The Reverend Philip Banks writes:

The Inclusive God 

Is it just me? I seem to discover things long after the rest of the world has been enjoying them and has moved on to pastures new! It wasn’t until Father Ted was into its second series that we realised what fun we’d been missing – and what a lot of ‘catch-up’ viewing we then enjoyed! Our nephews & nieces have only just brought us into the Facebook age, and have found it a marvellous way of staying in touch with the younger members of our families. And the brilliant BBC TV comedy, Outnumbered, has only just crept onto our radar. With its title derived from the young parents now ‘outnumbered’ by their eccentric and lively offspring, it is one of the funniest programmes I’ve seen for a while. It portrays, in an often hilarious way, the day to day struggles of family life – but of a home that has at its heart an underlying family unity, inclusiveness and identity. 

The month of June sees the church family’s calendar move from Eastertide to the celebration to Corpus Christi and the summer weeks of the Trinity season. Corpus Christi is our reminder of the importance of the family meal – Holy Communion – which nurtures all who make up the family of the church; and Trinity is the constant reminder of the relational nature of God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Above all these celebrations remind us that the Church should be inclusive, because God is inclusive.

For Saint Paul, the struggle was to help a newly forming church see the crucial importance of the inclusion and equality in the church of gentiles, women and slaves (Galatians 3.28:

“There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus”). In our own day, the wider church still struggles with how to be truly inclusive – and we see this in arguments over women’s ordination and clergy with a homosexual orientation. A few generations ago the issues of the day for the church were around the issue of slavery, now thankfully long in the past. Some like to see the Bible as the place where such arguments are conclusively settled! But the Bible, though inspired by God, is a collection of books which cannot be reduced to a single theological message. Hugh Rayment-Pickard and Steven Shakespeare, in their book The Inclusive God, put it like this: “the Bible is the record of an on-going conversation, in which the authors complement, correct and struggle with the insights of their predecessors”. That conversation continues today. 

Although Facebook promotes itself as an inclusive networking site, members can refuse or delete people from their ‘friends’ list! And although Karen, the mum in Outnumbered, tries to teach values of love and tolerance to her children, she is sometimes caught out by her children, who are always quick to spot adults’ inadequacies! As we struggle to lead Christian lives, we do well to remember that the birth of Jesus brought us a new way of seeing life, a way which includes everyone in God’s love, whatever our creed, sex or background. 

Celebrating the Trinity can help us with this: far from being a dry dogma or a theological puzzle, the Trinity can be a beautiful expression of the way in which God never excludes anyone from his kingdom, for there is never only one way of defining the divine. The reality of God is always richer, more dynamic and mysterious than our words can describe. The Trinity also reminds us that God is not a static, lonely cosmic ‘dictator’, but the one who is in constant relationship with us through his Son and the Holy Spirit. 

 As Christians, making up the family of the church in this place, we are called to lead lives which are caught up in the very life of God, who inspires us and calls us to love his creation and all who we come into contact with. As we gather around the Lord’s table in the Holy Communion, may we be an inclusive and loving church family, nurtured by the Son and guided by the Spirit.


With best wishes,

Fr Philip Banks