I expect to get hammered on this one, but social justice issues make my blood boil and this morning’s news article I read lit the burner. I know this is not the first time nor is it the first church to do this, but I am dumbfounded every time it hits the news. The article can be found at http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/10/31/funeral.protest/index.html and is about a “fundamentalist” church in Topeka, Kansas, who picketed a US Marine’s funeral. Their message, according to the media and what appears to be their website, has an exclusive message, “God hates fags.” 

I don’t even know where to begin with this. First of all, I’d like to know what seminary their pastor attended. I couldn’t find it on the website, but I’ll admit that I didn’t look very long because I really didn’t care. If this is the driving message of his church, he is completely, dead-wrong, off his rocker, confused, and twisted about the nature and person of Jesus Christ, the purpose of the church, effective evangelism, and the gospel message. I am as embarrassed to be grouped with him as a “Christian” as I imagine most mainline Baptists are about being grouped with his church as being Baptist.

My issue here is not to impose my personal opinion about gays and lesbians (at least, not today) because that is not the point. My issue is that the work we do in the name of Jesus can be known by its fruit. Apple seeds do not produce bananas, they produce apples. The driving force of God’s very being, and the ministry of Jesus Christ is love. As disciples of Jesus, we are to follow and lead in the footsteps of that love. Jesus was not in the business of persecuting people while he walked among us. Granted, he did challenge a few people. As a matter of fact, he challenged the religious elite who were in the common business and practice of persecuting and marginalizing others for self-elevating purposes. Jesus dined with the “dogs” (speaking metaphorically): the religious failures, the sinners, the unclean of his day.  He was surrounded by thieves, prostitutes and murderers (to name a few who would have been considered in violation of God’s law) and continues to empower them into effective ministry even still today. 

Blind hatred is not a fruit of the Spirit. And if that is the driving force of our ministry, then we’ve missed the treasure in the field. We are blind to the Kingdom of God. Granted, God does have an elect. It is all of creation, and God is in the business of redeeming every ounce of it. I believe Paul coined it perfectly in Romans 8 when he described that there was absolutely nothing, and I emphasize NO THING, that can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ.

Finally, my heart goes out to the Snyder family for the loss of their son, a fallen Marine. As the bride of an army chaplain, I shudder at the sacrifice their family has made. It has become a reality for so many. Yet I celebrate the strength they have found to fight this new battle and see where their son must have gotten his courage. My prayer for them is the seed of hatred for all this nonsense not be planted in their hearts. My prayer is that they be able to find peace at the end of this all. 

So what does Jesus do with the ones who don’t “get it?”

So what about the persecutors, the ones who don’t get it? As hard as it is to swallow sometimes, this is how I approach it: At his dying hour Jesus made a last request of his father. He asked for forgiveness adding that they did not understand what they were doing. First of all, who was he asking forgiveness for? For his friends? For one of the criminals dying next to him? Was the other excluded? What about the witnesses who did nothing to intervene? How about the celebrants seething and mocking Jesus at his feet? Do we think Jesus was exclusive in his request? I’ll just clarify, I don’t. Do we think he was kidding? Do we think he didn’t mean it? Do we think God did not grant his request? If this were your son, and you had the power in your hands at that moment to grant him anything he asked, would you not give it to him? 

I do not believe Jesus hated those he challenged in his day, rather I believe he was grieved beyond words. I believe he wanted them so much to get it, to understand, and they were completely missing it. Have you ever been so sure of something that you went toe to toe with another to prove you were right, and then you realized you were wrong? Me neither…  Seriously, how embarrassing! We have two choices at that point - we can enter into denial in an effort to spare our egos, or we can accept humility, admit we were wrong and embrace the truth. Perhaps hell is coming to a point in our journey where the splendor of God is laid out before us, but the only way we can participate in that majestic truth is to lay down all the stuff we were wrong about—the inconsistencies that conflict with that truth.  Imagine what it was like for Saul after his amazing spiritual encounter with Jesus. He had to swallow a lot of pride to admit he was wrong about murdering all those Christians. I can’t imagine that was easy. Imagine what his friends thought when he went the other way. At the change of his name, Paul went from being a persecutor to one persecuted, and he thanked God for the privilege. 

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 01, 2007 at 11:46 AM.

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