Beyond measure

       I don't know if you are aware but whatever algorithms are used based on your news feeds, you are often presented you with even more news and data ( based on those on-line viewing habits ) that only supports and compounds your existing views.  I am quite certain that there are unscrupulous entities or countries that use this kind of facts ( I think it is called data mining ) to use your own viewing habits against you or to manipulate you by presenting facts or altered facts that you will tend to believe based on past practises. It seems almost evil, manipulative, perhaps paranoid and big brother-ish.  It would be very difficult to unhook from world social and news media. Long intro. 

       Every Christmas season I get a blurb on my news feed about a crazed faux Christian preacher who has advised that all gays should be killed by Christmas. It is a story that I think is several years old but it gets presented annually without reference to it's age so that an unsuspecting person might get enraged about this fanatical and clearly unChristian preacher. I mention this because of the fact that being gay, it gets geared to my in box.  While I dismiss it ( maybe too casually ) it reminds me that there are people of so called faith that think I am not fit to live and that they clearly think I am sinner of enormous magnitude, a danger to society and certainly not any kind of Christian. Perhaps, ironically, like I think they are no kind of Christian. You can really just dismiss a lot of this crazy shit that is out there but the truth is there are some crazy people out there.

          Jesus became man to save the Jewish nation. Jesus, self professed, did not come for the gentiles. That was not his mission. The gentiles were not the chosen people. Gentiles, Samaritans and a whole host of people were not the one's Jesus came to save. They were not worthy. Not unlike I am apparently not worthy of salvation to some people because I am gay. I can only imagine what marks are against other people that makes them unworthy as well.

        But here's the rub. Jesus may actually have said he is 'here for the lost tribes of Israel' or some such but his actions and life attest to an entirely different dynamic. Jesus was a real and dynamo of a rebel. He challenged everything. He opened his arms and heart and broke bread with sinners, spoke to women at a time when they were less than chattel.  Jesus cured sick who clearly would not be worthy by the standards that some today would hold as unrepentant sinners. I don't know what revelation Jesus may have had but his ministry was to everyone, no limits, no exclusions. Jesus was totally about love.  This concept was not lost on the early Christian leaders, men, woman and Jews alike. Paul argued vociferously that you did not need to be Jewish to be saved.  If it were not for Paul, most of us would be unsaved. Got that: Not Jewish = NOT saved.  That is not what we believe however. That is not what we know to be true based on Jesus' life and teachings. That is not what we have come to believe based on the movement of the Holy Spirit.

       Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God. That's the first line today. That is what we believe.

        If someone, a person , a religion, a government, is telling you that you are not worthy or that you are not saved, or are less than human because you are gay, left handed, not a specific approved religion or for whatever reason, know this: Jesus welcomes every one. Everyone!  God could not dislike, hate or diminish any single one of his/her beloved creations. We are loved, gifted, valued, and embraced in God's loving arms, cherished beyond measure. Those that say otherwise are the sickest of society.

Romans 15:7-13

 Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God. For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the circumcised on behalf of the truth of God in order that he might confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written,
‘Therefore I will confess you among the Gentiles,
   and sing praises to your name’; 
and again he says,
‘Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people’; 
and again,
‘Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles,
   and let all the peoples praise him’; 
and again Isaiah says,
‘The root of Jesse shall come,
   the one who rises to rule the Gentiles;
in him the Gentiles shall hope.’ 
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.