Christians look

There’s just one group of people on the planet. All the divisions are manufactured. From God’s perspective we are one flock of infinitely loved broken people.

If you must divide the one group the Gospel will allow two sub-groups. 

Tax collectors and sinners are people who are honest about their shortcomings. That’s all.

Pharisees and scribes are people who are not ready to be honest about their shortcomings. That’s all.

Everybody is unconditionally and endlessly loved. Nobody needs to be demonized or lionized. We are one flock of infinitely loved broken people. Some are ready to change and some are not. That’s all.

Some people think that that’s not even interesting. They find it boring if we don’t get to label people as villains or heroes. Others think it’s naive. I understand both of those perspectives, and I can “steelman” both, however, dividing up into groups and pressing labels on each other isn’t working out very well for us. So, I’m done with divisions.

What interests me is that Jesus was always looking for people who were ready to get honest about their shortcomings. The archetypal stand-in for those folks are tax collectors and sinners. They are the ones who are ready to change and eager to grow. They are honest about their shortcomings, thus they are well acquainted with their need for grace and God’s love.

Jesus didn’t look for broken people because he felt sorry for them. He didn’t have a condescending bone in his body. He looked for them because they were the ones on the scene who were motivated to change.

They were the ones who were ready to be honest about their shortcomings and get real about their need for help from God.

Jesus didn’t spend much time with people in power. He worked with people who were ready to change. And what he did with those folks is teach them how to love and how to live in total reliance on God’s love.

He did this so that he could cultivate a charismatic center in the community, a core group of people whose gift (charism) was their commitment unto death to love, kindness, prayer, joy, radical hospitality, and service…helping other people.

Our call is to be that gifted core, the charismatic heart beat of the body of Christ. We are the people Jesus is looking for.

Now, the whole point of being found is this: once found we become people who look…. We go looking for others who are ready to change, to surrender their own ambitions for the cause of love. We look for other people who are ready to set aside their own needs in order to be helpful to others. 

Christians don’t fight and carry on. Christians look.

We don’t waste our time fooling around with powerful people and troublemakers who don’t have the least interest in changing.

And people like us who’ve been found by the Good Shepherd aren’t looking to satisfy our own hunger. We’re the ones looking around to see if we can spot who else is hungry.

The thing about looking for things as a Christian is that when you find the thing you’re looking for you don’t stop looking. You pick your head up and keep looking.

People should see us and say, “What are you looking for?”

I want my whole life from top to bottom to be about looking for lost things and people and remembering always…. that God is looking for me.

I am the lost sheep and the lost coin. Thank God for that!

God is looking for me and when he finds me we’re going to look together until we get all the lost things and people pulled back together in the one flock of infinitely loved broken people.

I want to change. Do you?