passcards

i've been thinking about something lately. lets see if the thought is coherent yet.

when i lived in albania; we would regularly pick up short term missions teams at the 'airport'. it was technically an airport b/c planes landed there; but it barely met my criteria for an airport b/c as an american it lacked things i associated w/ airports. namely, a paved runway, some sense of order, and reasonable people guarding it.

to retrieve visitors from the airport we had a routine. to ensure that luggage was not ransacked we would get into customs by flashing our blockbuster cards and acting official. these two things combined allowed us 'in'.

i've been thinking about systems of getting let 'in'. culturally, socially, organizationally. most every group of people has a passcard. if you have 'it' (weather it be vocabulary, relationship, reference the right authors, the right bands)- you belong. you're one of us- you're in. the vocab, relationship, author, band or whatever- gives a person validity and then everyone else in the group gives the greenlight of acceptance- which comes in many forms.

the 12 steps of alcoholics anonymous have corresponding twelve transitions that act as by-laws that hold the organization together. the twelth is:

"anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.'

first off; for those of you that know me well- you know that i have struggled with feeling included in my life. gratefully, that's not what has prompted this post. but also, i think this achilles heel of mine has made me more thoughtful about these kinds of issues.

i've just been thinking about jesus as our passcard as a church. i don't know if this is totally transferable- but it seems to me that this is another way that church could benefit from being more like an aa meeting.

maybe this metaphor doesn't work.
i don't know if it does.
ughhh. bear w/ me.

basically i don't want know how it works to include people based on jesus and not show partiality based on things that range from minute (aesthetic snobbery or bands) to demonic (like race even when made palatable and passed of as 'style'). i can have an affinity for people who don't like thomas kinkade, kenny g and don't use worship flags on sundays. but how do i do that and not exclude others and be a jerk?

its seems to me that the christianese answer to that question is 'it is a matter of the heart'. which makes it kind of arbitrary and difficult to see. maybe i'm looking for a marker when i should not be... i dunno. but there are some markers of the heart in the form of words (from the heart the mouth speaks) and deed.

and these passcards- particularly when they are people (as in- 'oh your friend with so and so- then you're ok by me' (said or unsaid)); gives undo power to something that is not centered on Jesus- but instead on people (in this case). that power messes everything up and spoils the welcome of the kingdom.

so here's to me trying to align and give power to the things of Jesus and not the silliness i have done in the past. have mercy on me oh God.

sorry if this is a jumbled post. if it is any comfort- i don't know if it makes sense to me.