Flesh and Blood

"The gospel is about Jesus in the flesh and blood, teaching and healing his brothers and sisters. You cannot deal with a human being as an issue. Until your "issue" is clothed in flesh and blood, you should just sit down."- Paraphrased from sermon by Pastor Rob Bell, St. Andrew United Methodist Church, March 19, 2013

I heard Rob Bell (https://www.robbell.com)/speak last night at our church and it was a transcendent experience. Pastor Bell spoke for over an hour and covered many topics, and it was one of the few occasions in my life when I completely lost track of time. Though I would like to share and discuss many of the points he covered, I only have the time and space to cover one or two. The paraphrased quote above was part of an answer that Bell gave to a questioner in the audience. The man said that he assumed Bell had been misquoted on the subject of gay marriage. Bell said, "what did I supposedly say?" The man replied "the reporter must have misquoted you because he said you were in favor of gay marriage." Bell's quick rejoinder: "That's because I AM in favor of gay marriage."

We could not hear much of the conversation that followed due to the thunderous applause from the audience (which filled our 650+ person church sanctuary). I did hear Pastor Bell say that when he talked with folks who are against gay marriage he always asks how they represent their views with cherished gay friends, and the reply is almost always "We don't have any gay friends." At this point he discussed the fact that people, rather than "issues," are the subject matter of the gospel. He pointed out that until we are looking at the people involved, we don't really understand the issues of gay marriage, illegal immigration, human trafficking - and the list goes on.

I felt this subject poignantly again this morning when I visited the GEO / ICE detention center in Aurora, CO. My friend Heidi and I went to visit two men who are in the detention center for their crime of being undocumented and re-entering the United States after deportation. They both recognize that re-entering the country without papers was wrong and foolish, but what broke my heart was that the man in front of me continually referred to himself as "illegal."  A human being cannot be illegal. A human being can be undocumented, but s/he is not illegal, not inherently bad, not less than. Who among us chose the country of our birth? Our family of origin? Who among us is inherently superior and above wrongdoing? The men in the detention center are not "issues". They are people, children of God, husbands and fathers, sisters and mothers. They are just like us, clothed in flesh and blood.