Changing the Conversation Without Apology

As I write this post, the Supreme Court of the United States has just issued its majority opinion to legalize same -sex marriage in all 50 states. I have experienced a range of emotions; sadness, frustration, hope, heaviness, just to name a few.

This is a decision I would have celebrated 17 years ago, in fact, I dreamed of it but never saw it coming. So, in a sense I see the joy on my neighbor’s faces and I get it, there is a sincere belief that love has won!

I spent time at the Supreme Court this evening praying, and having conversations with LGBT individuals. I was not there to argue. Rather, I was there to listen. I was there to understand more. I wanted to know what this meant to them, personally. I wanted to know their experiences with the Church, and if the church could do anything to reconcile the animosity. I am moved to tears because I genuinely have a love for the individuals I spoke with last night and that love extends to all my neighbors.

I am moved to tears because they are real people with real experiences, real identities, and real hopes, yet I believe that those hopes, those identities, and those experiences are misplaced and will not lead to peace with Christ.

I am moved to tears because I know that my love will not be enough to prevent my conviction from bringing a divide or even in the understanding of some, pain. However, my conviction is rooted deeply in an understanding of the body and sexuality that finds its greatest expression in the picture of the Gospel. So stand I  must.

Stands can be costly! I feel the weight of that stand tonight and I wish it didn’t have to be this way. I wish that my heart, my love, my faith, my understanding of God, and most of all my deep sense of sincerity would not be met with suspicion. What will come in the days that follow, only God knows, but I will spend the rest of my life bringing the reconciling love of Christ to those in need of a true and eternal identity.

However, in standing I am renewing my commitment to love without asterisks and qualifiers. The conversations I hear often center around some form of qualification or asterisk that generally leads to a lack of love or a love that feels disingenuous.

I want to go boldly with Christ outside the camp and bring the reconciling love that he won two thousand years ago.

I want to challenge my brothers and sisters in Christ to look at the picture above and see your neighbor and not your enemy!

Look at this cultural moment from a cross-driven paradigm and not with a battle driven paradigm. The essence of the cross is that it represents the one who lost his life in order that we might gain it. The battle paradigm seeks to conquer enemies or ideas in order that we might win.

The cross did not lose yesterday, it won long ago. What remains to be seen is if the effect of the cross will be carried to our neighbor with the goal of reconciliation. Will we do what is necessary to ensure the conversation? Conversations and stories about eternal ideals and identities bring change, shouting and engaging with nationalistic pride does not!

So, I commit to love without apology, even when it makes me or others uncomfortable. That’s how Christ  loved. I commit to stand with conviction, without apology. That’s how Christ lived. This will surely break my heart at times and it will cost my family certain friendships, it already has.

The Gospel is worth it and people are image bearers, not issues. So, today is day 1 in an effort to change the conversation of the church and to help us understand that love is a theological conviction and not an asterisk we tack onto doctrinal statements. Love is a doctrine, and it is a difficult one. Love does not mean we celebrate sin, it does not mean we give up on the scriptures or two thousand years of biblical witness.

Love means that no matter who you are or what you do, you bear the image of a magnificent Father, who loves you and qualified that love through the death of his son. Love means that there is nothing you are doing or can do that will prevent that truth from being extended to you. Love means I call you to trust it and believe it and continue to love and walk with you when you do not. Love means that I be willing to do anything short of sin to see my neighbor love the truths of the Gospel.

Love has won, indeed and this love is marching forward today in me and my family as we commit to give our lives for the cause of Christ in loving our neighbor.

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