The Unwashed

At our Wednesday Bible class this evening, the leader was talking about the time in Matthew when Jesus ate “with the tax collectors and sinners.” The leader was saying that we are much more comfortable in our own circle of church people than we are when outside that circle. He also said that some people have great difficulty naming even one friend that is not a church friend or someone outside of our comfort circle.

I have had the opportunity over the years to make friends with several people outside of my circle of church friends and family. I don’t feel that uncomfortable around people like that; I used to be one of them. However, I’m not sure that my witness of the Good News has been at all stellar during the times I've been with my “unwashed” friends. Oh, I don’t get in the mud with them, necessarily; I just may not always be as overt in the teaching part of it as I could be.

I could tell you some stories here, but I prefer that most of the details stay with me for the time being. Some of you may have heard me talk of my friendship with local media personality Kevin Craig, who tragically took his life a couple of years ago here in Wichita, and how I had intended to contact him again after moving here…but didn’t.

Some of you may have heard of some other story, such as the time the CEO of Maude Carpenter Children’s Home and I went to a nightclub in Old Town over a Christmas holiday because they were doing a fundraiser for the home and we needed to be there. I was chosen to go because I was the only one on staff who was not uncomfortable with the smoke, booze, loud music, and drunks. Shellee went because she had to. The live music was pretty good. I rather enjoyed the night. I don’t think she did.

I'm not necessarily proud of my prior "unwashed" life. I'm not particularly thrilled that I once picked up a girl in a bar in St. Paul, Minnesota, or that I frequented the 13th and North Hydraulic area in Wichita with friends (and a girl friend), or that I walked the streets and alleys of downtown Wichita at night back in the late '60's, or that I had a four year relationship with a woman that, to put it delicately, was not in my best interests.

However, that is who I am and that is my history. I believe that even in all of that, my God can take those times and circumstances and make something good come of them. If that something good happens to be a level of comfort with the unwashed and their culture, so be it.

I don’t know that it’s just “eating with the tax collectors and sinners” that’s required. I think it’s having some of who I am wash off on those I eat with. That can be a horse of another color. There can be a fine line between enjoying the company of such people and immersing oneself into the culture as one of them. Not all of us may be capable of discerning the difference, but for those who can, perhaps is also given a responsibility to use it wisely.