Take Cupcakes to Strippers
At CiY Move this past summer there were a myriad of great speakers (let's just pretend that I use the word myriad regularly). One of the speakers was Eric Samuel Timm. His sermon was about loving others, accepting people for who they are, and not judging anyone. The text he used was from John 8:1-11. It's the story of when the Scribes and the Pharisees bring a woman who had just been caught red handed in the act of adultery to Jesus and tell Him that by Mosaic Law they were supposed to stone her. Jesus then says the famous line “Let he who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her” (v.7). And because all of the men had sinned the woman was saved. If you haven’t read that passage you need to, it will help get rid of every judgmental bone inside of you.
Anyways towards the end of the sermon he said, “We need to take cupcakes to strippers.” The room was silent, partially because no one was sure if he really said what they thought he did and also out of shock that he actually had just used the word stripper in a sermon in front of hundreds teenagers going through changes in their life. So he said it again, but this time he elaborated. He told us about when he received a call from his friend asking him how they could minister to the local strip club. Eric replied, “Take them cupcakes”. He was joking of course, but they actually did it. Eric, his friend, and some other members of the church baked cupcakes, went down to the strip club during the day, knocked on the door and went in and shared cupcakes and the love of Christ with the people there. Crazy? Yes. His whole point of telling us that was to demonstrate that we need to start loving the unlovable.
It's Hard
Can I be real for a second? Sometimes I have a really hard time loving the unlovable, I mean don't you? I know for me at least, there are people in my life that are just so stinking hard to love sometimes, and for different reasons. For me it’s because they’ve hurt me in some way, or they are from a different walk of life than I am. Maybe for you it’s because they’re different and you have a hard time loving someone you can’t relate to, like the old woman in your church who complains about everything. Or maybe they have a sin in their life and it’s really unappealing and you just don’t want anything to do with them. Like the girl at school who sleeps around. Or maybe if you’re like it’s because they have hurt you in some way, maybe even more than once, and you just can’t see how you could love them after what they did. Maybe you just don’t feel like putting forth the effort. Or maybe it’s something else. Whatever the case may be, it’s safe to say that there are people in our lives that we have a hard time loving, and we say, “I can’t love them!”
But what if God was like that?
But what if God was like that? To be honest we humans are pretty unlovable. So what if God just didn’t feel like loving us? He doesn’t have to. What if God didn’t love us because we are different, weird, and needy humans? We’re completely different from God, sure we are made in his image, but He is Holy, sinless, and well God. So what if God didn't love us because we aren’t relatable? Let’s be real, we’re sinful, and no matter how little you may think your sin is, it is complete garbage to God, He hates it and it disgust Him because He’s perfect. So what if God didn’t love us because we have sin in our life that he just didn’t want to deal with? Speaking of sin, we hurt God severely every day; in fact it breaks His heart every time we sin. I’ve never had my heart broken, but I’m going to take a shot in the dark and guess that it hurts really badly. We hurt God a lot, so what if God didn’t love us because we’ve hurt Him over and over and He decided He’s had enough?
Luckily for us God doesn’t say or think any of those things. He’s actually crazy about you and loves you more than you will ever know or be able to comprehend. He loves us even though we are really hard to relate to. He loves us even though we continue to sin every day, and even though we hurt him time and time again. That’s called Grace. And we are called to show that same grace-filled love that we’ve received from God to everyone.
We are called to love everyone. Yes everyone. John 13:34 says, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another”. We don’t have a choice; we are to love each other just as we are loved by God. Even those that don’t deserve because we don’t deserve to be loved by God and He still loves is. We are called to love everyone.
The punk kid at school that bullies you, love him. The girls that talk about you behind your back, love them. The weird kid that you don’t relate to, love him. The homeless, love them. The pedophiles, love them. The murderers, bank robbers, rapists, and all the people society despises, love them. The adulteress spouse that hurt you so bad, love them. The father that abandoned you, love him. The people who despise you and hate you, love them. The friend that stabbed you in the back, love them. The whores, prostitutes, and strippers love them. The family member who abused you, love them. Those who would never show the same love to you, love them. If they are human, love them.
How Do We Do It? I’m not saying this is going to be easy, not in the least bit. In fact loving those that have hurt you, are different, or are undesirables may be the hardest thing you’ll ever do; but it is also one of the most rewarding. As Christians we are called to do tough things. As Christians are called to love everyone we every come into contact with.
We need to let go of our agendas like the church is some kind of social club that people have to meet a certain criteria to get into, and accept all those that come to our doors. Better yet, we need to leave our comfortable modern cushiony seats and step outside and go to people not just wait for the people to come to us. We need to stop leaving the “different” people in the corner and invite them to join us. We need to lay down our stones, because there is no way we have any right to throw one. We need to stop judging the book by its cover, its sins, and its tattoos, and sit down with the person, actually get to know them, and love them like Christ loves us. We are not to sit idly by and watch people continue to live a sinful life style because we don't want to offend or it might be awkward, that's not loving at all. We are to love people enough to not let them continue to walk ignorantly in their sin.We need to let go of our anger towards people for the hurt they’ve caused us and forgive. We need to step outside our comfort zone and love those that the world considers weird, outcast, and worthless.
Its going to be hard yes. But we need to love the unlovable. We need to take cupcakes to strippers.
-Zach Hollifield