Opening wide the door a little at a time

8 And God, who knows the human heart, testified to them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us; 9 and in cleansing their hearts by faith he has made no distinction between them and us. 10 Now therefore why are you putting God to the test by placing on the neck of the disciples a yoke that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear? 11 On the contrary, we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will." excerpt from Acts 15: 1- 12

I don't normally cite my scripture quotes in these entries. I figure anyone who actually reads this is pretty biblically literate and doesn't actually need for me to do that. I did it today because this entry in Acts is taken from the church's very first "inclusion" incident. You see, we've been arguing about who to include and how and to include them from the beginning. Jesus is barely 'off the scene' and we were already fighting about who could be in our club and what they have to do to be in it.

The Pharisee believers wanted the gentiles to keep the law. After Peter got the smackdown on this from God he was ready to take up their side on this. It wasn't easy for him. He had to be shown. I understand. It isn't easy sometimes. It's hard to let people in without asking them to act just like the rest of us. God has never stopped asking the church to let people in though. We've also never stopped rebelling against it. It started with the gentiles ( most of us), then came the Europeans (let's take all your holy days and "Christianize" them), then came the Native peoples of all the lands the Europeans conquered (you must act as white as humanly possible without bleaching your skin), then female priests (many of whom still have people who refuse communion if they're celebrating) and now it's gay folks. We're just now getting to the point where most of us have stopped asking them to pretend they're celibate to let them into the church.

Sometimes I wonder how God gets through the day without taking a Valium.