Help support the vision of Woodland Hills Community Church!

Help support the vision of Woodland Hills Community Church!
For those of you who would like to support the vision & ministry of Woodland Hills Community Church (the faith community I serve that continues to encourage me to minister outside the box), please click on the link just above.

Monday, July 7

Today’s Readings: Psalm 35; Genesis 29:20-35; Luke 1:48-56; Acts 15:12-21; Psalm 77

In early April the National Council of Churches asked local faith communities to engage in an ongoing conversation titled “A Sacred Conversation on Race”. Sadly, many local faith communities chose to opt out of this call – I suspect largely out of fear that talking about a difficult topic like race might scare off some of their parishioners. In talking with friends about our faith community’s decision to participate in the on-going conversation about race, I shared that I was glad I wasn’t smart enough to worry about the ramifications of such a conversation. It was just something that had to be done. My friend was a little surprised when I shared my reasoning for why it had to be done. Instead of saying what he expected to hear (i.e. “We’re doing it because it’s the right thing to do”), I said we were participating because it’s the ONLY thing we could do. In today’s passage from Acts - in the midst of a volatile controversy about the inclusion of Gentiles in the Jewish-Christian community – James says to his audience, “Friends, listen. Simeon has told us the story of how God at the very outset made sure that racial outsiders were included” (Acts 15:13 – The Message). What those words tell me is that being inclusive isn’t something that we should take pride in – something that we do because it’s “the right thing to do”. No, today’s passage tells me we are inclusive because it’s in our DNA as Christians; it’s simply who we are. And the best part of living in Christian community is that we don’t simply have to wait until we die in order to get a taste of God’s all-inclusive Reign. Peter, James, John, Paul & Barnabus showed us that if we are faithful in following the Spirit’s leading, we can get a big taste of that Reign right here and now – in our individual and collective lives together! Til next time…