Of Roots and Shadows

Roots by Elena Nazarro

If Lent is a time of returning to the roots of faith, and reminding ourselves of what we believe and why, then this post from my favorite faith blog gave me a perfect seasonal smack-upside-the-head. I'll link you to the original post here but it's so good that I want to put the words right in front of you:

JESUS RECEIVED, BLESSED, ate with, and even commended many of these sinners [tax collectors, the religiously unobservant, prostitutes, and other "obvious" sinners] against the “upstanding” of the day. He touched, healed, and raised many of the unclean. In sum, he was Light to those who dwelled in the shadows of societal isolation. He regarded those on society’s margins as persons and treated them as God’s own children. 

During Lent we may vow to identify and repent of the ways we have helped deepen the shadows — or just hidden our faces from those who dwell there. We may determine to search the dark corners of our families, workplaces, churches, and towns, in hopes of bringing light, revealing the faces of those easily ignored. We may seek ways to go to the margins to find some more of the ones he loved so much — and if we do, we may find Jesus there with them. 

If we make such courageous gestures we will be strengthened and guided by remembering the time and ways in which we ourselves, in dark and lonely times, were graciously sought and found by Jesus. His continual coming to us is our abiding invitation to be agents of his merciful seeking in the world. 

-Thomas R. Steagald
Shadows, Darkness, and Dawn

Love lives in shadows too. 

Here is what I take from this:

1. God loves the blatant sinners of this world just as much as anyone else. Maybe even more so.

2. He requires me not to reach out to them through pity or a smug sense of superiority that I am 'ministering" to them in their broken condition. He expects me to truly love and respect them as equals.

3. My efforts to be 'good' and 'holy' do not make me a better person in God's eyes. Quite the opposite. He wants me to stop drawing lines between 'good' and 'bad,' and simply love people.

4. I may not be a pimp or child molester, but I'm no angel myself. God comes to all sinners in their brokenness just as he comes to me in mine.

The roots of my faith remind me that I stand in the shadows too. My job, as always, is to love.