My text was a familiar but unlikely one for such a topic: Mark 2: 1-5, the lowering of the paralyzed man down through the roof. We know the story. Some friends carry the man to the front door. (Mark tells us that there are at least four whom are doing the carrying) The way is blocked. Instead of giving up and leaving--or even leaving the man to his own fate, as those with disabilities often are--the men do something unforgettable. Without much deliberation (as far as Mark tells the story) the men get on the roof. From there they "dig" through the roof, opening a hole so as to lower the man down. It's hard to imagine this not being a disruptive moment. I am sure in some way, as the man came down, the attention of the crowd and even Jesus was on this man. It is a preposterous act.
The text then says something peculiar. It says when Jesus saw their faith, he forgave the sins of the paralytic man. You would think it would say something like "when Jesus saw their action" or "when Jesus saw their good deed" he forgave the man. But it doesn't. This is all very peculiar, indeed.
The text is full of peculiarities--the passiveness of the paralytic man which would appear to deny his agency as a human in receiving forgiveness because of the actions of others, the act of forgiveness (which pisses off the scribes to no end--as it was with their customary indignance at anything that strayed from the norm), to say nothing of the fact that these men who have carried the paralytic have an almost saint-like resolve to get this man where he needs to be. Mark tells this story so matter of factly that it is only when you sit with it awhile do you begin to notice the angles, the mysteries, the profundities contained within it.
It is a powerful story. But it does not seem to be relevant to the topic of inclusion (for some reasons mentioned above, viz. the ostensible lack of agency on the part of the paralytic man). The story is more about the power of disruption than inclusion. It is not as if the crowd made way for the man. They stand there as an immovable and indifferent blob. What it took to get the man in was daring resolve, the kind of action that is not permitted within our comfy, cozy communities of polite restraint. It took disruption and interruption to get this man to Jesus. Tell me, what church do you know lives off the currency of disruption and interruption?
For me, as a pastor and as a parent of a child who is disable, there is no such thing as inclusion without disruption and interruption. Including those who are different requires us to understand this or we forfeit our claims to such language. Inclusion, when practiced truly and rightly, disrupts the status quo. It upends our standards of laissez-faire politeness and "normal" behavior. Most importantly, it reveals the invasive and pervasive power of Grace which breaks down the doors of our ignorance and indifference. The power of inclusion is precisely equal to its power to disrupt. But this is what it takes to practice inclusion--you have to be disrupted and interrupted from all the things within you and without that keep you insulated from those who are different from you. You have to, in other words, come to terms with the gospel.
The truth of what inclusion is and how it is practiced is discovered only from within the gospel which disrupts and interrupts, the invasive grace of God which overwhelms and destroys the powers of Sin and Death. The gospel does not politely pat us on the back by assuring us that all we need is just a little motivation or inspiration to be good. No. It picks us up and lowers us down through the roof. We go from Old to New. Our moment of deliverance is a moment of disruption. That is the gospel.
As such, when it comes to inclusion, you will never discover what it is without the gospel. Those who pretend they can have one without the other don't know what they are talking about. We have no idea what inclusion is without the gospel. In the same breath, we have no right to preach the gospel if we are not practicing inclusion. In the economy of grace, of which the gospel relates, you will discover what inclusion is but only through acts of disruption and interruption.
May you be ever so disrupted in your own indifference that you discover the sweet taste of the gospel and inclusion.
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