DAILY BYTE
Yesterday we reflected on a passage from Isaiah 19, in which Egypt and Assyria – the traditional enemies of Israel – were described alongside Israel as being part of God’s embracing purposes for all the world.
What a challenge to us, especially in the midst of the current xenophobia crisis we’re living through, to rethink the labels and categories we so quickly construct in order to define who others are, and therefore how we should relate to them.
In fact, the truth of the matter is that we use labels and categories to define who we are, too – selfimposed boxes that often limit our capacity to reach out to others whom we think are different from us, or even ‘beneath’ us.
How different from Jesus. He wasn’t interested in human categories and labels. He called a tax collector to be one of his disciples. He got a bad reputation of being a ‘partygoer’ because he was happy to hang out with ‘sinners’, which totally scandalised the superrighteous religious set. Jesus wasn’t fazed. He was much bigger than that. Much bigger than any human category or label. He knew who he was, having God’s own heart, with space enough to accept all.
His example offers us this challenge:
It’s not how we see others that needs to change as much as how we see ourselves. If we define ourselves too narrowly, too rigidly, there will be little space for others who don’t fall within the parameters of that definition. This always impoverishes our lives. But as we push out the boundaries of our own selfunderstanding, we discover in us a new capacity for acceptance which more closely reflects the unconditional acceptance of God.
There is a wellknown story about some soldiers in the First World War who carried one of the slain comrades to a nearby church in a rural part of France. There they asked the priest if he would bury their friend in the church graveyard. The priest asked if the dead man was a baptized member of the Catholic Church. When the soldiers replied that they didn’t know, the priest said that he was very sorry, but in that case he couldn’t allow the man to be buried in that graveyard. And so with heavy hearts the soldiers dug a grave outside the graveyard, buried their fallen comrade, and went on their way.
Some months later they happened to be in that region, and so decided to visit the grave of their friend. But as they looked for his grave outside of the graveyard fence they could find no trace of it. Confused, they approached the priest. He said, “After you left I was greatly troubled that night by my refusal to bury your friend in our graveyard. So the next morning I got up, and with my own hands moved the graveyard fence to include the grave of your friend.”
What fences are you being called to move that will broaden the narrow definition of who you are, and create a spaciousness within you to accept and embrace others? May you know the strength and the grace of God as you do just that, and together may our radical acceptance of others become a source of healing and reconciliation within our nation.
PRAY AS YOU GO
Lord Jesus Christ, there is no barrier bigger than your love, no gulf wider than your mercy, no division greater than your desire to overcome it. You left your throne in heaven to find us, lost as we were in our sin and our shame. And you have declared that no one is beyond the reach of your grace. Help us to take this great truth to heart, and to live it in our interactions with others. And through us, may your work of reconciliation flourish within a world torn apart by division and strife. Amen.
SCRIPTURE READING
Matthew 9:9-13
As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector's booth. "Follow me," he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.
While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, many tax collectors and "sinners" came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'?"
