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blue bits. red rocks.
Monday 27 August 2012

In choosing a home, we want comfort and security; Jesus had no place to lay his head. We want safety. I keep checking the Gospels and that doesn’t seem to be part of the deal. We want economic well-being, even though being rich is dangerous to our spiritual health. And we want our kids to be safe more than we want them to be godly. How else do you explain the questions parents who choose a troubled neighborhood must face from other well-meaning Christians? “What about the kids? Are they safe? What about the schools? Aren’t you worried?” And behind it all, unstated: “Aren’t you being irresponsible?” Don’t they know that the kingdom of God turns things upside down? Don’t they know the poor are rich and the weak are strong? One day I will summon all my insolence and courage and ask that comfortable couple in their pristine suburb if they aren’t concerned about the spiritual damage they’re doing to little Johnny by isolating him from the poor. We live in a church culture in which all sorts of personal failings will send you quickly crashing down in the eyes of your peers. And I do not in any way diminish the importance of personal piety. Yet this same church culture will cheer you on as you purposely avoid troubled neighborhoods like everybody else, structure your insular family like everybody else, and climb whatever career ladder you happen to be on, again, like everybody else. As Jesus said, we have forgotten the weightier matters of the law. What about justice and mercy? We ought to embrace them without neglecting the importance of personal piety. Jesse Curtis

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