The Narrow Gate: Day 1516 – Shall the Stranger Scandalize the Church?

The Narrow Gate

Welcome to the continuation of my blog, post-seminary. Ministry and evangelism have brought me back home to Chattanooga. I welcome your company on my journey.

The original blog, Down In Mississippi, shared stories from 2008 and 2009 of the hope and determination of people in the face of disaster wrought by the hurricanes Rita and Katrina in 2005, of work done primarily by volunteers from churches across America and with financial support of many aid agencies and private donations and the Church. My Mississippi posts really ended with the post of August 16, 2009. Much work, especially for the neediest, remained undone after the denominational church pulled out. Such is the nature of institutions. The world still needs your hands for a hand up. I commend to you my seven stories, Down in Mississippi I -VII, at the bottom of this page and the blog posts. They describe an experience of grace.

Friday, February 3, 2017

Day 1516 – Shall the Stranger Scandalize the Church?

Today, pastoral representatives of Judaism, Islam and Christianity assembled in downtown Chattanooga to speak against the ban of Muslims from a few selected countries where Islam is a major religion. It is a ban of those who are homeless and in need, who are enslaved in a land that is no longer their own, and one that separates families indiscriminate to reason. This issue touches the principal ethic of three major world religions, Judaism, Islam and Christianity. This reflection explores that principal ethic and leaves the answer to its preliminary question to the reader.

Scandal and the Stranger

It is written in Genesis that on the sixth day the Lord looked upon all that he had created, the heavens and earth and all living beings including humanity, and exclaimed, “It is very good.”

This divine affirmation echoes through the universe even today, that we are all God’s children, loved as if a parent of a child. Even the most despised miscreant has buried within the being a spark of divine goodness. Some say that spark is the breath of life itself.

It echoed the day that Moses stood before the Israelites to recite the Law before the Promised Land. Recorded in Leviticus 19, and also on Deuteronomy 6, 10.

Moses declared the essential, life-justifying message from the Lord, “You shall be holy because I AM holy.” Then the Law came.

It echoed the day Moses addressed the assembly of all the Israelites as they stood at the Jordan prepared to go into the Promised Land and rehearsed the Law, beginning with the words of the shema,

“Hear O Israel, the LORD is one!”

You shall love the Lord with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your might. The Lord commanded, “Circumcise, then, the foreskin of your heart, and do not be stubborn any longer. For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who is not partial and takes no bribe, who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers, providing them food and clothing.

“You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: (because) I am the Lord.”

It echoed that day in Palestine when a Jew named Jesus, Emmanuel, Jeshua, “The one who saves us,” was asked what is the greatest commandment? He responded with those words the Lord told the Israelites as they stood before the Promised Land,

“Hear O Israel, the LORD is one!” You shall

love the Lord with all your heart, and all your

soul, and all your might."

And one of the questioners replied, “Yes you are right! And we are ‘to love one’s neighbor as oneself.' This is much more important than all the burnt offerings and sacrifices.” Jesus answered,

“You are not far from the Kingdom of God.”

The message in this assertion by the Lord concerning His creation is that all creation is very good. God loves every creature. The directive proclaimed by Moses in the desert magnifies it, "Remember once you were aliens in a strange land yourselves." Therefore, we should love every stranger the way the Lord loves them, the way the Lord loves us.

That message is unavoidably conveyed and amplified by that exchange between Jesus and his questioner. Jesus did not give a new Law as an answer, he simply amplified and magnified the Law, “Love every stranger the way the Lord loves every stranger, simply the way he loves you.

To turn one’s back on the stranger affronts and denies God’s own love and grace for us. It not only denies of God’s love, it scandalizes the worshipping congregation, turning it into a mockery of divine justice, be it a congregation of the Jew, the Muslim or the Christian. We are all God’s children.

For this reason, this arbitrary ban invoked by the leader of the country that is synonymous with freedom, liberty and justice for all, a ban of strangers already subject to severe "vetting," is contrary to the core principal ethic of the three God-fearing religions of the world.

Every believer faces the same question, "Shall I defy God, scandalize the stranger and thereby the church, or stand for love of the stranger?

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Gates

The gate pervades the Good News. Peter entered the temple gate after the Jesus’ arrest to deny him. Poor Lazarus lay at the rich man's gate, longing for the crumb's from the table, while dogs licked his sores. The blind, lame and paralyzed lay at the Sheep Gate at the Jerusalem temple waiting at the pool with five porticoes for healing water. Jesus warned of the easy road and wide gate to material ease and spiritual destruction and calls us to the hard road and narrow gate to the waters of life.

necessary disclaimer

This blog is created solely to communicate to my brothers and sisters how one person sees adversity bringing out the greater character of humanity. It's early part relating connection to the volunteer relief effort in Mississippi after Katrina and later work with Presbyterian Disaster Assistance Program and the Presbyterian Church(USA) is solely through my participation in them; this blog does not carry any sponsorship from these fine organizations or purport to speak for them. All original content is that of the writer who holds the copyright to all original writings and art or other works (See Creative Commons License above). Every effort is made to identify content from other sources which have been obtained from open internet sources. It's more recent content contains sermons and lessons used in preaching and teaching. The url to scripture are obtained via http://bible.oremus.org unless otherwise indicated.

Texts quoted from oremus bible viewer are from "New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Church of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved." and "New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Church of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved."