I have a terminology problem that I've been trying to fix.
When I start talking or writing, I inevitably end up creating two groups of people.
A group to which I belong, and a group of "them."
"Them" can be anyone, so long as it's "the other."
For some of us, that group takes different forms. Conservatives, liberals, emergent, fundamentalists, Christians, non-Christians (see, it's really prevalent in that one isn't it?), etc etc.
All it takes to be part of "the other" is for us to see something in "them" that we don't like. Something we don't agree with. Something that rubs us the wrong way...something wrong.
We divide and subdivide and subdivide some more. It's how we deal with differences, we classify them. We narrow it down further and further until we're comfortable, and then we narrow it again.
I can't imagine God doing the same.
God is a god of unity. Not division.
Jesus was not sent for a specific group of people. He was sent for all. He was sent for those who didn't understand him, just as much as he was sent for the sake of the "true believers."
Why?
Because none of us are better than them.
The same "wrongness" that we see in "them" that makes us want to divide and classify ourselves apart from them, still exists in us.
We're not exempt. The evil in us also exists in them.
We need Christ to free us from our judgemental attitudes and feelings of self importance as much as "they" do.
Maybe more so.
There is no "us who can do it right" and "them who do it wrong."
By ourselves, we all have it wrong.
There's just an "us."
