Jesus in the Margins: Finding God in the Places We Ignore

  • Duane Smets
  • Mar 2, 2005
  • Series: Books
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    Book Written by: Rick McKinley

    I grew up in a Christian home. Until a few years ago I think the only place I thought God did his thing was at church. In the last few years I have been more and more challenged to sort of live as a Christian outside the Christian box. What I surprisingly found was that Jesus was there too, exactly where I didn't expect him to be.

    A couple weeks ago I got my hands on a book that described what I have often found difficulty describing to others. It is written by a guy named Rick McKinley, whose name I recognized from another book I liked a lot called “Blue Like Jazz” where he is referred as, “pastor Rick.” Pastor Rick, in Jesus in the Margins, says that God is somebody who likes to hang out with people who don't really fit the status quo.

    Until recently, church for me was a lot of pressure. Every time I went I felt all these expectations from people. I needed to dress a certain way. Say the right things, like “I'm doing good, how are you?” And of course I needed to sing really loud whether I felt like it or not. Church felt like so much work, like there were so many expectations I had to meet if anyone there was going to like me.

    The weird thing was that I kind of felt more normal when I wasn't at church or with church people, like then I could be real. I work at a record store now and though sometimes I feel like I'm an undercover cop because I am a Christian, I usually feel like I can just be myself with those people. They all know that I am a Christian, I don't really try and hide it or anything. But sometimes I think they know more about who I really am, what I like and don't like and how I really live my life, than my Christian friends do.

    Rick McKinley in Jesus in the Margins says that there are all kinds of people in the margins. He writes, “Society-our world, our culture-has margins just like this page does. They're places occupied by people who go unnoticed, misfits who seldom figure in when the mainline world defines itself and esteems itself. But they're there. The margins are where I find people like me.”

    The truth is I have always sort of felt like I am on the outside looking in. I always kind of feel out of place like I don't quite fit. The people that like most the things I like are not Christians and so though we are a like in a lot of ways I always feel different than them too. This book has helped me to see that maybe that is okay. Rick McKinley is the Pastor of Imago Dei Community Church in Portland, Or. and in this book he says that Jesus was always hanging with non-Christians and took a lot of heat from the religious leaders for it. He says that it is mostly outside of the church walls where God is at work, “in the places we ignore.”

    In the book, McKinley talks about his own life and the life of some of his friends and how God has worked in them and through their situations. Like Tiffany, a girl who was molested by a family member at a young age and now has a hard time dealing with the idea that God loves her because he let that happen. Or Peter, who is a very successful business man but confesses that though he has everything money can buy he has no real relationships with anyone, including his family. And even Rick himself admits that even though he is a pastor he has a continual fear of rejection.

    The biggest thing about this book is Jesus. When I was reading it I saw him in a different way, as the God who doesn't expect people to be all perfect before he will like them or accept them. It challenged me to think about what Jesus did, not solely in terms of this ticket to get into heaven, but as this huge thing that makes me okay with God and then allows and calls me to go reach out to other people who have been marginalized. Even if it means pissing the religious leaders off because I call those sinners friends and am okay with buying them a beer and drinking one with them.

    McKinley challenges the idea that Christianity is about rules and lines of right and wrong, Instead, he says it is about Jesus, who he is and what he did and how we are to follow his example. He says, “The church wants to protect Jesus' image rather than proclaim the real and living Christ. We want to protect him from the appearance of doing things that wouldn't fit into today's church culture.”

    I like the Jesus McKinley talks about in this book. Not because it means that I can go and do whatever I want and Jesus will be cool with it, but because this Jesus makes more sense with what I read in my Bible and makes more sense of my life. I think Jesus is a God who goes after those who live in the margins. The question we are faced with as Christians is, “will we follow him?”

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