This morning I preached from the story in Luke 4:16-30 about how Jesus was almost lynched before his ministry got going. Even though in his itinerant ministry most of the synagogues glorified Jesus for what he had done, his hometown synagogue took on the attitude of 'the kingdom of God is going to them?' Matthew 13:58 likewise says that Jesus could not do miracles in Nazareth because of their unbelief. They seemed to like the idea of the good news coming into the world as a sign of the Kingdom, but they felt compelled to hoard that kingdom rather than let it grow and bring God glory.
It always fascinates me how territorial we are as people. As Americans we can't seem to stomach that others might want part of the American dream, and so there is a large segment that looks at people that are the Other with suspicion. People who move to a different country in which most people speak different languages and then continue to find work doing things most Americans don't want to do, all the while with the sword of expulsion hanging over them, shouldn't be demonized...they ought to be praised. But we continue to look at only Us as worthy of favor.
Same thing happens in the church. In my little fellowship of Churches of Christ we have routinely acted as if we were the only people doing what is right. Because we have 'rightly divided the word of truth', we believe most earnestly, anybody else who claims to be doing God's work is looked at with suspicion. Sure, we read their commentaries and sing their hymns and take part in their charitable institutions...but their music or their initiation ceremonies or their organizational structure is wrong, so we deem it proper to throw them over the cliff in anger.
One of the things that I hope that I am becoming is more charitable to those in whom it seems objectively obvious that the work of the Spirit is going. John 3:8 tells us that 'the Spirit goes where it pleases', and for years I have resisted this. But the Spirit demands that I learn something of charity when it comes to others who aren't exactly like me.
