An Ever-Widening Circle_RIC Anniversary

On Father’s Day in 2018, Alex presented me with a hand-painted piece of pottery. It’s a church building that looks much like ours, complete with a red front door– actually, a red front-facing wall, in the case of Alex’s gift. She recently saw it displayed in my office, and lamented that she had painted outside the lines. Now that she’s older, Alex reasoned, she could do much better. But I disagreed.

You see, a red front door is a symbol dating to an early American tradition, where weary travelers knew that a red door indicated a safe place to rest, eat, and keep warm. What better color for the door of a church that intends to practice genuine hospitality? Indeed, what better color for an entire wall, at least in the imagination of a four-year-old? A red wall facing Pioneer Avenue would broadcast our welcome as far as the eye can see, wouldn’t it?

Today we mark the 8^th anniversary of our determination to be a Reconciling in Christ, or RIC, congregation of the ELCA. We repeated our public statement of welcome and our commitment to anti-racism at the outset of worship, both of which give us clear language to guide our ministry. “I desire mercy,” Jesus echoes the Prophet Hosea in today’s Gospel from Matthew, “not sacrifice.” Since the steadfast love, the mercy of God is our guiding criterion, theologically and ethically, at Peace we take a bold stance for the sake of affirmation and inclusion.

That stance is ever more important in a religious and political environment bent on sacrifice. Have you noticed that Christianity’s favorite targets for condemnation are most often in the minority? The scapegoat mechanism is alive and well when we reinforce our sense of identity by burying the least powerful people under a mountain of blame and shame. But at Peace, my belonging does not depend on someone else’s exclusion.

And that’s not political correctness; it’s gospel truth. In today’s second reading from Romans, the Apostle Paul insists that God’s covenant faithfulness extends beyond the scope of a single, uniform people: “The promise [of God] depends on faith, in order that it may rest on grace, so that it may be guaranteed to all [Abraham’s] descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share [Abraham’s] faith….” The adherents of the law are the people of Israel, a people to whom Paul belongs, who have long regarded the gift of the law as a sign of God’s fidelity. But that fidelity extends to non-Jewish people by grace through faith, according to Paul. After all, Abraham’s faith in God “was reckoned to him as righteousness.”

In other words, the Gentiles, the nations are descendants of Abraham, too, and so we inherit the grace and mercy of God. From Paul’s perspective, the community of God’s beloved is an ever-widening circle.

That’s the same theological conviction that undergirds our commitments to welcome, affirmation, inclusion, and celebration today. That’s why we aim to reduce the harm done to people who’ve been targeted by church and society, those who bear the image of God yet who meet with a cold shoulder when they seek a place among the people of God. So we declare again today on our 8^th RIC anniversary: my belonging does not depend on someone else’s exclusion.

The late author and speaker Rachel Held Evans also came to see the community of God’s beloved as an ever-widening circle. So she took an equally bold stance, giving practical advice to Christians seeking to respond to homophobia in the church: speak up when you hear harmful rhetoric, for instance, be properly informed, get to know LGBTQ+ folks and understand their perspectives, and most importantly, “preach and live the gospel”:

[Excerpt from Braving the Truth, pp. 233-4]