August 11th Reflection - Get outside the box - by Bill Lynch

Isaiah 56:1, 6-8
Thus says the Lord:
   Maintain justice, and do what is right,
for soon my salvation will come,
   and my deliverance be revealed.

And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord,
   to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord,
   and to be his servants,
all who keep the sabbath, and do not profane it,
   and hold fast my covenant—
these I will bring to my holy mountain,
   and make them joyful in my house of prayer;
their burnt-offerings and their sacrifices
   will be accepted on my altar;
for my house shall be called a house of prayer
   for all peoples.
Thus says the Lord God,
   who gathers the outcasts of Israel,
I will gather others to them
   besides those already gathered.

Reflection
Oh, how those inside the Church love to pick and choose who is in and who is out. What sins put a person outside and what acts keep a person inside the Church. Well, this is So and So's Church... the Church is much bigger than you think.

This realization hit me one time during a Churchwide Assembly in Chicago at the Navy Pier. Yes, it hit me. I was struggling with my own sin and the sin of some inside the church I attended and it hit me. I was feeling "out" because of what I had done and because of decision other's had made. It seems the lines had been drawn between in and out. Lines drawn by all parties involved. Yet, as I worshiped and as I looked around to what I was seeing right before my eyes, at this Churchwide Assembly, the obvious took place. The Church is much bigger than what I thought.

I saw people from congregations all over the United States. I saw people of which I had one big thing in common. That big thing in common wasn't the denomination. It was Jesus Christ. We all had Jesus Christ in common. The lines were dropped. We had Jesus Christ in common not because of our love or our actions or anything we could ever do... we had Jesus Christ in common because God chose to love us in and through Jesus Christ. God's love was way way more than what I had bottled it up to be. God's love was far beyond any bounds that I could draw or anyone else could draw. The lines were wiped clear and all God's creation was open to this common profession of Jesus Christ. Yes, God's Church was much bigger than I could ever imagine.

So, I stop when calling a local congregation someone's church. It's not that way. It's God's Church, which is much bigger than you think. God's Church proceeds beyond the doors of those people trapped inside serving their own needs, to a Church that goes out into the world to serve and love all of the people in all of their needs. God's Church is held together with Jesus Christ as the focus. Jesus who went out to the people of the day and healed the sick and fed the poor and loved all of the people, not just the one's who fit the mold of what those who chose to draw lines and keep some in and force other's out. Jesus is God's love of all of the people.

In the scripture passage above that is what the prophet is proclaiming to the people that think they are in... God's love is much bigger than you think. Not only did God save the exiles and return the faithful ones, God also erased the lines and permitted those who were not of the "Chosen People" to be loved by God as well. God didn't draw the lines of in and out... we did!  God's Church is bigger than you think.

So why do we try to restrict God's Church and God's love. See the Church and how big it is! Open the doors wide to those that aren't inside the Church to the love of God in Christ Jesus. Get out of that box and go to all of the people that God loves. Open up that worship service to include and invite the bigger world around the local congregation. Open up to the sinners in the love of God. Open up to the sick and the homeless and the lost so that they can see and live and believe in the love of God in Christ Jesus.

Let that Church overflow as it was intended to overflow with the love of God in Christ Jesus. A love that reaches out and all around this world to all the people of creation. Yes, God's Church is bigger than you think. Thanks be to God!

Song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j44-l71jTFI

Prayer
Lord open my eyes to see beyond myself and my prejudices and my line drawing and my sin and my secrets to see the wideness and the bigness of your love in Christ Jesus and your Church. Open my feet and hands to go out and serve those outside, that the outside will become the inside as we all become the love of God in Christ Jesus... today... tomorrow and forever. --- Amen