These days, lots of people identify themselves as "spiritual" without claiming to be "religious." We know, we get it. The church as an institution has managed to mangle and distort the message of Jesus Christ time and time again. Even Methodists don't always get it right. Sometimes we get more involved in keeping up our beautiful buildings and our crazy bureaucracy than in sharing the good news with brothers and sisters who could use some.

We confess our distractions. We confess the comfort and wealth that keep us thinking that we can do all things, and solve all problems on our own, without God's strength, wisdom, or grace.

But often - more often than you'd guess - God re-centers our focus on Jesus Christ.

* In the midst of illness and injury, God recalls Jesus the Healer, whose ministry on earth was full of miracle healings - not so that Jesus would be popular, but so that we would know God's compassion for our brokenness.

* In the midst of uncertainty about violent and chaotic world events, God recalls Jesus the Prophet, who turned tables and brought the spirit back into the law to reveal to us the many ways in which humans have inverted the intentions of God. Jesus ushers us back into the Kingdom.

* In the midst of a fear of scarcity, God recalls Jesus the Provider, who broke 5 loaves and 2 fish and fed 5000. We are reminded of the earth's abundance, we are reminded that there is enough Jesus to go around.

* In the midst of suffering, God recalls to us Jesus the Suffering Savior, who absorbed all of the world's pain and hurt and sin into his own death on the cross, so that we need not fear it ourselves.

Before there was the church, there was Jesus, and when the church is firing on all cylinders it is fulfilling the mission that Jesus left for us. When we are a faithful people gathered in love and in worship:
       

-- we give care
-- we discern and reveal God's intent for this beautiful, messed-up world
-- we are Jesus' hands, eyes, and ears for hurting people

-- we live in gratitude and share of our abundance
-- we face our sins with courage, assured that Jesus waits to receive us and forgive us.

Why Jesus? Why not acknowledge your citizenship in the Kingdom of God? In the kingdom, there are many rooms, as Jesus says in John's gospel. Jesus went to prepare a place for us - a place for you.

Why not present the gospel in all its madness? Why not say things like Yes you will be given your life back again. Yes, it doesn't end with death. Yes, the kingdom will come. Yes, Christ will come down from heaven. Maybe people are hungry for these wild and mad things which some preachers attempt to pull down to earth.                                      - Frederick Buechner