Right from the start, we teach our kids about fitting in. We tell them to colour in the lines. We sing that song from Sesame Street: “One of these things is not like the others.” We play that board game, Perfection, about getting the right shapes in the right slots in time.
I suppose these aren’t bad, but sometimes grown-ups have never lost that attitude, about fitting in and making sure things look okay. We play that game in church, don’t we? If you aren’t like me, if you don’t dress like me or act like me or believe like me, then you’re the odd one out.
Even in church, a person needs to fit in somehow. I have talked to people, even here in Shelburne County, who didn’t feel that they fit in at the church. They weren’t included in conversations after service, they came and went without interaction with others, and they felt unwanted.
Church people are very good at drawing lines, and keeping others out. Sometimes it’s about theology. I was called a heretic this week because I disagreed with a fellow about an issue. It’s something he’s passionate about, but I simply don’t see it that way at all. I think he’s wrong, and I have my Bible texts to back me up. He thinks I’m dead wrong, and he has his texts to “prove” it. That makes me a heretic, in his eyes.
Sometimes we think that if someone is not with us or for us, then they are against us. Jesus said something like that, but not that. He said in Luke 9:50, “Anyone who is not against you is for you.” That’s something quite different.
We don’t all have to look the same, act the same, or believe the same. If we are waiting for that to happen, we may as well stop waiting now. But if we can show love and compassion to others, even when they call us names, and create ways to exclude us, and divide us from themselves… if we can love them anyway, if we can put away our own comforts and preferences, if we can admit that maybe they are right, that will go a long way in helping other people see Jesus in us.
Edwin Markham wrote these good words about making others fit our standards.
“He drew a circle that shut me out –
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But love and I had the wit to win:
We drew a circle and took him in.”
I suppose these aren’t bad, but sometimes grown-ups have never lost that attitude, about fitting in and making sure things look okay. We play that game in church, don’t we? If you aren’t like me, if you don’t dress like me or act like me or believe like me, then you’re the odd one out.
Even in church, a person needs to fit in somehow. I have talked to people, even here in Shelburne County, who didn’t feel that they fit in at the church. They weren’t included in conversations after service, they came and went without interaction with others, and they felt unwanted.
Church people are very good at drawing lines, and keeping others out. Sometimes it’s about theology. I was called a heretic this week because I disagreed with a fellow about an issue. It’s something he’s passionate about, but I simply don’t see it that way at all. I think he’s wrong, and I have my Bible texts to back me up. He thinks I’m dead wrong, and he has his texts to “prove” it. That makes me a heretic, in his eyes.
Sometimes we think that if someone is not with us or for us, then they are against us. Jesus said something like that, but not that. He said in Luke 9:50, “Anyone who is not against you is for you.” That’s something quite different.
We don’t all have to look the same, act the same, or believe the same. If we are waiting for that to happen, we may as well stop waiting now. But if we can show love and compassion to others, even when they call us names, and create ways to exclude us, and divide us from themselves… if we can love them anyway, if we can put away our own comforts and preferences, if we can admit that maybe they are right, that will go a long way in helping other people see Jesus in us.
Edwin Markham wrote these good words about making others fit our standards.
“He drew a circle that shut me out –
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But love and I had the wit to win:
We drew a circle and took him in.”