Here's a clue. Imagine your church four times its original size. And continue imagining that a couple of thousand folks hear that Jesus is going to preach, and has sent out the word, "Everybody's invited!" No sooner is the word out than people are streaming in from the suburbs, the inner city, the countryside. What a mix of folks they are! Busy bankers, bag ladies with pushcarts, social butterflies and shady ladies, bleary-eyed derelicts, purple spike-haired teens with rings in noses and ears, folks of every color, married couples, divorced and remarried couples, unmarried straight and gay couples, plus a few shapely ladies with very deep voices--very deep voices--a little too deep for shapely ladies! An observer on the scene might think, "Boy, there's a lot of losers and lost souls showing up- the least likely to get through the doors at the Ritz!
Pouring through the open doors, imagine Jesus smiling from ear to ear, greeting them with open arms, but NOT screening the winners from the losers by demanding that losers mend their ways before entering the church. "You're out! You got dirt on your soul!" Or, "You're in! You're clean as a whistle!" Why would he be so careless and carefree about who'd enter?
It was because he was delighted that they showed up. Because he loved to throw parties and surround himself with losers, lost souls, and the least loved, those not likely to get ahead in this world.
And imagine that after listening to him for three days (you can preach that long when you're the boss's son), he invites them to break bread with one another--mingling, interacting, communing with him and one another. Think about it! Communion with Jesus -- all the losers, the lost, and the least.
Would our theology, our politics, our biases, our fears of reprisals lead us to bar the doors rather than open them wide? Would we be so fearful that in our haste to exclude those losers we would even have excluded the young bearded man with the invitin smile, passionately crying out, "Open the doors"?
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And the suthor suggests that we can reflect on how these stories mirror our own reactions toward others we perceive to be losers. Do we feel anger, disgust, despair, compassion, etc. when we encounter them in our daily life? The reflections challenge us to reconsider more appropriate responses to the lost and losers in our society.
Parish leaders, preachers, small faith sharing groups as well as high school teenagers will all find the stories and the reflections following the stories helpful in deepening their appreciations of Jesus' compassion for those treated like outsiders. They will be challenged to reach out to the outsiders in their midst.
Faith sharing groups will be challenged by the stories to see beyond the limited horizons of who God is and what God expects of them. Even with the best of intentions small groups can become preoccupied with their own needs and neglect the needs of the larger church community which envisions God as the one who reaches out to all God's children.
Preachers may be stimulated to use the stories in their sermons. The reflections can serve as the direction in which the preacher hopes to move the congregation in presenting the story. Of course, the preacher is free to adapt the stories and present them as he or she feels suits the occasion. Since many of the stories are highly dialogic they can be delivered by two or three persons during the service on special occasions. older high school students can relate to these stories because they are about insiders or cliques rejection those who appear odd or different from the group for any number of reasons, e.g. physical disability, different moral standards, dress codes, etc. Teens fear being outsiders because the consequences--loneliness, loss of self-esteem--are so frightening and destructive. This was so recently evidenced in the Colombine High School in Colorado, and similar destructive actions or plots in other schools.
Through twenty short, short, stories based on Gospel passages we can gain a creative, positive outlook toward the lost, the losers, and the least among us. This we do as we see how Jesus viewed and acted toward outsiders in these stories. Accompanying reflections challenge us to make Jesus' story our story.
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