I don’t think Therese will mind if I pull from her comment on yesterday’s Catch about why, in many ways, the homeless are closer to the kingdom of God than those of us with homes. She commented, and rightfully so, how we needed to be “out among the poor and hurting who desperately need to be shown the same love, respect, grace, and mercy that we have been given from the Father.” But I had to raise her one and point out that it was not only OUT among the poor and hurting who desperately need to be shown the same love, respect, grace, and mercy that we have been given from the Father, it was IN among the poor and hurting who desperately need to be shown the same love, respect, grace, and mercy that we have been given from the Father.
The only difference between the hurting outside and the hurting inside is that those outside don’t know the Lord yet. Why is the gospel called good news if we aren’t in need of it all the time? The grace is fresh. It’s not leftover grace for those sins I used to commit. It’s today’s grace for today’s sin. It’s comfort for today’s sorrow, food for today’s hunger, hugs for today’s isolation, acceptance for today’s rejection, strength for today’s weakness, hope for today’s despair.
Church should be a place where a homeless person feels at home. Where a single mom feels no judgment, only mercy and understanding. Where a gay person feels the same. Where an immigrant feels like he found a nation. Where an alcoholic feels like he found a recovery group. Where a minority feels like he’s in a majority. Where a sinner knows he is among other sinners who found a savior, and will never let go.
We are all the same at the cross. We are all needy, hurting, desperate people. Salvation is never past tense. It is always painfully, realistically and wonderfully present.
Alas and did my Savior bleed
And did my Sovereign die
Would he devote that sacred head
For such a worm as I?
At the cross, at the cross
Where I first saw the light
And the burden on my heart rolled away
It was there by faith I received my sight
And now I am happy all the day
– from the hymn writer, Isaac Watts
Say goodbye to the Last Christian Church of Good People; say hello to the First Christian Church of Astonishingly Saved Sinners Constantly Blown Away by the Awesome Grace of an Awesome God.
John Fischer The Catch 
Amen and Amen!! Grace for each new day!!
Two thumbs!!
That would be two thumbs UP!!
Amen and amen!!! We ARE them. So why should we welcome…us?
Should read: We ARE them. So why shouldn’t we welcome US?
This is so much the way I feel, you have put it into words. I’m sure there are a lot of folks that feel the same way.
Good word, John. I love John Newton’s words, “I remember two things: that I am a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior.” If we would remember that as well, our journey with Christ would be the joyful adventure it’s supposed to be. But we forget. Notice that Newton didn’t say “I WAS a great sinner.” š
Yes… and Paul said the same thing, also present tense (1 Timothy 1:15).
I heard someone once say that church is a hospital for sinners. Amen to that!!
Good word, John. I’m not sure I follow the “In” and “Out” distinction, though. I understand how we too easily distinguish “Good Christians who go to church” from the rest, but isn’t that simply a wall in OUR minds?
It seems to me an ongoing theme in the Fischtank that the “Religious” thrust ends up building walls, while the “Spiritual” thrust aims to tear them down. All those separate levels in the temple – who could and couldn’t enter the next level of holiness – made abundant sense… based on appearances. And Jesus violated all of them.
My point (and I do have one) is that we tend to live in, and try to improve, the church that is visible, while Jesus simply saw and lived in the church invisible.