Simply this: He knew that condemning people didn’t actually help them so instead he jumped in and saved us. This should be a clarion call to every Christian that we should be the least judgemental people walking the streets. That is…if we want to be like Jesus.
Back to Joe
Joe and I sat in my jeep just outside the gate of the Christian wedding premises because alchohol was not allowed during the wedding proceedings or celebration afterward. As Joe unscrewed the cap on his Jameson, he asked a more specific question: “How is it that you would be okay sharing a nip of whiskey with me?”
“Joe, I follow God in the way of Jesus and since he made 500 gallons of wine for an already sloshed neighborhood of Jewish folk, just to honor the wedding party, I don’t think he minds if I have a few chugs with you,” I said. He smiled and then shared an Irish blessing with me and I prayed a blessing over him.
It was a good moment, a God moment, and I felt that maybe Joe might see Jesus apart from all the disorienting religious junk he had hung his atheism on.
As a pastor, I have a dream that someday, the collective vertigo of religion will fade so we can all see the glory of God.