Christ Episcopal Church
September 7, 2014
Accessibility
When Don and I came to Christ Church for the first time in June, 25 years ago, we came in the High Street entrance and we saw a large sheet of visqueen hanging next to the pulpit. The East Entrance was still under construction and, quite frankly, the entire building was a mystery to me. We managed to find the nursery for our then 2 year old son, Slocomb, but I tell you the truth when I tell you that I was elected to the vestry before we ever found the Parish Hall. The addition of the East Entrance certainly did not solve the problem of the maze that is Christ Church, but the East Entrance does provide us a wonderful gathering spot to welcome our guests and each other and makes Christ Church physically accessible to all people.
As we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the East Entrance today, interestingly we hear about doorways in our reading from Exodus. In a passage that seems to flow between remembering a past event, the event itself, and celebrating that event in the future, we hear God tell the Hebrew people to take some of the blood of the lamb they have slaughtered and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the house in which they eat it. At the end of the passage, God tells the people that the blood will be a sign and when God sees the blood, God will pass over the houses of the Hebrew people when the plague of death strikes the Egyptians.
The story of the Passover raises lots of questions. Does God not love for the Egyptians as part of the whole human family, whether they know it or not? What kind of God kills innocent children? Should innocent families suffer because of the stubbornness of Pharaoh who will not let the Hebrew people go? I do not have answers to all of these questions. The Scriptures are full of violence, whether we like it or not, just as human life is full of violence, as we know all too well. Just like in present day life, we can't explain the violence or make it understandable, nor should we use scripture to justify violence. What we do know about the story from Exodus is that the blood of the lamb on the doorposts of the Hebrews marks the Hebrew people as belonging to God. In the Passover story, this identity means that God will pass over the houses of the Hebrew people in this final of the 10 plagues. Later, the Hebrew people will hang a mezuzah on their doorway. The mezuzha is a small box that contains these words from the book of Deuteronomy: "Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and will all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are way, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates." These words are called the Shema and are a reminder to the people who live in the house that they belong to God and are called to live as people of God. Whether the blood of the lamb that marks the Passover, or the beautiful words of the Shema hanging on the door to a home, the message is that this house and the occupants belong to God.
As we celebrate 25 years of being a physically accessible church, we, too, are called to remember that this church and her occupants belong to God. While our doorposts are not marked with the great words from Deuteronomy, this is the place where we gather each week to remember that God is God and we are not, that if we love, we fulfill all the commandments, and that we are called to both teach our children and learn from them about the faith. If this house, this church, and all her people belong to God, obviously the house should be accessible to all people. The East Entrance was built to provide access from the entrance up to this space or down to the Parish Hall level for all people, regardless of ability. But there is more to being accessible than having a building that can be navigated without stairs.
Access is also about hospitality. If this house and her occupants, that's us, belong to God, then the hospitality of this place should be God's hospitality. Paul's words to the Romans this morning sum up the commandments for us in a way similar to the way the words from Deuteronomy do as they hang on the doorposts of Jewish homes. Paul tells us that the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. Paul tells us to "put on the Lord Jesus Christ." Offering genuine access is treating all who enter this place with the welcome Jesus would have for them.
The Scriptures acknowledge that loving with the love of Jesus is not always easy. Sometimes the work is hard. We get cross with each other, or we disagree, or we hurt each other. We hear Jesus tell his disciples what to do if one member of the church sins against another, and casting people out into the utter darkness is not one of the options. Dialogue, concern, and respect are the options. If the offender refuses to listen to the whole church, Jesus tells the disciples to treat such a person as a Gentile and a tax collector. That seems simple and to the point. But how did Jesus treat Gentiles and tax collectors? In short, he called them to be his disciples and he dined with them. Earlier in Matthew's gospel, Jesus was scorned by the religious leaders of the day for being a friend of tax collectors and sinners. Jesus is not saying that we have to endure offensive behavior, or continue in unhealthy relationships, or look the other way when someone acts in ways that are detrimental to the body of Christ. What Jesus is saying is that we don't get to decide who is in and who is out of the Kingdom of Heaven. We are to offer hospitality and make the Kingdom of Heaven accessible to all people.
The question of accessibility before us today is not the question of physical accessibility. Today, as we give thanks for the people whose vision made this building physically accessible to all people, we are reminded that there are a lot of people who do not find the Christian faith accessible, for a variety of reasons. Perhaps they have been hurt by the church, shunned or rejected because of sexual orientation, or life circumstances, or a limitation other than physical. Perhaps they are busy families who cannot see putting one more thing on the calendar and church looks a lot like one more activity. Perhaps they have not heard of a place that lives by love, not judgement, where we don't all have to think alike and questions are valued, and where children and youth are valued and active members. The question before us as we move into the next 25 years is how to be an accessible community of faith in a new way. We are called to offer the hospitality of God to all who come through these doors and to make the faith of the Church as accessible to others as we have made our building.
Amen.
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