Blessings!
Pastor Ray
Today we continue our series, based upon the book, The Holy Intimacy of Strangers by Sarah York. Within that theme I’d like to lift up the subtopic of
“Bonds of
Freedom”
- Scripture is full of references to encounters with strangers.
JACOB in Genesis, wrestled with the stranger
(possibly and Angel, some say God) and was left with a distinct limp.
SODOM and GOMMORRAH, because of their inhospitality
and cruelty to the strangers among them, their cities were destroyed.
The writer of Hebrews tell us to be careful how we
treat the stranger, because we ENTERTAIN ANGELS UNAWARINGLY.
- So, in our relationship with the stranger or the strange…that which is or those who are is different from us, JESUS CHALLENGES US TO EXTEND OUR LOVE AND FRIENSHIP AND COVENANT BEYOND OUR SMALL CIRCLE OF FAMILY AND FRIENDS, as he is recorded in Matthew as saying:
“For if you love those who love you, what reward
do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?”
- I believe scripture is clear, there is no doubt, we are called to the Ministry of the Stranger, AND today’s text is no different. For just as in previous encounters with the stranger:
- The encounter with the stranger is unexpected.
- God is speaking to us through the encounter.
- The encounter will leave us transformed, if we welcome it with love and trust.
- I believe we are meant for community. We are better together.
- However, community takes a level of trust, that breaks our hearts wide open and beckons vulnerability. To be vulnerable is to relinquish the need to control and embrace the reality of interdependence.
- Four Kinds of People in Relationships:
Co-Dependent (Door Mat),
Independent (2 yr. old)
Interdependent (Team work…As Dr King used to say, “We are caught in an escapable network of mutuality”…..)
- The alternative is to live in fear and suspicion and miss the divine encounter by creating the Other….other than ourselves, other than normative and eventually other than human.
- So, if we called into community, then we are called into relationship with strangers and those who are in some way “strange” to us. Yet, we must acknowledge in full honesty and vulnerability that we need something from them.
- This is the paradox of what Sarah York calls “The Bond of Freedom”. The spirit often works within paradox…A paradox is a statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth.
- As People of God we are trapped in a Bonds of Freedom. Meaning, we are tied to each other and there’s nothing we can do about because it’s really the only way we can truly be free. We are not free if we are not living into the fullness of God’s grace…and let’s make this clear: God calls us to lavish love, extravagant grace and radical hospitality!
- Sarah York points out, that to be in relationship with God is to be in covenant with our neighbor and particularly the stranger. She continues by saying the extension of ourselves to the stranger (and the strange) is a spiritual calling because not only does it root us in our common humanity, but in doing so we become mediators of the Spirit. Or in other words, we are the body of Christ, and it is through our love, our effort, our mission that the world knows the very love and care of God. We are here to offer holy presence to the world.
- I often think that the most prevailing question, the question of the ages is “Who Matter?”….
- What if we really rejoiced with those who rejoice and mourned with those who mourn? What our hearts broke for those who are hurting and we sobbed for those who are struggling.
- What if we truly saw our freedom and life and livelihood intricately connected to all people…whether they looked like us, talked like us, believed like us, acted like us, lived like us …or not?What if we cast our nets of community and love and inclusion and wellbeing to ALL of God’s people?
- What if we, once and for all, answered that age-old question…”Who Matters” with the resounding response…EVERY SINGLE ONE OF US??!!
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