birds
Tuesday June 16th,
Ezekiel 17: Birds
of every kind will nest in it; they will find shelter in the shade of its
branches. Part of the being fruitful is to open yourself
up to the world around you. Throughout
the scriptures we have stories as in Luke 15 where the focus is rejoicing when
the lost is found, or the good Samaritan story defining neighbor as an
inclusive extension of ministry rather than an exclusive description of
geographical boundaries. There are “the
kingdom of God is like” stories which show an ever expanding and ever inclusive
vision of the Kingdom of God. In these
stories there is always a reaching out to include the “other” as well as a call
for us to be a part of that kingdom. The
World tends to want to make Christianity smaller and exclusive, open to only
the righteous or the neighborhood. Jesus
spoke to these issues because the same misconceptions were held by the church
in his day. The human tendency is to pietisticly
focus on righteousness and in the process become self-righteous and exclusive
and inward focused, like the Pharisees or Sadducees in Jesus’ day. Jesus responded to this inward self-focus by
going to the cross for all and even there spoke words of grace, Father forgive
them for they know not what they do. That “them” includes us. Father forgive us as
we are still in the process of learning what to do.
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