A Transgendered Person Enters The Congregation...

...a transgendered person enters the congregation to hear the preaching of Christ. This frightens parents, who do not come to church planning to explain to their children why two women are holding hands, why a man is dressed like a woman, or why the man in the next pew smells like alcohol. Parents in the church are outraged. I understand this; as a father with three children, I feel the tension.

But without realizing it, parents like me are sometimes embarrassed by Jesus.  Why would Jesus draw people like that to himself?  It is hard for parents to remember that children in the crowds saw Jesus with prostitutes, tax collectors, and sinners.  Parents want to go into Jesus' presence at church in order to keep their kids safe from the world.  But Jesus keeps drawing unsafe people from the world to himself. We are confounded.  We complain, "How am I supposed to explain this to my kids?"  With that complaint we lose sight of something vital:  To explain how Jesus reaches people no matter where they've been or what they've done is to explain to our kids the gospel.  It is to explain our own testimony.  It is to teach the next generation how Jesus relates to people and the world.   

A homiletic position that is able to treat the Scriptures without an awareness of those outside the church is hauntingly similar to the way preaching was being done by those religious leaders who challenged Jesus and whom Jesus challenged.  A community that was raised on the regular teaching of God's Word was shocked that Jesus would come not for the righteous but for those who need a physician.  

- Dr. Zack Eswine, Preaching to a Post-Everything World, p.  81