When "They" Become Real People

By: Unknown on 2:43 PM

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I've been struggling to get so many of these words out for a long time.  No words seem to do justice to explain what I have been feeling in my heart.

 

I have been having an internal struggle for the last couple of years when it comes to what I feel is a division in The Church that is growing wider and wider.  There are those that will preach "the Truth" and follow The Bible and everything in it to a T, freely calling out and addressing sin.  Then, there are those that tend to cling tightly to the words and character of Jesus, focusing on love and not judging others for their sins.  The chasm between these two worlds just gets bigger and bigger, homosexuality seems to be the fault line on which this division has been created, and on which is keeps expanding.

 

As I wrestled with both sides of this, I just felt sick to my stomach.  I couldn't find a place to rest easily, both ways seemed right to me, but it seemed as though I needed to pick one.  I did what I always do when I find myself unsure of things, I started to pray.  I prayed frequently that God would show me his heart on this.  That I would understand how he views people who might be living a life that the Bible might consider "sinful".

 

Over the past five to six months, God has turned my world upside down.  I have understood so much more about his love, grace and mercy now than ever before.  I started to see how he loved the "woman caught in adultery", how he talked with the Samaritan woman at the well, how he dined with tax collectors and sinners.  I saw how he delighted in me, even though I pretty much suck as a human being.  As I was listening to a message one day about this, I very clearly heard God say to me, "this is what you prayed for".  It became very clear to me that God really means it when he wants us to love others and not judge or condemn them.  Yes, he also wants us to call each other out when we are being sinful, but we can't do that the way that he did.

 

You see, Jesus loved people in a way that we can't love people.  He would look into a person's eyes and know everything about them, see everything that they had done and love them anyway and tell them to go and sin no more.  We can't do that.  For us to even get to the point where we can love someone so much that us bringing their sin to light becomes love and not judgment requires time and a whole lot of vulnerability.  We can't get to this point if we aren't in constant fellowship with someone.

 

It isn't until you reach this point that people become more than "they" or "those".  We are so quick to lump everyone together, "those evangelicals", "those homosexuals", "the abortionists", "the fundamentalists".  Both sides do this, and it always minimizes the souls of the people involved.  It is easy to say "they are horrible" when you don't have an image in your head or recollection of a conversation that you had with someone you know and love.  We can't really stop and appreciate people for who they are until we take the time to get to know them.  If you haven't really taken the time to get to know someone, allowed your faults to be shown and been vulnerable with them, and them with you, then for you to make any kind of remark about them or the life they are living is judgment. 

 

This week, World Vision, a charitable organization that is near and dear to my heart, made the announcement that they were going to allow Christians in Same-Sex Marriages to work for them (and decision that just as I finished writing this has now been reversed).  This created a frenzy on the internet and both "sides" weighed in.  Again, I found myself feeling torn, wondering what "the right" stance on this should be.  The more I thought about it, prayed about it and sought The Word about it, I keep coming back to the idea that we shouldn't be withholding the ability to serve Jesus from anyone.  It isn't for us to determine who is wrong and who is right, we shouldn't be arguing about it, it is getting in the way of us simply serving the least of these.

 

I have been trying to figure out my calling lately, and trying to identify what exactly it is that breaks my heart the most and what I want to do about it.  The thing that keeps coming up in my mind is that I want to be the person who shows love to the unlovely.  I want to see the unseen.  I want to relieve the burdens of those whose burden is to much for them to carry. 

 

I keep replaying the words of Jesus to the woman caught in adultery in John 8:10-11

 

"Jesus stood up and said to her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" She said, "No one , Lord. And Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more." (ESV)

 

I looked up the word "condemn" at Merriam-Webster, because I felt as though many of the statements made yesterday by those who disagreed with World Vision's decision, because it sure felt like they were condemning those in same sex marriages, and now, basically, World Vision as an entity.

con·demn

 transitive verb \kən-ˈdem\

: to say in a strong and definite way that someone or something is bad or wrong
: to give (someone) a usually severe punishment

: to cause (someone) to suffer or live in difficult or unpleasant conditions

 

There are many who have been condemned by Christian leaders and churches and I just don't believe that it is what Jesus would want us to do.


Grace is scandalous.  It doesn't feel right, the people who do wrong should be punished.  But that is the thing, we've all done wrong.  It isn't always going to be black and white, we won't ever fully understand it because we aren't God.

 

How lucky are most of us that our sins aren't tied to our innate desire for companionship and love.  We were created to be in relationships.  I won't for a second try to pretend that I have any idea what it would be like to be faced with that and also desire a relationship with Jesus.  I would love to think that God would be enough to fill the void, but I know how often I struggle to have Him be enough in my life as it is now.

 

All I'm requesting that people do is to consider that there are real people behind the "they".    I read a blog post by Benjamin Moberg last night, he is a gay Christian.  I couldn't shake the tears for quite a while after I read this

 

"I’ve been sitting in a swell of sad for a couple hours, because this is what I’m hearing: No, you aren’t even worthy to serve hungry children. You are so deeply unwanted that I will let a child die if it keeps you away from me. From us. From the body of Christ. I will spare no life if it keeps you far away."

 

I can't be a part of anything that would cause another human being to feel this way.  We have ALL sinned and yet Jesus died for us.  When you fully understand the extent of your own sin, you fully understand the extent of God's grace.  I don't believe for a minute that any homosexual in America doesn't know what the Bible says about sin.  I guarantee you they feel the weight, they are very aware.  We aren't doing them any favors by constantly reminding them of this from behind computer screens or upon pulpits.  We have to sit down at the table with them and start to understand who they are.  We need to trust that God has this in his control.  It isn't ours to figure out.   

 

As I was reading through John 12 today, this portion stuck out to me in verse 42 and 43.

 

"Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God." 

 

How great the faith of those whom The Church has deemed too sinful or too unworthy to make their love of God known.  How courageous they must be to even step foot into a church where they are inviting disapproving glances and judgment upon themselves.  They have chosen the glory of God over the glory of man, of that I am sure.  The kind of faith that they have, to know and trust in God's goodness and mercy, even when the rest of the world is telling them that they aren't worthy of it, is admirable.  Oh, that I would have faith like them. 


I could be wrong.  I could be reading, interpreting and feeling all of the wrong things.  But my heart just can't seem to settle any other way on this.  If I'm wrong, I pray that God would make it known to me.