Church Dirt

When I walk into church I can't help but think that something seems wrong. I am constantly surrounded by suits, dresses, fancy purses, and expensive shoes. I look around and notice that I am standing in a building that costs more money than I will ever see in my lifetime and a building where someone with dirty shoes would not dare to enter. I look around and I see a lack of people who Jesus would have sat down and ate with, the types of people Jesus spent most of his time talking to. I can't remember the last time I saw a prostitute enter into the church where I was attending because to my knowledge it has never happened. Where are the murderers, the thieves, the sex-offenders, the ostracized, the outsiders, where are the homeless? We have kept the doors open for those who we feel safe around, those who we can feel comfortable around: the adulterers, the liars, those who covet, those who are slaves to greed, etc. How many homeless people attend your church? How would they be treated if they did? Would you introduce your children to them? Would you invite them to sit with you? What about a prostitute? A convicted felon? Are we not called to love and to forgive? Should we not make our places of worship, places where they would feel comfortable entering? Church should not be safe? If you disagree you need only read the New Testament to find evidence that this is true. We are not called to make church a safe haven from the evils of this world or even from those things that make us uncomfortable. We are to bring in those who are struggling and to love them and to participate with God in a transforming process that may change us more than it would the people who came seeking hope and redemption. Church should not be a place we go to get dressed up but stripped down. Stripped down to reveal the sinners that we are. Stripped down to reveal that we are no better than the prostitutes, the thieves, the murderers, the men and women who have no place to call their home. Church, is where we should be reminded that our only true worth is found in Jesus Christ.