Wednesday, January 22, 2025

“He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.” This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.” (Colossian 1: 20 -22, New Living Translation)

               “This includes you who once were so far away…”

                Our minister, the Rev. Dr. Peter Holmes, preached a great sermon, this past Sunday, as he related his experience in a hospital waiting room to the idea of the church as sort of hospital in its own right. The church welcomes the vulnerable, the hurting, the broken and offers healing, restoration and curative blessing. Amen to all that! Well said!

                But it also reminded me of a recent experience which Susan and I had in our hospital’s waiting room as we waited for her regular bi-monthly appointment with her oncologist. These waits tend to be long at the best of times. It’s just part of the process. You learn to live with it. Just don’t plan anything else for the morning. When we finally were escorted into the examination room, we waited for Dr. Shandoake to arrive. We really like Dr. Shandoake, a lot. He’s friendly, thorough and relational.  But after an hour in the examining room, it seemed an exorbitant amount of time to wait. I finally went out into the hall and spoke to a nurse. Within a minute or two, Dr. Shandoake rushed into the room,  full of apologies.  We had been forgotten. His notes got buried under a pile of other notes and he didn’t know we were waiting until he accidently came upon our appointment.

                We had been forgotten. It was nothing personal, of course, just a snafu in the system. Probably won’t happen again.  But nobody likes to be forgotten – or ignored or snubbed or neglected or disregarded.

                Yes, the church can be like a hospital, full of compassion, hope, care, TLC, prayers and love.  I am convinced that the regular, weekly, pastoral prayers of Yorkminster Park Baptist Church have played a crucial element of Susan’s recovery from her cancer. We are so very grateful.

                But I also know that church can sometimes be negligent in assuring that everyone gets that same level of concern. Not everyone gets included. Some get overlooked.  I recall a few times when someone would criticize me that I hadn’t visited them in the hospital. It was usually because no one had told me that they had been the hospital or their stay was just a day or two before I heard about it. But apologies and reasons don’t cut it if a person is feeling unimportant. Nothing makes a minister cringe than when a visitor says that the church wasn’t very friendly. Nothing stains a church more than gaining a reputation for snobbery. Nothing undermines a church’s status more than cliques, power factions, or those who act like the church belongs to them and to them only. Nothing pollutes a church more than judging others, excluding others, shutting out others, losing others. Anything that distances any person from the Love of Christ is a blemish on the church’s record.

Our text reminds us that Christ’s sacrificial Love was all-inclusive. Even those who feel far away from the Love of God are included, Consider Jesus’ own personal ministry – touching lepers, eating with tax-collectors, rubbing elbows with the Romans and other Gentiles, including women. What did the “church” carp about? “He’s a glutton and a drunkard, and a friend of tax collectors and other sinners!” (Luke 7:34) Or Mark puts more starkly: “Why does he eat with such scum?” (Mark 2: 16)

But the Love of God in Jesus Christ includes all who were once far away.  No one is forgotten, neglected, missed by mistake, or overlooked. Even enemies are loved by this Christ and offered new life. We are, of course, different from one another and may see things from different points of view, even disagreeing once in a while. Yet the Love of God in Jesus Christ is more than enough to smooth out the rough edges and sweeten our dispositions. “Live in harmony with each other. Don’t be too proud to enjoy the company of ordinary people. And don’t think you know it all!” (Romans 12:16)

Hey, this includes you!

 Dale