In Are We Doing Something Wrong Pt. 1, I said that the church has drifted from its once sure mooring causing so many to leave our communities in search of something more.
I said that the big change is that we are no longer really known for this singular message.
God loves the unlovable, the unloved, and the unlovely.
That’s all there is. That is us on any given day, if we were only a little bit honest about it.
This was the heart and soul of Jesus’ messaging. When Jesus gave his sermon on the mount, we are told that,
“Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed, and he healed them.” (Matt 4:23-24)
What a hodgepodge of needy outies. In his days, the place to go for healing was the temple in Jerusalem—not that anyone could remember any actual healing ever taken place. Tragically, that was the last place you would go if you had shameful skin issues, bleeding, for that matter sin of any kind. There you would be reminded by the downward glares from the ‘good’ people, that you were a societal outcast and that God most likely really didn’t want to see you there. You were the unfortunate product of all of the bad luck, bad choices, god-curses, and abuses. Nothing that you could really do to change matters.
If you were a woman, or a slave, or a non-Jewish immigrant, there was not a place for you close to God. In Herod’s temple, you were kept at a distance. God honored semitic righteous men the most—the societal food chain dropped off precipitously from there. You always carried some shame due to your sex, or skin color or people of origin, or your mistakes and bad choices. The first ct. Jerusalem temple was not a place that was healthy for the shamed, the sick, the outies, immigrants, of for people of other tribes and faiths.
Sure, if you were a widow or an orphan, you could get handouts of food from the temple staffers, but there was no path to get rid of your societal shame. There was always hovering over you the notion that God did this to you because you deserved it.
We churches can also give to the poor and still be instruments of shaming. There is a difference between handouts looking down on people versus coming alongside of people as vessels of honor. The recipients feel it. I was speaking to a church that is doing great works feeding and clothing folks on the street. I asked them once if they really expected any of these people who they helped were expected at church on Sunday—or might even feel welcomed. This is a much harder gut-check question, am I right?
But something different was happening a couple of day’s walks north in Galilee. I am going to pick this up in the next God’s Love for the Unlovable article.
Check out the other God’s Love for the Unlovable shows on many Lifestream TV’s networks (Women, Drug Free, Men, Church, Lifestream Network). Also, check out my website, www.Gospel-App.com. Lots of resources, videos, programs, books, and bookmarks, many free.
Take heart, child of God.
