outsiders

Everyone’s Welcome

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

Have you ever been around a group of people and felt alone? Have you ever been in the middle of a group discussion where they included everyone but you?

The kingdom of God is for you.

Have you ever had a conversation with someone else which abruptly ended after they decided you weren’t interesting enough to keep talking to? Have you ever felt categorized and labeled and made to feel less than adequate?

The kingdom of God is for you.

I still love that Jesus chose shepherds and fishermen and tax-collectors and prostitutes to be His followers. He invited the outcasts and outsiders to be His disciples and entrusted them with the greatest work the world has ever known.

The kingdom is a party where everyone’s welcome. There’s no height limit, no age limit, no intelligence quota, no hip factor. All that is required is that you come as you are and admit that you need help. The one stipulation is that you confess that you can’t fix what’s wrong with you and only Jesus can.

It really is a shame that in so many churches so many believers who profess this Jesus will practice the opposite of what He preached. They preach grace but what they practice is a set of unwritten rules to follow if you want to belong and fit in.

Being made in the image of God gives a person dignity. The fact that Jesus died for that person is more than enough to validate their value and worth. Who are we to belittle those Jesus loved enough to suffer the cross for?

This coming Sunday, let’s go out of our way to welcome those outsiders and misfits in the same spirit which Jesus pursued us when we were outsiders and strangers. Let’s choose to be vessels that the transformative love of Jesus can flow through.

 

Jesus Loves the Little Children

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 2 Comments

The Gospel of Mark tells a very interesting story of Jesus and children.

By the way, when John-Mark brings up children, what he has in mind isn’t our highly idealized view of children as cherubic and precious, but the ancient culture’s view of children as those who couldn’t yet contribute, so therefore weren’t worth very much.

In other words, when Jesus welcomed those children, He welcomed the disenfranchised and marginalized. He welcomed those who were outcasts and nobodies to most people’s eyes.

Jesus often sought out those overlooked by everyone else. He sought out those on the fringes of society, those who often got overlooked and ignored.

That’s good news for those who have never felt like we belonged anywhere, to those who always feel on the outside looking in.

Jesus is for you. No matter what you’ve done or where you’ve been or who you’ve been with, Jesus is still for you. He wants to be with you, to be your peace and your strength.

That leads to the next question: who are you speaking for in your life who has no voice? Who are you standing up for who can’t stand up for themselves? Who are you using your gifts and talents to be Jesus to marginalized and ostracized people the way Jesus was to you?

These are some questions that Chris Brooks brought up at Kairos. The main question of the night was this: is your faith childlike or childish? That’s a question that will probably hit close to home for a lot of us (including me).

The childlike faith is one that still has doubts but know where to take them. It doesn’t necessarily claim to have all the answers but knows Who does. It may not always get what it wants but is never deterred in its trust in the God who ultimately always comes through with all His promises to us.

That’s the kind of faith I want.

Belonging

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“That’s plain enough, isn’t it? You’re no longer wandering exiles. This kingdom of faith is now your home country. You’re no longer strangers or outsiders. You belong here, with as much right to the name Christian as anyone. God is building a home. He’s using us all—irrespective of how we got here—in what he is building. He used the apostles and prophets for the foundation. Now he’s using you, fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone that holds all the parts together. We see it taking shape day after day—a holy temple built by God, all of us built into it, a temple in which God is quite at home” (Ephesians 2:19-22).

All of us have probably gone through times in our lives where we felt like we didn’t belong anywhere. Many of us have known what it’s like to feel unwanted and unloved (whether real or perceived).

Most of us have done and said stupid stuff- stuff we’d normally never even dream of saying or doing– in order to fit into a group. Nine out of ten times we found out that being in the group wasn’t worth the cost of wrecking our consciences.

Get this. In God’s Kingdom, you belong. I belong. We belong. Not because any of us are so great or special or wonderful, but because God wanted us to be there. Why? I can’t speak for any of you, but I have no idea why God wanted me, other than it gave Him pleasure for some mysterious reasons known only to Him.

That’s my motto for the evening. We belong. Of course, now I have that Pat Benatar song stuck in my head (one of the many perils of being a music nerd).

The best part of belonging in the kingdom of God is that there will never be a time where you and I no longer belong, where we are once again outcasts and misfits.

This belonging is forever.