{"id":571,"date":"2022-10-24T17:01:48","date_gmt":"2022-10-24T05:01:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.faithandpractice.nz\/?p=571"},"modified":"2022-11-26T15:58:46","modified_gmt":"2022-11-26T03:58:46","slug":"the-gospel-of-inclusion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.faithandpractice.nz\/index.php\/2022\/10\/24\/the-gospel-of-inclusion\/","title":{"rendered":"The Gospel of Inclusion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to give a devotional thought in the Communion slot at the church I attend<\/a>. I get to do this about three times a year, and I always try to bring an alternative angle from the typical Communion theme. Almost all my devotionals are focused on the Jesus’ ministry of life as opposed to his defeat of sin and death.<\/p>\n

In yesterday’s talk, I focused on “The Gospel of Inclusion”. It refers to God’s love for ALL people (all creation), not just those who accept Jesus as their saviour according to the criteria that we assign as the acceptable measure of contrition, and repentance.<\/p>\n

I looked at those who were at the last supper. The range of different personalities who Jesus picked to be his disciples: Impulsive Peter, power hungry James and John (the Sons of Thunder), Simon the insurrectionist, Judas the thief, Nathaniel who spoke his mind, Matthew who sided with the Romans and robbed the Jews for his own benefit. Jesus loved them all equally and treated them the same, he washed the feet of every one of those very different disciples.<\/p>\n

We like to think we are open-minded and that we are willing to accept everyone, but if we really look inside ourselves, we find that this often isn’t true. We prefer those who are like us, those who have the same ideals, opinions, beliefs, etc.<\/p>\n

We struggle to be as Jesus was to his disciples. We don’t want to associate with people who have different lifestyles whether it be political views, socioeconomic status, LGBTQ+, sports, married, not married, and so on. We like our own comfort, and we like those who are like us.<\/p>\n

The Gospel of Inclusion is the example of Jesus that we are called to follow. To paraphrase Greg Boyd, “We are all made in the image of God, so everyone has unsurpassable worth. We are called to love as God loves without regard to who or what the person is or does.”<\/p>\n

During the Communion devotional, I mentioned the two parables about the feast thrown by the king (in Matthew and Luke), and his command that all the seats be filled. He told his staff to bring the good and the bad, and if necessary, to compel them to come. The king was indiscriminate in who was invited to the table, and so it is with God’s invitation to us. God loves indiscriminately, God calls everyone.<\/p>\n

I invited everyone to think about how we respond to people who we don’t easily identify with. We don’t get to pick our family, but we are called to imitate Jesus. If we are going to be true to that calling, we must also love indiscriminately. We must follow Jesus’ example by living out the Gospel of Inclusion in our churches and personal lives. It isn’t easy, it required intentionality, but it is possible, because Jesus showed us that it can be done.<\/p>\n

Be aware of your own responses to others, especially those you struggle to like. Ask God to show you how to live out the Gospel of Inclusion in your daily life.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n \n
\n \n
\n
\n \n\n
<\/div>\n <\/div>\n
\n \n\n
<\/div>\n <\/div>\n
\n \n\n
<\/div>\n <\/div>\n
\n \n\n
<\/div>\n <\/div>\n
\n \n\n
<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
\n
\n \n\n
<\/div>\n <\/div>\n
\n \n\n
<\/div>\n <\/div>\n
\n \n\n
<\/div>\n <\/div>\n
\n \n\n
<\/div>\n <\/div>\n
\n \n\n
<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n \n\n
\n Rate this post<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to give a devotional thought in the Communion slot at the church I attend. I get to do this about three times a year, and I always try to bring an alternative angle from the …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,10],"tags":[41,42],"class_list":["post-571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lgbtqi","category-practice","tag-communion","tag-gospel-of-inclusion"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.faithandpractice.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.faithandpractice.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.faithandpractice.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.faithandpractice.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.faithandpractice.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=571"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.faithandpractice.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1226,"href":"https:\/\/www.faithandpractice.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571\/revisions\/1226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.faithandpractice.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.faithandpractice.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.faithandpractice.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}