7.3 Can I Belong In Church?

There is another story that needs to be told about Christians. Now it doesn’t excuse or make up for our failures but it does remind me that there are things we as Christians can be proud of. Throughout history, following the lifestyle and model of Jesus has brought change to this world. There are the stories of the countless schools, hospitals and homeless shelters that were not only started and funded by churches, but were run by Christians with kindness, care and sacrificial love. As much as parts of the church have been guilty of justifying slavery, it was also men and woman like Abraham Lincoln, William Wilberforce and Harriet Tubman who were driven to end it. And they were driven to end it through the words of the Bible, the life of Jesus and the belief that freeing those enslaved was God’s desire all along, each made in His image, each made equal. Not only has this happened in the past but there are also beautiful and radical expressions of this happening today, both here and around the world. There are thousands of Christian organizations and churches that are working in some of the toughest parts of the world bringing hope and change. One Christian organization that is close to my heart and considered to be working with ‘the untouchables’ of society is the Leprosy Mission. And although its an international Charity today it actually had humble beginnings here in Ireland. It was started by an Irishman called Wellesley Bailey in the 1870's He went to India on a short trip and visited a leprosy colony in rural India And his heart was absolutely broken, he said ‘if there was ever a Christ – like work it was to go amongst these poor sufferers.' Now when people often hear the word ‘leprosy’, they'll think it’s a skin disease of the past, a tragic way of how the world used to be. And although that's true in most Western countries because we do have the cure, Sadly there are still 16 countries around the world that still suffer under the consequences and stigma of leprosy. Recently I travelled with the Leprosy Mission Ireland to help document some of their work in south east India. As we were traveling the team explained to me that every two minutes someone will hear the words ‘you have leprosy’. I was shocked when I found out that we would be interviewing a young girl called Eshwari, who was much younger than me, and who unfortunately had heard those words. When we were interviewing her you could see the devastation in her face as she told us about losing her job because of her leprosy. She explained that her family not only suffered financially but that they also suffered from being excluded from the community. And yet she was eternally grateful and full of joy at what the Leprosy Mission had done for her. They treated her illness and fought the stigma around her by investing in her and her family, and not only that, but they also enabled her to get her job back! If their mission was only one dimensional Eshwari would only get the cure but not the solution. The Leprosy Mission models the mission of Jesus by bringing healing, restoring dignity and breaking the stigma. It’s a beautiful expression of church today. If you are just to focus on all the negative things that people in the church have done, you’ll never see the whole picture. I’m humbled by the other side of the story all those brave men and women that I know around the world today that are standing up to be counted. They are forgiving those who persecute them, bringing food and water to those who are suffering and educating those who have almost nothing. They aren't thinking about the evil that have caused it, they just work, forgive, stand up and carry on. All those people - they are the church as I see it. This wider community that I love to belong too. There seems to be this dividing line between moments that Christians wish they could forget and also these moments that Christians are proud of. But when the church has lived and loved like Jesus, these hope-giving moments have echoed throughout generations. For me, that’s why I love to be part of it.