Church Sign of the Week 17

I get fed up with people telling me who and who doesn't count to God - (actually not to God but to certain groups' views of God). There are so many churches and so many people who want to inform us of who is important to God and who isn't; there are the K.K.K. and their ilk (sadly far too many of them) who find that the colour of your skin defines if God loves you or not; the legions of fundamentalists (and their sort) who find that your gender or your sexuality determine whether you count to the Divine; thousands (if not hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions) of Evangelicals (mainly from America I must add) who know that how much money you have matters to the Almighty. There seem to be so many things that determine if God loves you or not and if you don't fit into the boxes these people create then they (and their God) hate you.

To all the haters I say - Put your stones down, none of you have the right to be the first to cast them! None of us do.

 

I had a fascinating conversation with a young woman the other day - I've been going to the shop where she works once or twice a week for quite a while and we say, "Hi" and the usual pleasantries. I must have gone in in my Sunday best one day (collar and all) because last week she said to me, "Why do you talk to me? You're a priest and you know I'm gay." That flawed me, left me speechless (which is quite a feat). Why wouldn't I talk to her? Why does the fact that I believe in God mean I can't talk to certain groups of people? What made her think that?

We chatted (the shop wasn't busy). She went to Catholic school and Mass every Sunday, the usual childhood and upbringing in a Roman Catholic home. Then came the line that sent me reeling, made me feel ashamed to be Christian, made me want to apologise for the idiocy of those who think they are the mouth pieces of Jesus when, in reality, they are just turning people away from him. What she said actually made me cry -

All I hear in the Church is hate and all I read in the Bible is love!

Read that line again - really look at it and try to make sense of what it means -  it means that many people think that the Church is all about hatred.

How can we (the Church that is) allow people to think this?! In what version of the New Testament is there hatred on every page? Show me where Jesus  says, "Hate your neighbour and love yourself" or the bit where he refuses to eat with the 'publicans and sinners' and heads off to dine with the religious fanatics.

Please show me this Gospel of Hate - it sounds so much easier to live with than the Gospel we have. Not having to 'love your neighbour like yourself', not praying for those who hate us, not caring for the poor and outcasts - the gospel of hate sounds far easier than the alternative and yet that's all we have,  that's what we're called to - a life of love not hatred. A life where you have never looked into the face of someone who doesn't matter to God.

That homeless guy by the station - HE MATTERS

The annoying woman down the street - SHE MATTERS

The bloke in the office with B.O. - HE MATTERS

The prostitute trying to feed her habit - SHE MATTERS

The asian guy at the petrol station - HE MATTERS

The gay girl in the shop round the corner - SHE MATTERS - even though she doesn't think she does because all she sees in the Church is hate.

 

So look into their eyes, all their eyes and see the children of God. Then remember as they look into your eyes they see the face of someone who matters to God too.