The gospel for everybody

The gospel for everybody
by John Fischer

Heaven is going to be full of little brown birds.

That's according to Bill who wrote me after last week's Catches about sparrows: "I am avid about backyard birds and have spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to feed the cardinals and blue jays, without attracting all the house finches and sparrows. One day I realized that I am one of the little brown birds in God’s human flock and that changed my attitude. I now thoroughly enjoy feeding all of the birds that show up in my yard."

This is a great metaphor for what we so often get wrong about the gospel. We say the gospel is for everybody, but we don't necessarily mean it. We like to associate with pretty people, upwardly mobile people -- attractive types who give a good face on what we believe. We also like to associate with people who are like us -- people of the same race, same economic status, same political beliefs, who send their kids to the same schools. We gravitate towards sameness and find comfort in the familiar.

But the gospel of Jesus Christ is big and wide and messy. It is for everyone, even people we don't like. It is for those on both sides of the tracks -- those we admire and those we would rather not associate with.

Most of all it is for sinners like us, and that's what we all have in common.

Remember the parable Jesus told about the kingdom of heaven being like a rich man who threw a wedding banquet, but the invited guests all had excuses why they couldn't come? So the master said to his servants, "The wedding feast is ready, and the guests I invited aren’t worthy of the honor. Now go out to the street corners and invite everyone you see." (Matthew 22:8-9)

Everyone you see? There is no discrimination here. That's a pretty daring and dangerous proposition. No telling what kind of vermin such an open-ended invitation might turn up! And I'm sure it has done so, because, lo and behold, it turned up me.

The spreading of the gospel and the growing of the church is very much like Bill's experience with his backyard birds. Put the message out and welcome all who come to feed.