RISK-TAKING LOVE

Isaiah 61:1-4
Luke 6:32-36

Never in my life had I seen that many tattoos and body piercings.  At the time, I was the coordinator for the Adult Literacy Program for Des Moines Area Community College.  As part of my job, I trained and matched volunteers with adults who could not read and people in our adult English as a Second Language Program.  That beautiful fall Saturday, I was conducting a "come and see" training for people interested in becoming tutors.  Bill had call the day before and expressed an interest in becoming a volunteer tutor, so I invited him to attend the training.

So, into a room full of very middle class people (including me), with nary a pair of blue jeans among us, walked Bill, neat and clean, wearing blue jeans and a T-shirt, and sporting a lot of tattoos and body piercings.

That day, we were all pushed out of our comfort zones and across the street by Bill.  Silence fell over the room, and God seemed to be saying to me, "Well, what are you going to do?"

That day when Jesus preached the beatitudes, the crowd consisted of people from all over Judea and Jerusalem.  Some of them were like Bill -- people who made others uncomfortable.  People who were often pushed out to the fringe of society:

• The poor -- beggars and folks who were struggling to make ends meet;
• Ex-cons and prisoners of addiction;
• The grieving, the sick and the handicapped.
• Those who had no place else to go and were lost in despair.

And there were people like me.  Some were proud and haughty, but others like myself, were probably just afraid -- afraid to take the risk of leaving our comfort zones and entering into a relationship with someone we didn't know or understand or who was different from us.  Maybe we were afraid that they would reject our friendship or try to scam us or maybe we didn't see any profit in being a friend to them.

Jesus told the Bills in the crowd, "Blessed are you!  God loves you and though you think you have nothing, your heart is in the right place, and you will receive much."

To people like me, "Woe to you.  What you're trying to hang onto so tightly is of no benefit to you.  Don't expect any blessings from God if you're putting conditions on who you love and how you love."

God's love is unconditional and inclusive.  We're called to love others just like God loves us, which means we have to take risks -- try new things, go where we haven't been before and live in the company of the unlovable and the unappreciative.

Jesus tells the crowd, "Be compassionate as God the Father has been compassionate to you."  In the lexicon  of the Kingdom of God, to be compassionate not only means caring and being supportive.  It also means walking along side others in their time of trouble.

Bill was willing to walk along side an  adult learner who had lived for years, ashamed of not being able to read well.  He was willing to be there for his student not just for the triumphs but for the times of failure and frustration.

So what could I do?  I welcomed him and made the commitment to walk beside him, equipping him for the service he had been called to.  And when I accepted Bill into training class, the others accepted him, also.  He became one of us, and we became better people because of him.

I don't know about you, but when I become stressed or when times are financially tight or challenging, I tend to hold on a lot tighter to what I have.  I'm not so quick to share my time, my service, my prayers and my resources.

But here's the good news.  No matter what is going on in my life, God still says, "Take the risk.  I'm your backer."  In Luke 6:38, Jesus says, "Give, and it will be given to you.  A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap ..."

God calls us to risk-taking, loving mission and ministry, providing all that we need.  And Christ has promised that he is right there beside us.  (Matthew 28:20)

That's terrific news!