A couple of weeks ago someone was kind enough to send me a thick envelope (it cost them three “forever” stamps!) full of Bible tracts and assorted clippings of scripture all condemning homosexuality. This person evidently is not in agreement with how our church interprets the welcoming love of God which we believe extends to ALL God’s children.
On the one hand, I applaud this person’s commitment to what they believe. A commitment so strong they are willing to take the time and energy to reach out as he or she did. On the other hand, I would have taken their whole argument a bit more seriously if they had included their name and address so we might connect and maybe even sit down over coffee to talk over our differences…and maybe even our similarities.
Now to be honest, I would normally just toss something like this in the circular file, especially because it was
anonymous. But I’m telling you about this because of something I read in preparation for leading our Wednesday morning Bible study. It was the week that Pastor Kelly was attending a funeral. So even though I wouldn’t be preaching, it fell on me to lead the class. (That’s the joy of having two of us!)
One of the passages was from 2 Samuel, and it spoke of how David was called to become king after the death of Saul, and then also how he claimed Jerusalem to be his “holy city.” The lectionary selection was 2 Samuel 5:1-5 and then 9-10. Do you ever wonder why some verses get passed over? In this case the omitted passages had to do with prohibiting “the blind and the lame from coming into the house of the Lord.”
One of the commentaries I looked at in preparing for that class said, “Verses 6-8 were omitted from the lectionary out of sensitivity to those in our Christian family who suffer these conditions.” Obviously times have changed and we no longer exclude people because of physical limitations. Remember Ron and Linda Schultz who were members with us for a time? They were both sight-impaired. How about Dave Rosing? Dave is one of our most faithful ushers, but one who moves about the sanctuary with the aid of a walker. And let’s not forget our beloved Linda Kreider, who for over a year has used a walker to get back and forth to her piano. All of these people, if we still accepted those verses as the absolute gospel truth, would be excluded from worshiping with us.
Why then is it so hard for some of us to accept the presence of people who simply chose to love in a different manner than our own? After all, their love of God is the same as ours. Their desire to worship is the same as ours. And most important of all, they are blessed and beloved children of God just the same as anyone else.
There are countless other passages in scripture that we no longer take as seriously as people once did and we even gloss over other passages that hit too close to home for many of us. After all, Jesus had a lot more to say about how we spend our money than how or whom we should love. But he does continue to call us to love all and to exclude no one. That’s what I try to do and I’m proud to say that’s what our church strives to do. Amen!
Pastor Andy