Worth Repeating - November 24, 2017

Luke 7: 44 Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman?” (NIV)

[Read 7: 36-50 for the whole story.]

Christian love is not blind!*

For 25 years I worked in an office where the staff was always composed of more women than men. At one point, we had one lone male working with us – and he was only part-time. As long as he was doing his job, we treated him like he was invisible. He was exposed to sights and sounds that no man should ever have to endure. Women talk about everything – and sometimes we resort to some show & tell in order to get our point across.

My co-worker is not the only invisible man in the world. It’s not that we simply ignore these people – we really don’t see them. Simon, in this passage, didn’t see a person – he saw a problem. A nuisance.* A homeless person standing on the corner with his “Will Work for Food” sign: do you see him as a human with feelings and needs? That woman who is not quite right in the head – don’t make eye contact with her or you might have to talk to her.

My church has opened its doors (and eyes) to the invisible people.  Our congregation meets physical and spiritual needs in several different ways, one of which is a meal and a sermon every Sunday. It is an avenue of ministry for a lot of our church members but it touches all of us – in unexpected ways. Even those of us not directly involved in the ministry are forced to see these invisible people because many of them don’t stay contained in their “assigned” area. Some of them want to worship with the rest of the congregation. Many of them are mentally challenged in one way or another and they don’t understand boundaries.

Every week, we are presented with opportunities to love as Jesus loves – in so many socially awkward encounters. How would Jesus treat Randy who sometimes sleeps on the church lawn? Would Jesus turn away from someone who hasn’t bathed in months? What would Jesus say to John - who thinks he’s on the church staff - when he misdirects visitors? How should we talk to the drunks and drug addicts, the prostitutes, and the crazies who hear voices?

When Jesus was finished with him, Simon finally saw the woman. Whether it changed his life or not, we don’t know. But when we begin to see the invisible people as souls for whom Jesus died, we cannot stay the same. We will have to start pretending that we still don’t see them, or we will have to ask ourselves, What would Jesus do?

Poverty has real faces and real names.*