Gypsies, tramps, thieves. Bring all the message

“As I began to address them the Holy Spirit came upon them, just as it had upon us at the beginning. Then I remembered what the Lord had said: ‘John baptized with water but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ If God was giving them the same gift he gave us when we first believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to interfere with him?”

Another aspect of our Lenten journey is not only to deal with our personal relationship with God, but also our relationship with God's people, the creations of His hands. This is a unique challenge of its own. It is a simple task to be loving and caring and unselfish toward those like ourselves, same race, same beliefs, same age, same, same, same. But the gospel calls us to a higher level. The gospel asks us to reach out to and accept those who may be very different than we are. The gospel calls us to accept those who may be at a different stage in their acceptance of the risen Christ than we are. And we are asked to be guiding, patient and helpful.
  In the early church, there was a problem in acceptance of the Gentiles. Since Jesus was a Jew, many believed that one needed to be a Jew first in order to be chosen to be saved. But  as we consider Jesus' life and His interactions with non Jews, we can see that this is untrue.
  If during lent you hear the story of the woman at the well, she was not a Jew. In fact, as a Samaritan she was hated and considered lowest of the low because she had forsaken her Jewish heritage by marrying a non Jew. But Jesus offers her a new life. Jesus allows her to leave her labors at the waters of life and be reborn as a follower of The Way.
  If we learn anything about how to develop our relationship with God this Lent, we must learn that this relationship is like the cross. Two parts. One part between ourselves and God, the trunk of the crossing reaching from earth to heaven,  and a second, like the arms of the cross, between ourselves and the rest of the world reaching out between us and our brothers and sisters created by The Lord.  And we need to recall that Jesus came for all, not just a chosen few. All that was asked is  that they accept this gift from Jesus. But they can not accept it if we do not offer it.