The storyline to The Shack involves an extended conversation between the Holy Trinity and a man named Mack. Mack has many questions for God and, by the end of the book; he’s grown at ease with speaking his mind. But there’s one part that makes some people uncomfortable. It has to do with people who aren’t like us.
The opening words are from Jesus:
“Christian? Who said anything about being a Christian? I’m not a Christian.”
Those who love me come from every system that exists. They were Buddhists or Mormons, Baptists or Muslims, Democrats, Republicans and many who don’t vote or are not part of any Sunday morning or religious institutions. I have followers who were murderers and many who were self-righteous. Some are bankers and bookies, Americans and Iraqis, Jews and Palestinians. I have no desire to make them Christian, but I do want to join them in their transformation into sons and daughters of my Papa, into my brothers and sister, into my Beloved. Does that mean, asked Mack, that all roads lead to you? Jesus replies: ‘Not at all…What it means is that I will travel any road to find you.’”
Epiphany is more than feast about magicians or astrologers; rather it is the feastday for welcoming folks who were made to feel unacceptable and unworthy. Not all roads lead to heaven. But there’s not a means that God won’t pursue us to help you get there.
That’s as true for anyone who did not celebrate Christmas because they were bitter about the death of their child like Mack, or not finding work in 2009, or divorced, or scraping with their medical insurance carrier about a pre-existing condition or in jail.
God will pursue you. God’s love is relentless. And it’s God’s will that none should be lost, but all are to be saved. How? We don’t know how. When? We don’t know when.
Yet this we do know: Sometimes, we ourselves get in the way. We don’t mean to, but we do. This too we know: Sometimes institutions like the Church or our faith community get in the way. It doesn’t mean to, but sometimes it does.
On this Feast of the Epiphany, we pray that we get out of the way and let God accomplish the salvation for which the world so longs.
God prays for us as we reflect: “Star of wonder, star of night, Star with royal beauty bright…guide us to they perfect light.” (We Three Kings of Orient Are).
Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends in this New Year that we pray for insight. We pray for wisdom. We pray for love to transforms the way we see things and hear things and do things. Most of all, we pray that all people might seek the face of God …as surely as God seeks us.
