Jesus came to draw people to God…ALL people. Even the angels said that first Christmas night, “I bring you good tidings of great joy for ALL people.” (Luke 2:10) Today’s word is INCLUSION. One of Jesus’ most radical acts was who he included. In fact, this is what got him in trouble with the religious people of His day. It’s what made them angry and eventually led to His death. It started at His birth. Shepherds, smelly low wage earners, were included and given first priority to tell the good news. Mary, a teenage girl from an out-of-the-way town, was included and given the great responsibility of mothering the Son of God. Joseph, a hard-working carpenter but nobody special, was included to raise God’s Son. The magi, foreigners who many would say didn’t even worship the same God, were included.
Why is it that the church today is better known for who it excludes than for who it includes? This Advent, let’s recapture Jesus’ spirit of all-encompassing love, of all-embracing warmth. This empathy is what followers of Jesus should be known for. If you’re not convinced, look at how many times in the Bible we overlook the word ALL. (John 1:4; John 12:32; Acts 15:17; 1 Timothy 4:10) Then read the gospels and look at who Jesus included: a hated tax collector, a defiled sex worker, a bleeding woman, a diseased leper, and more. Who do we need to include today?
Inclusion doesn’t mean looking down our noses and trying to make others be like us. No, it means encircling, being open to, learning from, and accepting fully others as they are. I’ve recently been challenged by these words from Howard Thurman:
“There is a certain grandeur and nobility in administering to another’s need out of one’s fullness and plenty….This impulse at the heart of Christianity is the human will to share with others what one has found meaningful to oneself elevated to the height of a moral imperative. But there is a lurking danger in this very emphasis. It is exceedingly difficult to hold oneself free from a certain contempt for those whose predicament makes moral appeal for defense and succor. It is the sin of pride and arrogance that has tended to vitiate the missionary impulse and to make of it an instrument of self-righteousness on the one hand and racial superiority on the other….It has long been a matter of serious moment that for decades we have studied the various peoples of the world and those who live as our neighbors as objects of missionary endeavor and enterprise without being at all willing to treat them either as brothers or as human beings.”
May I see ALL others as brothers and sisters, each one made preciously in the image of God. Come, Lord Jesus. Open my heart to including and enfolding and embracing ALL people today.
“Go into the busiest intersections in town and invite anyone you find to the banquet. The servants went out on the streets and rounded up everyone they laid eyes on, good and bad, regardless.” Matthew 22:8-10
Leave a Reply