A month or so back, Kirk put this post up on his blog. It's haunted me every now and then ever since.
When he put it up, I responded to it in this way:
Kirk, thanks for sharing this, and for loving this young man, and carrying him and his story along with you each day.
I have an aunt who is a lesbian - long time committed relationship with her partner. A friend's uncle is gay, and most likely dieing slowly from HIV AIDS.
It's not worth it to me to take a militant stance on gay marriage or really anything else. It's all about people. We are blinded by the issue and stop seeing the people, and then things get dangerous, and messy, and we get video games that depict Christians laughing as people are slaughtered. I just want to love on people the way Christ loved on me and brought healing in my life. I wrote about that this morning on my blog... sharing the love and mercy that was passed on to me.
Gray areas are clarified and intensified in the cleansing mercy of Christ, the mercy that identifies us all equally as sinners and, if we choose to receive it, equally as saints.
I still feel like this. If we lose the people in the midst of the issue, why bother? The person is so much more important than protecting some sort of moral high ground. I'm tired of a Christianity that is so much more concerned about the way it looks, and the power it has in a culture, than it is about the people of that culture (be it North American or elsewhere). I'm tired of the moral high ground. The high ground is lonely, and there is no variety in the people it contains.
I've been thinking about a comment Jason Upton made in the teaching that Marty loaded onto my ipod from the conference we were at a few weeks ago. Upton was speaking about this striving in the church to be relevant to culture, and he made this observation that has caught at me ever since... "Jesus was not relevant. He was common." Wow. Huge difference. Forget the moral high ground, let's become common and really love people. Maybe if we love them, we can introduce them to the reason for that love. And if not, well, we loved them, and that is never something wasted.
Monday, November 27, 2006
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Just thinking some more about the whole "becoming common" bit... Reading a book titled "The Irresistable Revolution" by a guy named Shane Claiborne. He tells a story about a group of homeless people living in a church in Philadelphia who were going to be evicted. Then he talks about how the student community at Eastern University got involved in the situation - they became "one" with the people. Jesus becoming common. I am increasingly drawn to a "small" lifestyle - something communal, Christ centered. Living with friends or with a family - a variety of people ages and backgrounds, united in Christ and a love for people...
splendour in the ordinary
totally - splendour clothed in rags. the completely common life, lived with the goal of Christlikeness. Not about power or position because our identities are secure in Him, but about the people that are created in the image of an invisible God - a God who became common, who suffered, who bled and died a criminal's death. Simply love.
simple, ordinary, and full of beauty and splendour.
Lisa, you are so right on. Thank you for giving me something to think on. Hope you don't mind I shared this with a few friends.
How are you by the way? Hope you're feeling better since last week, though sometimes we need to get angry. Let me know if you want to grab another coffee sometime.
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