They Will Know We Are Christians By Our Love

Let us build a house where hands will reach beyond the wood and stone
to heal and strengthen, serve and teach, and live the Word they’ve known.
Here the outcast and the stranger bear the image of God’s face;
let us bring an end to fear and danger:
All are welcome, all are welcome, all are welcome in this place.

Let us build a house where all are named, their songs and visions heard
and loved and treasured, taught and claimed as words within the Word.
Built of tears and cries and laughter, prayers of faith and songs of grace,
let this house proclaim from floor to rafter:
All are welcome, all are welcome, all are welcome in this place.

--Excerpt from Hymn "All Are Welcome" 

We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord
We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord
And we pray that our unity will one day be restored
And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love
Yeah they'll know we are Christians by our love

We will work with each other, we will work side by side
We will work with each other, we will work side by side
And we'll guard each man's dignity and save each man's pride
And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love
Yeah, they'll know we are Christians by our love.

--"They Will Know We Are Christians By Our Love"

This past Sunday at church we sang the above song, All Are Welcome and it stirred a lot in me.  What stood out most was "here the outcast and the stranger bear the image of God's face".  Maybe it's these times we live in, when even though we think we have come so far, there are still people who are racist, people who think we need to build walls and reject the innocent just because they come from a country that happens to have terrorists.  Maybe it's the fact that we now have a president who has said so many racist and dividing remarks and associates himself with appalling people, it's hard to not be scared for those he has spoken against.  To sing those words made me sad and yet joyful at once.  I felt sad to know we still live in world where there are those who do not in fact feel "welcome" in the church, but happy that maybe we are getting there...

The older I get the more I realize that the "Christian" I was growing up was a liar and a fraud.  My dad was not too far off when he said I had been "brainwashed", my words were not my own, they did not come from my heart, I was just a parrot of what I had heard or thought I had.  In grade school a girl told me there was no God or that she didn't believe in God and I hit her.  I told people "I don't have friends who aren't Christians".  When I was baptized at age 12 my grandfather told my dad (yeah, my dad actually came) that it was an especially joyous day for them.  My dad responded with "it's a sad day for me".  As an adult I get it.  I totally get it.  A friend wrote an amazing book called Beneath Broken Machines and he puts forth the idea that we build our faith into "well oiled machines" but the thing with machines is they break.  He says that we need to get to what is under the machine, we need to get back to the heart.

I have no idea where I got the idea that as a Christian child I should only have Christian friends.  Maybe it was because those "heathens" would corrupt me with their mainstream music and cause me to doubt my faith or question what I believed.  Did Jesus only hang out with Jews?  Heck no.  In fact he probably spent more time rebuking his fellow Jews than exclusively hanging out with them. He spent time with the broken and lost.  He ate food with them, and in that time it was a BIG deal.  He let a questionable woman wash his feet with her hair, outrageous!  He invited Zacchaeus, a corrupt tax collector to dine with him.  Jesus associated himself with the outcast, the strangers, all the people that everyone else rejected and hated.  The Samaritan woman who was from a different background, he spoke to her.  So let me ask this question...where in the HELL did we ever get the idea that as Christians we should live in our white suburbia bubble and shun anyone who doesn't look, talk or act like us?!

They will know we are Christians by our love...

I am ashamed of the person I used to be but I am thankful that God gives me mercy and grace and forgiveness as a gift that I do not have to earn because there is no way I ever could.  Will they know we are Christians because we are Republican, conservative, pro-life, homophobic, anti Muslim?  Will they know we are Christians because we go to the flag pole one day out of the year and pray for kids at school but we don't really talk to them because they go to parties and sleep around and drink or do drugs?  Will they know we are Christians because we belong to the Christian club at our public high school?  FYI...I am talking about myself here...my adolescent, teenage self that is.  HELL NO.  

They will know we are Christians by our love...

I am saddened to know that I was probably a horrible example of Jesus when I was growing up but I am happy that our kids are not.  Our kids are growing up in a house where Harry Potter and Star Wars are not "evil" because they involve magic and the force and dressing up for Halloween is not inherently "satanic".  They talk about Jesus at school but not in way that is divisive or exclusive but in a welcoming and inclusive way.  I am not saying I have it all together...I never will.  I have learned a lot about myself though, one of the reasons I say the 30's are the best.  Maybe it's because I realize I don't have it all together (like some 20 somethings do), and that is a GOOD thing.  I think the more we begin to think we do, the more our "machine" will start to break down and we will see how our broken machine has hurt us and those around us in the process.

They will know we are Christians by our love...