I am preaching on Luke 15:1-10 today.
Yes, please open your bibles... really, I meant that!
They didn't realize it, but the Pharisees were present AMONG the sinners Jesus taught. They saw themselves as being separate from that rabble, but He was teaching them, too. And Jesus taught about the Lost Sheep and Coin, about how those who were of the fold and wandered off from the shepherd would be gathered again. He was talking about the people of Israel, but also about them, the religious leaders. They had wandered from the true message God gave them for the people. They went their own way and separated from the rest of the flock, perhaps to a church growth pasture or prosperity one, perhaps to a personal salvation only meadow or a judging of others who are not them one. They were out there... false teachers who were lost to God and enticing others to wander and stray...
We have false teachers today. They feed the greed. They encourage the exclusion. They fuel the hatred. They focus on themselves and the church's growth itself, rather than the Kingdom inside every person and every community.
It is easy to be angry with them. It is easy to hate oppressors and the false teachers who lift them up and give them credibility in God's name. It is easy to feel justified in doing that, even righteous... after all...
But Jesus is with THEM, too. Jesus is teaching them, also. Jesus sits with them and us together, trying to get us ALL back in the fold of Loving God and Neighbor. Jesus includes them and not just US. We must therefore include them, teach them, encourage them to follow the path of Jesus and His brothers and sisters who are our brothers and sisters!
We can pray that they and we will see that we are ALL sinners and that GOD LOVES US ALL.
Let us make our mission to sit with them at Jesus' feet, include them, teach them, admonish them (my favorite part), show them a different way, exemplify the love for THEM that Jesus commands of us... bring them back so that there may be celebrations in heaven!
"The way to destroy an enemy is to make him (her) your friend." Abraham Lincoln
Pastor Jamie
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