A gospel for failure

Wrote this as a comment elsewhere, and wanted to copy it over here

To me this is less about moral failure, we already have a gospel that's supposed to cover that, but about being one of the "also-rans" in life. Our Aussie culture is traditionally less success-oriented than American culture, but I have seen a marked change in the last 20 years or so, and it has definitely affected the church. So if you're not thin enough. young enough, articulate enough, earning good money, well-educated, happliy married, etc etc, you fly under the radar. Likewise if you're shy, have significant health problems, are an abuse victim or any other significant personal problems, the church simply doesn't know what to do with you. You don't fit the image, you're not one of "us". Yet i wonder if, to some of those who have it all in this world, Jesus wouldn't say "they have their reward already"
Blessed are the poor, the broken, the confused, the rejected, the struggling and the needy. God is very near to those of a contrite and lowly heart. Sometimes we forget that the Jesus we are called to follow never founded a mega-church or won a popularity contest. He had no beauty that we should desire Him, and was despised and rejected of men. I don't think we can have a gospel for the failed and the needy and the broken until we come back to the foot of the cross and see how the death of jesus brings to nothing all the successes we would claim for ourselves, even our successes in His service. only there, where we are forced to admit that we really have nothing except Him, will we learn how to open our arms and embrace those who embarrass us by openly displaying the reality of failure and neediness