Beyond the Pale?
Reaching Out.
Although people are staying away from church (at least in the UK) I firmly believe that they still have the same feelings about God and Jesus. It still makes them wonder a lot. All that has happened is that the Church has expected them to join and then ask their questions. Today the rules are reversed and the questions have to be answered first. Basically, we Christians are required to go where people are to find out what their questions might be. Once we are there we can answer them.
This is my reason for maintaining this blog. It is my particular version of touching people where they are so that they will feel comfortable asking questions before deciding in favour of God and Jesus. If I set up my church where I live I shall not be able to answer questions from empty pews. The gap these days between church and world is much greater than most people realise. Yet there are people out there who need help, advise, guidance etc. If I don’t get on the Internet and reach out to them they will not have the benefit of the touch of Jesus.
Jesus came to, amongst other things, save sinners. But what is a sin? Believe it or not the true meaning of sin is to simply miss the mark. So that finds common ground for everyone. All of us have missed the mark in one way or another. This makes us feel rather better than if to sin is commit a crime. Jesus is the only one who is "without sin" because he came to show exactly how we ought to live. He did it by example.
By being far from perfect we are sinners who have not quite made the grade. Therefore it makes sense to say there is hope for us. But where does that hope lie? It lies in Jesus. He is the incarnation of God and came to share human life in order to make a difference. He grew up in exactly the same way as any other Palestinian child. He played the same games and ate the same food as the other local kids. It was when he grew up and decided to start his ministry that things became different.
For one thing, he turned accepted values on their head. It was thought in those days that a rich man or woman had been richly blessed by God to have such wealth. But Jesus showed how this was the wrong way round. He told a rich man to go and sell everything and then follow him. Even the disciples were gobsmacked to hear this. They too thought it was the other way round. Everyone who Jesus met had to learn a new set of values before they could start to understand what Jesus was telling people.
But by seeing that they, poor as they were, could still reach the kingdom of Heaven gave them a new hope. They noticed that Jesus mixed with sinners who really had sinned. He became the friend of tax collectors, and they were the lowest of the low. Now that really was amazing. Naturally, it means to you today that you don’t have to be perfect to be a friend of Jesus (and, therefore, God). Jesus told people that he had come to seek and save those who were lost – not those who had found themselves and were called righteous.
Ultimately it does not matter who you are, or what you have done. You still qualify as a friend of Jesus. The Gospel (Good News) that Jesus brought was for you as much as for me. That is what he came to say. People had got it hopelessly wrong and thought that only certain people qualified for God’s love. Jesus came to say that we all qualify.
You are able to receive God’s love no matter what you have done or wherever you are. You cannot ever be beyond his grasp. He can reach out and touch absolutely anyone at all.
Let me tell you a story that says just that. There was once a cheeky monkey who told God that he could jump to the edge of the world. God told him to demonstrate this. The monkey crouched down and suddenly leapt forward. Over the fields he flew, passing rivers mountains and seas. Then he came down to land and declared he had proved it. "How do you know you have jumped to the edge of the world?" asked God. "Because I am standing at the foot of the four pillars that mark that place," declared the monkey. "No you have not," said God, "those pillars are simply the four fingers on my hand!"
My friends, it is quite impossible to sin so much that you pass beyond God’s grasp. He is always there for you, patiently waiting for you to "come home". So now is a good time to do something about it and start talking to him. He is just like the father of the Prodigal Son. He rejoices when you come back home.
Although people are staying away from church (at least in the UK) I firmly believe that they still have the same feelings about God and Jesus. It still makes them wonder a lot. All that has happened is that the Church has expected them to join and then ask their questions. Today the rules are reversed and the questions have to be answered first. Basically, we Christians are required to go where people are to find out what their questions might be. Once we are there we can answer them.
This is my reason for maintaining this blog. It is my particular version of touching people where they are so that they will feel comfortable asking questions before deciding in favour of God and Jesus. If I set up my church where I live I shall not be able to answer questions from empty pews. The gap these days between church and world is much greater than most people realise. Yet there are people out there who need help, advise, guidance etc. If I don’t get on the Internet and reach out to them they will not have the benefit of the touch of Jesus.
Jesus came to, amongst other things, save sinners. But what is a sin? Believe it or not the true meaning of sin is to simply miss the mark. So that finds common ground for everyone. All of us have missed the mark in one way or another. This makes us feel rather better than if to sin is commit a crime. Jesus is the only one who is "without sin" because he came to show exactly how we ought to live. He did it by example.
By being far from perfect we are sinners who have not quite made the grade. Therefore it makes sense to say there is hope for us. But where does that hope lie? It lies in Jesus. He is the incarnation of God and came to share human life in order to make a difference. He grew up in exactly the same way as any other Palestinian child. He played the same games and ate the same food as the other local kids. It was when he grew up and decided to start his ministry that things became different.
For one thing, he turned accepted values on their head. It was thought in those days that a rich man or woman had been richly blessed by God to have such wealth. But Jesus showed how this was the wrong way round. He told a rich man to go and sell everything and then follow him. Even the disciples were gobsmacked to hear this. They too thought it was the other way round. Everyone who Jesus met had to learn a new set of values before they could start to understand what Jesus was telling people.
But by seeing that they, poor as they were, could still reach the kingdom of Heaven gave them a new hope. They noticed that Jesus mixed with sinners who really had sinned. He became the friend of tax collectors, and they were the lowest of the low. Now that really was amazing. Naturally, it means to you today that you don’t have to be perfect to be a friend of Jesus (and, therefore, God). Jesus told people that he had come to seek and save those who were lost – not those who had found themselves and were called righteous.
Ultimately it does not matter who you are, or what you have done. You still qualify as a friend of Jesus. The Gospel (Good News) that Jesus brought was for you as much as for me. That is what he came to say. People had got it hopelessly wrong and thought that only certain people qualified for God’s love. Jesus came to say that we all qualify.
You are able to receive God’s love no matter what you have done or wherever you are. You cannot ever be beyond his grasp. He can reach out and touch absolutely anyone at all.
Let me tell you a story that says just that. There was once a cheeky monkey who told God that he could jump to the edge of the world. God told him to demonstrate this. The monkey crouched down and suddenly leapt forward. Over the fields he flew, passing rivers mountains and seas. Then he came down to land and declared he had proved it. "How do you know you have jumped to the edge of the world?" asked God. "Because I am standing at the foot of the four pillars that mark that place," declared the monkey. "No you have not," said God, "those pillars are simply the four fingers on my hand!"
My friends, it is quite impossible to sin so much that you pass beyond God’s grasp. He is always there for you, patiently waiting for you to "come home". So now is a good time to do something about it and start talking to him. He is just like the father of the Prodigal Son. He rejoices when you come back home.
posted by Keith Alexander at Sunday, January 01, 2006
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