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A powerful lesson
When I was eight years old, I learned a powerful lesson.
It was the seventies and I was attending a family church service in the small Tasmanian town where I grew up. My sister and I wore matching skivvies and skirts, our hair pulled into ponytails secured with plastic bobbles.
All the people assembled in the local Anglican church were familiar - the older members of the congregation in hats and coats, the regular mums and dads with smiling faces, and children of all ages neatly dressed in their ‘Sunday best'.
But then a strange man in dirty, paint-spattered overalls shuffled in and sat down in the pew opposite me. I was shocked. Why was he wearing such filthy clothes to church? Wasn't he embarrassed?
I elbowed my sister to make sure she'd seen him too.
In my childish naïvety, I didn't guess that the visitor was a deliberate plant, a sermon illustration to accompany a message about what God thinks of human rules about who ‘fits in' and who doesn't.
I was absolutely blind-sided when the minister explained the set-up. As he told the story of the self-righteous Pharisee of Luke 18, I recognised my own judgemental nature.
Fortunately, the message was not designed to shame.
Instead it described the wonder and enormity of God's mercy and love for people, his relentless pursuit of relationship. It talked about the importance of humility and spoke of a banquet where ‘the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind' are invited to feast.
Jesus taught us by example. During his life on earth he regularly spent time with the ‘wrong crowd', people on the very lowest rungs of the social ladder. In fact, God's plan of salvation continually upset the human order of things - starting with the king of the universe being born in a manger.
The amazing thing is that if we're willing, God promises to help us to see people as he sees them. To see past labels, to challenge stigma.
It is an important job, for so many people have been left battered and bruised by stigma.
Anglicare works in communities across Tasmania providing practical support and assistance. This agency of the Anglican Church reaches out to people in financial crisis, those who are homeless, people who have brain injuries, people recovering from abuse, family members coping with mental illness, elderly Tasmanians, people whose lives are affected by alcohol or other drug use, and those who are finding it difficult to cope with the rising cost of living.
These people reveal the deep wounds caused by stigma.
Sometimes it is in words: they told me I'm hopeless, they think I'm a waste of space, I'm dumb, no good, I'm not worth it, I'm useless.
Sometimes it is in body language: lowered eyes, the desperate searching for a back door into an Anglicare office so no-one will see them there.
As part of the Body of Christ, Anglicare joins with followers of Jesus in confronting stigma and recognising the inherent value of people created in the image of God.
Is there room at your table this Christmas for someone who is lonely or struggling?
Does your church make a place for those who are set apart by society - perhaps because of disability, illness or poverty? Stigma should never be allowed to separate us from people God loves and to whom he offers ‘life in all its fullness'.
Stepping outside the familiar and extending a welcome to people we see as ‘different' is bound to make us uncomfortable. But God calls us to do it anyway.
When you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous. (Luke 14:13)
Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear him. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, ‘This man welcomes sinners and eats with them'.
Then Jesus told them this parable: ‘Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbours together and says "Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep".
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 15:1-7)
Further information visit Anglicare or Freecall 1800 243 232