who is family

Do I Have a Twin Brother

in Hong Kong?

WHO IS FAMILY?

How Do We Know Who BELONGS?

LANGUAGE?

APPEARANCE?

C O M M O NBLOOD? CULTURE?

ANCESTORS? BELIEFS?

Matthew 85-6 As Jesus entered the village of Capernaum, a Roman captain came up in a panic and said, “Master, my servant is sick. He can’t walk. He’s in terrible pain.”

7 Jesus said, “I’ll come and heal him.”

Matthew 88-9 “Oh, no,” said the captain. “I don’t want to put you to all that trouble. Just give the order and my servant will be fine. I’m a man who takes orders and gives orders. I tell one soldier, ‘Go,’ and he goes; to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

Matthew 810-12 Taken aback, Jesus said, “I’ve yet to come across this kind of simple trust in Israel, the very people who are supposed to know all about God and how he works. This man is the vanguard of many outsiders who will soon be coming from all directions—streaming in from the east, pouring in from the west, sitting down at God’s kingdom banquet alongside Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Then those who grew up ‘in the faith’ but had no faith will find themselves out in the cold, outsiders to grace and wondering what happened.”

Who Belongs in God’s Family?

Simple Trust

Tangible Faith

Infectious Grace

G O D ’ S K I N G D O M B A N Q U E T

Matthew 910-11 Later when Jesus was eating supper at Matthew’s house with his close followers, a lot of disreputable characters came and joined them. When the Pharisees saw him keeping this kind of company, they had a fit, and lit into Jesus’ followers. “What kind of example is this from your Teacher, acting cozy with crooks and riffraff?”

Matthew 9

12-13 Jesus, overhearing, shot back, “Who needs a doctor: the healthy or the sick? Go figure out what this Scripture means: ‘I’m after mercy, not religion.’ I’m here to invite outsiders, not coddle insiders.”

Lutheran Pastor Nadia Boltz-Weber


Simple Trust

Tangible Faith

Infectious Grace



Simple Trust

Tangible Faith

Infectious Grace

Authentic Outsiders


How Do We Know Who BELONGS?

In the Goodness, Grace & Mercy of Jesus

C O M M O NF A I T H

In the late 1800s, thousands of Chinese came to America, seeking economic opportunities. But they faced myriad discriminations, legal injustices, and fear-mongering.

February Is Black History Month

“Between the Christianity of this land and the Christianity of Christ, I recognize the widest possible difference.”

—Frederick Douglass (1818-1895)

Leading American abolitionist, former slave, statesman, and preacher

His Speech of 1869

“I submit that this question of Chinese immigration should be settled upon higher principles than those of a cold and selfish expediency.

“There are such things in the world as human rights. They rest upon no conventional foundation, but are external, universal, and indestructible. Among these, is the right of locomotion; the right of migration; the right which belongs to no particular race, but belongs alike to all and to all alike. It is the right you assert by staying here, and your fathers asserted by coming here. It is this great right that I assert for the Chinese and Japanese, and for all other varieties of men equally with yourselves, now and forever. I know of no rights of race superior to the rights of humanity, and when there is a supposed conflict between human and national rights, it is safe to go to the side of humanity.

“The apprehension that we shall be swamped…”“…or swallowed up by Mongolian civilization; that the Caucasian race may not be able to hold their own against that vast incoming population, does not seem entitled to much respect. Though they come as the waves come, we shall be stronger if we receive them as friends and give them a reason for loving our country and our institutions. They will find here a deeply rooted, indigenous, growing civilization, augmented by an ever increasing stream of immigration from Europe; and possession is nine points of the law in this case, as well as in others. They will come as strangers, we are at home. They will come to us, not we to them. They will come in their weakness, we shall meet them in our strength. They will come as individuals, we will meet them in multitudes, and with all the advantages of organization. Chinese children are in American schools in San Francisco, none of our children are in Chinese schools, and probably never will be, though in some things they might well teach us valuable lessons.

“Not the least among the arguments…”

“…whose consideration should dispose to welcome among us the peoples of all countries, nationalities and color, is the fact that all races and varieties of men are improvable. This is the grand distinguishing attribute of humanity and separates man from all other animals. If it could be shown that any particular race of men are literally incapable of improvement, we might hesitate to welcome them here. But no such men are anywhere to be found, and if there were, it is not likely that they would ever trouble us with their presence.

“The fact that the Chinese and other nations desire to come and do come, is a proof of their capacity for improvement and of their fitness to come…

“Let the Chinaman [sic] come…”“He will help to augment the national wealth. He will help to develop our boundless resources; he will help to pay off our national debt. He will help to lighten the burden of national taxation. He will give us the benefit of his skill as a manufacturer and tiller of the soil, in which he is unsurpassed.”

C O M M U N I O N

Simple Trust

Tangible Faith

Infectious Grace

Authentic Outsiders


The UNCOMMON Family of Christ

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