1.23.24 - Mark 2:15a
Who are the people that continue to show up in your life? The different, different from you, different perspectives than you people? Who is God calling you to be in those moments with "those" people?
While Jesus was reclining to eat in Levi’s house, many other tax collectors and notorious “sinners” joined him and the disciples at dinner.
I have trouble with the word “sinner.”
There, I said it.
If I’m talking to my conservative family, I know who they mean when they say “sinner,” and I’m happy to call those folks my friends and loved ones and to be called a sinner myself. But when talking to other progressives, who is a “sinner”?
If sin is action that keeps us from building the beloved community, then is the sinner the homophobe, the defense contractor, the FOX News anchor? And does Jesus call me to be hanging out with them?
I remember when I was the homophobe and colonizing missionary.
I remember when my queer classmates loved me into their beloved community.
I remember when my sinning ass was welcomed to the table of love and generosity and community care.
And so maybe, Jesus is calling me to do more sitting with the sinners around me. I wonder which sinners he might be calling you to hang with.
Who are the people that continue to show up in your life? The different, different from you, different perspectives than you people?
Who is God calling you to be in those moments with "those" people?
-- Candace Woods
Back when I taught at Iliff, I used the psychological definition of evil in my classes, which can basically be summed up as "othering." Othering leads to objectification (meaning treating people like objects). That's always stuck with me and it's hard to wrestle myself out of much of the time.
I wonder what I miss when I "other" another person. I wonder what I can try to make things work differently as well.