Christmas: radical recruitment

I heard a pastor say today that God did not send Jesus to earth as a recruiter. There are several examples that he must have been trying to bring to mind to make his point. We are in the middle of colleges who are in a competitive struggle to recruit high school football players that will help them win. We hear a lot about the emergence of new jobs where there is a shortage of skilled people from which companies can recruit potential candidates.

In these instances the idea of recruitment presupposes that the recruiter is looking for the best, looking for those who can be stars, who can make the organization a winner. I guess the pastor was trying to say that God did not send Jesus to find those who could help Him win, who had it all together, the most competent, the smartest, the best.

That is a good point we need to hear, but it struck me that this idea of recruiting did not mean God was not involved in recruiting. I think its stinkin thinkin to consider that Jesus' coming to earth as a babe, to live among us, suggests God is not recruiting. But rather that God is a radical recruiter. He sends His Son to us as a babe, seeking out candidates that do not have it all together. He violates all cultural norms to recruit a woman caught in adultery. He seeks out a tax collector who was the most despised by the masses. When he encounters those who appear to everyone else to be winners, He tells them that to join His team they have to be born again because their birth has given them pride or He tells them they have to give all they have away because their riches are an obstacle to His Kingdom.

I think what is radical about Christmas is not that God is not recruiting, but the kinds of people He wants to recruit. Are you "sick", incapable, in need, sad, oppressed, guilty and in shame?

Then HE WANTS YOU !!

Now that is radical and when that message is received, it makes for a great Christmas gift!!