I have to confess that it's a little scary trying to deal with a serious topic in a limited space (and you know me, it's hard for me to be serious at all!) But these two stories kind of juxtaposed (I don't even know if I'm using that word right) themselves in my thinking over the last 24 hours, and I think I need to say something about them. 

One of my friends on facebook posted the story yesterday about Jennifer Knapp, Christian rock singer, who has just revealed that she is in a same sex relationship.  She realizes there will be repercussions among her fans, but needs to be honest with who she is.  Then in today's Arizona Republic is the story about this months gay pride festival, the 30th anniversary of the event here in Phoenix.  And as I sit here and think about what my response as a Jesus follower should be, I wonder if you're having the same internal struggle between what my old nature pushes me toward and what I believe about Jesus and the grace of God. 

Now I don't know Jennifer Knapp, but I do know that she's expecting the Christians around her to respond with moral outrage and to quote what she calls the "clobber verses" about homosexual behavior in the Bible...I guess that's how we're perceived as using those verses, to clobber people with.  And I have to confess to some clobber mentality in my mind. 

But thankfully there's also another thought that comes alongside that, and it's only there I'm sure because of God transforming my heart to be like his (and I'm still a long way from the full reality of that).  That thought has to do with mercy and grace.  Mercy is not getting what we do deserve and grace is getting what we don't deserve. That's what God has done for us in Jesus, and I think it's probably the way he'd like us to respond to those in our world as well. 

We've been looking lately at the Ten Commandments at Oasis and have said that God gave us these as fences to keep us from behavior and choices that would lead to brokenness and pain in our lives, while pointing to how we were made in his image.  Adultery. lying. stealing, murder...homosexuality...all of these lead to emotional and relational destruction.

But far from making me homophobic, that realization should lead me to be homo-compassionate, like it should adulterer-compassionate, or cheater-compassionate.  For one, when it comes to God's love and acceptance, I am simply one beggar among everyone, all of us on the same level, none of us deserving more consideration than another.  I am no different than the gay person--same problem (wanting to run my own life), different expressions. God's acceptance is not of works, that's what keeps us from judging others for their mistakes.  And secondly, as a child of God, wanting to see people as Jesus sees them, shouldn't our Jesus follower response be sadness for the person who has been deceived by the enemy, no matter what his or her failings are, and compassion, caring, love and acceptance for them.  

We say this all the time around here--Jesus was known as a friend of sinners. He wasn't very discriminating about who he hung around with--cheaters, prostitutes, betrayers, and I'm sure there must have been some gay people too.  And he hung around with them because he loved them and was saddened by the effects of sin on their lives.  Our lives. That's why it says he came to bring freedom to the captives, release to the prisoners, sight to the blind, healing to the brokenhearted.  Like Max Lucado says, he loves us just the way we are, but too much to leave us that way. 

I'm not sure how coherent all of that is, there's so much I want to squeeze into this short space.  When we've gone through difficult things in our past, so many of you responded so gracefully, saying "hey, we're no different, there but for the grace of God go us!" That's seeing people with grace-healed eyes.  Those are the kinds of eyes I'd like to have.






 


Comments

JB
04/15/2010 2:29pm

Amen Jim! Love, grace and mercy is an amazing thing! But could I invite my gay friends to OUR church? I hope they would feel the same love, grace and mercy we all feel in our fellowship...

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David
04/15/2010 3:06pm

This is definitely a difficult topic to talk about because it is hard to separate sin from the sinner. We want to distance ourselves from the groups saying that homosexuality is not a sin, but at the same time, doing so often makes us look like homosexual haters.

I think we are at the point where we need to take the risk of "APPEARING" like we accept this act as righteous in order that the homosexual community will know that we ACCEPT them. Because ultimately God meets the homosexual where they are "while they are yet sinners" and that is where we need to meet them.

The church in the day of Jesus thought that Jesus was abdicating adultery, tax crimes, and many more horrible sins. The reason is, because Jesus showed love to those people struggling with those sins.

People are trapped in their sin. Yes they are perpetrators, but even more than that, they are victims. They are slaves to their sin, as much as a smoker is slave to his cigarettes (except even more so, because this is a spiritual slavery). Should we pity sinners? ABSOLUTELY. We should pity them, offer them mercy and give them grace. The only difference between them and us, is that we have the keys to freedom. If we withhold these keys by withholding our love and acceptance, we have sinned greater than they, for we know better, and they do not.

Today I ate lunch with 7 other people at a country club restaurant here in Ashland. There was a man with us, placed at the seat of honor and shown the highest respect and love by the rest of the group. We all knew that this man, an adulterer, had been in a three month affair with his wife's best friend. Even though (and especially because) we knew this we showed him love. One of the main reasons this man was given honor was because he, a sinner much like us, went through the shack with God and found healing, and then showed the world how we might also enter into the shack and find the love that God is ready to soak our entire being in. I hugged Paul Young as I left, first of all because it is impossible to avoid hugs when Paul is around, and second of all because I respected him for living with all of the crap of his life out in the open, for the world to see.
If we were only so willing to be vulnerable, we would not even begin to judge, because everyone would know we have no right. Since most of us are not that vulnerable with the people around us we are the only ones who know that we have no right to judge. We try to fool everyone by pointing fingers at the sinners. When will we come to the point where we as the body of Christ have no secrets, are open with our pasts and willing to use our own stories to minister to others.

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Steve
04/15/2010 7:35pm

Oh boy...here I go again (I'll start preparing for my excommunication). I think that there is a very strong possibility that the church has failed to understand the cultural context of these verses and that the act of, or the inclination towards, homosexuality may not be a sin at all (in and of itself). Over the centuries the Church has make sexuality the litmus test of one's Christianity. I know many gay people who profess a love for Jesus and who, quite frankly, are much nicer people than many of the Christians I've come in contact with over the years. Obviously, this subject is too deep for a blog response so you can watch for my book on the whole subject of sexuality (coming soon and to be followed by my stoning). Peace and love.

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