Welcoming Sinners

Luke 15:1-10

Jesus had a way of hanging out with broken people.  He took a lot of heat for it.  In this week’s text, the Pharisees and the scribes grumble, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them!”  Jesus did spend a lot of his time with people who were considered sinful or “unclean” by the religious establishment.  Caring for broken, sick, hurting and outcast people was at the very center of Jesus’ ministry.  (In those days, sickness was often attributed to sinfulness.)  Another time when Jesus was criticized for welcoming sinners he responds by saying  “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”  (Mark 2:17)  

Following the way of Christ, the Church is called to welcome sinners and eat with them too.  Churches are meant to be hospitals for sinners, not clubs for saints.  Faith communities are made up of sinners, even if we have a bad habit of acting like that’s not so.   No matter what it may seem to the casual observer, the people who gather around the altar for Holy Communion are a motley bunch of the broken, not shining examples of the deserving. 

But, what does it mean to “welcome sinners”?   I don’t think it means judging them.  Scolding people and haranguing them for their shortcomings and brokenness is not at all helpful.  But, I also don’t think that welcoming sinners means adopting an “I’m OK, you’re OK” approach that leaves people in their brokenness.   That wasn’t Jesus’ way.  Instead, Jesus welcomed sinners and then transformed them.   In love and compassion, Jesus could push people and speak the truth to them about their hard-heartedness.   He healed the sick and freed people who were trapped in their own brokenness.  Jesus embraced the shunned and rejected, affirming them as beloved children of God.

The Church is meant to be in the transformation business too.  As sinners welcomed by Christ, the Holy Spirit is always at work transforming us into exactly who God created us to be.  The Holy Spirit is about the business of burning off the dross so that we might be made whole, freed from our own brokenness, and embraced as beloved children of  God. 

But, too often, we confuse conformity with transformation.  In subtle and not-so-subtle ways, when someone new comes into our communities, we expect them to become like us.  (As if, somehow, we represent the standard of Christian righteousness!  Ridiculous!)  Then, we act surprised when they do not come back.   Instead, what might happen if we welcomed newcomers as gifts from God whose perspectives and ideas and experiences will renew us and help transform us into the people and communities God intends us to be.   What if we welcomed newcomers as people who need Christ’s transforming power just like we do we do?  And then, what if, we sat down and ate with them…  as sinners together?

Peace,

Bishop Mike

Thanks for reading!