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Jesus Loves
Misfits
Mark 3:13-19
Do you remember the movie Places In The Heart? It stars Sally Fields,
John Malkovich, Danny Glover, and Ed Harris. The movie is set in the
Depression era. A small town sheriff is killed, leaving his wife and two
small children to try and scrap out a living on their cotton farm. When
the bank threatens to foreclose, the widow takes in a border, a blind
veteran of the Great War, played by John Malkovich. Later, a black
drifter, played by Danny Glover takes up residence. Together, the widow,
the blind man, the black man and the two children try to pull off the
impossible; to get the first load of cotton picked and hauled to the gin
so that they can win a monetary prize sufficient to save the farm.
The most compelling thing about the movie is the odd mix of characters
who make up the central cast of characters; a widow with no farming
skills or knowledge; a blind man who is bitter about his life; a black
man who struggles with honesty; and two little children.
Did you ever notice how often good stories work that formula?
The Odd Couple --.a neat freak and a world-class slob have to learn how
to live together.
Gilligan 's Island -- seven people, all of whom are weird in some way,
stranded together on a deserted island.
The Dirty Dozen -- twelve hardened criminals and a colonel on the outs
with his commanders on a mission to eliminate the Nazi leadership.
And it isn't just television shows and movies. Disparate characters all
united in a common quest populate some of the greatest works of
literature.
To Kill A Mockingbird,
The Grapes of Wrath,
Of Mice and Men.
And of course, the Harry Potter series of books works this same theme.
Okay, you are all intelligent people, so you know where I'm going with
this. There's another famous book that features tons of stories in which
an odd mixture of characters are drawn together to form a tightly knit
community. Want to take a guess?
The Bible. Let me show you what I mean.
Let’s read from Mark 3: 13-19. Read
This is the selection of 12 men from the hundreds of followers of Jesus
that He would take and train to change the world.
For a moment let’s take a look at two of those guys, Matthew and Simon
the Zealot. Talk about an odd couple.
Matthew was a tax collector. Simon was a tax protester.
Matthew was a revenuer for the Romans. Simon was a rebel.
Matthew was wealthy. Simon was a commoner.
Matthew made his money overcharging people like Simon. Simon lived to
eliminate people like Matthew.
What on earth did they agree on? What kept them from killing one
another? How could two people who had so much against them work together
for the Glory of God?
They were both loved and saved by Christ.
OK, let’s look at one more passage: Acts 2: 5-12. Read
Remember the tower of Babel? This is the undoing of Babel.
The first miracle of the church was not tongue speaking. It was
community making. And the reason it qualifies as a miracle is because it
runs counter to the normal, natural human response to diversity.
There was an article in the AJC in August of 2003 about a new study done
by Harvard University and the Civil Rights project. Now that many
schools are no longer under court-mandated desegregation, sociologists
are tracking a pattern called re-segregation.
Black families and white families usually live in separate
neighborhoods, so schools are beginning to reflect the demographics of
the community around them. Schools are becoming almost exclusively one
color or the other. It is a natural human response to differences.
But when you look at how the story of the gospel begins and how the
church was born, it becomes clear that God is more than a little in
favor of diversity.
Romans 15:7 puts it this way: Accept one another just as Christ accepted
you, in order to bring praise to God.
That passage is not alone. We are told in various scriptures to:
John 13:34 love one another.
Romans 12:10 affectionate to one another … giving preference to one
another;
1 Corinthians 12:25 care for one another.
Galatians 5:13 serve one another.
Ephesians 4:32 kind to one another … forgiving one another
1 Thessalonians 4:18 comfort one another
What do we do with that passage and the others that celebrate the
forcing together of all kinds of odd groupings? Let me suggest two or
three responses.
First, we need to recognize that the church is going to be a magnet for
misfits.
Don't be offended by that. Matthew was a misfit. So was John.
For that matter, so was Jesus. He didn't fit into any of the slots in
which first century Judaism slated people. He didn't fit their
expectations of the messiah.
So when I say that the church is a magnet for misfits I don't mean to be
disrespectful of people who don't fit in. They are running in some
pretty good company. Think about the church where you grew up. Weren't
there some people who were -- to be perfectly honest -- just strange?
In Franklin there was a family who was a little to in to holistic
medicines. I remember on a retreat the son was suffering from a headache
and knowing his families’ thoughts about medicine I asked him what I
could do for him. He asked for a cabbage leaf and a dark place where he
could sit and meditate for a few hours. We gave him a room and he sat
there for 2 hours with a cabbage leaf on his head.
In Huntsville there was Clarence, a single man who was in his own world.
He would greet every one with a Hello Brother; I love you oh so much and
then give you a big hug and a kiss on the neck. He had three cars a 1976
Green Volkswagen Wagon Beetle, a 1976 Green Volkswagen Wagon Beetle and
a 1976 Green Volkswagen Wagon Beetle.
