Last week Mark called us to courageous love via the story of Rose,an enslaved African American woman, and of her descendants. Today I want to start by inviting you to reflect on a multitude of nameless women, whose descendants, for the most part, probably died with their mothers. The Winchester Geese were very definitely not members of the flock here at the parish church...Abused, scorned, excluded by those who claimed the name Christian, these women’s bodies were made use of for the pleasure of others while they lived, and consigned to unconsecrated ground when they died .
They didn’t belong among the respectable dead whose monuments we see around us. Outsiders in life, they remained outsiders to the end….Their story is of pain and shame for them at the time, and also for us in the present, as we will recognize with lament at rhe Crossbones aervice later.
The urge of humanity to create dividing walls seems as embedded in history as it is depressing today. How often we choose to be anxiously small minded, small hearted. That, surely, is what is driving the rise of the far right in politics...fuelled by the urge to organise the world along the lines of “them” and “us”…
It was an issue for Paul too, picked up in his letter to the Galatians, Gentile Christians who were very much outsiders from a Jewish perspective. There was absolute clarity about belonged and who did not.
Even the very fabric of the Temple was designed to keep Gentiles at a distance via
a series of physical l barriers. Outside the Temple there was a yard, called the court of the Gentiles, and a wall bearing frequent warnings to Gentiles that to progress further would lead to death
(Suddenly I feel slightly less anxious about our somewhat bewildering signage!)
On the other side of that wall, the next court was reserved for Jewish women. Another barrier kept them from going any further in. Inside that barrier only Jewish men were permitted, and beyond was the area where priests alone could go
But even then, a final barrier existed.here only the high priest could enter the sanctuary of the holy of holies, and that only once a year!
Exclusion in every stone.
A clear statement of the identity of the Jews as God’s chosen, with a monopoly on God's presence safe and sound in the sanctuary.
It's uncomfortably redolent of how the Church has behaved at various points, but without much chance of any change for Gentile outsiders.
These, says Paul, were a sorry lot, with nothing to look forward to at all.
“having no hope, and without God in the world” -
No God. No hope.
The situation for centuries. A world in waiting.
But – something incredible happened
Something that tore the temple curtain apart and changed everything for always.
The crux of this passage – and the crux of our faith…The cross – the ultimate expression of God's solidarity with God's creation, of his all inclusive love for the world.
He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, 16and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it. 17So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; 18for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father
Where there had been divisions, there is now a new community of faith and worship...founded on that utterly compelling love which the world saw – and sees – in the person of Christ.
If that sounds exciting – it should do – though it's easy to lose sight of the excitement amid the familiar ways of life and of worship.
But, you know, it is what brings us here…
WE are not simply the constant beneficiaries of God's love at work in the world, but we are also inheriters of that new way of being, that new humanity reconciled to God and to one another – (_ it's that new community of love and hope into which Reiss, Ava, Archer and Sophia are being baptised today…Each of them Welcomed and beloved exactly as they are…just as you are welcome ..and you ..
And me
This new community of love founded at the cross is now the place where God dwells on earth...not in a building but in a people.
Us
The Church.
The household of faith -where those who were once excluded are now part of the family,
The Church to whom Paul wrote stood for the overcoming of those deep seated divisions that had split his first century world into Jews and Gentiles...Today God's Church MUST stand still for the overcoming of divisions, for Christ's way of love, for justice and joy for all God's children
The cross of Christ, lifted up and proclaimed, has the power to draw all people to our loving God, in whom things come together, and it is this that we must show to the world, where the pain of division continues to hurt and destroy.
Making space for love means radical hospitality…rejoicing in diversity, celebrating difference. We rejoice when others come to stand with us, but
When we speak of those who have joined the church as having experienced “conversion” -thats not assimilation this won't automatically turn all who enter our doors for worship into people Just Like Us.
We can expect to be enriched, challenged and changed – for as nobody can be excluded there may be surprises along the way,
.
We are asked to be reconciled with all people...not just those who fit in with our notions of what a church (small c) should be like....because actually, the point of Church (capital C) is that it is a community for all.
We will all struggle with different kinds of people.... It may be people of other faiths, or alternative lifestyles. It may be those of a particular political hue...For me, I'm conscious of the very real danger of being illiberal in my liberalism...of wanting to exclude those who see the world in terms of black and white, “in” and “out”.
But...I'm not called to exclude them. I'm called to love them…and to make space for them to flourish, heart, mind and soul…for this is God's will for each and every precious child forever beloved and known by name.