Gravity

Words possess a certain gravity, a force that pulls, pushes, and shapes.  In Jesus world, words can often take on a gravitational pull (or push) all their own.  For those "inside" Jesus world, words like churched/unchurched, saved/unsaved, reached/unreached seem to pull them more securely behind the walls of the church.  For those "outside" Jesus world, the same words are a repellant pushing them beyond the faintest glimpse of the highest steeple.  The world is so much easier to live in when there is an "us vs. them," an "insider vs. an outsider," a "churched vs. an unchurched," a "reached vs. unreached."  Labels make our retail relationships easier to manage, maneuver, and manipulate.  They insulate us from those God forsaken moments when our assumptions are challenged and our deeply held beliefs are questioned.  Labels keep us upright, grounded, firmly secured within our own gravity.  The only problem is that God so loved the world.  The only catch is that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.  The only hiccup is that through Jesus God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things.  Through Jesus God has already placed himself in relationship with the world.  Every person gay or straight, Republican or Democrat, Christian or Muslim is in relationship to God because of Jesus.  It is because God came into the world wearing skin and bone that we are all in some proximity to him.  The picture of the Bible is not did you recite the by-laws and master the secret handshake; it is did you turn and see him, did you move towards his outstretched arms, did you fall into his loving embrace.  There is a gravity that is undeniable, a gravity that exceeds words, a gravity that can pull us through pain, despair, and even death...it is love...love in the shape of a cross.