Valerie Rae Hanneman
Matthew 25:45(NIV) "He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'”
Ephesians 5:1(NIV) “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children”
I was in services many years ago when I heard a “buzz” of noise coming behind me. I glanced back to see what was up and my mouth dropped open. Here coming up the aisle was this young man with this longish scraggly blond hair - and NO SHIRT ON! He continued up the aisle then knelt just to the side of where Willie (without seeming to bat an eye) was preaching. Every eye was on this man - Willie could have been preaching while riding a unicycle and juggling chainsaws for all the attention we were paying to him. I am sure that my initial reaction was mirrored in the minds of many others. “What’s wrong with this guy? You don’t go charging up the aisle like that while the preaching is going on - and you certainly don’t do it half-naked!” I was outraged that this man would behave so improperly in church. Then that small still voice whispered, “He needs help and he came to Me. Who are you to deny him?” It was like a sword piercing my heart - and it was the sword of Truth. In just a minute some of our church men took the man out to the back of the sanctuary and gave him the help he needed. I learned a lesson that day that I have never gotten over - who am I to deny anybody access to Father simply because I do not approve of them or their behavior.
Flash forward a few years to the contemporary service that is being held in Fellowship Hall. There are a bunch of southeast Asian kids sitting with me. They are regular attenders at Care Fresno Kids Klub. They loved coming to services for the music and for the kids kash that they earned. You know what most people said to me about them? “Valerie, they’re not wearing shoes.” And they were right. It was the dead of winter, and these kids were barefoot. I would explain that’s just the way they were - I never saw them with shoes on at Care Fresno either. I just sort of figured it was a cultural thing. Then suddenly the kids just quit coming. When I asked them what had happened they just sort of hemmed and hawed around. Finally one of the kids told me. In a nutshell, while they were eating donuts and drinking hot chocolate a church person had told them that they shouldn’t come to church without their shoes on. And they never came back to church. They would come to Care Fresno but not to church. By the following year, most of them had moved out of the neighborhood.
I think that we carry a very stylized picture of Jesus during His walk on earth. The pictures we have of Him depict a tall, slender man in flowing white robes, His hands elegant as He teaches. He is a handsome man in with His long wavy brown hair and clear blue eyes. But that is not how it was. Isaiah says that He had no beauty that we would desire Him. His hands were the broad, big knuckled hands of a carpenter and His body style was that of a man used to physical labor. He traveled the countryside in His ministry, carrying His belongings with Him. He may have worn the same clothes for days. And there weren’t any “Granny Wash & Drys” on every corner - so I bet His clothes were sometimes not the freshest. The Word shows that He was accustomed to sleeping in the open air, so without access to a hot shower everyday - maybe He wasn’t always the freshest either. With little money available, His clothing may have been patched rather than replaced. I believe that there were days - between showers, between washers, and between barbers - when Jesus looked a little scraggly.
I wonder if Jesus came into one of our churches today looking as scraggly as He may have looked back then - what would our reaction to Him be? Would we recognize Him? Would we fall at His feet in worship or draw back from His scraggy looks? Would we worry more about how His dirty feet were staining our carpet then why He had come among us? Would we listen to His words of Life or would we be whispering behind our hands about the impropriety of the way He looked in church?
Jesus spent His time among the prostitutes, lepers, tax collectors, and those sick in heart and sick in body. He got His hands dirty as He touched them, loved them and healed them. He didn’t spend much time with the well-to-do, the mayors, the religious movers and shakers. When He did spend time with them - He certainly wasn’t kissing up to them. On the contrary His sharpest criticism was for them.
What does that tell us as the Church? When we welcome those who are just like us and look down on those who are not - are we following Jesus’ example? If we don’t accept the least of these - how can we possibly accept Him?
The Church frets because the Pastor wasn’t wearing a tie & jacket when he preached last Sonday and children in our community go to bed hungry.
The Church worries about the right way to baptize in Jesus’ name while the homeless sink deeper into the swamp of misery and despair.
The Church debates doctrine while souls pass from this life and into eternal darkness.
Jesus allowed the soldiers to take Him, beat Him, spit on Him, mock Him, and torture Him until He did not even look human anymore. He let them drive spikes through His flesh and a sword into His side. He did not do this so that we could get together in His name once a week and have a comfortable little faith that makes us look just like the rest of the world. He did it to make a radical change in us.
If we are going to spend our time and effort on the right way we should look, or the right neighborhood for our church, or the right way to perform our rituals, or the right beliefs - if we want to be with others just like us then lets just go ahead and take the word “church” off our building and off our stationary and slap “country club” up there instead. Because that is what we are - a country club with stained glass windows.
Jesus did not call us to a comfortable faith - He called us to a radical faith. Jesus hung out with the people on the fringe of society and that is where He wants us to be also. He doesn’t want us to just welcome the marginal people into our church when they come into our stained glass world. In Luke 14:23, He said, “Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.”
If we are ever going to impact this world in Jesus’ name then we have to quit being so comfortable in the pews It is not enough to come on Sonday and give our money. We need to be where Jesus is - and He is out with the hurting people.
LORD Jesus, save me from being comfortable in my faith. I don’t want to miss seeing You just because You don’t look like I do. Show me how to serve You by serving the least of these.
Contact Valerie or sign up for the e-Ministry of Fresno First Baptist at valerie@fresnofirst.org
Posted by Valerie at February 24, 2006 08:21 PM