Non-traditional belief
This week is on Isaiah 56:4-8:
In the Old Testament, God's relationship with mostly with Jewish believers. He was wrapped up in their culture. The traditions were part of people's family traditions. By default, if you were Jewish, you were religious. You had to make a conscious effort to be otherwise. Traditionally, you would marry at a young age, have a family, and celebrate these traditions together as a family.
This prophesy in Isaiah opens up God to a whole new class of people: Eunuchs (people without families) and foreigners (people who aren't Jewish.) God's message to these people is that they are accepted by him, and that they are blessed. This flies in the face of what people believed at the time, that children are your blessing, and that foreigners are filthy subhuman brutes despised and cursed by God.
Both of these groups of people would have had less of a reason to be religious. The eunuch would have no family gatherings in which to celebrate God. The foreigner would have his own gods, and pressure to follow them. Both were discriminated against by the prolific Jewish believers. But for them, God had love and a blessing.
The Church is for everyone, regardless of what society thinks of them. It's for all nations, not just those which are traditionally Christian. There is no compulsion to be Jewish. There is no demand that you follow the "Birth, Graduation, Marriage, Kids, Death" time line. The only requirement is to worship God, to know him, and to try to live the way he wants you to live.
People who are born into religion, and are raised in their faith from birth, and who are bound to people who are also religious, have things really easy for them. People who are on their own, who are surrounded by irreligious or pagan peoples, and who are persecuted for those choices, are especially blessed. Their faith comes at a cost to them. Religion, for them, is a difficult conscious choice. It's not the status quo.
This also applies to us. If these "freaky people" were accepted by God, despite the popular belief being that they were unacceptable, then what sort of people might we have decided are unacceptable, who God also loves? Is there any classism, or racism, or denominationalism that keeps us from offering ourselves to the people God wants to bless? Have we decided that we're those "freaky people" and separated ourselves from God's family because of how we think they'll treat us?
God wants reconciliation amongst all believers, and he wants a Church that accepts everyone who wants to know him. This is a desire of his that is older than Christianity itself. He especially likes rejected, misunderstood, ostracized people. He has a blessing for people who are in difficult circumstances, who travel a long way to see him. Don't fail to recognize it, or withhold it from others.
For this is what the Lord says:
“To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths,
who choose what pleases me
and hold fast to my covenant—
to them I will give within my temple and its walls
a memorial and a name
better than sons and daughters;
I will give them an everlasting name
that will endure forever.
And foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord
to minister to him,
to love the name of the Lord,
and to be his servants,
all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it
and who hold fast to my covenant—
these I will bring to my holy mountain
and give them joy in my house of prayer.
Their burnt offerings and sacrifices
will be accepted on my altar;
for my house will be called
a house of prayer for all nations.”
The Sovereign Lord declares—
he who gathers the exiles of Israel:
“I will gather still others to them
besides those already gathered.”
In the Old Testament, God's relationship with mostly with Jewish believers. He was wrapped up in their culture. The traditions were part of people's family traditions. By default, if you were Jewish, you were religious. You had to make a conscious effort to be otherwise. Traditionally, you would marry at a young age, have a family, and celebrate these traditions together as a family.
This prophesy in Isaiah opens up God to a whole new class of people: Eunuchs (people without families) and foreigners (people who aren't Jewish.) God's message to these people is that they are accepted by him, and that they are blessed. This flies in the face of what people believed at the time, that children are your blessing, and that foreigners are filthy subhuman brutes despised and cursed by God.
Both of these groups of people would have had less of a reason to be religious. The eunuch would have no family gatherings in which to celebrate God. The foreigner would have his own gods, and pressure to follow them. Both were discriminated against by the prolific Jewish believers. But for them, God had love and a blessing.
The Church is for everyone, regardless of what society thinks of them. It's for all nations, not just those which are traditionally Christian. There is no compulsion to be Jewish. There is no demand that you follow the "Birth, Graduation, Marriage, Kids, Death" time line. The only requirement is to worship God, to know him, and to try to live the way he wants you to live.
People who are born into religion, and are raised in their faith from birth, and who are bound to people who are also religious, have things really easy for them. People who are on their own, who are surrounded by irreligious or pagan peoples, and who are persecuted for those choices, are especially blessed. Their faith comes at a cost to them. Religion, for them, is a difficult conscious choice. It's not the status quo.
This also applies to us. If these "freaky people" were accepted by God, despite the popular belief being that they were unacceptable, then what sort of people might we have decided are unacceptable, who God also loves? Is there any classism, or racism, or denominationalism that keeps us from offering ourselves to the people God wants to bless? Have we decided that we're those "freaky people" and separated ourselves from God's family because of how we think they'll treat us?
God wants reconciliation amongst all believers, and he wants a Church that accepts everyone who wants to know him. This is a desire of his that is older than Christianity itself. He especially likes rejected, misunderstood, ostracized people. He has a blessing for people who are in difficult circumstances, who travel a long way to see him. Don't fail to recognize it, or withhold it from others.
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