Jesus never spoke to prostitues - dream to go 23
I’m a Reverend you know. It says so on my credit card, and also on a bit of paper a bishop once gave me. Most of the time I avoid the title – I mean it doesn’t really suit my rugged good looks and street cred lifestyle. But sometimes I quite enjoy it. Like on those days when I’m feeling insignificant and overlooked.
Only problem is, Jesus abolished ‘status’. Seriously, he scrapped it. He even arranged an ancient powerpoint illustration as the curtain in the temple that separated the professional holy people from the others ripped apart when he died.
Jesus started a new community where there are no VIPs. Where children, the homeless and the elderly get as much status as doctors, directors, and archbishops. In the early days they took it really seriously. They even made the rich people sit in the worst seats as a reminder.
But soon the rot began to creep back in. Those who were leaders (Jesus had called them 'servants' – the cleaners and cooks for the community) reinvented priesthood – or gave it new names like 'senior pastor'. Those who were followers happily colluded, welcoming the chance to confirm their nobody-ness and escape the responsibilities of “ministry”.
Of course we need different gifts and roles. And of course there are tools for the job. But does the size of the house, office or car reflect a valid need? Or is it just one more attempt to keep the wretched system going and keep the radical words of Jesus at bay?
Someone said that Jesus never spoke to prostitutes* – because he didn’t see them that way. He saw them as precious women made in God’s image. He saw them as sisters, and the daughters of his father. That's status!
(*I stole this wonderful line from a wonderful book called the irresistible revolution)
Labels: dream to go
posted by Dream at 2:33 PM
1 Comments:
Couldn’t agree more with your sentiments on status Richard. I particularly like the bit about the temple curtain being ripped – just like God to give us a practical illustration to demonstrate his point.
Another thing about the curtain that hits me is it tells me God has left the building. It’s like he’s saying he can not / will not be kept boxed in buildings made by man. And whether we like it or not, buildings are part of the status machinery.
What about our own love affair with ‘churches’ (I mean the bricks and mortar stuff)? Okay I know we ‘with it’ people will hold our hands up in horror and declare our complete freedom from such devilish devotion. But let’s get really honest. Sooner or later we will get feed up with camping out in someone else’s pad and want our own space – holy space – sacred space, untainted, set-apart-for-God space. And at that point we lose the plot – again!
Fresh expressions of church, like the church plants of previous decades, are tainted with the same temptation to take everything back behind the curtain. Success will surely be measured on getting a permanent building, having a full time professional ‘priest’, paying one’s own way and dare I say it, contributing funds to the central denominational pot. Sounds awfully like a certain temple has got it’s curtain back intact. And sadly, despite our best intentions, status rules supreme in such an environment!
9:24 AM
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