I don't know what it's like in other parts of the world but Australia our Bible belts are firmly in the middle of middle class suburbia. Middle class suburbia home of the moralists and the intellectuals, the people who can tell everyone what is right and that they are right. To my ears this echoes the teachers of the law really loudly. They were as close as you might get to a 1st century Jewish middle class - under the ruling Romans but above all their own people. We need to ask ourselves where are the prostitutes, the drunkards (addicts), the sinners, the indebted. These are the people that Jesus was hanging out with and they are from the typical church goer in Australia. I wonder if this is the gospel we tend to talk about is one of just salvation (without need for real change) and not liberation (liberation both personally and structurally).
1 comment:
Absolutely agree. I recently watched a sermon from a guy called Paul Scanlon from a forward thinking church called "Abundant Life Bradford" in the UK. He said a church that is actually doing Christ's work should be messy and full of people not like yorself and who possibly make you uncomfortable. That means the addicts, the gays, the street workers. Christ himself was completely inclusive!
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