We don't decide who's invited: The Church as inclusive Eucharistic community

Is the Church intended to be a closed (exclusive) community, or an open (inclusive) community?

Today I talk about an image of the Church as a Eucharistic community - and I show you some incredible views of the Helderberg mountains!

My views on this were shaped by the theology (and ethics) of the Anglican theologian Sam Wells, who I met first at Cambridge and then at Duke Divinity school when he arrived there in 2005.

Read this document for some further insight into this view

The image is that of a the Eucharistic table - many contemporary Churches have structured themselves more like a restaurant table than a Eucharistic table. What do I mean by that? Well, at a restaurant table you decide who sits with you, you expect service and you are the center of the social attention, you pay for what you want, you are a client. I hear people using this language in relation to their Church, 'I don't like that type of person here', or 'The sermon and music were not very good', 'I am not feeling satisfied with my Church, it is not doing much for me'.

The Eucharistic table is very different, however, at the Eucharistic table we are not the hosts - Christ is the Host! We are invited. That means that we don't get to decide who is at the table. Our responsibility, out of love for Christ and those whom He loves and has invited, is to work out how best to love those around the table. They may be very different from who and how we are. But, like us, they have been welcomed in grace.

Watch the video if you can - I'd love to hear your take on this!

Remember, it's not a lecture, just a thought…