Sunday December 16th 2007

“Our world is facing problems - poverty, HIV and Aids – a devastating pandemic, and conflict”, said Archbishop Tutu, in a recent controversial interview on Radio 4.

Speaking to Micheal Burke on “From Calvary to Lambeth” he went on to say that “God must be weeping looking at some of the atrocities that we commit against one another”. In the face of all of that, our Church, especially the Anglican Church, at this time is almost obsessed with questions of human sexuality”.

Archbishop Tutu was referring to the debate about whether Gene Robinson, who is openly gay, could serve as the bishop of New Hampshire. He said the Anglican Church had seemed “extraordinarily homophobic” in its handling of the issue, and that he had felt "saddened" and "ashamed" of his church at the time.

Asked if he still felt ashamed, he said: “If we are going to not welcome or invite people because of sexual orientation, yes”.

“If God, as they say, is homophobic, I wouldn't worship that God. ”

These are harsh words coming from someone who has spent his life campaigning for the oppressed and the persecuted.

When Archbishop Tutu speaks his track record suggests that we should take him very seriously.

And yet we are all challenged by our different interpretations of scripture and we tread a fine line between standing up for our convictions and excluding sections of our communities. The way in which some Anglican Bishops are behaving over this issue will inevitably lead to further fragmentation of a church already in need of unity. (Click here for the story)

In our readings this morning we are all challenged to include the excluded. We certainly see evidence of this in this morning’s Gospel as Jesus uses the excluded as evidence to John the Baptist that he is indeed the Messiah

He tells the messengers to go to John, who is in prison, to tell him of what they have seen of what he is doing. John, according to Matthew, will be convinced that Jesus is the One they have been waiting for – the messiah proclaimed by Isaiah with the words: “ . . the blind gain their sight, lame people get up and walk, lepers are lepers no more, deaf people hear, corpses are raised to life, and good news is delivered to the poor”. All those he healed were largely from the excluded in Jewish society.

Jesus uses his miracles not only to identify himself as the Messiah but to advance his mission in the world. A Mission which that extends far beyond the compassion shown to particular people who appear in the gospel stories. These miracles reveal ways by which God seeks to transform the world even at this moment.

I am currently reading a book called The Meaning in the Miracles by Jeffrey John, who is dean of St. Alban's Cathedral. Jeffrey John believes that the healing miracles of Jesus need to be seen in contrast to the purity laws found earlier in the Bible. About these miracles, he writes,

“They seem to have been deliberately selected by the evangelists to show Jesus healing at least one of every category of persons who, according to the purity laws of Jesus' society, were specifically excluded and labelled unclean, or who were set at varying degrees of distance from worship in the inner temple.”

Among the groups thus excluded were: women, lepers, Samaritans, Gentiles, tax collectors, prostitutes, children, and people with various disabilities.

Jeffrey John goes on to speak of the universal significance of these miracles, which is "the overturning of religious and social barriers; the abolition of taboos; and Jesus' declaration of God's love and compassion for everyone, expressed in the systematic inclusion of each class of the previously excluded or marginalized. ”

He describes the healing miracles as fulfilling a mission that can be expressed in the phrase “Including the Excluded” and he argues that Jesus looks to us to fulfil his mission here in the world.

Who then are the excluded of today here in the United Kingdom. Well with rising number of children living in poverty we could say children; many would argue that women are still excluded from leading jobs and roles both within and outside of the church. We could add to that list the disabled. We might also be concerned about the rising number of women who are brought to this country from Eastern Europe to work in the sex industry. But we need to add other groups as well. I would nominate:

Immigrants, the poor, the homeless, prisoners and their families and the extremely obese.

The challenge is that if we want to be loyal to Jesus and his mission, then we must, like him, include the excluded.

The consolation is that when we do this, we welcome Jesus in the person of the excluded. He is present in this world not only in the company of the church , but also among the rejected.

I came across a poem which serves as a reminder to all of us of the way we are in danger of celebrating Christmas with all the excitement that can go with it , but overlook the mission of the Messiah to include the excluded:

What is the good of stringing up lights
in honour of Christmas?
If Christ is left in the darkness
in the person of the excluded?
First welcome him in the person of the unacceptable,
then put lights on your houses.
 
Suppose you see someone who is treated like trash
And you have no kind word to offer,
but you send out cards in honour of his birth.
 
Suppose you meet someone condemned for ethnicity or sexual orientation
And do nothing to bring about justice,
but you praise that person in joyous carols.
Will not all this seem like mockery?
and a most extreme insult?
Yet how easily we do this with Jesus, forgetting that he appears to us in all those weary faces.

There is nothing wrong with the customs we associate with Christmas. But we must be sure to practice something which belongs to the heart of our faith. We must do as the Messiah himself did: include the excluded.

One of the rather unique and wonderful things about St Andrews is that we are a church where all of us, with our range of differences, can receive and share the love of Christ. In many ways I wish the Anglican Church could replicate our sense of inclusivity and the wonderful way in which we share communion with each other, no matter what our theological differences.

Archbishop Tutu speaks of a God whose arms are wide enough to embrace all his children no matter what there individual differences. Needless to say Tutu has been heavily criticised by those who take a different theological view.

In his Advent message released yesterday Archbishop Rowan Williams critized those who claim theirs is the true and only voice of authentic Anglican identity. His comments were, according to the press, aimed at Conservative Bishops but we should all take note before throwing the first stone in any direction.

As we look forward to 2008 and the Lambeth Conference we should all pray that the Anglican Communion finds ways of living with the tension of our differing views and find in that tension creative possibilities rather than simply the possibility of being right. We need to do this in order that we can be witnesses to Christ’s inclusive love.

The future of our Church may well depend on it.

© Rev Renos Pittarides December 2007