losing face

I had an interesting thought on my way home from work tonite.
After spending hours mulling the quirks of the global church - one phrase kept threading through my mind:
God would put his reputation on the line for us.
He would be willing to risk the reputation of the church at large
if it meant freedom in the life of one of his children.
He's more interested in thinking about you
than He is about what others think about Him.
Because the heart of the matter for God
is where the heart of the sinner is at the end of the day.
He left 99 sheep in a fold
to go after one that was lost.
How's that for odds.I love the passage that describes God's leadership...
"he who knew no sin became sin for us...
He made himself of no reputation...
came as a servant...
humbled Himself
obedient to the point of death..."

Takes your breath away, doesn't it?

God was humiliated...
He endured the deepest depths of human shame...
died at the hands of his very creation...
so He could save it.
He exposed Himself, so we could experience freedom.

Walking down the back alleys of Vancouver this summer, I was overwhelmed... without rain - the stench of urine off the hot pavement was incredible.
a heroin addict crouched behind a dumpster, drinking from partial empties and smashing the bottles.
a man looked up at me as we passed in the street,
his face dirty and his eye gouged out.
I've been to Africa where people are hungry, but it had been a while since I had walked down these streets of despair.
My eyes were repulsed...
my heart was gasping for air...
and God spoke...
"This was you...
this was where you were before I first met you." Some people clean up nice.
And some of those people forget they were ever dirty.
They see those still in the streets and turn away, repulsed.
Forgetting the compassion once shown to them.
They don't have an identity with the streets anymore
so they don't identify with those who still inhabit it's darkened alleys.

So many of us have returned to those darkened alleys.
and choose to endure years of double living.
We live up to the standards of externals
while succombing to the weakness of internals.
We've all been there
or are there now
if we're honest with ourselves...

But how many of us are willing to risk exposure to be free?
or to free others?
How many of us are living with private sins that would be excruciatingly painful to reveal...
stuff that would bring consequences, not only to ourselves but our extended circle of family and friends?

Do we hate sin enough to humble ourselves and bring it to light so that we can be restored to God?
Are we willing to mar our outward reputation so that our upward reconciliation can happen?
Are we ready to lose face, so we can see the face of the one that will bring true freedom?

That is the reason God came.

That is the gift of grace.

That is the gospel.