A couple of weeks ago a young student, newly arrived from China, had the courage to walk off the street and into the foyer of a church in Preston, Australia. She found a spot on a bench in the foyer where she sat, listened and watched the service. Protected by a glass wall, she observed the proceedings occurring in the main auditorium and despite the utter 'foreignness' of what she saw, she stayed... she had been part of a church back home, but nothing like this.
After the service she was left alone as people from all cultures, christians all (they say), walked around her and wondered, "who is she, what is she doing here?" (I know, because I am one of them!) Marshalling my courage I spoke to her, and she asked, "Am I allowed to be here"? "Am I allowed to go into the Sanctuary"? "But there are a lot of people in blue suits - can I belong?"
This encounter reminded me of a number of things relevant to the image we portray and the environment we build, but mainly it reminded me that often we just expect everyone to know the rules we play by. We expect they will not only know the rules, but abide by them, because they are our rules!
We presume that by some kind of religious osmosis people will understand how to behave, how to speak and what they should wear: we presume that they will know what we believe and believe it themselves: we demand that they do this - that they play by our rules - or they can stay in the foyer. They can observe but not belong. (And we are arrogant enought to assume that they want to jump our hoops and belong after all this.)
Innate within every person is the need and the longing to belong - to be a part of something bigger than we are - to be in relationship. Faith or religious adherence is irrelevant to this - this lust to be together, this drive to be connected is an inherent and unalterable characteristic of the human.
But, despite the fact that this should be so obvious to those who call themselves Christ followers, we still manage to build hurdles to belonging. We still manage to demand allegiance to our rules and regualtions; we still demand some kind of precogniscience of all that we are - before we let others through the glass and into the sanctuary. (After all we have a heritage to protect!)
