It’s often that I will comment that going to church is like going to a family reunion. There’s always a mixture of anticipation and angst. Be honest…you know what I mean. Everyone wants to hang out with the hipster Aunt who just got a new tattoo. She is always so full of life and new stories—she’s cool and easy to be with. But then 3rd cousin Harold is avoided like the plague cause he does that weird thing with his tongue every time someone mentions cats. He’s not so easy and not that cool. So by nature we are attracted to the easy and cool and repelled by the difficult and uncool.
And of course I would love to say that the church is not that way, but it is, simply because it’s full of broken people. I would love to say that [our] church doesn’t have a cool kids table…it probably does. I’d like to think that people are not neglected, rejected and cast aside because they are difficult and different. But it happens. I hear stories and my heart sinks. But those stories are often few and far between the stories of inclusion and grace. My heart soars when I see the broken loved and the difficult given more grace.
Even Jesus had to remind his disciples of this truth. He was like, “If you just love the people that are easy and cool and lovable, that doesn’t count as anything. But if you love those that require [more] from you, then you’re really doing something. If you do that, that’s the kingdom of God coming.” (Matthew 5:46)
This is one more reason that I love the church–its greatness is not defined by attendance or budgets or programs but by how redeemed people extend grace and include the dis-included. I love the church because the only people we exclude are those that are exclusionary. Love trumps and grace prevails in the church. So glad I’m invited to this family reunion.
