When I was in undergrad I learned of Pascal's Wager. The basic premise is that is is beneficial to believe in God and be wrong than never to have believed at all. It's all about what's at stake. I know that living as a Christian has allowed me to experience the world in some amazing ways, and serving as a pastor has given me opportunities to be a part of some of the most wonderful sacred moments of people's lives. I've held babies that are minutes old and the hands of the eldest as they pass from this life into the next. My faith challenges me every single day to rise above my limitations in knowledge and ability, to trust that there is a greater purpose for much of what I cannot understand in this life.
Last week I was asked to help facilitate a small group discussion surrounding the denomination and our response (or lack of) to the changing culture of inclusivity. In other words we finally were afforded the opportunity to really talk about the division that exists surrounding the full embrace of our homosexual brothers and sisters. I actually dreaded the conversation because I am so tired of certain people having to prove that they are some how worthy of God's love, worthy to be in a marital relationship, worthy of a call to the ministry. The more I am confronted by our denomination's lack of progress in this area the more I question my ability to stick it out.
The conversation was actually one of those "holy conferencing" moments. We did our best to just listen to people. It wasn't about fixing their thought process or changing their opinions. People shared from their heart and for that I was grateful. It wasn't until the last question that I really got to thinking. It was a simple question, "What's at stake?"
What's at stake? Think about it. I guess that's what made me think of Pascal's Wager - for those who are so adamant that being gay is a sin, what's really at stake? Do people really think that one day when they encounter God there will be a great big high five for "keeping people from serving God, preventing people from loving one another, or answering the call to serve the church?" Is it not most beneficial to afford all people the freedom to be who God has created them to be? What's really at stake?
Then Indiana comes up with this Religious Freedom Restoration Act - which ensures people freedom to exercise their religious beliefs. I'd like to send the Christians who think this is a necessary law over to China so they can really experience what its like to be persecuted for believing in Jesus. Not being able to make people pray in school or display the Ten Commandments at the courthouse isn't really destroying our freedom. Anybody have to hide last week when they went to church? Anybody risk their lives reading their Bible or praying in public? We are pretty free, we just need to be respectful. Won't more people come to know God's love by our actions than our words? How does ensuring religious freedom automatically lead to people discriminating against others? Have they actually read what Jesus did/said?
What's really at stake? What are we so afraid of?
I ask myself, what's at stake? I know my experience of the Holy Spirit that has called me by name to serve to the best of my ability. I know the love of a God who created me to be as weird and stubborn and uncoordinated as anybody else. I know a Christ who came so that ALL people would know the love of God - the guy who really broke all the rules by including the untouchables in the redemption of the world. I want people to know God, to know Love, to know Peace, to know Eternity. I'm just not sure how they're ever going to know it when we act like this.
I'm tired of being a Christian. I'm tired of people who claim they are so Christlike using their beliefs as a weapon to destroy others. I'm tired of being lumped into a group of people that can't see beyond their fears.
Tonight, I'm just tired.
Respectfully, Devon, I must take exception with some of your assertions. As followers of Christ we are called to be in the world yet not of the world. We are to love and show compassion for any and all. We are to be light to a world darkened by sin. But sexual sin, be it adultery or pornography (lust) or homosexuality, is still a sin as cited in God's Holy Word. We are not called to love the sin or to promote the sin, only to love the sinner. I would acquaint having a practicing homosexual in leadership of a congregation just as I would having a publically practicing child beater, adulterer, spouse beater or public drunkard. They can only serve to cloud the truth of how we have been taught to live by their unrepentant life style. I do believe that God calls us to repent and TURN FROM our old ways in addition to receiving salvation. Some days I need to do that more often than others, and on some days it seems like all day long I am asking God to wash His grace over and through me to free me from Satan's strongholds. It is a struggle as old as time itself. As long as we are on this planet we will sin, all of us, Christian and non-Christian. To have a repentant, Christ-changed and Christ-restrained sinner as a leader of a congregation is a whole other matter. THAT could win souls and be an encouragement to those still struggling in sin … by example of God’s great mercy and grace.
ReplyDeleteI do so miss you and TBUMC folks over here... especially Gracie. That makes my heart ache. This had been a long journey on what seems to be a dry and rocky earthen-cracked path. I even tried pulling a Jonah and went back to MI for 5 months but am now back in WI to stay and working on the hard stuff. I CAN say that spring rains are beginning to fall on my pathway. Praise Be to God!