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THE BIBLE’S WHOLE STORY IN THREE WORDS: ALL ARE WELCOME
The Bible’s main story is that God’s embrace of people gets wider and wider. At first, God embraced just one group of people, the ancient Israelites. Then, God soon embraced more people. For example, when giving his people guidance about living well in their own country, God told them, “When a foreigner lives with you in your land, don’t take advantage of him. Treat the foreigner as a native. Love him like one of your own. Remember that you were once foreigners in Egypt.” (Leviticus 19: 36-37) Throughout the Old Testament God’s embrace grew wider over time to hold other people who had long been pushed away by his people, such as widows, orphans and poor people.
In the New Testament Jesus made God’s embrace wider yet. In his lifetime he reached out to people that no one who followed the God of Israel (like Jesus himself did) had ever even considered including: Jesus ministered to people from other religions, other races and other nationalities. He treated women as people and not property. He fed hungry people and took time for children instead of turning them away. Sometimes Jesus himself had to widen his own thinking and practice to include people he himself had never thought of including. An example is on Mark 15 a woman from a another country kept after him and changed his mind to help her after he first pushed her away, which is what he and his people always did. It’s clear that Jesus increasingly realized what his own words meant—that God did indeed love the whole world.
The rest of the New Testament sees God’s embrace widen more, to include ‘Gentiles’ (Read that as “all people".) Read about that in Acts 2, which describes God’s Spirit coming to all people. Even the early Christian leader Paul, who had once killed people who believed differently from him, came around to declaring, “There is no longer Jew nor Greek, there is no longer slave nor free, there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28)
God embraces all people. Period. That’s the Bible’s story. That’s still our foundation when it comes to living in the world with each other. It’s a strong foundation, especially now when we hear loud voices trying to convince us about who matters and who doesn’t, who is in, who is out, who belongs and who doesn’t.
God embraces all people. Everybody is welcome through at Bethesda and Immanuel. And so, proudly, energetically and in many ways, all the time, you consistently show that all people are made in God’s image and are of sacred worth. You welcome all people to share in life, ministry, worship, fellowship, leadership, responsibilities, blessings and joys.
Pastor Will Mowchan
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