Jesus' Kind of People--May 12, 2023

Jesus' Kind of People--May 12, 2023

"But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.  Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy." [1 Peter 2:9-10]

If you've ever been dismissed silently, just by someone else's withering glare that spoke louder than words, "You don't belong here," I'm sorry.  

If you've ever had someone tell you directly that the way you dress, or talk, or present yourself in the world just don't "fit in" with the unofficial dress code or usual clientele, I'm sorry.  

If you've ever overheard the whisper, "They're just not... our kind of people..." and wondered why doors wouldn't open for you like the do for others, I'm sorry.

Sometimes even full-grown adults get stuck in the cliquish immaturity of adolescence, and we invent reasons to keep others out and then dress it up in nobility and piety.  But Jesus doesn't.  Of that much, I am certain.

Jesus makes a point of not holding against us the baggage that others sometimes pile onto our backgrounds or biographies.  Jesus simply says, "It doesn't matter who, what, or where you've been before--you're my family now."

This is part of what I love about these words from First Peter, words that are the culmination of the passage many of us heard this past Sunday.  It's not just that Jesus doesn't hold our past against us, but that he positively affirms that we're his people, wherever we've come from and however we've gotten here.  Jesus doesn't say, "Well, I suppose your past or your baggage doesn't automatically disqualify you from applying for membership in my club, but I wouldn't get my hopes up..." and then trail off.  He says, "I have already claimed you, no matter what anybody else says."  Not only that, he gathers us together with other people who have been written off, sent away, or not-so-subtly dismissed because they didn't fit in, and says, "Now you're my kind of people."  It's not just that we're not penalized for whatever is in our background; it's that Jesus deliberately welcomes and honors us an makes us part of something good he is creating.  And that makes all the difference in the world.

To illustrate what I mean, let me ask you to picture a piece of pottery.  A vase, a jar, a plate, whatever, with whatever coloring, glaze, or pattern you like.  Go ahead.  Got it?  Now smash the pottery in your mind.  Let it get knocked over accidently by a misplaced elbow, dropped by a careless grip, or thrown in anger against the wall.  Now there it is, in a thousand tiny jagged pieces, useless for serving, pouring, or whatever else.  Can you picture it so far?

Now, a lot of us would just say those pieces are now bound for the trash, because they came from a broken vessel that can't serve its purpose anymore. We'd get out the ol' broom and dustpan, and we'd pitch them in the garbage can.  Jesus doesn't do that.  But now here's the thing--Jesus also doesn't just leave the shards and say, "Well, I won't throw you away, but I'll just leave you discarded bits in a box in the basement without a clue what to do with you." He doesn't just refuse to throw them away--he makes them into a mosaic.   He takes the colorful pieces and sets them into a work of art: a pattern, a face, a portrait, a mural, something.  He takes what others would have dismissed as worthless, broken, or refuse, and he appreciates it exactly as it is, and uses those pieces, in all their oddness of shape and difference of color, and makes a whole new creation out of them.  That's the feel of First Peter saying, "Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people."  It's not just that God begrudgingly tolerates the things others regard as unacceptable--it's that God deliberately gathers those pieces in and uses them as they are to become something beautiful that allows the beauty within each piece to be seen.

This is what First Peter would have us shout from the rooftops:  God doesn't look at you and say with a sigh and a shrug, "Well, you're broken and defective, and nobody will love you, but I'll put up with you in condescending pity."  God says in Christ, "You are a part of the new thing I am doing, just as you are with the color and shape and texture and size that you are, right alongside all the other pieces that are becoming my mosaic new creation."  

If other people look at you like you're damaged goods or a shard from a broken ceramic jar, maybe it's time to reimagine what God sees in us--and maybe we can dare to believe, along with First Peter, that it's exactly the ones who feel like they don't fit and don't belong who are being brought into a new kind of masterpiece as a mosaic.  Maybe it's time to tell someone else who has heard those whispers about not being "our kind of people," that they are precisely Jesus' kind of person, and that they have a place in the new creation of the master artist.

Who might you tell today?

Lord Jesus, remind us again that we are your kind of people, already as we are, while you also arrange us in your mosaic of people called the church.