I was talking to a group of men in jail where several told me their pain of how difficult it was for them to walk into churches with their tattoos and see negative looks. One man tearfully said, "They reject us before they ever get to know us." Exile, have you been there? In many ways, the church is exiling many people on the one hand as the church lives in exile in a world that rejects them.
Israel lived in exile and the church is in exile whether it knows it or not. There is a growing restlessness of loneliness, powerlessness, grief and loss by many in the church. Either people don't feel like they belong in the church anymore or the church has left them behind when it comes to truly knowing them and helping people feel like they belong. The number one complaint I hear from young people in the church is "don't judge me." Are we living in a time where there are more people hurt by the church than helped by the church?
There is something terribly wrong when the Bible is used primarily to preserve the status quo? If Jesus resisted the powers that be during his day, when is the last time you resisted anything? Are not Christians called today to resist the empire and status quo as Jesus did? Can exile be the place like Israel where we are called to turn away from our national idols and turn back to God? Maybe like Israel we can rediscover in exile our conscience and soul?
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