GOD'S ALL-INCLUSIVE LOVE
[BREAKING THE BREAD OF GOD’S WORD]
September 27, 2015
26th Sunday OT_B
GOD’S ALL INCLUSIVE LOVE
Signs there are everywhere of exclusivity and
self-righteousness. Fundamentalists everywhere, of all persuasions, shapes,
sizes and guises abound. They are people who lay claim to being the exclusively
saved, the most beloved, the chosen, outside of whose group or denomination no
one is worthy enough of God’s solicitous care and compassion.
A number of them are even violent about it and in defense of
the selfish doctrine. There are those who even kill, in God’s name, in the name
of their self-centered faith in a god who, at bottom, is intolerant of all
those who oppose him even in the shallowest way.
Nothing new here … Even during the time of Moses, Eldad and Medad
were looked at with disdain, for they were “phophesying in the camp.” They had
to be stopped forthwith, at least according to those who were zealously
guarding their god-given tasks.
Moses, we are told, would not hear any of it … “Would that
the Lord might bestow his spirit on them all!”
But we humans are geniuses when it comes to shutting off
other people from our midst. We find ways and means to be different, and to be
heads and shoulders above everyone else. The snotty rich who look down on the dirt
poor … doesn’t this sound all too familiar? The powerful few against the
ignorant hoi polloi … does this not ring a bell in your ears? The ruling party
against everyone else who does not belong … Isn’t this the story of even
countries who call themselves champions of the proletariat and the powerless?
Hmmm… What did George Orwell say in “Animal Farm?” … All
animals are equal, except, of course, those who are on top!
The Pope is just making the rounds of the land of the free
and the home of the brave. Let us see … Lunch with elite and political bigwigs?
No … lunch with the homeless and the outcasts? Yes …
No fire and brimstone threats against those who do not share
his faith … No haranguing and harassing sermons against those who do not share
his convictions … But he told them like it is … that unborn children have
rights, too, not just adults who make it to the real world. He told them like
it should be told, that families are under threats by the forces of
secularization …
He has not come to shore up people’s religious fanatical
beliefs and rally them against those who “will never be saved,” and those “who
do not belong.”
He has come to talk from the heart to people of good will,
in a country where pluralism is at the centerpiece of their table of values and
concerns, but at the same time, a place where people, at bottom, are deeply
hungry for God and His love.
I need to shed off my proud and mighty stance time and time
again. I need to look less disapprovingly at others who “drive out demons in
Christ’s name.” I need to revel in the lovely truth that God wants all men and
women to be saved. And for me to shed off this attitude, I need to cut off
attachment to sin and sinfulness – to sin that binds me hand and foot.
The Church I belong to … the God who has called me to belong
… the faith that seeks to be rooted in the hearts and minds of people of good
will is not a selfish and self-centered Church. She is God’s people, all
together in journey towards fullness of life and salvation.
Here comes everybody! Welcome everybody! “Your word O Lord,
is truth; consecrate us in the truth!”
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