James 24:7

Now I'm not saying that Jesus came for no other reason than to make us aware as an end in itself.  I say that because "awareness" is a big topic nowadays.  It's one of those things that we are supposed to be without reference to what it is we are to be "aware" of. 

Let us all grow in "awareness."

Ooo-kay.

As I've read and studied these "Dining with Jesus" stories I have become aware of several things that must become objects of our awareness.

First, we must become aware of the nature of God.   What is God like?  Well, in several of these incidents- like when Jesus ate with tax collectors and 'sinners'- Jesus showed God to be a welcoming God. 

God loves people...all people...but seems to really get a kick out of sinners and outcasts- people who are really messed up.

After worship on Sunday I went home, ate lunch and reclined upon the old couch.  I turned on the tube and watched Miami Ink just about all afternoon. 

Now you may ask yourself: "Jim's into tattoos?"  That's what Miami Ink is about- a tattoo parlor in South Beach Miami.

No.  Can't say I'm into tattoos.  Don't have one.  Don't want one.

Frankly, I never understood the appeal of that show until I sat laid down and watched it for a few hours.   That show is not about tattoos.  That show is about stories...real human stories...many told by people who would not darken the doors of a church...or, better...people to whom many churches are closed.

Stigmatized people.

I've learned some things watching that show.   Most folks who get tattoos (or who are into that) do so because they want to commemorate someone or some event. (Or they want to be reminded of something or some situation) Often those events are tied up with tragic circumstances.

Let's see...On Sunday:

There was this young guy who wanted to get a tattoo portrait of his son who died from SIDS...

There was this young woman who wanted to memorialize her friend who was killed in a car wreck three weeks after her friend's brother was killed in a car wreck

There was this guy, nicknamed "The Beard", who prayed to the guy who holds the record for the world's longest beard.  (He had his portrait tattooed on his back.)

There was this young mother whose baby died shortly after birth...She had the baby's name, Sage,  tattooed on her side.

There was this man with Brittle-Bone Syndrome whose forearms were almost too small for the 3 birds he wanted tattooed on his arm to commemorate his parents and his grandmother who raised him under such adverse circumstances.

Then there are all the stories associated with the "alt" people who run this shop and the other customers who come into the store. 

I gotta tell you...as I watched this show I thought that that kind of place may very well be where you'd find Jesus nowadays.  Hanging out in a tat shop where the strippers and bikers and freaks of all stripes gather.

I even wondered whether Jesus would more likely be in your average church or your average tattoo shop on Sunday.

You can be sure that if he didn't hang out there he sure wouldn't avoid those kinds of places or those kinds of people.

And all God's children would say, "This Jesus hangs out at the tattoo parlor."

I hope this gets you thinking....Because, when you get down to it, that's the Jesus the gospels seem to portray.

Jesus among the broken, beaten and battered.  Jesus among the misfits and outcasts.  

Jesus "welcoming sinners (i.e. regular and irregular and non-regular folks) and eating with them."

See...I kind of wonder if part of our problem is that we don't...see.   I wonder if there are not whole classes of people who are sort of "non-entities" to us.   People with whom we might associate if they would just clean up their act.

Jesus ate with folks...while they were yet sinners.  That included the tax collectors and the self-righteous Pharisees.

He didn't say to Zacchaeus, "When you get your act cleaned up I'll come home with you."

He didn't say to Matthew, "When you quit collecting for Uncle Charlie I'll let you follow me."

He didn't say to that bad girl: "When you quit a-whorin' you can wash my feet."

Nope he welcomed people right where they were.

Now think about it: What if we were more like that.  We would be free of the burden of judgment.  We'd be released from our fears of them.  We could relate to anyone- whether good, bad or indifferent- because they are the beloved of God and not because they measure up to our own self-burdening standards.

We'd be free!

And so would they!  Free to see who God really is and what God is really like and what God really wants for us and for God.

Jesus showed us a different kind of God than we might otherwise have imagined left to our li'l old narrow selves.

Jesus wants us to Wake UP to who God is! 

Here's a cool video about Waking UP.  (Now look I'm telling you now...I'm pointing to the video.  If you scroll down into comments you may be offended and rightly so.  But if you do...don't say you weren't warned!)