I was at the ECLC today and realized that if you pray for God to put you into a community of people, you had better check to make sure you are humble enough to be a part of whatever community He puts you in.
I’m not sure I’m ready for Him to answer me, honestly.
Are you too proud to associate with homeless people? What about African-americans or Latinos or Whites or Chinese? What about crazy people? If you find that you’d rather not be around those kinds of people, then don’t pray and ask God to put you in community somewhere. Just find people you like to be around; people that will mirror your ideas, thoughts, and beliefs.
Go find them and die.
Live in community with? What about the people we have all too clearly told we won’t even sit in church with? I keep contemplating the older brother in the story of the prodigal loving father. I still wonder who the people are that our Father is trying to throw a party for while we sit in the other room to good to be with “them,” too good to obey God? What if we discover that grace is so big it is the list of the worst “offenders” any of us can imagine? I have a feeling the welcome banquet in heaven is going to have a very different guest list than we imagine! You raise an interesting point for now and then. Are we ready to spend eternity in community with ‘them’ and the Father who loves them?
peace
I think Jesus dished out more than the Pharisees were ready to take when He said ‚ÄúTruly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you.” Matt.21:31
The trick is that Jesus, in His awesomeness, really wanted the Pharisees in the Kingdom too. I think I side more with the Pharisees some days as I drive through my hood judging the people walking down the streets talking to themselves, yelling at passing cars, etc.
May God give us the grace to see that we too are paupers, and when it comes to the Kingdom, may we never be too proud to open the door and politely offer “After you.”
So very honest and true for us all. Part of my own ongoing journey is to give up the idea that it is about what I know (with accompanying prideful Pharisee smugness) and admit that it is all about who I know — that my only ticket to the ball is that I am one of the ragamuffins following the prodigal Jesus home!
Nice. What if my whole theology could be summed up in, “Uh, I don’t know. I’m with Him.” with an incompetent point to Jesus.
You have me doing a lot of meditating on this one. If we combine the above with Jesus comments about “the least of these” and Mother Teresa’s going out “to find Jesus in His most disturbing disguises,” what if “I’m with Him” and “I’m with them,” are two ways of saying the same thing? peace