My most meaningful times in life have occurred when I have been part of a collective and deliberate effort and direction to welcome those who live on the edge of the culture or community in which I lived. People who were excluded from the church or community ironically hold the secret for the conversion and wholeness of that very group to which I belonged. Conscious, generous, loving and welcoming of the feared, rejected, unattractive, and denied members of the culture actually hold the group’s soul. For me this occurred even with newborns and youth groups, people in jail or juvenile detention centers, people with addictions and mental illness, folks who were a part of the queer community, the physically disabled, old, and disabled, and legions of others who were viewed as marginalized. It was so exciting and fulfilling to find many others who loved and welcomed into the community those who live on the edge or those who have been ostracized! This was never a single solitary effort for me. But it was always fulfilling. Racial prejudice and marginalization, as well as the exploitation and denigration of women, was especially gratifying for me to be part of a group who loved and welcomed them as equals in the eyes of God. The church has always meant to be such a group that always and unhesitatingly went to the edges, to the least of the brothers and sisters, and even to the enemy. I have come to realize that any church or organization or group that defines itself by exclusion of anybody is always wrong. It is deliberately stepping away from the only vocation that matters — being Christ to others. The only groups Jesus confronted were those who included themselves but excluded others.
Quite frankly we need to love and welcome everyone in order to complete our conversion to Jesus Christ.
Throughout my entire life God has always challenged me to welcome marginalized people back to the tribe. In fact these experiences have been the most challenging and fulfilling times in my life. They have also been the most painful. Christian compassion and deliberate steps of inclusion have been my great teachers. So many others have paved the way for me, and drawn me into the sphere of compassion and inclusive love of all. I always felt that if so-and-so is not welcome, then neither am I welcome, for there has never been a bigger sinner I have known than the man I see in the mirror. If we are honest, not one of us beautiful and intelligent and attractive; we are all quite worthy of being ostracized.
So be in prayer today that God would grace us all to be loving and inclusive of everyone God brings into your lives. Read the Scriptures and look at the many people Jesus stuck His neck out for. And learn to do the same!
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.
From the Bible:
“Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his Maker, but he who is generous to the needy honors him” Proverbs 14:31.
“For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land” Deuteronomy 15:11.
“And Jesus lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said: ‘Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh’” Luke 6:20-21.
“He said also to the man who had invited him, ‘When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just’” Luke 14:12-14.
“But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him” 1 John 3:17?
Comments