Every church has its misfits. But if you think about it, isn't that what
God wants? Where else are people who don't fit in going to fit in?
In fact, I think it's quite possible that you can judge a church's
faithfulness to the mission by how many misfits feel like they belong.
Second, racial, economic and social sameness is an artificial substitute
for genuine community.
Just because we all look alike, talk alike, and act alike doesn’t mean
that we are a real community of believers.
The New Testament shows the early church grappling with issues of racial
inclusion in places like Acts 10 and Acts 15.
In passages like 1 Corinthians 11 and James 2, the Apostles confronted
economic discrimination.
In Philemon, Paul urges a slave owner to welcome home his recently
converted runaway slave as a brother.
Clearly, the first Christians didn't always do a very good job of
bridging the canyons that separated people. Otherwise, the writers
wouldn't have had to address the issues. But the issues were addressed.
The divine standard was revealed and the churches were expected to live
up to it.
The testimony of the New Testament is that if everyone isn't welcome at
your table on Sunday morning, then you are eating all by yourself. If
everyone isn't welcome, Jesus isn't either. He himself said, "What you
do to the least, you do to me." We welcome Jesus by welcoming every one.
Finally, we have to decide what kind of church we are going to be.
Native Churches - are people who are comfortable with their own culture.
They aren't very interested in anyone else's culture. In fact, they
think they are normal and everyone else is strange.
The only people a native church is going to attract are people who
embrace that cultural norm and the language, music and ministries that
express it.
You know immediately when you walk into a native church. It is obvious
that they aren't used to visitors and, in fact, suspicious of them. They
talk a lot about change agents. Change is a tool of the devil and anyone
who espouses it is an enemy of the truth.
Native Churches will tell you that you are not wanted here not by what
they say but by the way they act.
Screening – This has to do with your body posture. You will turn your
body away from someone who you do not want to associate.
Exclusion – This is a little less subtle. We do this by inviting someone
to a function (out to eat, over to play cards, to a movie) but not
another person standing right there.
Family Secrets – Family Secrets rule the world. There are little things
that are taboo in every congregation.
For example in Gainesville there are flowers that are placed on a ledge
behind the pulpit. Every season a dear Sister will change the
arrangement just as she has done for the last 40 years. In the summer of
2002 a new family had placed membership and wanted to donate some live
flowers to freshen up the place. No one told them about the rule, of not
touching the flowers. It wasn’t written down, it wasn’t covered in the
new member meeting, but everyone, but the visitors and new members,
understood it.
Native churches grow almost exclusively by membership transfer.
Conquistador churches are different, but not by much.
They recognize the mandate of Matthew 28, that Christians are to go into
all the world and preach the gospel. And they pursue that mission with
zeal. But they insist on taking their culture with them.
The gospel according to the conquistador Christians is, "Repent and
accept our version of Christianity as the only true way. Come on in,
take a pew, but don't touch the stereo. When you look enough like us,
we'll think of you as one of our own."
Conquistadors accept you only after they've conquered you.
In The body of Christ each member belongs to one another. And belonging
to each other doesn’t mean we all look, dress, talk, and act alike. It
means that we are all a part of one another.
Then there are immigrant churches; Churches who know where home really
is.
Immigrant churches -- and Christians -- recognize that there is a
difference between their own religious culture and the gospel of Jesus.
They realize that there are certain things they are comfortable with,
certain ways of expressing their faith that they like and are familiar
with and even long cherished. But they are willing to relax or even let
go of those things if it means accepting someone who is different.
Years ago when my family was living in California a new family from
Puerto Rico moved in the duplex next to ours. My mother invited their
family to our house for dinner and she went to the commissary to buy
steaks, a real treat for an enlisted family.
That night mom went all out for our guests, an all American dinner of
steak, baked potatoes, green beans, corn, salad, and dinner rolls. My
dad, as the head of the house, served our guest first starting with
their dad, then their mom and then their 2 sons. We passed the food
around and then made it to the condiments, Butter, salt and pepper..
then we passed the sour cream around for the baked potatoes. The dad
from next store received it graciously, scooped a generous helping, and
placed it squarely on his steak. Then he passed it to his wife and sons
who all did the same thing.
Now I was horrified, we very rarely got stake and I didn’t want to mess
this opportunity up but My brother and I knew the right thing to do at
that moment. We all put sour cream on our steaks as well. Helping our
new neighbors feel comfortable was simply more important than suiting
our tastes.
Helping people feel welcome and accepted is more important than suiting
your own tastes. Immigrant Christians know that. They know that Jesus
had to do a lot of gagging when he immigrated from heaven to earth. And
when you are seized by Jesus, you follow in his steps -- no matter where
they take you.
Here's a good question to close with: "What have I done lately outside
my comfort zone to reach someone else for Christ?" Is New Hope a church
of Natives, Conquistadors, or Immigrants?
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