It has been over a week since the election and sadly the rhetoric
has not ceased. I saw a picture of Hillary Clinton walking her dog and I felt
sad for her. She has spent most her life working to achieve the highest place
of government, the presidency. I began to wonder why I would even care. So what,
somebody had to lose. I guess, it is the same as how I felt bad for those
Cleveland fans when their team came so close to achieving their dream only to lose
in extra innings. In that case I was cheering for the Cubbies, but I couldn’t help
but think of those fans who went home a little sad.
I began thinking about Jesus. He came to Israel and saw all
kinds of marginalized people. He saw the poor being neglected by the church of
his day. He saw women pushed to the edges as little more than property. He saw
seniors who lost their husbands being exploited for financial gain. He saw foreigners
excluded from worship so that trade could increase at the temple. The Pharisees
pointed out everyone’s flaws, laid more and more laws on the back of the
people, but were doing nothing to relieve their suffering. But what did it
matter, there will always be winners and losers, haves and have nots.
It must have mattered. Jesus turned to a woman with a
bleeding disorder (a social and religious outcast) and commended her for her
faith. He then turned to Jarius and told him to have faith, yeah, like that
woman. Then Jesus healed his daughter…oh yeah, another property item of this
period. Jesus elevated the poor as he was one of them. He was homeless and
depended on the kindness of others to feed him. When picking grain in a field
(the government subsidy) the Pharisees ridiculed his disciples (also homeless)
for working on the Sabbath…Really!
One day Jesus came to the temple and the Gentile court (where
the aliens worshipped) was filled with vendors. Jesus got very upset, he
flipped tables, grabbed a whip and turned them all out, not the aliens the guys
more concerned about making a buck. Jesus welcomed the outsiders into the very
presence of God. The people the world hated (by action and attitude) were the
people that God loved. One day when Jesus was heading back into Jerusalem,
where he would be tried and handed over for execution, he wept over the people.
Yes, the very people who were going to demand his death.
Jesus is the living image of God right before humanities
eyes and they hated him because he loved the loser, the have nots, the aliens,
and the sinners. That doesn’t mean he wanted them to stay that way. They became
winners in God’s kingdom, the became haves because he was giving them the
kingdom, they were residents because they believed in him, and they were saved
because he forgave them of their sin and empowered them to live as citizens of
God’s kingdom. Changes took place in their lives, but it was because he loved
them, not because he ridiculed them.
The Body of Christ is to be the physical manifestation of
Jesus still living in this world. Yet, some in the “church” still marginalize
women, the poor, the alien, and the sinner. Then I get sad again. What if Jesus
was like the portrait of some of the church we see today. Would he welcome me
even though I am a failure? Would he actually die for me? Would he tell me I am
lazy and sponging off others because I couldn’t afford to pay for my own
salvation? Would he build a blockade to keep me out of his blessed promised
land? Would he love me less because I couldn’t memorize enough scripture, or I
missed church, or worse yet I was the wrong gender or color?
Jesus, you showed us that women were of the utmost
importance. You showed us that the Gospel came through God and a woman, hmm,
man kind of got left out on that one. Women were the evangelists that ran to
men to tell them you were alive. This didn’t make them greater it made them
equal. The alien was so important to you that you sent Phillip out into the
wilderness to share your message with an Ethiopian (a man of color). Women
preached in the house churches that sprang up all over the empire. You ate with
sinners, prostitutes, and redeemed a criminal on the cross.
I am sorry that I have ever thought any of this world was
mine. For all good things are gifts from our Heavenly Creator. You have shared
all these things with humanity and we have taken ownership instead of
stewardship. One day every nation will crumble in your presence and there will
be one people and all our petty distinctions will pass from our thoughts and
vocabulary. There will be no label of man or woman, Jew or Greek, rich or poor,
free or slave, white or black, citizen or alien, this is your image of the
church. Until that image is fulfilled, help me Lord Jesus to live in your
kingdom and reveal its beauty and joy to all who have eyes to see and ears to
hear. Help me to live in such a manner that the world would see who and what
you are.
