Radical inclusion?
But Mama said, ‘Don’t talk to strangers.’
By Andrew Clouse
One of the pieces of advice I took to heart as a youngster was, “Don’t talk to strangers.” In my adolescent mind, this refrain was lumped together in a soup of fear that put strangers into the same category as all of the other things that were out to get me: drugs, gangs and AIDS.
While I understand the supposed wisdom that undergirds this saying, I have to wonder if it still influences me today in ways that are at odds with Christ’s teachings.
I’m tempted to be silent when I pass the throngs of homeless people in downtown Albuquerque.
I discount the panhandlers who approach my car at busy intersections.
I fail to welcome the seeker who walks into church for the first time.
I wonder how I can teach my 1-year-old son to avoid dangerous situations, but understand that a stranger to one person is a sister to another.
Jesus calls us to radical inclusion of those we do not know. The relationships he built with strangers and those deemed unclean are dramatic and challenging examples of the people that Jesus wants us to be. In fact, Jesus says in Matthew 5:46-47: “If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?”
May we indeed talk to strangers, and, in so doing, be transformed by the conversation.