Ephesians 2:19
Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household.
Being in a foreign land can be intimidating. Everything is different from what you expect – the basic sounds, the signs, the food, how people behave around you. It is very easy to get overwhelmed and to seek comfort in familiar places and languages. It’s natural, but doing so cuts into the experience of visiting a foreign country. Only by going off the beaten path and exploring can you truly experience something so different.
I can only imagine how those first Gentile Christians felt, coming in to what must have been a confusing mix of terms, expectations, traditions, and beliefs. Imagine how it must still be today for someone without a Christian background coming to a worship service at All Saints. The Good News, though, that the entire passage in Ephesians 2:11-22 addresses is that, through God, we are made one. All people are welcome in God’s house – the Gentile, the Jew, the black, the white, the American, the Asian, the African, …. Everyone is welcome. That unity is something I too often take for granted. We are truly strangers and aliens together; we are only one in Christ. Ponder today on how God has made you feel at home.
Doug Kuhlman
This Lent, we are sharing the offerings of members of All Saints who worked together to create a daily Lenten devotional book. Join us for worship Sunday morning at 8:30 and 11. There will not be Education Hour this Sunday only. Visit http://www.allsaintspalatine.org for full calendar and information and respond to this email message to request to be removed from our distribution list.
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