Misfits R Us

Today's post brought to us by Athena Davis. Thank you Athena for an excellent class this past Sunday!

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Every time I considered what part I play in the Body of Christ, all I came up with was a blank. More often than not, I DON'T feel like I fit into the Body. With the lack of a topic in mind, my Bible reading turned into the Book of Luke. The preface to that book in my copy of The Message alluded to the fact that Luke is a book about misfits, written by a misfit. He was the only Gentile in an all-Jewish cast of writers, he was scientific-minded, and his book was about the acceptance of Christ of all those who are considered misfits by others. This thread of the Book of Luke led me through my discussion.

I started to realize as I considered the role of women, specifically, that we don't have time to analyze our "role" because we are too busy filling our role. (This applies to women and men alike, obviously.) Using Mark 10:38-42 as our text, we looked at the familiar story of Mary and Martha. Mary sat at Jesus's feet, anxious to spend time with Him and drink in His guidance and His presence. Martha, on the other hand, bustled about the kitchen, trying to make everything RIGHT for Him. I would have been the Martha. I would have been so caught up in DOING that I missed the point of BEING. Yet, at the same time, Martha is often criminalized in this story and I don't think that's very fair. The word used implies that she felt pulled away and was obligated to do the things she was doing. I see no fault in Martha wanting to make things right for our Lord, yet she was missing Him by doing that. Her service FOR Him became a hindrance to her service IN
Him. When Martha questioned Jesus (and not before, notice), He gently corrected her and pointed out that Mary had chosen the "better part" and He was not going to deny her that. However, he did not belittle Martha, either. The obvious message here is that we have to do both. We have to spend time with the Lord and also do His work. You can't have one without the other. We cannot get so caught up in doing His work that we miss Him.

We discussed the reasons we might get so caught up in our many activities and the answers included guilt, ego, distraction, justification, the fact that we must have things done our own way, the desire for perfection and excellence that we think only we can achieve. The discussion was lively and very thought-provoking. Perhaps our feelings of being a misfit in the Body are because we are trying to distract ourselves from what is missing, and that is a relationship with Him. We cannot be in right relationship with others if we are missing one with Him.

Finally, we looked at eleven parables that are not included in any other books other than Luke. We discussed a few of them in more depth.
Eleven Parables Unique to Luke and
Self-Reflective Questions
(Subtitle: Discussion Questions if the Lesson Totally Bombs and I Need a Time-Filler)

Two Debtors (Luke 7:41-43)
Do you consider yourself more deserving of forgiveness than others in the Body because you have been “better”?

Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-37)
What sort of societal limitations do you allow to hinder you from ministry both within and outside of the Body?

Importunate Friend (Luke 11:5-8)
How often are you unwilling to ask others in the Body for help when you need it because it will make you look ill-prepared?

Rich Fool (Luke 12:16-21)
When you are given a good crop, do you immediately start to look ahead and question, or are you grateful?

Barren Fig-tree (Luke 13:6-9)
How long will you wait before you start to cut others down who do not seem to be bearing fruit? Do you care for them, fertilize and water them, or just chop them off?

Lost Piece of Silver (Luke 15:8-10)
Will you work for it? Or would you rather sit and wait for a ministry opportunity to magically appear, suited for you?

Lost Son (Luke 15:11-32)
Do you expect God to reward you for doing what is expected?

The Parable of the Shrewd Manager (Luke 16:1-9)
Are you aware of how to deal with others around you, or do you do things to put them off and drive them toward others who are more accepting?

The Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31)
What do you invest your time and work in-- possessions, or people?

The Parable of the Persistent Widow (Luke 18:1-8)
How persistent do you take the time to be?

The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector (Luke 18:9-14)
If you search deep down, how often will you find that Pharisee who reminds God (and others) subtly (and not so subtly) of how good you actually are? Because your little sins certainly don’t add up to everyone else’s BIG sins...?

So how about you? Are you a misfit or do you find yourself so busy you lose perspective? Tell us your misfit story... I think we'd all be surprised at how many feel this way at times in their lives.