“Let Love Live doesn’t work unless you do it.”
“Let Love Live” is our church’s mission statement, and the pastor’s point was clear – Christians are good at creating slogans that don’t always match behavior.
I’m gonna confess something, just between you and me… I’ve felt a bit like an outcast at church lately because I don’t fit in with the prevailing social/religious conversation.
Fortunately, I learned a key principle as a new follower of Jesus: Never confuse Jesus with Jesus’ people.
So, feeling disillusioned about church didn’t spill into disillusionment with Jesus.
Sunday’s message centered on Jesus inviting himself to the home of Zacchaeus. The crowd muttered their disapproval of Jesus’ decision to dine with a sinner.
Jesus, of course, demonstrated unconditional love for everyone, which didn’t fit the crowd’s preconceived in-group/out-group mentality. “Love your neighbor” meant even the neighbors you didn’t really feel like loving. Even the “sinner” neighbors (because they’re sinners and we’re not, right?).
We’re supposed to love all of them.
Since I’m confessing, just between you and me… I don’t do that very well. Disillusionment slides into cynicism and judgementalism, and soon I’m part of the muttering crowd in the story.
Good thing this is just between you and me. I wouldn’t want anyone else to know.
I don’t want to be the guy who tosses around empty slogans without living up to them. I’m guessing you don’t, either.
But I’m also pretty sure we aren’t going to get there on our own efforts.
Not sure about you, but Jesus and I got some talking to do.
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Someone asked me once what kind of people I’d accept on a tour. The question really was whether I would exclude certain classes of people, with the implication that others might be turned off by their inclusion.
I’d rather never do another tour than engage in that sort of exclusion.