I’ve grown to love and appreciate Mere (not her real name) as we have spent time together over the past few years. She has a heartbreaking story. Abused by an uncle at a young age, this life-altering event eventually led her to the streets of Fiji as a sex worker.
When I asked if the church had ever helped her, she told me that at one point in her life, she tried to attend a church but was driven out by members who didn’t want her there. Another prostitute told me that going to church gave her bad vibes. “It is like a show, not real. They never came home to visit or help us. They just cared that we attended on Sunday, so their building was full.”
In the book Suffering & the Heart of God, the author, Diane Langberg writes:
“When Jesus responded to the woman found in an adulterous relationship, His first response was to the sewage of her accusers (the religious leaders). It is harsh & ignorant to sit with someone who is poverty stricken, living in a neighbourhood of violence, in a home filled with abuse of all kinds, to think that merely dealing with their particular sins is all that is needed.”
Instead of pointing at the sin, can we help heal the brokenness that has led to it?
It’s easy to point our religious fingers at what we perceive to be the sinful life of a sex worker. However, I wonder if the greater sin is the love, compassion, and healing that the church has failed to release to our broken and hurting communities.
Jesus has told us to go, but we have stayed—busying ourselves with “important church activities.”
Jesus has told the church to be one, yet we have divided, competed, and worked against one another.
Jesus told us to bind up the brokenhearted, do justice, help the oppressed, and expose darkness. Yet, too often, we cover up and ignore the darkness, drowning out the cries of the oppressed with our songs and prayers.
When we aren’t willing to make room for the most vulnerable, we are not following Jesus.
When we are not willing to engage with the darkness in our communities and bring healing, we have lost sight of who Jesus is.
When we are not willing to work together with other churches in our city—strategically and in unity—we are denying the power of the cross, which has made us one.
Father, forgive us. Forgive me.