Mike's musings

Assumption of Equality

I preached at both the 0800 and the 1000 services today (and we did lots of incense at the 1000, which made a nice change). I talked about how the Epiphany is a sign that, from that one night when God took flesh, there was an Assumption of Equality. Everybody starts out equal: to be saved, you need only to be what those first exiled from the Garden of Eden were, which is a sinner. And to be human means to be a sinner.

There is an assumption of equality, as Paul explains in Galatians 3:28:

• There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

You don't need to be purified, to be Jewish, to be white, to be black - none of this matters. And this extends to those standing behind the altar: whether it's me, John, Clifford or Viv. It doesn't matter whether we're young, old, black, a woman, gay, straight: what matters is that we're human. And it's even more so for that rather bigger issue than ordination, salvation. If we ordain because we baptise, than how much more so will God save because he loves us.

Labels: baptism, inclusiveness