It almost sounds like the beginning of a joke. Two young guys walk into a strip club and see a bunch of old ladies in there. It’s not really a joke, though. It happened to a young fellow I work with and he related the story with some wonder and amazement as he did.
It starts with two young Minnesota guys choosing to stop and go into what they thought was an ordinary bar, but turned out to be a “Gentleman’s Club” which are a bit prolific in neighboring Wisconsin. Of course, being young men, upon discovering what the establishment actually was, they decided to go in anyway.
It was a Tuesday evening and not much was going on. There were no girls on stage dancing, they were just wearing next to nothing as they walked around playing waitress and “chatting up” the few customers. As the guys sat at the bar, they noticed something that seemed very strange and out of place. There were a number of “older” ladies in the establishment too. My young acquaintance said they were dressed like “church ladies”. These ladies were over at a table and mingling with the “girls”. Intrigued, the boys asked about the ladies—who they were, what were they doing there, what was going on? One of the girls said that they were ladies from a church up the road. The guys then asked if they were there preaching at them or making them feel bad for what they did? The girl responded, “no.” She said that the ladies came in regularly and just talked to them. This evening the ladies had brought cakes and cupcakes for the girls to enjoy and take home. So there you have this strongly incongruous picture of scantily clad strippers and over dressed older church ladies standing around together, laughing and talking over home made baked goods. Not quite the Dana Carvey character that has been based on too much truth.
My young friend was marveling at the whole situation and experience. He couldn’t fathom church people acting so out of character. My remark to him was that instead of preaching to them, maybe the ladies were just loving the girls. I continued to say that I thought that Jesus would be doing the same thing then I jokingly added that He would probably be feeding them fish and bread.
Their actions may be what we believe to be out of character for church people, but it’s not out of character for Jesus. if we look at the life and ministry of Jesus, this is exactly how He did it. He loved people. He only condemned the “condemning church people” of his day, the Pharisees and religious rulers. Jesus met people in their troubling life situations and loved them back to God.
Later, as I mulled over the story, I thanked my young friend for sharing his story. I told him it was one of the greatest stories I had ever heard in my life. It made me feel warm inside. It gave me hope.
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