An Inclusive Church in the Power of the Spirit

Sermon preached at All Hallows by Adrian Thatcher on 10 November 2002

If someone tells you that Christian teaching does not change, ask them where they’ve been.

Anglicans in particular have good reason to know that Christian teaching changes. The 39 Articles of Religion of the Church of England are the product of drastic, controversial change, mostly unwelcome by the laity. Since the Reformation there has been continuous controversy. Does the monarch rule over his subjects by divine right and appointment? Or do the people choose who governs them? Is it permissible to lend money with interest? Is it ethically sound to trade in slaves? Is it true that all unbaptized persons are hell-bound? Is it permissible for married couples to use contraceptives? The very asking of these questions, and countless others, all within the history of Anglicanism, provoked the wrath of the Establishment and resulted in those who asked them being dismissed as dangerous radicals, free thinkers, dissenters, modernists, liberals, and so on. Issues about power, money, race and class, have caused controversy in the Anglican communion, and in our time one of the most painful issues is over sexuality.

A new Archbishop of Canterbury has been appointed. Instead of giving thanks to God for raising up a quite exceptional leader with quite extraordinary gifts, factions within the Church of England (like the Church Society, Reform, and Forward in Faith) have sought to acquire his assent to their particular views about homosexuality. This is seriously out of order. Sexuality has never been a matter of credal importance, and disagreement about it within a broader framework of agreement in Christ, might be creative and mutually beneficial for each side in the debate. But there is no debate. A substantial, and very vocal section of the Church, inside and outside the Church of England, believes the last word has been spoken about the matter. And it has been spoken, by God, to them. The row is likely to be more damaging even than the row over women priests. Fear grips many people over Rowan Williams’ appointment, not because he is a dangerous radical (all reformers in the church are called that), but because, among the many subjects on which he speaks with great authority, he has spoken about homosexuality, and greatly encouraged lesbian and gay Christians that there is a place for them in the church too.

Christians in dispute with one another often forget the command of Jesus to love our neighbours: even our enemies are not to be spared our principled devotion! (When I argue with evangelicals about sex I am careful to say I may be wrong, and even if I am right, my knowledge of any issue, like my knowledge of God, can only be partial.) What I want to suggest today is that there is a way forward, so that, in the Spirit, a fruitful conversation can be had. The clue to the way forward is found in our reading about Peter and Cornelius. The big issue for the very early church was whether to admit non-Jews into it. The parallels between non-Jews and lesbians and gays will soon become apparent. Peter is all for keeping the Gentiles out. A Roman soldier, Cornelius, is a devout Gentile who receives a vision of an angel telling him to fetch Peter to come and stay with him in Joppa. Since Jews don’t eat with Gentiles, this would have presented a major problem for Peter but he has a vision, telling him three times ‘It is not for you to call profane what God counts clean.’ (Acts 10.15) While Peter is puzzling over this, the messengers are knocking on his door. He gives them hospitality and goes with them the next day to Joppa. His vision overrides his caution. It is OK after all to mingle with Gentiles and to accept their hospitality.

As Cornelius tells his story and Peter listens attentively, Peter realizes how God is at work in ways he had never dreamed of. ‘I now understand’, he says, ‘that God has no favourites, but that in every nation those who are god-fearing and do what is right are acceptable to him.’ (10.34) While Peter is speaking the Holy Spirit comes upon them (10.44). Luke records how the Jewish Christians ‘were amazed that the gift of the Holy Spirit should have been poured out even on Gentiles’. (10.45) Peter has no grounds for refusing them baptism: they are baptized; back in Judaea all hell is let loose. Peter just tells the disbelieving apostles his story, emphasizing in particular that God had given the Gentiles the Holy Spirit, ‘no less a gift than he gave us when we came to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ’. (11.17)

To cut the long story short, the gospel is preached but still principally to Jews only. Paul and Barnabas continue the mission to the Gentiles. The deep disagreement is brought to a church council described in Acts 15. The Jerusalem church, allowing men to join provided they were circumcised first, welcome their opponents, listen to their testimony, and agree: Gentiles can not only be admitted: men don’t need to be circumcised after all. This, it was announced, was ‘the decision of the Holy Spirit, and our decision’. (15.28) What do these events tell us about how to promote an inclusive church in a new millennium?

While the comparison between the inclusion of Gentiles in the church in the first century, and the inclusion of lesbian and gay people in the 21st century, is only a comparison (an analogy), it gives today’s church suggestions about what has to happen in the present situation. In each case, the 1^st and 21^st centuries, there is

a set of basic theological assumptions; these

function to exclude certain people from the community of faith.

People who are excluded report how God has spoken to them, visited them, accepted them, and given them the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit prepares the exclusivists and expands their horizons.

The different parties meet. Hospitality, friendship, talking, listening, maintaining open attitudes, being willing to be surprised, to be overtaken in one’s expectations, etc., is all central to the change of heart among the orthodox.

There is plenty of reference to the Holy Spirit who guides Christian people, but the discernment the Spirit brings comes about precisely through the table fellowship, the listening to experience, and so on.

The disagreements between the Christians are great (Acts 15.2), but that does not prevent the welcome and hospitality that each side gives each other.

These narratives give us clues about how to pursue today’s agenda. The straight majority clearly doesn’t understand sexual minorities. Heterosexuality is itself an institution that causes severe problems which are, of course, not talked about, so the majority is not really in a position to talk about sexuality at all. The testimony of lesbian and gay Christians is actually vital to straights coming to terms with broken marriages and unruly desires. The first priority, as for Peter and the apostles, is to listen and let God surprise them. Another priority is the hospitality and openness that characterized the settling of the admission of Gentiles. Since we are nowhere near this point in the churches yet, what is happening? The distance to travel can be illustrated by the present position in the Church of England.

Anglicans must stop using homosexuality as an issue around which old disagreements can be uncharitably aired. Hospitality to lesbian and gay people in the churches, full acceptance of them in tune with the gospel (not half-hearted qualification, embarrassment and (frankly) nonsense about loving the sinner and hating the sin), is a precondition for letting God the Spirit show us anything. For gay and gay-friendly Christians, loving our neighbours includes listening to our opponents, and understanding that their suspicion and hostility may be grounded in bad theology, and repressive heterosexuality. These will have been learned, at least in part, from the very churches that introduced them to faith. Challenging these is to expose insecurity, and so must be done in a loving way. Most of all it is necessary for churches to be communities of all-embracing friendship and for Christian people to refuse to tolerate or leave unchallenged homophobic behaviour wherever it occurs (beginning with the pulpit and with house groups). There is a better way, and that is to let ourselves be touched by the accepting Spirit of Christ who comes to us in this eucharist.

This page was last updated on Sunday, 10 November 2002

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