Theology

Lost Sheep Looking for a Shepherd

October 4, 2011
by Gayle

Photo via flickr.com/photos/thomashawk

Last Sunday as we sat in church listening to the service, I am hesitant to call it a sermon because it was interactive and more like a classroom setting, and as the discussion progressed I became more and more uncomfortable. The scripture that was the reference was Matthew 21:31 where Jesus says in a parable, “I tell you with certainty, tax collectors and prostitutes will get into God’s kingdom ahead of you!” At one point in the service I was sure the minister was going to say ‘it is easier for prostitutes and homosexuals to enter the kingdom’ and I was not sure I was welcome among my fellow church goers.

Jenn and I have visited many churches in our 14 years together. Some of our experiences have been comical. For example our local MCC Church tried to give us the first time visitor prize 6 Sundays in a row. We visited our local Unity Church and when they asked first time visitors to stand, we did. We accepted the visitor carnation to designate us as visitors. We waited around holding the carnations for the coffee time and still left without anyone acknowledging or welcoming us. We attended a Baptist Church for 6-months where the only people who ever spoke to us were the preacher and our neighbors; we stopped attending because on a Sunday when the preacher was away, the guest speaker instigated a coup. There are more stories and more failed church relationships.

We landed at our current Church because we were invited by a friend to listen to him sing in the Easter cantata. As luck would have it, another acquaintance invited us to celebrate Easter with them that evening where we met, and liked the minister. We saw him again at the same couple’s Independence Day party, and he simply said “Haven’t seen you at Church lately”. A hopeful glimmer of acceptance was shinning on us like a spotlight!

We have found this Church to be welcoming and accepting. Turns out we knew and liked several members. We have been regularly attending since, July.  However the past two Sunday’s we have both felt uncomfortable in the service. Nothing was said that caused the discomfort, it was the result of years of experience.

You see in our long and substantial Church going past we have experienced hate. Not the kind of hate where people are throwing stones at you; not the overt hate of verbal assaults but the hate of not being truly accepted. Preachers will stand in the pulpit and equate being homosexual to those who commit murder. They will choose a scripture what will condemn homosexuality as a topic while ignoring the portions about eating shellfish.

A friend yesterday, in response to my equating homophobia with hate, said ‘not to split a hair… but, a phobia causes fear not hate. Sometimes the reaction of those who fear something, often because they are ignorant about the particular topic manifests itself in the form of hate. It also causes avoidance which is far from hate. I’m not a big fan of the word hate being tossed about without careful consideration. I know many good folks who are ignorant about certain things that are far from being filled with hate. Let’s not be lumping the uneducated with the hateful minority.’ He may well be right that the majority of homophobic and hate-filled rhetoric we hear is based on ignorance and not on hate. However, I am not sure I can feel the difference.

In Mark 9:38-40 John said to Jesus, “Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name. We tried to stop him, because he wasn’t a follower like us.” But Jesus said, “Don’t stop him, because no one who works a miracle in my name can slander me soon afterwards. For he that is not against us is for us. I long for the acceptance of a Church who understands as Jesus did that those who are not against them are for them. Those of us who sit in their pews and pay a tithe are not the enemy. We are, as they are, lost sheep looking for a Shepherd.

 

: Theology

Stones of Deflection

August 9, 2011
by Two or more

Some of the people in my life who have treated me the worst have worn the label ‘Christian’. It makes me sad. They have pointed at my life and ‘they’ condemned me and my life. I used to take great joy in the idea that they would answer for their ‘sin’ of keeping me from God. However, I have come to realize my hatred toward them is just as damning.

In the 8th Chapter of John we find a story we all know. It is the story of the adulteress… or maybe the story of the ‘cast the first stone’ quote:

At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

11 “No one, sir,” she said.

“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

Is not our modern Church the same as the Pharisees? Our modern Church takes the words of the Bible and chooses which they wish to believe and which they choose to think of as no longer necessary.

In this Bible passage, Jesus basically told the Pharasees to mind their own business.  If you as a church member are doing anything that is keeping someone else from God and the church, you need to take a long hard look at your own life, and probably just mind your own business.  When speaking with the woman, he didn’t condemn her, nor did he give her any road map to follow to be a better person.  He just told her to be a better person – it was up to her to determine what that was for her own life.

By condemning those who are homosexual, they think that they can change them by the force of their will or the extent of their anger.  By doing this, they hope to deflect the light from their own perceived sins; whether it be lying, cheating, infidelity or even their own sexuality.  When they “cast stones”  they do so in order to feel superior and be able to forget their own shortcomings. Has homosexuality become a red herring for Christians everywhere?

Jesus tells us to love one another, as Christ loves the Church. In that manner, we each have to determine what we should do to be the best person we can be. We must determine how we love others. Jesus didn’t love the woman in the story with condemnation and reproof. He loved her with compassion and understanding. We must all decide to be like Jesus and make our mantra to others ‘neither do I condemn thee’.

From now  I am going to try to remember that every time I pick up a stone I should examine myself in a mirror  BEFORE I cast the stone. Are my motives clear? or am I just deflecting from a light being shown the corners of my own life? Even more, I will remember that those who are casting stones at me are making me the scapegoat for their own guilt.

: Theology