We bring the kingdom come

I started reading a beautiful book yesterday by Barbara Brown Taylor, who I mentioned yesterday and will be mentioning again. It almost brought me to tears a couple of times because of the pictures she paints. She talks about the time in her life when she stopped seeing the church as the whole world and started seeing it as what was contained within the four walls of the  church building. She references learning the phrase: Be in the world but not of the world.

I’ve heard that phrase my whole life and it’s always bothered me. It's always hit me as somehow wrong. I mean, I get it. Don’t be influenced to act like those who are lost. But what I often see is people using that as an excuse to keep from going places or being around people that make them feel uncomfortable. They take it to the extreme and say I’m only going to be friends with people who share my faith. Who share my beliefs. I’m going to avoid things that don’t validate what I already believe. I’m not going to read things or listen to things or go places that might make me question my faith. 

Gosh, I hope my faith isn’t that tenuous that it could be that shaken by someone with an opinion that is different. Being exposed to other beliefs should make us more deeply understand why we believe what we do. It should make our faith stronger not weaker. Questioning why we believe something isn’t turning our back on our belief. It's learning to explore our belief.

But hanging out with those who aren't like us is scary. I mean, for goodness sake, if you hang out with those who don’t follow the way of God, you might get dirty. I don’t know about you, but sometimes I like to play in the dirt. Sometimes I want to get muddy. Sometimes I want to jump in fully clothed and say let’s do this. I have a washing machine at home. It’ll be fine. Jesus wasn't afraid to jump in and say let's do this. To get muddy. To have people look at him and talk about him and say to him, that's just not how things are done. Jesus did his best work in the mud and in the dirt and in all the places where he wasn't supposed to be and where other followers of God were uncomfortable. His church wasn't within the 4 walls of a building, but was the in the lepers colony with the ritually unclean, the well at noon with the Samaritan woman, with the tax gatherer, and with all the least of these.

We sang in church this morning these words: 

Jesus, help us carry You
Alive in us, Your light shines through
With every act of love
We bring the kingdom come

God put a million, million doors in the world
For his love to walk through
One of those doors is you 

We can't bring the kingdom come if we aren't willing to get out into the world. If the only church we experience is the time we spend within the 4 walls of the church building each week, we are missing out on a lot of opportunities to shine the light of God. If we only hang out with those who look like us, and act like us, and believe like us, then we are acting a whole lot more like a peephole than a door. 

Letting God use us as a door for His love to walk through won't always be easy and it certainly won't always be comfortable. But neither was dying on a cross. If we want to truly impact this world for Jesus, then perhaps we ought to start acting a little more like Jesus and a lot less like the ones who questioned why he spent time with the people he spent time with and why he went to the places that he did. Maybe we should worry a little less about getting down in the dirt and getting a little muddy.  Most of us have washing machines at home. It'll be fine.