[This reflection by David Makanjuola was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 12/Mar/2023]
I read Dennis’ article in ‘Yours’ this week and was blessed by it. He said “Jesus is bringing fresh life to His church and we will experience it here, but perhaps not quite the way we’ve been expecting it”. Jesus has asked us to go into the world and make disciples of all nations. Our hope is that we will be able to do this and that many will come to know Christ, and that we will see more people come to join us in worshipping Him.
One would expect that a physical sign of this happening is that we will see many more people attending church services as a result, but it is important to remember Dennis’ words, that this may not happen in quite the way we expect it to.
In the Connect in Faith prayer group meeting on Saturday, we read about the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15 v11-32). This will be familiar to many and tells the story of a man who had two sons and the younger one demanded his inheritance, took it, squandered it in careless living, but then came to his senses and went back home to his father, hoping to be accepted not as a deserving son, but hopefully at least, as a slave. His father however, welcomed him with open arms and threw a party. The older son could not believe this. He was outraged that his brother could have been accepted back so easily after all that he had done. He couldn’t understand how his father could have forgiven him, let alone throw a party for him.
I have read that parable many times and almost each time, I learn something different. Picture the father as God, we (the church) as the older brother, and the people who we have gone out to share the good news with and make disciples of, as the younger son. When those we have reached out to with the good news of Christ make a 180 degree turn in the direction they are headed (repent) and turn to Christ, and they come in to the church to worship Christ with us, will we accept them with rejoicing as Christ has (the Bible says that for every sinner who repents, the angels rejoice in heaven), or will we accept them grudgingly, perhaps only if they come as hired hands rather than as brothers and sisters, or worse still, will we reject them, thinking for whatever reason that ‘their sort’ aren’t fit to worship with us?
A little poem I heard many years ago comes to mind:
I dreamt that death came to me the other night. Heaven’s gate swung open wide. An angel with halo bright ushered me inside.
And there to my astonishment stood people whom I had judged and labelled as quite unfit and spiritually disabled.
Harsh words rose to my lips but never were set free, for much to my surprise, no one, it seemed, expected me.
To paraphrase Dennis again, the people that come to our church seeking to find God, led there by His Spirit, may not be the ones we were expecting. We must pray to God that His Spirit gives us grace to be humble enough to remember that we were ‘that sort’ of person too before He rescued us from the road we were travelling on.
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Last week’s reflection: What Was That?! by Dennis Ginter
Contributed by David Makanjuola; © David Makanjuola