Readings:
Genesis 26:17 - 27:46
Matthew 9: 1-17
Psalm 10: 16-18
Proverbs 3: 9-10
Matthew reading: "I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices". Sometimes we allow our religious practices to overshadow the underlying meaning thereof. One example is that of baptism - should you be sprinkled, dunked, immersed, or drowned? Well - so what? Baptism was never about the amount of water used; it's about the recognition of God's grace. Yet churches have been split, and even new denominations formed, because of trivial issues such as this - and all the while, the world just shakes its head at our religious idiocy.
More serious, though, is when we impose certain so-called "standards" on people, citing religious practices, thereby determining who is "in" and who is "out". Yet Jesus, the Great Physician, has only one standard - if the person is sick in any way, he is there to heal them. A church should therefore be like a hospital, and in a hospital there are only two states - you are either sick, or you are part of the staff. This means that those who have received healing (in whatever form) through the ministry of a local church and wish to remain part of its ministry should only do so if they are prepared to "join the staff", that is to be agents of Christ's healing to others.
This means that we, just like Jesus, need to see people not as "scum", as the Pharisees termed them, but as "patients" in need of a physician. That physician is Jesus, and as Jesus' agents we are to be his hands and feet, bringing healing to all whom Jesus sends across our paths.
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