You may or may not have heard of the “Nones.” This is the term used to describe those who claim no religious affiliation. But there is also a growing segment of DONES – those people who grew up attending church but no longer do. They say they are DONE with organized religion.
Researchers tell us there are many reasons for this. But a big one is this idea of Unconditional Welcome, which we explored in this past Sunday’s sermon.
For the most part, the Nones and the Dones know Jesus, and they like Jesus – But they don’t like those who supposedly follow Jesus yet don’t seem to care about the things Jesus was concerned with…
In fact, it often seems to the Nones and Dones that those who claim to be his followers try to demonize the very types of people Jesus cared so much about… Nones and Dones don’t want anything to do with those kind of Christians, and frankly, neither do most of us in this congregation either!
But those kind of judgmental people give “Christians” and “Church” a bad name, and we need to do everything we can to let people know we are not That Kind of Christian Church. We need to be willing to truly welcome those who are different from ourselves, and to be a safe place where all may experience the love of God.
So let’s all put on our “Jesus eyes” and look around, asking ourselves,”who is being left out; who is being marginalized and discriminated against?” The universal Church has done much to contribute to the exclusion and mistreatment of certain groups of people, and we can help turn that around!
We were once strangers, and God warmly welcomed us. And we want to pass on that warm, generous, authentic welcome to others, even to those very different from ourselves… And in so doing, we will make the old saying true: Strangers are just friends we haven’t yet met.
Shalom, Rev. Pamela
Also, here are the links for the two short videos that go with our sermon from this past Sunday:
Welcome https://youtu.be/gdQxkvkqkIQ
Table https://youtu.be/ZRIFeqQKETk
