PrintAs I left church last Sunday I told my Pastor that I was feeling angry. I was not angry with him but with a story he told us during the course of his sermon. I knew it was OK to be honest about my feelings because it was obvious he felt the same kind of anger.
He told us about a fellow minister who was effectively "fired" by his church because of his willingness to minister to homosexuals. This Pastor had made it clear at the time of his call to that church that he felt a call to minister to the marginalised (mentioning homosexuals along with some others) as well as the needs of the congregation. However, when the principle became reality, the church insisted that he cease and desist from having anything to do with "those people", nominating the homosexuals in particular.
This anger stirred in my heart as I listened and I wanted to call out "Jesus must be such an embarrassment to the people in that church!" Given the fact that Jesus hung out and ministered to "those people", how do we justify our unwillingness to do likewise? In the name of keeping ourselves separate from the world, so many Christians and churches avoid the perceived untouchables in our communities.
What bothers me most about this scenario is that we may find ourselves aligned with the attitudes and theology of the Scribes, Chief Priests and Pharisees of Jesus' day. They put as much distance between themselves and the tax collectors and sinners as possible.
Jesus saved His most powerful and penetrating criticism, not for the sinners but for the religious establishment. I suspect that He would do the same today.
I remember years ago hearing a two-point question that has refused to be silenced in my heart ever since.
"If Jesus was physically present in our community today, where would we find Him and what would He be doing?"
I have a sneaking suspicion that - for some of the time, at least - He would be hanging around with "those people". In fact that is what got Jesus into trouble in the first instance. He was called "a friend of tax collectors and 'sinners'." (Matthew 11:19 NIV). This was meant as a criticism but it became a beautiful tribute.
I wonder how many of our churches would be worthy of such a tribute?
