I have been reading Manning’s classic Ragamuffin Gospel while I eat my lunch at work. I was at the end of chapter 3 today. It ends with this incredibly real about being in an AA group where a relapsed drunk found forgiveness and acceptance. I sat there and read it touched by the story but at the same time saying to God, ‘I will never be able to make your story real like that.’ and then I said, ‘F**k that I don’t care. I just want to be able to tell your Gospel whether or not anybody feels any emotions or what they think about me or whatever doesn’t matter anyway.’ And then I felt the exhaustion which has been so much a part of me lately and realised that I probably can’t manage the things that I am usually good at, insightful and witty. What I do is much less significant than what Manning did and I can’t seem to manage even that these days. But however crappy I feel or sound the Gospel remains itself and here is what I’ve got.
We complain, rightly, about how our society is becoming increasingly stratified and it feels like we are more fixed in our places than we used to be. The top get higher and the rest get lower. Jewish society in Jesus’ day was even more like that. We often don’t realise that ‘the sinners’ were basically a literal caste. Being a religious Jew required substantial resources and if you didn’t have them then you were pretty much born into ‘the sinners’ caste. You could also fall into it, by choice, by mistake, by negligence, by accident and it was pretty much impossible to get out. I won’t look up the words now but in Hebrew there were 4 words for a woman: Virgin, Wife, Widow, Whore. And one foray into category 4, which might not take much ‘action’ at all, and that’s where you lived the rest of your life.
If Christ had simply accepted the Sinners and been demonstrative of His acceptance of them that would have been offensive but probably wouldn’t have inspired the sheer hatred that His actual words and actions did. Because He actually went much further, as I’ve tried to show in the Beatitudes.
Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. 2 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
3 Then Jesus told them this parable: 4 “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? 5 And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6 and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ 7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent. Luke 15
He prefers the sinners to the saints. He abandons the religious for the ragamuffins. He leaves the ninety-nine. So, rejoice that your outcast self is accepted in the Beloved. Glory in being taken from ‘the sinners’ caste to table fellowship with the King. Be deliriously happy that you have gone through the Narrow Gate which is not wide enough for any group but only for individuals. But don’t expect ‘the Many’, the religious, the righteous to be happy about it.
99 out of 100 sheep agree: The 1 sheep sucks.
99 out of 100 sheep agree: The 1 sheep sucks.
99 out of 100 sheep agree: The 1 sheep sucks.
I have been reading Manning’s classic Ragamuffin Gospel while I eat my lunch at work. I was at the end of chapter 3 today. It ends with this incredibly real about being in an AA group where a relapsed drunk found forgiveness and acceptance. I sat there and read it touched by the story but at the same time saying to God, ‘I will never be able to make your story real like that.’ and then I said, ‘F**k that I don’t care. I just want to be able to tell your Gospel whether or not anybody feels any emotions or what they think about me or whatever doesn’t matter anyway.’ And then I felt the exhaustion which has been so much a part of me lately and realised that I probably can’t manage the things that I am usually good at, insightful and witty. What I do is much less significant than what Manning did and I can’t seem to manage even that these days. But however crappy I feel or sound the Gospel remains itself and here is what I’ve got.
We complain, rightly, about how our society is becoming increasingly stratified and it feels like we are more fixed in our places than we used to be. The top get higher and the rest get lower. Jewish society in Jesus’ day was even more like that. We often don’t realise that ‘the sinners’ were basically a literal caste. Being a religious Jew required substantial resources and if you didn’t have them then you were pretty much born into ‘the sinners’ caste. You could also fall into it, by choice, by mistake, by negligence, by accident and it was pretty much impossible to get out. I won’t look up the words now but in Hebrew there were 4 words for a woman: Virgin, Wife, Widow, Whore. And one foray into category 4, which might not take much ‘action’ at all, and that’s where you lived the rest of your life.
If Christ had simply accepted the Sinners and been demonstrative of His acceptance of them that would have been offensive but probably wouldn’t have inspired the sheer hatred that His actual words and actions did. Because He actually went much further, as I’ve tried to show in the Beatitudes.
The Beatitudes and 'what's up with us'
Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. 2 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
3 Then Jesus told them this parable: 4 “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? 5 And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6 and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ 7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent. Luke 15
He prefers the sinners to the saints. He abandons the religious for the ragamuffins. He leaves the ninety-nine. So, rejoice that your outcast self is accepted in the Beloved. Glory in being taken from ‘the sinners’ caste to table fellowship with the King. Be deliriously happy that you have gone through the Narrow Gate which is not wide enough for any group but only for individuals. But don’t expect ‘the Many’, the religious, the righteous to be happy about it.