Jesus didn't turn people away...but I'm not Jesus and neither are you.

Those of you who know me well know that my musical tastes are very eclectic. However, one type of music I have never really been into is music by people much younger than myself. Growing up, the big thing was "New Kids on the Block" which was probably one of the first boy bands and whose music, to me, is about as appealing as listening to hogs being slaughtered. Imagine my surprise when I heard a song on the Radio by a band called Eisley and I later found out that it was a quintet of people in their mid to late teens. The song was called "Telescope Eyes" and, if you listen to the lyrics, it deals with the feeling of being unwanted or ridiculed for being different. Although this song deals with the subject from the perspective of youth, it did stick out to me because one of the core beliefs of Christianity is to be welcoming to all, even those rejected by our society. However, many Christians would probably say that is one area that will always remain a work in progress. Yes, Jesus treated all with respect regardless of social status, wealth, vocation, or a litany of other deal breakers during Biblical times. However, how people today (both within Christianity and outside of it) put that idea into practice can serve as a reminder that you are not Jesus and neither am I.
You need only read one of the gospels to get a ample idea of Jesus’ acceptance and love to those unwanted. However, I would like to turn to the Book of Ruth as an example that you do not have to be God made Flesh in order to reach out to someone and have an impact. The book begins with Naomi (Ruth’s mother in law) losing first her husband and then both of her sons. Since, in Biblical times, a person’s family was their source of material support, this may be equated with losing your job, finding out your 401k has tanked, and getting all your possessions taken away. Naomi travels to Judah with Ruth and Oprah (her other daughter in law) and tells them: "Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home. May the Lord show kindness to you, as you have shown to the dead and to me." This is basically a way of saying: "I’m nobody and nothing. If you stay with me I’ll be a stone that weighs you down. Go back to Moab where you can start over." However, Ruth says (in a passage that I would use in my wedding if I ever planned to get married):
Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God will be my God. Where you die I will die, and then I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me (RUTH 1: 16-17).
For all intents and purposes, Naomi was a non-person in the eyes of her society and by rights should have been unwanted or undesirable. Despite all that, Ruth said that she mattered to her and, regardless of what happened, she would be by her side. The next part of the story reminds me of those commercials for an investment company or whatever where somebody does something good for someone else and it is noticed by another who "pays it forward" to someone else. In Judah, Boaz hears about what Ruth did for Naomi and praises her for it and lets her glean in his wheat fields, even telling his servants to drop some of their wheat to give her extra. The rest, of course, is history. Ruth marries Boaz and their great grandson is King David.
This story, to me, shows that Jesus’ message of acceptance is not an abstract idea that should be carried out by a particular church, denomination, or whatever but rather a simple but meaningful act of kindness that occurs between two individuals. My Mother, who (although retired) still has the full-time job of being my moral compass, once was at Meijers doing her grocery shopping when she saw a woman who looked very upset and crying. She asked her what was wrong and found out that she was supposed to go out of town with her boyfriend and he ended up taking all her money, dumping her in the parking lot. Since there was no one she could call for help, she would have to walk home which was way on the other side of town (for those of you unfamiliar with Lansing, that’s a 5 or 6 hour trek minimum). My Mom, despite her perishables in the car, immediately offered to drive her and provided a listening ear on the trip.
Now, my Mom was of course not richly rewarded for this act but, her telling me about it inspired me to reach out to others who be unwanted by someone or by society as a whole. Furthermore, it is my hope that me telling you about it will inspire you to reach out to someone. I leave you with two quotes from Mother Teresa: "One of the greatest diseases is to be nobody to anybody" and "it is not the magnitude of our actions but the amount of love that is put into them that matters."