The Lewis Family While I cannot say that my grandson understands all that he hears, I can say that he understands who God is, that we are in God’s house for worship, and that God saves us, loves us, and helps us with all things. My grandson recites Psalm 100 with the congregation and participates with the prayers and fellowship. The music captivates him. Initially, I had to bring a pad and pencil for him to doodle on after the music portion of the service was over, as his interest would fade. He has become more and more tuned into the service and I no longer need the pad and pencil. On February 25, 2005, my grandson was baptized. He has been accepted into the membership and looks forward to attending Sunday worship. Initially he would tear up the donation I gave him to place in the offering plate. He has since not only stopped this behavior, but has been allowed to stand and hold the collection plate.
Teraye Garry, Baptism Day, February 25, 2005.
friendless, the ones whose wheelchairs cannot get up our steps, and most especially the ones whose behavior may surprise us or disrupt our services are important ways to honor the goodness of God’s creation. It is the job of faithful Christians to figure out how to best include all in their worship. By doing so we are living out our belief in the implicit, radical goodness of all that God created. In addition to creation, the Hebrew Scriptures speak of the centrality of covenant. God tells the Israelites, “I will be your God and you will be my people.” (Lev. 26:12; Jer. 7:23) God extends an unbreakable promise, a covenant to God’s own people to not abandon them. While Christians and Jews see the precise nature of the covenant through the lens of their different histories, all believe it tells us something critical about God. God is faithful. God does not abandon God’s own people. God is always present for us. Faith communities can demonstrate their belief in the faithfulness of God when they themselves are faithful to those families in their midst who embrace a person with autism. Worship communities reflect the faithfulness of God when they stretch themselves to accommodate people with autism and their families, when they find special educators to offer religious education to children with autism, when they sing alongside the voiceless, or choose not to react to unusual behavior. Christianity shares with many other faith traditions a deep and abiding theological affirmation of hospitality as a virtue. From Paul’s Letter to the Hebrews, “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers…” (13:1) through the centrality of the value of hospitality in monasteries, up to the contemporary embrace of hospitality by groups like the Catholic Worker, the religious significance of welcoming others, especially strangers, has long been valued by Christianity as well as other faith traditions. 3 Christian faith communities must be inclusive if we are to honor our core beliefs; we value hospitality when we work for inclusion. We are called to find ways to accommodate those for whom it is difficult to be in church, those for whom the music is too loud, or the crowds too overwhelming. We need to make sure our faith communities welcome people with autism because, most simply, this is what Jesus would do.
Even a cursory familiarity with Jesus’ public ministry reveals that he spoke with the outcasts of his social world, with those despised by others, like the tax-collectors, and with those who were sick and those thought to be possessed, with women and children and
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A Journey Into Community
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