press coverage about who should be able to enter our country and under what
circumstances. The topic brings forth strong arguments that often contain
references to security, the constitution, definitions of America, and
stories about families being turned away that bring the issue home in a very
personal way.
While our leaders and our nation as a whole struggle to figure all of this
out, the matter has caused me to think of other places where prohibitions
exist related to who enters and who doesn’t.
A quick survey yields the following:
* Nightclubs with bouncers at the door.
* Movie theaters (where you must have a ticket).
* Some restaurants (where you must have a reservation).
* Private property (often marked with that very sign with the
additional “do not enter” tacked on for good measure).
* Wholesale clubs (just try and get past those “guards” at the door of
Costco without a membership card)
This list is obviously far from exhaustive but I am sure you get the point.
There are many places where you just don’t go in.
May this never be said of a church that professes to worship Jesus Christ.
As a matter of fact several verses come to mind that teach us that all
assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, 3 and if you pay
attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a
good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit
down at my feet,” 4 have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and
become judges with evil thoughts? 5 Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God
chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the
kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? 6 But you have
dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the
ones who drag you into court? 7 Are they not the ones who blaspheme the
honorable name by which you were called? 8 If you really fulfill the royal
law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,”
you are doing well. James 2:2-8
These verses cut right to the heart of our prejudices. Perhaps you would
like to argue that the poor man was allowed to enter the church, even though
he was treated badly. To which I would reply, “Yes, but was he welcomed?”
Indeed he was not, as he was ignored, segregated, and humiliated. Does this
go on in Christian churches today? Of course, and dare I say in some
churches there are more prejudices about who enters in than in many other
places.
Another set of verses that come to mind are:
“But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, 26 for in
Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. 27 For as many of you
as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor
Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in
Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring,
heirs according to promise.” Galatians 3:25-29
Of course you may say, “But Rob, that is a verse about believers”. You are
correct. But how did the Greek and Jew and slave find Christ or grow in
Christ if they were not first welcomed into a Christian assembly or embraced
by a believer?
I know that I am probably sharing nothing new with you here about who should
or shouldn’t be welcome into a Christian Church but my writing today isn’t
really about knowledge, it is about a matter of the heart. And if we allow
God to “search us” (not that He needs our permission…..) will He not find
prejudice at some level? If he considered our thoughts when we are in church
on Sunday, would He not find that we have our favorites and those that
perhaps we are not too fond of for whatever reason we may have? If He
considered our meditations when a new person walked through our door, would
He not see us sizing them up with our own prejudices unless they fit in with
our views on who should be joining us?
These types of exclusionary thoughts should bring each one of us to our
knees, with a confession and a plea to God to forgive us and change us.
No, you won’t find any walls around our church that are keeping people out.
But perhaps God would find us in our church with walls we have put up in our
mind about who will receive the fullest welcome and who will be asked (at
May we live out our lives as ministers of reconciliation between God and man
for all people.
For Him,
Rob