Do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly...

Jess: So I read a briefing in Time before church this Sunday that really upset me, and I still don't quite know what to do about it. It was about how homosexuality is against the law in Uganda, and that a newspaper has been printing the names and addresses of homosexuals in the area. It went on to say, "Homosexuality is outlawed in Uganda. Some US Evangelical groups are backing a bill, currently under review in parliament, that would make homosexuality punishable by death." I'm still so shocked by this that I can't figure out how to respond. I know it's going into the sermon I'm preaching for Wes on the 21st, but I just don't know what else to do.

I don't care what your personal opinions are on the "hot" issues (homosexuality, abortion, stem cell research, going 'green,' etc.), but we Christians HAVE to figure out a way to express our opinions while still loving God and loving our neighbor. I'm reading the book unChristian by David Kinnaman right now, and learning a lot about how those outside of Christianity perceive us. We are seen as judgmental, hypocritical, and worse. Yet we claim to be Christ followers. How can we be followers of a man who healed the sick, lifted up the lowly, and stood by the downtrodden yet persecute those who are different from us?

Whatever your personal opinion on one thing or another, Jesus told us that the greatest commandments are to love God and love our neighbor. Loving God means following his commandments: worship only the one true God, keep the Sabbath holy, honor your parents, don't covet, don't steal, and DON'T MURDER. Again, no matter your opinion on whether some people deserve to be punished/to go to hell/whatever, one of God's number one commandments is to not kill. There is no provision for killing those who are doing what you think is wrong. And Jesus would say that backing the bill to allow murder makes you just as guilty as the people who carry it out.

Now, I don't say all of this to accuse anyone or to make us feel bad about ourselves as Christians. God knows we're bad and that we've been bad since the beginning of time. Just check out Genesis. But our first task should be to figure out how to love God. Our second is to love all of God's created people, whether they're "good" or "bad." There is only one judge, and that judge definitely isn't just a human.

Wes: So anyone who has known me for very long has probably heard me tell the story of Telemachus in a sermon. I won't ruin the story for any who haven't, but what it gets down to is that there is a right way and a wrong way to change the world. God calls us to change the world, but God calls us to do so in a very special way: through love. There are many, many things wrong with the world, and we are called to do everything we can to right all of the wrongs that we see. But the way in which most Christians choose to go about this work is very, very wrong.

Once again, we are called to love. We are even told that our love is the standard by which the world will know that we are Christ’s disciples. Love is absolutely crucial for the faithful follower of Jesus. Our purpose in life, therefore, is to show everyone we meet the love of Jesus Christ so that they might know that we are Christians and so that they might some day come to know Christ as we do. We do this by living our lives in a way that reminds the entire world who we are and Who’s we are.

The truth, though, as scary as it may be to admit, is that the church has not always been good about this. Time and again throughout history we fall into sins of pride as individuals and people, raising ourselves up while at the same time beating others down. Whether we speak of the crusades, the inquisition, the treatment of slaves, or any other myriad of topics, it is easy to see that the command to love is sometimes lost on the people who should be upholding it.

And, sadly, this is something with which we as the church still struggle today. We have groups here in America that preach a gospel of hate across the nation, so caught up in their personal piety and so high up on their personal soap boxes that they either cannot see or refuse to see how their actions are widening the schism that forms between the church and the world. We have actual churches that will picket soldiers’ funerals to speak out against the war, disrupting an event already hard for many to bear to push their ideals at people who are hurting and struggling with the loss of a loved one. We have actual churches with websites such as godhatesfags.com that are so entrenched in getting their point across they do not see how they are hurting, alienating, and humiliating people that already struggle with their identity in a world that has constantly marginalized them. We have actual churches that will crowd around the sidewalks of abortion clinics, yelling until they are red in the face at young women entering and exiting the building, many of whom are drowning in shame already and do not need anyone else telling them that they are evil and that they are murderers. We have actual churches that would rather burn another religion’s holy book than work hand in hand with them to strive for peace in a war-torn world.

We as a church must come to understand that above all else we must act out of love. We cannot try to impact and change the world by hate or by violence or by any other means but love, because to do so would be to abandon the very thing for which Christ stood. This has nothing to do with my political views or your political views. This is about how we choose to represent our God and our faith. Nothing more.

So this was a rather... hard hitting blog, but we hope you find it interesting at least!

You stay classy, World Wide Web!


-Jess and Wes