Benediction

Jesus had so much more in mind as to what His church should be in the world than we can possibly imagine.
The Pharisees and teachers of the law thought it was enough that the church be a place where one could thank God with clean hands.
But Jesus spoke of a church where men and women contaminated by evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony and slander could become clean and thank God with clean hearts.
The Pharisees and the teachers of the law saw the church as an institution where God's word could be safeguarded; the sacred sheltered from the common; where traditions could be preserved from the ravages of time.
But Jesus saw something more. He saw the church as something living, so affected by the eternal vibrancy and life of the Holy Spirit that the poor, the hurting, indeed all those who thirst would come running in. Not only was the church to have the sound and appearance of a wedding feast, she was to have a table big enough to feed all who come.
Here lies one of the great paradoxes of God's love. Although Christ himself was denied mercy and deprived of justice when he was in the world, his church is to be his instrument of mercy and justice to that same world, the world he loves.
So go out in his name as his instruments of mercy and justice, not only for the world's sake, but for yours and most of all, for His.