So… what’s it worth to have access to a hot dog-and-drink for $1.50, or a rotisserie chicken for $5.99? Shouldn’t you have a right to snag those low-budget provisions whether you have a membership card, or not?

You may think that the big battles of the moment are in the political arena, but there’s a national conflict brewing that may bring local cops to the scene. Where’s that explosion pulsing?

Costco has become a national phenomenon in the last few decades. With 617 stores – 135 in California, 1 in Maine – they’ve become the go-to spot for lots of folks who have their own shopping policies intended to neutralize the effects of inflation. 

At their prices, how do they make any money? The Costco business model: 72% of their company profits come from their membership fees.

Unprosecuted felons have created a widespread rip-off: people who are not dues-paying members have been slipping through Costco’s guarded gates and using other people’s membership cards to get the low-price benefits without paying for the privilege.

The company has started the roll-out of a new check-in protocol at their warehouses: would-be customers will have to scan their membership card. That action will bring the customer’s photo to the scanner, to be compared by the monitoring employee with the person holding the card. No match; no entry; no exceptions. Costco is a members-only environment; self-exceptions won’t be recognized. 

Listening in on the outrage surrounding the upcoming American election, it appears that there is serious concern about unregistered people slipping into polling places in November and casting votes in a deeply contested race. Outrage is triggered with the thought that an identification might be required – to confirm that someone is an American citizen and registered voter – before they’re allowed in. It might be harder to get a pair of Kirkland jeans than to vote for a pair of partisan candidates.

Jesus was interacting with people who had bigger things in play than their discount shopping or their political agendas as He depicted the ultimate opportunity that anyone would ever have the chance to embrace. Coming home with a five-gallon container of laundry detergent – or snagging an “I Voted Today” sticker to wear on November 5^th – pales in comparison to gaining entrance into the eternal Kingdom of God. How do you pull that off?

He told this story, just days before He would die/bury/resurrect to seal the deal:

“The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come… Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests. But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless.” (Matthew 22)

Play by the rules, and you can be a member at Costco and a voter in America. But, what’s the membership criterion to be invited into God’s eternal Kingdom? You’ve got to have the right attire: 

“I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels” (Isaiah 61:10)

You could spot me at Costco; I’m an Executive member. I’ll vote – absentee, early – in November. And, I’ll be at the wedding banquet, wearing the wardrobe that only the King can supply…

Bob Shank