Once a public sinner was excommunicated and forbidden entry to the church. He took his woes to God. "They won't let me in. Lord, because I am a sinner." "What are you complaining about?" God said, "They won't let me in either!"
In his book The Ragamuffin Gospel, Brennan Manning writes:
"The church is wrong when it rejects anyone that Christ longs to forgive and heal. A church is wrong when it fails to accept that it is full of sinful men and women and exists for them. Jesus comes to and for the ungodly, even on Sundays."
Jesus sat down at the table with anyone who wanted to be present, including those who were banished from "decent" homes. In the sharing of the meal they received consideration instead of the expected condemnation! The church is wrong when it remains aloof from failures, irreligious, and imperfect people. Jesus did not avoid sinners, or keep them at arm's length and the church can never have any excuse for keeping any sinner at a distance. The scandal of God's amazing grace is that he gives it extravagantly to those of us who least deserve it!
Never confuse your perception of yourself with the mystery that God accepts you. Not only does He accept you, but He is seeking you out. That is why you are reading these words right now!
Whatever our failings may be, we need not lower our eyes in the presence of Jesus. Unlike Quasimodo, the hunchback of Notre Dame, we need not hide all that is ugly and repulsive in us. Jesus comes not for the perfect or super-spiritual, but for the wobbly and the weak kneed who know that they don't have it all together, and who are not too proud to accept the hand-out of amazing grace.
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. John 3:16,17
