Accepted - John 6:35-40

If you’re like me, every week you get at least one, if not a flood of these in your mailbox.  They make you feel appreciated and special.  They suggest that someone really wants to have a relationship with you.  They tell you that you have been pre-approved—maybe for $1,000, $6,000, or even up to $35,000.  Then you notice…their loving approval of you is asterisked.  They reach out, claim to approve having a relationship with you, only to note that before y’all can really have a relationship you must meet certain criteria.  So you fill out their little form, seeing if they really want to begin a relationship.  Then, if you are among the many who have less than stellar credit, you get another message from them, “We’re sorry, but because of what one of our other friends (Experian, TransUnion, Equifax) have told us about you, we can’t be have a relationship at this time.”

The feeling of being rejected when you were expecting to be accepted is not a good feeling.  It is probably a good thing when it comes to credit cards, but in other circumstances it can be downright painful and depressing.  Many of you know that I write poetry.  When I was in college, I made several attempts at having the poetry published.  There was always a feeling of anticipation when I’d go to the mailbox and find a letter from one of the magazines where I had made a submission.  All too often, I’d open up the envelop and it would begin, “Dear Mr. Pittard, We regret to inform you….”  I didn’t expect to be accepted by them all.  One of the biggest reasons is that the poetry I wrote was pretty dark back then…but when a magazine known for publishing dark poetry wrote back, “We regret to inform you that we feel that you’re writing is too dark for our publication.”  Wow…it hurts.  It makes you wonder, after so many rejections whether it is even worth the effort to try again.  Most of those magazines would have probably willingly entered into a relationship with me if I chose to change the way I wrote first.

Rejection is something the people of Jesus’ day were familiar with.  If you were not part of the Jewish community, you were rejected—you were not welcomed to become part of the community.  However, there were still plenty of opportunities for rejection if you were part of the community.  If you developed a skin condition, you would be rejected.  As a woman, if you had a baby you were rejected from the community for a while, or if you were not pregnant, on a regular basis you would not be accepted into the community.  If you became possessed by a demon, you became rejected by the community.  We could make an ongoing list of a variety of reasons anyone might be rejected by the community—that is at least until they could get their act straight.

One of those areas would be with the apprenticeship to a rabbi.  If you were a young man in the Jewish faith, like all the children, you would learn the Torah.  You would have to memorize what we would identify as the first five books of our Bible (and you thought memory verses were tough).  After twelve years old, the rabbis would identify the brightest of those young men and select them for further training.  They would continue to evaluate and select the brightest of the brightest and accept them as disciples.  No one else would be accepted.  They would be sent back to their homes like the others who were not accepted after age twelve to learn their family’s trade.  Consider this in thinking of those that Jesus called to be His disciples.  Some of them were the rejects—those not considered bright enough to be a rabbi’s disciple…four of them were learning the family trade of fishing.  Then there was Levi—the tax collector, a man that many in the faith would consider not only a sinner but also a traitor to his people.  Those that the society would reject, Jesus not only accepted but also called.

We consider that alongside our reading today where Jesus says, “anyone who comes to me I will never drive away.”  Jesus was all about accepting and not about rejecting.  Unlike all those credit applications and those publishers, there are no prerequisites for being approved.  When Jesus says, “I will accept you,” he means without any strings attached.  Like the Samaritan woman at the well, like the woman caught in adultery, like the Gentile man possessed by demons among the tombs, like the woman who had been bleeding for more than twelve years, like the foreign woman whose child was sick, like Nicodemus who came to Him under the cover of night, like Zacchaeus the tax collector, like Judas who He knew would betray Him, the arms of Christ were truly welcoming and accepting of any who would come into a relationship with Him.  Jesus will not turn anyone away.

The question of rejection and acceptance was not just something from Jesus day.  We live in a world that is all about rejection.  Folks are constantly being rejected for some reason—their age, their gender, their financial standing, their educational level, their skin color, their language, their physical disabilities, their past or current life choices, their past or current sin.  Jesus does not mirror the world—Jesus accepts us regardless—He has promised that He will not turn anyone away—regardless of who they are or even if they are still in the midst of their sin—in fact He died for all while all were still in the midst of their sin…even asking for their forgiveness as they murdered Him.

Does His acceptance, His open arms, mean that He condones sinful behavior?  No, he told the woman caught in adultery to go and sin no more, he told the rich young ruler to go and sell everything he had and come follow Him, Zacchaeus—after sharing a meal with Jesus, felt compelled to set everything right that he had done wrong.  Jesus welcomes all, Jesus does not condemn, and only once He has expressed His acceptance and shown His love, does He call a person to a transformed life.

That’s the kind of people that Jesus calls us to be as well…a people who will welcome all…a people who will not turn away anyone…a people who won’t set prerequisite for someone to come into a relationship with us.  We are to embrace all regardless of age, gender, marital status, economic situation, race, disability.  We are called to accept them regardless of their nationality or language.  We are called to wrap our arms about them regardless of their criminal background, addictions, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, or political allegiance.  We are to show them the love of God—a God that desires that all might be saved, a God that has said “anyone who comes to me I will never drive away.”  We are not called to operate out of the world's standards, our even out of our own likes and dislikes, but to operate out of the “will of Him,” who has sent us…so that everyone may experience the life-changing, unconditional, love of God that He has showered upon each of us.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.