Welcome in God's House—Or Not?

15 And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 16 And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. 17 And he was teaching them and saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.” 18 And the chief priests and the scribes heard it and were seeking a way to destroy him, for they feared him, because all the crowd was astonished at his teaching.  Mark 11:15-18

Welcome in God’s House—Or Not?

Have you ever attended worship in another culture? If so, you know how nervous it can make you—a strange language, different ways of doing things. You wonder if you’re going to do something wrong. Maybe you will offend the other worshipers! These are all worries that immigrants and refugees have when we invite them to our churches.

It’s even worse for those who are not Christian yet. They also have to deal with questions like “What kind of a God is this? Is he someone I could stand to live with? Is he frightening—someone who looks for reasons to punish? Or does he actually welcome outsiders like me? How can I know?”

We know what God is like from watching Jesus. And Jesus is the one who felt so strongly about saving all the people of the world that he sealed his own fate—arrest and death that same week!—by taking on the temple merchants who were making it so hard for outsiders to worship. He threw their noisy, smelly businesses out of the area intended for foreigners to pray in. And he replaced it with his own teaching and preaching, so that everyone would have the chance to trust in this God who cared so much about them he would suffer, die and rise again—all to make them children of God.

As we care for new immigrants and refugees, let’s show them that same self-sacrificing welcome—the love of Jesus, shining through our lives.

By Dr. Kari Vo