For the better part of the past 15 years, I traveled for work. After meetings and obligatory dinners-with-customers, I typically walked around towns like Washington, D.C., Chicago, San Francisco and New York. While colleagues of mine looked for golf courses and nightclubs, I typically walked around and took in the sights. I also talked to homeless people. Not just "Hi, how are you?" talks - but lengthy, in-depth, meaning-of-life kind of discussions. I was amazed at the stories I heard and, while many of them were just that - "stories" - some of what I heard was astounding.
I just finished a book called "The Irresistible Revolution" by Shane Claiborne. He spends time with homeless people - and he's from East Tennessee. I wish I could go back to some of those people I talked to now that I've read his book. I remember one man in particular who I spent about two hours talking to in D.C. They were showing a movie on the National Mall, and he had pulled his wheelie-cart there with all of his belongings on it. Just two or three hundred feet from the Washington Monument, we talked about me (what I do for a living, wife, kids, church, etc.) and we talked about him (what he used to do for a living, the wife he used to have, the kids he hadn't seen in years, the church he used to attend, etc.). Other than the clothes we were wearing, we were not as different as one might think.
Claiborne says this: "A few years back, I was talking to a homeless guy in an alley downtown, and he started sharing with me about God. He was familiar with the Bible but kept talking about "the Christians" in the third person. A little confused, I finally asked him, "Are you not a Christian?" "Oh no," he said, "I'm far too messed up." I asked him what he thought a Christian is, and he said, "Someone who's got their stuff together and has things figured out." I confessed that I must not be a Christian either, and wasn't sure that I had ever met one. We laughed. We read together the passage where Jesus tells the Pharisees (the ones who "had things together") "It's not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners" (Mathew 9:12-13).
The gospel is good news for sick people, and disturbing for those who think they "have it all together." Some of us have been told our whole lives that we are wretched, but the gospel reminds us we are beautiful. Others have been told their whole lives they are beautiful, but the gospel reminds us they are also wretched. The church is a place where we can stand up and say we are wretched, and everyone will nod and agree and remind us that we are also beautiful."
I wish church was like that. And I wish I would have told him.
Lots of people in our church are reading Shane Claiborne right now, but I haven't started yet. After reading your post, I see that I'd better get to it.
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