God meets Scandal meets God?

so I've been thinking about this whole incarnation thing.


I've been thinking about what it means for God to enter this world through an unwed mother--and what it means for God to tell the fiance of said unwed mother not to "divorce" her even in secret.


I've been thinking about what it means for God to be born in a barn. Not in the fancy inn--hyatt regency. Not even in the not so fancy inn--motel 6. But in a barn. God was born to an unmarried couple in the middle of animals who were nestled down for the night. Surrounded by the smells of defication and urination, God was born.


I've been thinking about what it means that the first worshippers of this infant were the shepherds that no one trusted or liked. The first worshippers smelled like the sheep they kept watch over and they probably weren't great conversationalists either.


If this is where God broke into our existence--if these are the first moments the God-Child knew--how does the contemporary incarnation of God (the Church) wrap itself in elegance and safe locations? Shouldn't the Body of Christ be in the places that stink? Shouldn't the body of Christ be worshipping with people who smell and aren't all that great at the art conversation?


I'm not going to try giving an answer...you might not agree with it anyway...but if the church exists for the sake of transforming the world we ought to step into the places that need transformation. We ought to step into the places the world doesn't want to deal with--we should be in the places that aren't worth anything to the corporate empires of America. (even though those places are ripe mission fields to be sure!)


The fancy inn didn't have room for God--neither did the not so fancy inn. God was born in a barn. God met the stink of our lives with his--and since I'm speaking of Jesus I can use the word "his"--first breath, but only because we didn't make room for him in the nicer places.


Maybe the church should go to the abandoned places not to be transforming, but so that we might be transformed. Not to tell "those people" to repent, but so that we might see how much we need repentance ourselves.