Hebrews 1:10-12
Yesterday I was in a public restroom and saw a Gay-Lesbian edition of the Yellow Pages for Austin; apparently, the publication was in its third edition. There were letters in the front from the mayor, several directors of something or other and other public-service types.
It was interesting, maybe enlightening. Maybe a little anticlimactic. The ads looked the same as ads in the standard yellow pages. The companies looked the same--there were a few I recognized. One ad for a real estate agent announced "Straight answers for gay people." They were cute, upbeat, mainstream. It was all very tasteful, very... normal.
People in the Christian community have demonized homosexuals, I think because it's been socially unacceptable for the past few hundred years. Sometimes our Christian culture acts like the world is turning into a depraved and crooked generation... Sometimes we seem to think that the pagans are at our doorstop, invading our culture and threatening our values on our home turf.
It's just not true.
Homosexuals were around before Christians. Pagans dominated the culture long before Christianity came on the scene. Child sacrifice and temple orgies were cultural staples long before the Cross was built or even dreamt of.
In short, I mean to say, it's a pagan world we're living in.
We're the invaders. For a Christian to treat a homosexual like he's an outsider, like he's a freak or like he doesn't belong, is like a tourist going into a local establishment and telling the owner that he should just pack up and go home because nobody wants him there. Not only is it insane, it's laughable.
When did we ever get the notion that it was our world to judge people in? When did we ever get the feeling that we had the right to say who belongs in this world and who doesn't?
We proclaim that the Bible is pertinent to all generations, and it's true. We say that God doesn't change or fade away, and that's also true. But a lot of churches are in danger of becoming irrelevant, meaningless in a society that's changed in ways they refuse to accept.
We can't sit in our holes and lament that the world is turning against Christianity; the world was never for Christianity. Society took on the guise of Christian values for a time to lull us into complacence and into pride over our achievements, to give us the feeling that we had accomplished a cultural revolution that the people of God before us could not.
Now that we see society turning against us openly, are we going to sit and weep for our lost utopia? But we should realize that a utopia within our current frame of refence is an illusion. It didn't materialize for the communists, and it won't materialize for Christians, either.
Paul and his fellow messengers brought the Bible into a world that didn't know the true God. God blessed and prospered the church, even when the whole world was trying to kill it and to stamp it out with lions and spears.
God has not changed. His power has not changed, and God is not losing His grasp on this world. If this world is revealed to us more now as a crooked and depraved generation than perhaps it was ten years ago, then we're only seeing the same truth as our Master, some two thousand years ago.
The nature of the world has not changed. Its intentions toward the word of God and His people are the same now as they were at the gates of Jericho, the same as they were in the destruction of the temple, the same as they were in the valley of Megiddo. If we see its intention the more clearly, then we should not take it as a bad thing; disillusionment is not a bad thing--it is only an opportunity to recognize the truth. The instructions of Jesus, even two thousand years later, are still the same today as they were then.
We must not judge the people of this world. We must love the people of this world. We must accept the people of this world, sinful as they are--just as God accepted us in our depravity. We must show the people of this world the love of a God Who does accept them as they are, Who died for them as they are, Who offers to give them His own righteousness now, as they are.
This is the example our Master has set for us.
It was interesting, maybe enlightening. Maybe a little anticlimactic. The ads looked the same as ads in the standard yellow pages. The companies looked the same--there were a few I recognized. One ad for a real estate agent announced "Straight answers for gay people." They were cute, upbeat, mainstream. It was all very tasteful, very... normal.
People in the Christian community have demonized homosexuals, I think because it's been socially unacceptable for the past few hundred years. Sometimes our Christian culture acts like the world is turning into a depraved and crooked generation... Sometimes we seem to think that the pagans are at our doorstop, invading our culture and threatening our values on our home turf.
It's just not true.
Homosexuals were around before Christians. Pagans dominated the culture long before Christianity came on the scene. Child sacrifice and temple orgies were cultural staples long before the Cross was built or even dreamt of.
In short, I mean to say, it's a pagan world we're living in.
We're the invaders. For a Christian to treat a homosexual like he's an outsider, like he's a freak or like he doesn't belong, is like a tourist going into a local establishment and telling the owner that he should just pack up and go home because nobody wants him there. Not only is it insane, it's laughable.
When did we ever get the notion that it was our world to judge people in? When did we ever get the feeling that we had the right to say who belongs in this world and who doesn't?
We proclaim that the Bible is pertinent to all generations, and it's true. We say that God doesn't change or fade away, and that's also true. But a lot of churches are in danger of becoming irrelevant, meaningless in a society that's changed in ways they refuse to accept.
We can't sit in our holes and lament that the world is turning against Christianity; the world was never for Christianity. Society took on the guise of Christian values for a time to lull us into complacence and into pride over our achievements, to give us the feeling that we had accomplished a cultural revolution that the people of God before us could not.
Now that we see society turning against us openly, are we going to sit and weep for our lost utopia? But we should realize that a utopia within our current frame of refence is an illusion. It didn't materialize for the communists, and it won't materialize for Christians, either.
Paul and his fellow messengers brought the Bible into a world that didn't know the true God. God blessed and prospered the church, even when the whole world was trying to kill it and to stamp it out with lions and spears.
God has not changed. His power has not changed, and God is not losing His grasp on this world. If this world is revealed to us more now as a crooked and depraved generation than perhaps it was ten years ago, then we're only seeing the same truth as our Master, some two thousand years ago.
The nature of the world has not changed. Its intentions toward the word of God and His people are the same now as they were at the gates of Jericho, the same as they were in the destruction of the temple, the same as they were in the valley of Megiddo. If we see its intention the more clearly, then we should not take it as a bad thing; disillusionment is not a bad thing--it is only an opportunity to recognize the truth. The instructions of Jesus, even two thousand years later, are still the same today as they were then.
We must not judge the people of this world. We must love the people of this world. We must accept the people of this world, sinful as they are--just as God accepted us in our depravity. We must show the people of this world the love of a God Who does accept them as they are, Who died for them as they are, Who offers to give them His own righteousness now, as they are.
This is the example our Master has set for us.
posted by ionathas78 at 7:06 AM
1 Comments:
Its like I told ya about people who will boycott Wall-Mart because they are giving proceeds from their online store to a gay/lesbian origination. I think its too easy to remember before we were baptized that we were sinners to this world. Now that we are cleaned by Jesus Christs blood, we need to love them just as Jesus loves us when we sin.
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