March 26 Lenten Devotional "All Are Welcome"

OPENING PRAYER. . .Loving God, Creator of all that is, here I am--today in this place that you have given me, with all the senses you have given me. Help me to use them to experience you on a deeper level. May I experience you all around me, open me to know more of your ways and know that your goodness surrounds me. Thank you for this time to be with you and to just listen. Amen

LISTEN. . . "Truly I tell you,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown.  I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land.  Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon.  And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.”
All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this.  They got up, drove him out of the town. . .

CONSIDER. . . .The kingdom of God preached by God is open and inclusive, all are welcome. Jesus is in his own town preaching and healing. At first the neighbors are delighted to have a profit in their midst. They consider it to be a great blessing until it becomes clear that Jesus is reading the scriptures differently than they are. That hometown group is interpreting the scriptures to mean that God's kingdom is open exclusively to them.  Jesus' philosophy is opposite--ALL ARE WELCOME to receive God's gracious love and blessings. JESUS LEAVES NO ONE OUT.  He connects his ministry to the prophets Elijah and Elisha; like them, he opens his ministry to those beyond the Jewish community. In fact, he welcomes the whole world in.

SO WHAT. . . This particular Gospel scene reminds us that God's grace cannot be fenced in like a private garden.  It is not limited to the boundaries of any town, nation, church, group, race, gender or sexual orientation. GOD'S LOVE IS OPEN TO ALL WHO ENTER IN FAITH.  All means all. . .

Where have you excluded someone unnecessarily? Where have you neglected to welcome another into conversation or have just been inhospitable? How might this scripture call you to change your attitude or learn to be more open to those different than you?

Here we go again. . . asking questions that make us look at ourselves and our behaviors. Let us continue with the self-examination. . .

PRAYER. . . Dear God, help me to expand my notion of community and welcome all kinds of people into my heart and life. Lead me to transcend the boundaries of love that I have built. Teach me to welcome everyone and to love like you love. Help me to understand that all means all. Amen