God’s Call
Friday, May 23, 2025
Includes All Who We’d Leave Behind
Feeling Like Firewood Left to Rot,
God Still Gathers In All Us Outcasts
Jeremiah 31:8
See, I am going to bring them from the land of the north, and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth, among them the blind and the lame, those with child and those in labour, together; a great company, they shall return here.
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Luke 14:21
So the slave returned and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’
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Words of Grace for Today –
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The banquet table is set, the food is ready or on the last stages of being prepared, there’s even dessert, a specialty seldom enjoyed except by the wealthy.
And then no one comes.
So the master sends one or more out to call in the homeless, the rejected, the immigrants … all those we’d leave behind.
And the feast is fully appreciated by those so hungry for food, and even more to be noticed, to matter, to count for something good.
So God calls us all.
Yet those that are doing well on their own don’t seem to sense a need to show up. It’s not about being saved: as if those that don’t come aren’t saved. All are already saved. It’s living out that salvation that is tough. We prefer the comforts of being slaves to our sins, stuck in our comfort zones that the devil uses to keep us from living.
So God sends out urgent messages to those others, those we’d rather not acknowledge exist. They might not have understood the invitation was for them, for they just are not ever included in anything, so why this?
But they show up.
God’s children all.
Misfits all.
Baptized, marked with the cross, and commissioned to serve those most in need.
What a motley crew!
And aren’t we fortunate if we know we are one of them!
So what will we do this day, to give God thanks for the feast and the dessert?
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There’s plenty of others hungry to know they matter.