Prodigal Medic....

There are these moments when the enemy off of a sudden becomes just like me. When a soldier becomes a son. When a prostitute becomes a mother. When they become we. When those become us. When he becomes me.

Moments when all the ways that we divide ourselves and rank each other and convince ourselves how different, better, and unalike we are disappear. And we are faced with the fact that first and foremost we are humans. And not that much different from each other. Jew. Gentile. Marine. Iraqi. Orphan. Family. Pastor. Prostitute. We could be them…

How you treat the creation reflects how you feel about the Creator. When a human being is mistreated, objectified, or neglected, when they are treated as less than human, these actions are actions against God. Because how you treat the creation reflects how you feel about the Creator. To be a Christian is to work for the new humanity. Jesus commands his followers to feed and clothe and take care of those who need it. They are fellow image bearers. They are just like us and when we love them, we're loving God. The church exists to be a display of the new humanity, a community of people who honor and respect poor and rich and educated and uneducated and Jew and gentile and black and white and powerful and helpless as fully human, created in the image of God. These bonds we have with each other are why for many there is so much power in the Eucharist, also called the Lord's Supper, or Mass or Communion. We take the bread and dip it in the cup to remind ourselves of Jesus' body and blood, to remind ourselves of the truth that we're all in this together, one body, and that his body being broken and blood being spilled are for our union. It isn't just about our relationship to God as individuals. Often Communion is seen as a time to reflect on God's love for us in Jesus dying on the cross, which it is. But it was originally just as much about my desperate need to be reminded about your humanity and the humanity of all the people around us. When I respect the image of God in others, I protect the image of God in me. When Jesus speaks of loving our neighbor, it isn't just for our neighbor's sake. If we don't love our neighbor, something happens to us. And in trying to protect the image of God in them, we just might be protecting the image of God in ourselves in the process. Because with every decision, conversation, gesture, comment and attitude, we're inviting Heaven or Hell to earth… ~ Rob Bell in Sex God


Just got me thinking about what it means when there is a difference of taking care of someone and caring for them. There is an inseperable place of service and love when we truly care for someone. And to deny that is to deny our faith...