“When You Find God Offensive” by The Rev. Kaji Douša
In church today, we were reading the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 11, which is this fascinating interaction between John the Baptist, while he was in prison, and Jesus, as he was traveling from town to town, proclaiming the Good News. And what the Gospel of Matthew tells us is that John was “offended” by what Jesus was saying. Jesus responds to John in a beautiful way, with such compassion, and understands that John maybe wasn’t quite getting the right news about him. And I wanted to talk about this in our context, because sometimes when we’re not getting the message directly from Jesus himself, what it seems like his interpreters are saying might offend us. But then, the thing to do is what John did: to reach out to God, and say “God, I am challenged by what your people are saying,” or “I am challenged by your word, will you re-interpret it for me, to bring me back to you?” That is my message for us in this Advent week, as we prepare for the coming of the Christ child – for the re-inhabitation of Christ in our lives. Think through the places where we are feeling offended by God, and ask for God’s sweet intervention. May it be so. Amen