While I welcome everyone to my writing, because that is the nature of love, this reflection is specific to my brothers and sisters who call Jesus Lord. Words long overdue, but ones that now require revelation. Revealing not only my heart, but matters that trouble my heart as a believer in the body of Christ.
This sorrowful reflection isn’t about wanting to change anyone’s specific scriptural beliefs. Instead, it’s an appeal to all Christians to humble all our hearts. It’s about acknowledging that people who believe in Jesus as the Christ can have differing perspectives without resorting to name calling, judgement and our own sense of pride to be “right.”
My heart grieves when I witness this division and divisiveness within the body of Christ. Modern fault lines with ancient roots centered around Biblical interpretation. A familiar challenge to the early church as it wrestled with the implications of its Jewish heritage, the role of women in ministry and its relationship to an unjust world that practiced infanticide, slavery and other horrors of human misery and suffering.
The same world that nailed Jesus to the cross. The same world that we live in. The same world that tempts us to choose condemnation of our neighbor as opposed to loving God and all our neighbors in all situations.
Wise words and authentic actions that are far more significant than any of my life’s labels such as male, white, American or gay to name just a few. Because love is at the heart of the greatest commandment, it’s also the heart of Jesus’s teachings. Because love is at the heart of scripture, it also reflects the heart of God.
Love is never about making yourself feel better at the expense of other people. This is why we need to always begin any conversation from a place of humility, kindness and truth. As brothers and sisters within the body of Christ, I believe that it’s not incongruent to have differing opinions about gay people, women in ministry and our relationship with the world. In fact, I think it leads to a greater and richer understanding of what it means to follow Jesus.
It’s also at the heart of my heart as I try to live a life that’s always and only about love. For by one Spirit all of us—male and female, straight and gay, and people of all skin shades and nationalities—were baptized into one body and privileged to drink from one Spirit. Love lacks labels.
Like all faith filled followers, I believe that Jesus is Lord and only through His grace is salvation possible. Neither my words or actions, no matter how pious they might seem, can offer eternal life. Grace is never conditional or about performance or about differences in scriptural interpretation. Grace isn’t just for some, but for everyone. It’s not a gift of exclusivity, but a gift of inclusivity.
The heart of what matters is our hearts. A heart that only God fully knows. A heart that only God will judge.
And yet, here we are. The present-day Church at war within the body of Christ because differing faith traditions proudly boast that they alone “own” truth while disowning humility. Believing they’re morally superior because other humans are morally failingly. Deceitful falsities all of us succumb too. Missing the mark because we’re not living a life of love.
Evil stirring this simmering stew of shamed superiority because we no longer engage in a dialogue of respectful disagreement with one another. We no longer believe in discernment or differing interpretations concerning scripture. We no longer lead with humility even when love should always lead with humility; because love is never boastful or prideful.
Whenever we make another human our “enemy,” particularly our brothers and sisters in Christ, we’re definitely no longer worshipping God but the demons of darkness. Spiritual powers that seek to separate us from the love of God in our shaming of other humans. Humans who reflect the Divine. Humans made in the image of God, like you and me.
A life lesson we all share with all people because we all have fallen short. A gentle reminder when we think we’re better than everyone else because we’re “God’s people” even if everyone belongs to God. A tragedy for humanity because we’re defining the parameters of God’s love. A love idolized because its defined by our ideas of separation, superiority and self-assuredness.
Being straight or gay is just another worldly label because my true identity is as a child of God. A sinner, like all people, who is in need of salvation. A sinner saved solely by the grace of God. A God so filled with love that He came into this world to save all His children from the Evil One.
Scripture is filled with countless stories of people who didn’t deserve God’s love; people like me and perchance like you. Scriptural stories that repeat over and over and over that God’s love triumphs over everything that impedes love including our own moral failings. Scripture sharing God’s story of love for all people, as opposed to a few verses that make us feel morally superior as opposed to morally humble.
Like all faith filled followers, I begin with the belief that Jesus is Lord and only through His grace is salvation possible. Neither my words or actions, no matter how pious they might seem, can offer eternal life. Grace is never conditional or about performance or about differences in scriptural interpretation.
Our discernment of scripture becomes secondary because God’s love and grace is primary. The love that surpasses all human understanding and knowledge because its Divine. Scripture is God’s story; a story of love for all people.
Like everything about the nature of God, what I have come to dimly understand about love is that it often surprises, mystifies and challenges me in ways that are both uncomfortable and consoling. Confronting false stereotypes about other humans who nevertheless reflect the Divine while confronting my own biases and blind spots; my own haughty pride and hidden desires.
Like a king who doesn’t come to be served but to serve. Like a shepherd leaving ninety-nine sheep behind to find the missing one. Like the Son of Man innocently crucified to redeem all of us from the bondage of evil while offering all believers the gift of eternal life.
As brothers and sisters united and saved through the body of Christ, let’s not succumb to division over a few lines of scriptural interpretation. Instead let’s surrender to the spirit of God that runs through all of scripture. One body with many parts.
We don’t have to always agree with one another’s discernment and perspective about every single verse of scripture. What we do have to agree on, and what ultimately matters is that we believe that Jesus is Lord; and our life’s one and only obligation is to live it to the fullest by loving God and loving one another. An obligation greater than any scholarly schism. God is love.
Let’s engage in dialogue and sincerely try to appreciate and understand the fullness of scripture and the love of God. Finding riches not only based on our experience and our expertise, but also in the experience and expertise of believers with different traditions and perspectives. United in our determination to strengthen the body of Christ as opposed to finding ways to divide the body of Christ.
God’s story doesn’t end when we close our Bibles. In many ways it begins and breathes through the love we create as we honor God. A story I’m still learning. A story that always begins with humility as opposed to egotism.
My humbled heart reminding me that all glory belongs only to God not me; not my pride. I’m learning that love, not division, will bring me closer to who God wants me to be. A child of God and a disciple of love in both words and actions.
Peace. God loves you.