That Jesus sure was Sexy

To think the notion that Jesus lives inside the poor is an easy or romantic teaching would be absurd. Certainly there are many, including, myself who once thought this true. It was an ideal that could only come from the privileged. From those who can see the poor and return home to write about. It comes from a desire to sensationalize what is difficult, and a hope that our deepest emotions and intentions will be good enough to enact change. It is a good intention, all this thinking about how it's sweet to be with the poor cause Jesus is there, and we should accept that. But intentions will not bring the kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. When we truly encounter all those who are human, we find that the powers creating brokeness do not discriminate. Justice, relationships, love, and life itself is far from sexy. It is the poor who make me feel uncomfortable and angry. When I sit in community meals on Monday nights I'm constantly frustrated with my conversations with the so called "poor and homeless" who I sit with. I want to scream at them and say "look chump, you're supposed to be Jesus, so why don't you pull it together, maybe shave or take a shower, and we can get to chili's for happy hour if we run." But the poor are no sexier than we are. For we are all fallen, awkward, and smelly. And life turns out to simply be the long laborious waiting and working for shalom, mixed with the hope that we don't completely screw things up before that happens.

But if there is any hope for true redemption, we must acknowledge our place in this world. Those who are privileged must acknowledge that the God who encounters the narrative of the Bible, is a God who exists primarily in the margins. God does exist in the poor, and no its not sexy. But the reign of God will not come from the empire; it will come from those who have been marginalized by the empire. The prophetic voices of those who are being oppressed will one day be realized, and the powerful, those both well and ill intentioned; will fall on our knees before the God who has been living and with the poor and oppressed.

We, as Americans, who are bold and confident in our "rightness" about the world, will one day find that we have been so drastically wrong. This is true of our government, of our NGO's, of our churches, and our institutions. It is not that we are evil, but that the principalities and powers have taken a hold of our land and have blinded us to the true alternative reality possessed in the reign of God. But those who have been hurt by our weapons, by our development projects, and by our understanding of God will one day be heard.

I find hope in this. For it reminds me that the restoration of the world will happen through but more often in spite of ourselves.