Encountering Jesus in Sacrilege

Even as I read the printed words about entering Sister Louisa's Church of the Living Room and Ping-Pong Emporium (or CHURCH), I wondered how I would feel actually walking in there?  Would I be uncomfortable?  Fearful?  Or would I walk in with a loving confidence as Jesus would?

​I completely enjoyed this chapter that Jonathan Merritt wrote in Jesus is Better Than you Imagined.  As he looked around in this place of religious mockery, Merritt recalls, "These pieces remind me that "religion" attempts to build a box in which God lives.  It ties down the Almighty with the constraints of routines and rules and limitations and political affiliations.  Religion says that God does only certain things in certain ways, no more and no less. But faith know better..." (p 132).   In faith, we fix our eyes on Jesus himself.

And Jesus "did not just call sinners; He identified with them, befriended them, dwelled among them" (p 141).  Jesus begins His ministry not by watching others be baptized, but by getting in line with them. Take a bit of time this week to Read Matthew Chapter 3.  This is just one of the many times that Jesus came alongside sinners. 

Dear friends, can we ask ourselves seriously if we are following religion or following Jesus?  Are we hearing religious messages and going about life or are we seeking Jesus for ourselves and surrendering to His ways?

Merritt reminds us that encountering sacrilege is unavoidable.  Do we "get offended, turn and run" or ask ourselves what "God might be up to in those sacrilegious spaces" (p 147)?  1 Thessalonians 5:22 tells us to "reject every kind of evil". We are also commanded to "love others as He has loved us" (John 15: 12).

May we, through the power of Jesus Christ, stand firm in The Truth while offering the Grace that God offers to us.