Mark 7:14-15, 21-23 (NRSV): Who do we Accept?
Jesus said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile. For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come.”
A married same-sex couple and their two adopted children walk into church seeking the love of Christ, both in the liturgy and in the fellowship of the body. A three-times divorced and remarried mother of four enters a church seeking a place to receive Christ and to give Christ to her children. A rumpled alcoholic, still drunk, smelling of vomit and day-old whiskey enters the sanctuary looking to pray and ask God for deliverance. A transgender person enters a church seeking God’s love and the gift of welcome. All are children of God; all seek God’s love. All, in one way or another, are rejected by the institution and many of its members because they do not fit into the “acceptable” behavioral norms their traditions teach.
As Jesus emphasizes in this week’s Gospel, our religious practices and traditional views often become a hurdle to the Good News, for many who seek God’s love lie outside the paradigm of the institutional definition of “Christian.” How can each of us create a wake of necessary change, a revolution that welcomes all to the table of God’s love?
1. Be a voice and active participant of love. When we notice people gossiping, rejecting, ostracizing, or judging those different from us, express active love. Turn the conversation of condemnation to one of welcome. Be the voice of Jesus in the crowd of Pharisees, eschewing the culture of judgment and rejection while nurturing a culture of acceptance and love for all. Speak up, speak out, and love all.
2. Recognize that we all have our shortcomings and differences. This is not something to be judged, but it is the unique situation God presents to each of us. Use this as common ground to include all people in our circles, no matter the differences we notice about them.
3. Refuse to be a voice of rejection. Jesus welcomed all people to the Kingdom of God. He took time to reach out to the marginalized, those hated by society -- the leper, the Samaritan, the demon-possessed, the prostitute, the tax collector. All were people rejected by the traditions of the religious institution. And all were welcomed, healed, and loved by God who became Man. How can we act any differently?
As many may (or may not) know, my adult son is gay. My wife and I suspected this from the moment he was a toddler and displayed certain tendencies toward non- “male-centric,” societally-defined, gender-norm behavior. When he was sixteen, he came out to us. Never did it cross our minds to reject him, judge him, or try to “fix” him. We welcomed him with love. He is who God made him to be, a gay man. We were given the grace to love him for who he is, not fix our spent hopes on what traditional norms thought he should be. Throughout his adult life, he has developed an aversion to Christianity because of the bad name many of us give it. He has wrangled with his own skepticism, annoyance, and disappointment and has faced judgment and rejection from religious tradition and its stalwart adherents. It pains me, moreover, that my current tradition, refuses to welcome him (and many of my friends who are gay, divorced and remarried, transgender, or outside the “acceptable” norms or tradition) to Communion unless he live a lie.
My heart echoes an important question: How does Jesus react to my son and others that receive such unloving response from the church? The answer is plain throughout the Gospels, and especially in today’s readings. We are to be doers of the word, James says. Being a doer of Christ’s word, means acting on his behalf as instruments of neighborly welcome and love -- without exception, without distinction.
Heavenly Father, we ask you for the grace to love all people the way your Son loves us, without limit or judgment. Every one of us is special, beautiful, and loved in your eyes. Let us reflect that in our everyday ministry to others. Let us, most of all, be disciples and “doers” of your unconditional love. In Jesus Christ we pray, amen.
Have a blessed week!
Stan
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