Last fall, I saw on Facebook my old mentor gave a chapel talk at my alma mater. He told the story of what he described as one of the dumbest ideas he had as department chair. In affect to bring visible things that go behind the scenes, he brought up the idea for the staff to once a week clean the restrooms in the building. This obviously did not go over well with the faculty of the psychology department, and they resorted to passing around a card with small gift card for faculty and students to sign and donates towards in effort to reach out and let the cleaning staff know they really were thankful for the work that they do, and to just simply acknowledge them.
There's people in our everyday lives we often indirectly, and sometimes even indirectly that we do not see. While we may physically see them, we do not realize or acknowledge that they are there. I heard a story in a sermon in church this morning, that was actually on this same topic, about a man who interviewed homeless people for a book, and one replied that the worst thing about being homeless is that nobody sees him. Even though he is not literally invisible, people do not pay any attention to him, they simply just pass on by as if he is not there. We do that every day, pass on by people without ever even really acknowledging that they're there, or at the very least even give a thought to them. They're like extras in the movie, we're not really paying attention to them, they're in the background and we're focused on the story. It's the same thing that goes in our lives every day, we're so wrapped in our business, trying to get the things done, to get home, that we do not see the people who are around us. The thing is that just like the extras in movies and television, we would notice if they weren't there.
More often than not, it's difficult to asking the question "Who is that for you?", because likely these people are so far marginalized in your life that you don't even realize they exist, or at the very least acknowledge that they do, and are just as created in the image of God as you and me. It is the people who are in those places that need this validation and visibility the most because they are so invisible to us.
There's a story recorded in the Gospels (Mark 9:33-37 and Luke 9:46-48), and in this story, the disciples are arguing about who is the greatest. Jesus takes a child and sets him in the center and says "Whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. For it is the one who is least among you all who is the greatest." We don't quite understand this story because children are very much at the center of our culture, we have a pretty child-centric culture. However, this wasn't the case in First Century Jewish culture. The men were at the center, then the women would have been outside around the men, and then the children would have been outside of the women, on the fringe of the group. In other words, what Jesus is saying is that whomever welcomes those on the outside, welcomes Him, and whoever welcomes Jesus welcomes the one who sent Him, the Father.
Think about that for a moment. We don't just go to those places and welcome those people to be like Jesus because Jesus did those things. That's not what Jesus is saying here, what Christ is saying is that given, what my mentor described as the "circumference of your affections, the boundaries of your concern, given the arena of your care", who is the person outside? If you examine the reach and extent of your heart, who is still left out for you? If you were in this story, would would Jesus grab for you from the margins and say "how you treat that person is how you treat God." It isn't the person who receives in the story isn't Jesus, it's the one being received.
In other words, we aren't reaching out and seeing the marginalized to be like Jesus, that's a big mess up that lot of people have. It's not about "being like Jesus", it's about meeting Jesus. We see out and reach the marginalized because that's where Jesus already is in disguise. When you welcome the person you've been ignoring, or the person that you didn't even know existed, you welcome God, and you find Jesus.
There's people in our everyday lives we often indirectly, and sometimes even indirectly that we do not see. While we may physically see them, we do not realize or acknowledge that they are there. I heard a story in a sermon in church this morning, that was actually on this same topic, about a man who interviewed homeless people for a book, and one replied that the worst thing about being homeless is that nobody sees him. Even though he is not literally invisible, people do not pay any attention to him, they simply just pass on by as if he is not there. We do that every day, pass on by people without ever even really acknowledging that they're there, or at the very least even give a thought to them. They're like extras in the movie, we're not really paying attention to them, they're in the background and we're focused on the story. It's the same thing that goes in our lives every day, we're so wrapped in our business, trying to get the things done, to get home, that we do not see the people who are around us. The thing is that just like the extras in movies and television, we would notice if they weren't there.
More often than not, it's difficult to asking the question "Who is that for you?", because likely these people are so far marginalized in your life that you don't even realize they exist, or at the very least acknowledge that they do, and are just as created in the image of God as you and me. It is the people who are in those places that need this validation and visibility the most because they are so invisible to us.
There's a story recorded in the Gospels (Mark 9:33-37 and Luke 9:46-48), and in this story, the disciples are arguing about who is the greatest. Jesus takes a child and sets him in the center and says "Whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. For it is the one who is least among you all who is the greatest." We don't quite understand this story because children are very much at the center of our culture, we have a pretty child-centric culture. However, this wasn't the case in First Century Jewish culture. The men were at the center, then the women would have been outside around the men, and then the children would have been outside of the women, on the fringe of the group. In other words, what Jesus is saying is that whomever welcomes those on the outside, welcomes Him, and whoever welcomes Jesus welcomes the one who sent Him, the Father.
Think about that for a moment. We don't just go to those places and welcome those people to be like Jesus because Jesus did those things. That's not what Jesus is saying here, what Christ is saying is that given, what my mentor described as the "circumference of your affections, the boundaries of your concern, given the arena of your care", who is the person outside? If you examine the reach and extent of your heart, who is still left out for you? If you were in this story, would would Jesus grab for you from the margins and say "how you treat that person is how you treat God." It isn't the person who receives in the story isn't Jesus, it's the one being received.
In other words, we aren't reaching out and seeing the marginalized to be like Jesus, that's a big mess up that lot of people have. It's not about "being like Jesus", it's about meeting Jesus. We see out and reach the marginalized because that's where Jesus already is in disguise. When you welcome the person you've been ignoring, or the person that you didn't even know existed, you welcome God, and you find Jesus.
