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G’day Everyone and thank you so much to all those who are subscribing, sharing, and engaging in these weekly newsletters! I hope that these writings continue to spark your imagination for how you can participate in the Great Commission!
Last week’s challenge was to Drop a Grace Bomb! My kids and I had some fun surprising some friends and dropping off chocolates to them. My kids were amazed at the response this simple gesture received.
This past weekend I had my birthday party and received a great gift: A Table! It may sound like an odd gift, and odd to mention in a Great Commission Newsletter… However, the idea of inviting people to the table is a great analogy for radical inclusion in the Kingdom of God.
Equip
Everyone is Invited
When Sarah and I got married we wanted our wedding to be a reflection of one of our favourite stories Jesus told - The Wedding Feast.1
Our caterers asked us a simple question, “How many people are coming?”
However we couldn’t say! We had no idea because the amount of people we wrestle inviting kept growing by the day. We invited people from our Church, the youth we were leading in schools and youth groups, people we met in the shops, and even people on the streets!
In the end we had to make up a number and just trust there would be enough food!
We asked our friends Pete and Jo who were marrying us to share the gospel in the message, and they did. I later backed it up by preaching the Wedding Feats parable in my speech. We even had several people respond and surrender to Jesus that day!
Even in our wedding vows we added a line in there about a house being a place where the Kingdom of God would come. We knew that our life would be marked by inviting everyone to the table.
The good news of the kingdom of God is that everyone is invited!
The Great Banquet
Jesus tells this parable in a couple of different ways in both Matthew and Luke, however the meaning is pretty much the same.
The story goes that someone was having a great Banquet, and the people who were invited first didn’t want to come. The Master then starts inviting everyone to the table!
Jesus was telling this parable because He was upset with the religious leaders who had been neglecting their very clear purpose to be a blessing to the world. (Genesis 12, Exodus 19) He was making the point that the Kingdom of God looks like radical inclusion.
In the lead up to this story in Lukes gospel, Jesus tells people to invite those who can’t repay you. He gives a list of who these people are then repeats the same list in the parable:
“the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame” and from the streets, and even more from “the highways and hedges.”
Jesus continuously clashed with religious leaders who were preventing people from entering and advancing the kingdom of God and justifying it with Scripture.
Jesus on the other hand invited everyone to the table…
He ate with sinners, touched the unclean, and loved on those who were not “chosen.” But radical inclusion didn’t stop at “sharing a meal” or experiencing the Kingdom, it meant being included in advancing and announcing the Kingdom with Him!
His disciples weren’t clean cut like the Pharisees, they were working class, fishermen, tax collectors, political zealots… the very people the religious leaders thought weren’t good enough, holy enough or chosen enough.
History Repeating…
Throughout history we see that “Professing Christians” have acted like the religious leaders Jesus was speaking about, and have used Scripture to justify them actively preventing people from experiencing and announcing the kingdom.
In Australia, Christian Missions tried to eradicate Indigenous culture, forbidding people from speaking in their own languages, and from engaging in their culture, and family life. They justified their position through Scripture and rejected the idea that the Indigenous peoples were invited to the table.
In 1845 America, The Southern Baptists denomination was formed as a denomination who were pro-slavery. They justified their position through Scripture and rejected the idea that slaves were invited to the table.
In South Africa, The Dutch Reformed Church developed a “theology of separate development,” claiming God intended races to live apart. They justified their position through Scripture and rejected the idea that anyone who wasn’t white was invited to the table.
In Germany, many churches adopted “German Christian” theology which fused nationalism and racism together which led to very few Churches resisting the Nazis. They justified their position through Scripture and rejected the idea that non-aryan people were invited to the table.
Many Churches around the globe have seen and continue to see women as second class, not able to teach, preach, trust or lead. They justify their position through Scripture and reject the idea that women are invited to the table.
As you can see exclusion is often justified by Scripture. However, Jesus stands in stark contrast and says,
“Everyone has value! Everyone is invited! Everyone can join in!”
Revival
Church history shows us that revival comes when we practice this radical inclusion with the poor and oppressed. Shane Claibrone says,
“Every revival I know of started when someone stopped waiting for permission and started loving the people no one else wanted.”
But not only does revival come to these people, it then comes through them. The very people that have been rejected are so often those with whom revival comes. Brad Jersak says it like this,
“God’s Kingdom is not breaking in through the corridors of power, but through the cracks of our brokenness. The poor are not on the margins of God’s story — they are the carriers of it.”
However, if the religious leaders of Jesus’ day thought they were being faithful to the Scriptures, and those rejecting women, indigenous populations, slaves, and those of the wrong colour, all thought that they were being “Biblical,” then there is a scary chance you and I may be guilty of the same sins.
If we want to be on the right side of history and see the Kingdom Come in our world, then we must ask ourselves a better question than, “Am I being Biblical?” and ask the tougher, more rigorous question, “Am I being Christ-like?”
Christ the friend of sinners, was radically inclusive. He flowed against the grain of the religious norms of His day, and stood for a Kingdom more full of grace than anyone dared to imagine. He is love incarnate, He is the Good Shepherd who leaves the 99 to find the one, He is the only one justified in throwing stones yet He never does.
So we must ask ourselves questions like,
“Am I being Christ-like to the people I work with and live next door to?”
“Am I being Christ-like to first nations people, immigrants and refugees, members of the LGBT community, sex workers, criminals, the homeless, the mentally ill, and those with disabilities?”
Radical inclusion looks different. It can be uncomfortable, inconvenient and costly.
In the case of mine and Sarahs wedding, our caterers couldn’t understand it, the people we invited couldn’t believe they were invited, it was different, it was costly, and inconvenient… But it was all worth it when numerous people surrendered to the love of Jesus that day.
Jesus invites all of us to the table.
What would it look like if we did the same?
Activate
This weeks challenge is to find a way to practice radical inclusivity. Here’s a few examples of what it may look like:
Listen: Have a conversation with an immigrant and listen to their story. Make them feel welcome.
Invite: Is there someone in your office/school who’s usually left out? Invite them to join you for lunch or a coffee, or to your house for a meal.
Befriend: Make friends with someone from a different cultural, racial, or economic background than yours.
Read: Read some voices you usually ignore or shy away from. Ask God to give you empathy for them.
Advocate: Write a letter to your local member of parliament and advocate for a marginalised people group.
Let’s Go!
James
Matthew 22:1-14, Luke 14:15-24