FAMILY IT! — Wednesday Family Devotional — “Gentle in Our Time”

It’s almost never fun being the new kid.  Whether it’s a new school, new job, new church, new neighborhood, it’s hard.  Those first few days or weeks, you kind of feel like an outsider.  You don’t know the people, the routines, the inside jokes, or the culture.  Go around and share some of your “new kid” stories.  What happened to turn you from an outsider to an insider?  Did someone help you make that transition?  What did they do to help you become “part of the gang”?

In our passage today, Paul reminds us that once upon a time, we were outsiders with God, too.  Read how the Message puts it in Ephesians 2:11-23:

11-13 But don’t take any of this for granted. It was only yesterday that you outsiders to God’s ways had no idea of any of this, didn’t know the first thing about the way God works, hadn’t the faintest idea of Christ. You knew nothing of that rich history of God’s covenants and promises in Israel, hadn’t a clue about what God was doing in the world at large. Now because of Christ—dying that death, shedding that blood—you who were once out of it altogether are in on everything.

14-15 The Messiah has made things up between us so that we’re now together on this, both non-Jewish outsiders and Jewish insiders. He tore down the wall we used to keep each other at a distance. He repealed the law code that had become so clogged with fine print and footnotes that it hindered more than it helped. Then he started over. Instead of continuing with two groups of people separated by centuries of animosity and suspicion, he created a new kind of human being, a fresh start for everybody.

16-18 Christ brought us together through his death on the cross. The Cross got us to embrace, and that was the end of the hostility. Christ came and preached peace to you outsiders and peace to us insiders. He treated us as equals, and so made us equals. Through him we both share the same Spirit and have equal access to the Father.

19-22 That’s plain enough, isn’t it? You’re no longer wandering exiles. This kingdom of faith is now your home country. You’re no longer strangers or outsiders. You belong here, with as much right to the name Christian as anyone. God is building a home. He’s using us all—irrespective of how we got here—in what he is building. He used the apostles and prophets for the foundation. Now he’s using you, fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone that holds all the parts together. We see it taking shape day after day—a holy temple built by God, all of us built into it, a temple in which God is quite at home.

There was a time in our lives when we were not a part of God’s family.  We were outsiders.  But Jesus welcomed us with His amazing gentle love and turned us into insiders—inside the family of God.  I love how it says He brought us together—outsiders and insiders, all of us now knowing and loving God.  It doesn’t matter how long you’ve walked with Jesus, whether it’s been eight decades or eight minutes, we all have equal access to the Father.  We are all IN the faith!

And yet the enemy rages and makes insiders feel like outsiders.   Guests at church feel awkward and out of place.  New believers still think of themselves as different and not a part of “the group.”  Even someone who has been at church for months can feel like an outsider if they’ve never found a place to serve and belong within the church family.  The gentle body of Christ now feels like a cold, unwelcoming place to them.  Yikes!

What can you and your family do to reach out to outsiders in your church or neighborhood?  Brainstorm names of people who may be feeling distant.  How can you share that gentle connection with them and bring them “in”to the loving warm embrace of Jesus?  Come up with one or two ideas you can try this week to build that connection with them.  Let’s work together to be a holy temple in which God is quite at home!