Following Jesus out into the world is a messy business as it was for Jesus himself. It involves rejection as well as acceptance, the cross as well as the resurrection. Yet, what is the alternative? To remove ourselves from the world and become, entrenched within our own ghetto while holding on to our self-styled piety, which is no piety at all. Following Jesus into the world involves a holy worldliness. It means getting our hands dirty by becoming involved in the lives of messed-up people just as Jesus did. It means loving the unloved and loving those who at times, appear to be almost unlovable. It means caring for those whom nobody else cares for. It means being slandered as Jesus was slandered because we seek to do as he did. It includes becoming deeply enmeshed in the world and its problems without becoming contaminated by the world’s values. It is this holy worldliness that was the essence of who Jesus was, and it must be at the heart of who we are if we are to be faithful followers of Jesus.
