September 24, 2017 · Matthew 11:18–19

Remaking Right and Left

For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, "He has a demon." The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, "Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners." But wisdom is proved right by her deeds.

“We're trying to figure out life as it comes our way. A church without walls says, come to the table, whoever you are. Come and love Jesus. Come be part of the family of Jesus. And I'm certain that in this congregation we have people of all sorts of different stripes — politically, philosophically, theologically. We're all trying to get a sense of our lives. We're all trying to know how we're supposed to work in society. We're all called to vote, as good citizens of our country. But what the gospel tells us is that does not define us. Jesus does. What defines me? I'm a follower of Jesus. … Wine or not wine. … A church without walls is a place where we sit down together. We treat each other like holistic human beings. We're bound together by love for Jesus. And so, to do this, I think we need to resist labels. Let's be careful. And I — excuse me — for throwing an epithet at someone in our mind. … What does it look like when we join the Jesus movement? Our wisdom is proved right by our deeds. By who we are. Not by our ideology. How do you actually live your life? How do you actually love people? A person who believes in Jesus is transformed. They're no longer defined by their policies, the thing might be right for the civic good. And every election time we're all going to have to get together and talk about these things. It's not that these things are unimportant. It's that Jesus is all-important. … We begin to love indiscriminately.”