As spring is struggling to establish itself here in Australia, summer is ending in the Northern Hemisphere. I hope my US friends are enjoying the last of the sun, and with it time on the beach.
I grew up believing the myth that poverty is out there, somewhere else in the world. I was taught that if you work hard enough, you can make it out of poverty in America.
I’ve started seeing school buses on my walk into work each morning, which makes me reminisce about my teaching days. One of my best memories: going green at the high school where I taught for four years.
As a middle class American girl growing up in rural Baptist churches, I learned that the Kingdom of God means heaven, and that heaven is like the gated communities we have here on earth (except even richer… and with endless church services).
You have not moved to this side of town to rescue the inner city. Rather, you’re all getting yourselves saved a little at a time by doing life together across lines of difference.
“When I was in prison, ” Jesus said in Matthew 25, “you visited me.” We find Jesus in prison because prison is where Jesus has established residence here on Earth. We don’t visit to take Jesus to inmates. We follow Jesus into the hell of America’s prison because this is the way God has revealed for us to receive the gift of resurrection life.