Dear friends,
When you come to worship, do you “come expecting?” What do you expect? Who do you expect?
If your answer is “Jesus,” you’re expecting to meet Jesus, then you’re looking in the right place, not because of the physical church building, but because of the people. Often in Scripture, individuals who met Jesus were touched and healed and called by Jesus, when in the thick of humanity.
Zaccheus met him while dangling from a tree branch above the crowds, trying to sneak a peek!
The lame man met him when his companions defied the hoards of people and lowered their friend’s stretcher through the roof of a house as the crowd parted ways and watched a miracle.
And the bleeding woman? Isolated, ostracized? Hidden deep in the crowd, she inched close enough to Jesus to touch the edge of his robe.
Everywhere he went, Jesus drew a crowd, but it was amid the mass of humanity that lives were changed as they met Jesus face to face… transformed by love.
It can get messy and complicated and sometimes risky to delve into the thick of humanity, but if we don’t demonstrate the outrageous impractical love of God for ALL people, who will? And if ever the world needs such love, it is now!
The late Henri Nouwen said it best: “All human relationships… are meant to be signs of God’s love for humanity as a whole and each person in particular. Jesus reveals that we are called by God to be living witnesses of God’s love.”
I encourage you to read Sunday’s Scripture ahead of time. (Luke 8:43-47, below) Place yourself in the story: be that woman desperate for healing; be one in the pressing crowd, pondering why you chose to go… be a disciple, your eyes fixed on Jesus.
And come expecting…
Warmly,
Cindy
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