I appreciated your words about the ‘walls of purity’ that Christians and the church build around themselves. One of Jesus’ most controversial traits is that he mingled with the sinners. Whenever the spiritual leaders tried to bust Him, it was usually over someone He was hanging out with or personally dealing with at the moment. Jesus did not hesitate to get out and ‘get his hands dirty’ doing what needed to be done.
Today, we use a ‘holier-than-thou’ attitude to excuse our looking down on others. Well-now we’ve been told to knock it off…so we better!
We are to be separate, but we still have to deal with the world. We must be careful not to cut off our noses to spite our faces-which is what we will do if we cut off our own avenues to witness to the world around us.

Keep up the hard stuff Pastor Diehl. Do not be discouraged by quiet responses during the sermon. That shifting in our seats you are hearing means you’re getting on our toes. That means you are doing EXACTLY what you are supposed to be doing.

I appreciated how you went beyond race to give some examples of prejudice that we often think is OK, or at least better than being racist. I definitely left with some things to think about.