NOT In MY CHURCH or SHOULD WE???

NOT In MY CHURCH or SHOULD WE???

Others have put forth the question before about whether we'd let Jesus into our churches in a lot of places today. I'm not talking about Him in the sense of His being the eternal second person of the Trinity. I'm talking about a homeless man with dirty feet (Luke 7:36-50). I'm talking about a stranger from a different social group who asks you from a drink of water (John 4:1-26). I'm talking about a wandering vagabond who makes enemies everywhere He goes (Matthew 12:14, 15:12). I'm also talking about the lame, the sick, the poor, the imprisoned, the hungry, the helpless, for whatever we do for these, we do for Jesus (Matthew 25:31-46).


Would we let someone like this into our sanctuary? Maybe not, because it would upset the established order. It would put a crimp in someone's comfort zone if they found some stranger sitting in their pew--THEIR pew!! It would disrupt the social harmony by allowing someone outside our group to come in and make us have to reach out, although we probably wouldn't bother to talk to them because they might actually continue the conversation and make us late for Sunday lunch. They might have needs that we'd feel obligated to meet. Maybe it's a young single mother who needs help feeding her kids, but what do WE know about helping someone like her? So we don't. Maybe it's someone who just lost their job and heaven knows WE can't try to help them or else they'll take advantage of us and we'll be so much worse off for it. So we look the other way. Or maybe..

 OH MY GOSH DID YOU SEE HOW THEY WERE DRESSED? CAN YOU BELIEVE SOMEONE CAME TO CHURCH LOOKING LIKE THAT??? I CAN'T BELIEVE SOMEONE WOULD COME TO CHURCH LOOKING LIKE THAT WHEN EVERYONE ELSE IS SO DRESSED UP, AND THOSE PEOPLE HAD ON THOSE JEANS AND T-SHIRTS THAT WERE ALL RAGGEDY AND STAINED AND FULL OF HOLES AND THEY LOOK LIKE THEY MIGHT BE HOMELESS AND...

They look like Jesus.

We become so preoccupied with what's on the outside, forgetting that it counts for nothing (Matthew 23). We think it's so important to keep things looking nice on the outside that we forget that on the inside we like whitewashed tombs--full of dead men's bones. We lock out the people who are like Jesus and lock ourselves inside to stand guard and keep our spiritual country clubs from being invaded. We don't reach out to those who are below us, because heaven forbid that we should end up in their circumstances, that we should end up like them.


They are like Jesus.

These people could take control of our congregations if we let them in and if we start to become like them because we are CONGREGATING with them.


And with Jesus.

If your congregation is dead, bury it. Because dead things stink. If your congregation is insular and isolated and exclusive and bent on protecting itself from those who aren't like you and who don't have the things that you do, check your pulse, if you're still alive enough to do so. You are turning away people just like Jesus because they aren't just like you. And in doing so, you're slamming the door in Jesus' face.

I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm -- neither hot nor cold -- I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. --Revelation 3:16-22

You might hear someone knocking at your door. Someone poor. Someone homeless. Someone abandoned.


What will you do if this is Jesus?