“You can’t worship a homeless guy on Sunday and ignore one on Monday” – Shane Claiborne. (author)
If you’re ready to consider an alternate, wild and adventurous way to live out your faith, read his book “The Irresistible Revolution”. It’s hard to read without becoming convicted to move more actively in your life of faith. Which as I wrote that previous sentence it occurs to me that “life” and “faith” are to be intertwined…with no difference in the two.
Jesus said that the Son of Man has no place to lay his head. I’ve heard people liken Jesus to being homeless based on this statement. Jesus came in human form so that we might connect to God in a fresh and effective way. He has a heart for those who are oppressed and underrepresented (widows, orphans, lepers…) so why not also be homeless? Kind of makes sense.
More than once when I’ve been in a homeless shelter and we talk about Jesus, I’ll ask “if Jesus came back right now and was in Minneapolis (ie. our current location), where do you think the first place he’d go? One of the churches? At the cemetery? Or would he come here to this shelter?”
This question seems always to bring a smile to the men’s faces and garnishes a predictable response.
“Jesus would come here…to this shelter. He’d come here first”
Richard Bahr 