Welcome to the other side of the tracks!

     Growing up poor, I concluded from people's reactions that I was "less than they."  "They" thought I was less than them and only reinforced who I thought I was.  Let me back up.  I grew up on a farm 12 miles outside a town of 300 people (dogs and cats included).  If you have ever lived in a small town you know that if you have moved there at any age in your life that you are an outsider and always will be.  You could have 4 generations of your family who continued to live there but "you" would always be someone who intruded upon the status quo.  You would be an outsider till death.  Granted, there weren't many people in town or on the farms surrounding that were what anyone today would call rich.  Some acted like it.  But time proved them to be posers.  It wasn't all about wealth though.  Being on the other side of the tracks could just indicate you didn't dress as nice, didn't know as much about the town and heritage, didn't have any family connection living nearby.  We moved to this farm when I was in the middle of the third grade!  I left a one room country school where I was one of three in my class to a public school where my class numbered just shy of 30.  Today they would be screaming about class size.  Then it was teachers taught.  It didn't matter how many.  Finally, being from the other side of the tracks led me to discover that this town of 300 had 7 churches of which most of my class attended or claimed to attend.  My family didn't attend church.  Just another strike against the kid from the other side of the tracks.
     Jesus, despite being God, was a kid from the other side of the tracks.  He was a pregnancy of an unmarried woman who was engaged to an older man.  They, despite the gossip and looks, married.  Jesus, as you know, was born not in a hospital or even in a home.  He was born in a manger in a barn where the prominent smell wasn't a freshly powered baby's butt.  The family was uprooted because the authorities wanted Jesus dead.  Jealousy of his heritage and power driving that wish.  So, he moved out of country (not the Caribbean) to Egypt.   Remember his ancestors stole all of the Egyptians gold, silver and jewels before fleeing Egypt under false pretenses.  Not exactly unlike some of the issues going on today.  Once it was safe to return home, Jesus and his family did so.  They were likely bi-lingual now and most likely wearing Egyptian garb.  Outsiders?  Definitely.  From the other side of the track?  Definitely.  Unwelcome?  Yes, that too as people asked the adult Jesus to leave their town.  Kind of what some of our churches do today.  He was and remains an outsider to many who feel, for whatever reason, that they don't need him, don't want him and want to eradicate his name.  Even some of the good he did was put down by people as his having done this or that by the power of the devil. 
     So, what do people from the other side of the tracks do?  They flock together, have parties and stay up all night drinking Mountain Dew and eating Oreos!  Well maybe not the Dew.  Anyway, I digress.  I'm reminded of a college assignment that really stuck with me.  I was studying addictions and was told to visit 10 different 12 step groups.  I didn't know there were 10 different 12 step groups.  However, an assignment is an assignment.  I went to these groups and discovered all those from the other side of the tracks.  They were desperate to find help (some of them) for what had hounded them for some time.  The destruction of their lives was unbelievable in some cases but none the less true.  These men and women in the 12 step groups taught me so many of life's lessons.  The first one and most important one was to have a relationship with God.  With the other person from the other side of the tracks, Jesus.  The 12 step groups were the church and the members confessed and relied on one another without pretense.  People were called out not because they got caught but because people cared.  Discipleship was rampant, coffee perked continually, and they each were ministers of the Gospel.  The church is supposed to be like that.  We're nothing but sinners gathering together telling one another where to find grace.  At least that's what it's supposed to be.  If this isn't your church, your group, your friends and family; it's time to move to the other side of the tracks!