Everyone has a seat at the table. Everyone.

This has been heavy on my heart lately. I’ve found churches often claim to be welcoming but in all reality, the building is often times full of hypocritical believers that form cliques. In their very human ways, despite the churches mission statement, they manage to make new comers feel like outsiders.

And I’ve noticed a pattern that I cannot stay quiet about any longer.

Somewhere along the line we have become comfortable assigning weight to sin. We have arbitrarily labeled sins as “absolutely not okay to struggle with”, and in doing so, have implied there are sins that are less damning to struggle with. The church has become so hung up on both aggressively and passive aggressivly (which is often times more hurtful than the former) taking a stance on one sin it unofficially deems worse than others, we’ve managed to make entire groups of people feel unwelcome.

The church does not welcome everyone.

Let that sink in. Christ died for everyone. Everyone has a seat at his table.

The church has fallen into the trap of identifying people by their sin. To clarify, its not everyone that’s being identified by their sin, I’ve never walked into a church and felt like I didn’t belong, I’ve never been targeted by a group of Christians and labeled as living in sin. I’ve never been excluded from a church ministry because I’m living in sin. But I’m also not part of the LGBTQ community.

But let’s be perfectly clear, I am living in sin. And so too, are you reader.

We as Christians know that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And yet we are so very quick to point out other people “living in sin” we forget our own. Identifying people by their sin, is reducing them to their sin. God see’s us as his children.

As image bearers of God we are all deeply and unconditionally loved REGARDLESS of our sin. With the exception of the unforgivable sin (blasphemy of the Holy Spirit) EVERY sin is forgivable. Jesus himself tells us this in Matthew 12:31-32.

We are all valuable and jealously sought after by God. He would leave the 99 for the 1. Not the “sinless one” but the reckless one. He would leave the 99 church attending Christian’s for

the one pedophile,

the one murderer,

the one hooker,

the one liar,

the one glutton,

the jealous one,

the one thief,

the one cheat,

the one adulterer,

the one addict,

the vengeful one,

the prideful one,

the angry one,

the one homosexual.

And yet so often churches turn up their nose to people we deem to be “living in sin”. I challenge you, fellow believers, to identify ONE human who does not live in sin.

I.

will.

Wait.

To classify one group of individuals as unworthy and undeserving of our support is to go against Gods command to love your neighbors as yourself.

We are ALL guilty of sin. Our sin is not any “less” sinful than anyone else’s. Sin has no weight. If we try to exclude a group from our “church” based on a particular sin, we ought to exclude ourselves.

Sin has no weight.

If you struggle with vanity, you are no less sinful than a thief.

If you struggle with anger, you are no less sinful than an abuser

If you struggle with lust, you are no less sinful than a homosexual.

What about the sins we tend to forget all together. What about gluttony? If we are to say certain sins will not be tolerated in our church, where do we draw the line? Who are we in our humanness to decide that homosexuality is worse than gluttony? Are you going to make every overweight person feel intense guilt and shame about their weight everytime they step into the church? You might laugh uncomfortably and say “that’s different”…

But how? Why?

Why is it the church can welcome chronically struggling addicts, wrap our arms around them and say you are loved my friend, but we turn up our nose to people openly struggling with other types of sin?

How can we expect people living in sin, who are unaware of Gods mercies and promises, his LOVE and grace, to follow His command and abide in Him, if we don’t even open the doors to LET THEM IN. If we don’t even invite them to the table, how could we possibly expect them to follow the commands. And honestly, if we devote our time on Earth to guilting and shaming other sinners, why would they want to be in Christs family? Are we doing God justice by socially persecuting sinners, excluding them and doing our very best to guilt and shame them? Are we being true image bearers if we act in this way? If God is love, mercy and grace, should we not also be love, mercy and grace?

Sure, yes who you hang out with matters. Do not tempt yourself by putting yourself in a situation in which you will be tempted. But that doesn’t mean we should refuse to welcome people.

EVERYONE has a seat at Gods table.

EVERYONE has been invited.

Yes yes Iron sharpens Iron. Yes, yes if someone sins against us we are to call the sin out, if they continue to sin against us we are to bring a witness, if they continue to sin tell the church. If then they continue to sin, we are not to treat them as brothers and sisters but as ungodly people. Matthew 18:15-17.

That verse describes when people sin against you. Meaning when someone’s sins violate you specifically. So let’s not weaponize that scripture as a reason to exclude people, lest we forget the follow on verses where Jesus is asked how often we should forgive “up to seven times”? He replies “not seven times but 77 times”.

For years I lived in sin. YEARS. If I’m being honest, I’m still living in sin. Why? Because I’m a human living in a broken fallen world. I am trying, I am doing my best to break free of sinful habits. Let me tell you, I am so grateful that Christ is not as quick to write me off as humans are. The minute we forget or refuse to acknowledge or our sin, the very second we start adding weight to sin to justify our own mistakes, we become a bully. We start trying to justify our own sin by shaming others into believing theirs is somehow worse.

At some point we as Christians have to stop trying to bully sin out of peoples lives while conveniently forgetting our own. We have to let the Holy Spirit do His job. Believe it or not, the Holy Spirit is MUCH better at convicting people than us, the pot, calling the kettle black.

I challenge you fellow believers, to make a seat at the table, for EVERYONE.

I had a very dear friend ask in conversation on this topic, what if a trans gender woman married to another woman wants to join the women’s ministry? She was not being malicious but rather bringing up counter points our culture will make.

Regardless, the answer is the same, everyone has a seat at the table.

We are not called in the great commission to go and judge others of all nations. We are called to go and spread the Gospel. And if we turn a person away, we are telling them in a subtle but impactful way that Christ does not accept them, God does not love them, they are not worthy of His Grace. Not once, ever in the scripture have I found where God forsakes his children.

Spare me the arguement what about a pedophile wanting to join kids ministry. Ya’ll the pedophile is welcome at the table I will open my arms and say Christ loves you. That does not mean I’m advocating for registered offenders to teach kids Sunday school. For obvious reasons this would be safety concern. But despite how uncomfortable it might make you, yes even the registered sex offenders have a seat at Christs table.

Because everyone is welcome.

Christ once met you in the depth of your sin, he called on you with irrational generosity, relentless kindness and heartfelt sincerity.

He did not give up if you first declined the invitation,

he did not guilt you the moment you walked into his arm.

He did not cast stones.

He gently held you in His arms, and in time worked on your heart to guide you on His path.

He is a just God yes, but he is merciful.

 So make room at his table, because everyone has a seat at Christs table.

Welcome people,

ALL people,

with irrational generosity,

relentless kindness and heartfelt sincerity.