When Church Mirrors the Kingdom of Heaven

I must admit I only read the headline, because, like you possibly, I’m a bit tired of how often the church gets it wrong, or at least how often outrageous reports lace our feeds.

The headline read, “Church apologises after asking a boy with autism to leave its service because he was making too much noise.”

Good they apologised. Not so good they needed to!

It’s true, noisy children, off key singing, people talking during the service, and other things, are not the best things to contend with on Sundays when you’re focused on worshipping God. Yes, they are annoying. It is inconvenient, and these things can tend to spoil the experience.

I don’t know about you, though, but I find the Holy Spirit saying to me, “Get over it!” Whenever my attitude stinks, I find God doesn’t hesitate in the rebuke—“It’s not about you, Steve!” It’s not about any of us. It’s about the person we serve. It’s about the person who’s in our midst. The other person.

It is the inherent approval we give
to another human being for being human;
for being the person made in the image of God.

How good would church be if people with noisy disabilities were allowed to make their noises? What about children being children, and parents not feeling second or third rate, or worse, losers, when they can’t keep the children ‘under control’. And of course, there’s that time that has happened for all of us; we left our phone on and it rang during the service—it’s only happened once to me, but it was a funeral! Heaven forbid! Come on… how spoilt have we become. No, it is us, those of us who want to control our church environments, who have the opportunity to grow beyond having our own way all the time.

We need church to be messier. It’s got to be freer, realer, tastier, better for those who already don’t feel good enough. Surely it’s in the inconvenience and uncomfortableness and lack of control where we actually bear witness to the Christ inside us!

There have been times when we have all felt unworthy of God because of what happened, or what we did, or said, in a worship context. The Interesting thing is none of us can be ever unworthy of God, for our worthiness is in Christ. Nothing we can do can add to it, and nothing we do can take away from it. Grace is what it is, and yet we still put on conditions for who belongs and how they belong in the throng of corporate service.

Surely there is a vision for the ‘least of these’ to find a home in our church sanctuaries. I think of the prisoner who is lowly and must be dignified. They’ve made their mistakes and they’re endeavouring to live differently. I think of the person with cancer or Parkinson’s or dementia; the person who is but a shadow of their former selves. Don’t they deserve far more than we could ever give them? There are a thousand varieties of situations people are quickly plunged into, that are not their fault, where a tiny bit of grace would make a great deal of difference. Even those who have themselves to blame for their consequences they bear deserve to be dignified.

When you think about church do you think about the kingdom of heaven? Both concepts—church and kingdom of heaven—should be mirrored. One ought to be synonymous with the other.

What is it like in heaven? I truly wonder if it’s an upsidedown kind of place. It reminds me of the theme of the conversation I regularly have with an autistic man, least once a month. We both agree Jesus has a special place to special people in his kingdom, and, if that’s the case, the church needs to mirror that.

What are the opportunities your church has to make space, and even to elevate to royal status, those in the least-of-these brigade?

Photo by Katie Moum on Unsplash