If our churches aren’t very inclusive, it might be because too many of us have mistaken ourselves for the Giver of the Feast. We’re not hosts extending invitations. We’re guests among guests.

Yet we behave as if having arrived earlier than others has given us proprietary rights over the hall. Which means we haven’t yet pondered deeply enough the mercy by which we all got here in the first place.

Our churches will more closely resemble God’s all-embracing realm when we relinquish others as if there’s such a thing as “others,” stop playing munificent hosts, and learn to be good guests.