SCRIPTURE:
7 Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.
Romans 15:7
COMMUNITY
If you read my devo yesterday I told you about a guy and a church who accepted me despite my background, my lack of faith, my struggles and my sinful ways. Maybe that’s how Christ accepts us. Just as we are. How do you think Christ accepted you? Were there any requirements to receive Christ’s acceptance?
I don’t think so.
Today, I was thinking about my devos on inclusivity and I had this thought - I think I really don’t care if someone comes to our ministry and doesn’t believe in God. If atheists come to our ministry, listen to our sermons, engage in our community in a positive way, and help us serve, then why is faith a requirement to acceptance? It should be a requirement for leadership, but shouldn’t the church be a place where people feel the most accepted? How did we turn into the place where people feel the least accepted? This is another thought that I had when Alex (student at Wesley) said that Christmas is all about making room for others. I’m not sure if he caught the depth of his statement.
In 2018 I preached a sermon called “No Room For God.” It was based on the scripture and idea that there was no room for Jesus. The reason why he was born in a manger was because those who could, did not provide a space for God. This is a deep metaphor friends.
We often do not make room for God. We don’t make time for God. We don’t make room for joy. We don’t make room for forgiveness. We don’t make room for hope. We don’t make room for the things we need the most. We don’t make room for family, for exercise, for sabbath, for our significant others….We sometimes don’t make room for the most important things in life.
We must make room for God.
We must make room for good things.
We must make room for healthy things.
But that’s just at an individual level. At a social level we must make room for others. We should be the kind of Christians that open our tables and our hearts to everyone. Everyone. Even if they are of a different religion. Christians should be so loving that other people want to mock their hospitality. In Christine’s Pohl’s “Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition,” she talks about a King who use to imitate Christians to gain the praise of the people. I can’t remember which King it was. But this King saw the Christians being so accepting and loving to the poor and needy that he imitated them. He was doing it for all the wrong reasons but nevertheless it shows that our hospitality should be worth imitating.
Make Room for God.
Make Room for People
Make Room for hope, love, joy, and peace in your life this Christmas.
Make Room for what your heart, body, mind and soul need.
It’s God at the end of the day disguised in the form of good things.