It's hard to win with religious people.
Matthew 11:18-19 (NIV), "For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, 'He has a demon.' The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and "sinners." ' But wisdom is proved right by her actions."
Jesus was called a friend of sinners more than once. Interesting. I'm discovering that as the years go by I get more and more comfortable with "sinners".
I am thankful that Jesus' priority was to redeem sinful man. I'm thankful for the transformation Jesus brings to our lives: old things are passed away and all things are made new. And, I'm thankful that Jesus came to give us abundant life. I am also very honored and thankful that I am an agent of this transformation.
Jesus doesn't seem very religious to me. Religious people have a way of building walls because of the things that can happen at the extremes of the continuum. Religious people gleefully put up signs on the freeway telling people they are going to hell. Religious people seem to want to remind people that they'd better stop enjoying their lives because Jesus is coming soon. What's that all about? (Yes, I do believe in both hell and the rapture...)
In the second half of my life I hope to spend more time hanging out with sinners than I did in the first half. After all we are the "salt" of the world. Salt brings flavor, but really, in and of itself, what is salt worth if it is too good to be sprinkled in the stew of life?
