Thursday, September 13, 2007
Sex Offenders
I'm reading a great book called An Emergent Manifesto of Hope. It is about a number of Emergent churches/ministries and what they're about. One of the stories is about someone who does addictions ministry in the jail. He talks about Jesus' Great Reversal...you know "the first will be last and the last will be first"...that kind of thing. The author states that he is learning about God from the addicts and other inmates. And that the greatest teachers he encounters are the sex offenders! They are the ones who need and are striving for God's grace, love, and help more than anyone. He says that anyplace Jesus talks about tax collectors in the Bible that you should insert sex offenders and then you will understand the impact Jesus had on the people who were listening. I pray that we might continue to minister to who were called to minister to not only because it's the Jesus thing to do, but because it will be those people who will more clearly teach us the ways of God. May it be so.
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I'm reading something similar in Justice in the Burbs, a book I'll post about soon. Sometimes we - meaning white, middle-class, educated, Protestant suburbanites - are often uncomfortable ministering to certain types of people, and sometimes were uncomfortable ministering alongside our fellow Christians if they don't look/act/talk like we do! It all begins with fears and prejudices we have built up inside us over our lifetimes, and they are difficult walls to break through but we must.
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