to speak and act in new and profound ways, will discover previously unimaginable understandings of inclusion rooted in unconditional and limitless love. Don’t get me wrong! There are plenty of breathtaking examples within scripture where God and God’s people stepped way outside tradition, and those need to be our model for how God continues to do the same in every generation.
Provide me the faith so as to trust your Spirit, O Holy One, as you continue to reveal the beauty and power of your reign of love that leaves no one behind. Amen.
