"I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." Luke 18:14
Perhaps something that I come across quite frequently is this: I'm too messed up for church.
As I read the bible, I learn that this is never a valid excuse. All throughout the bible, there are countless stories of people whose names get to be associated with holiness who lived lives that are quite far from being perfect, let alone "holy" in our eyes. In fact, you can look at all your church leaders who stand up before you, but you may forget that they are all humans. Every single one of them. I have to say that I am quite blessed to be part of a family that has two priests in it because I have been able to understand that God calls any kind of person to the ministry.
However, the excuse of being to messed up for church has one other factor that is not quite as easy to debunk. That factor lies in the congregation. We have done a pretty decent job as Christians at bringing the message of Jesus to many people, even if it doesn't seem like it. The bible is easy to publish and distribute. So many verses have come into common parlance in the West, and some have even made their way outside of the Western world. There are churches on every inhabited continent, and there are Christians proclaiming the Gospel through countless media. But, to be frank, we have also done a good job at bringing the same issues that were plaguing the communities in Jesus' time. I have heard way too many times from many of my friends that they were turned off by church because of how one person spoke. People try to spread their gospel by invoking hatred and fear from the start. Yet, that's not what Jesus did.
Jesus never missed an opportunity to remind people where they belonged. He even told his disciples whenever they thought that they were doing everything perfectly that they had it all wrong. Jesus reminded all of his followers about the same message, that God has come into the world in order to gather all the people in a warm embrace of unconditional love. Anything outside of that message was not right.
Think about a rose. We think of that flower as being one of the prettiest flowers in existence, and we produce so many of them that they are commonplace. Two days ago was Mother's Day in the USA, and, of course, there were many roses. When you look at a bouquet or even a rosebush, the first thing you'll probably notice is the actual rose. It's not until you try to pick it up or look much closer that you'll find the thorns. I find that many Christians out there today are doing the exact opposite. We have people showing off their own thorns rather than the beauty of the flower. What's worse is that in reality, there are no thorns in the Gospel. Jesus took care of the thorns of sin and death with his crucifixion. Now he just calls us, with a flower of love, to come closer. Rather than project our own internalized hate towards all those around us, how about we learn to project our love to everyone?
