Being the People of God: A Response to Orlando

We “weep with those who weep and mourn with those who mourn!”

As I lay my head on my pillow last night, emotionally taxed from the day, I was keenly aware that I did so knowing that my wife and kids were resting safely under the same roof. This hit me more than usual because this is not the case for far too many families in Orlando on this day. My heart breaks and I am moved to pursue justice and grace in the church all the more.

Hopefully, the Pulse shooting has awakened within every believer’s heart, the reality that every LGBTQ person is our neighbor and even more significantly, fellow image bears and heirs to the common grace of God in this life!

The news that 50 people were shot and killed and 53 more injured in a mass shooting at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, is a sobering reminder of many terrible realities. It is too easy to give into hate, too easy to target vulnerable populations, too easy to abuse the freedom to own guns, and tragically, way too easy to devalue human life.

The tragedy in Orlando is also a reminder to Christ’s church that our LGBTQ neighbors are vulnerable, and too often radical elements of our religious world devalue their humanity. To be clear, any attempt to link this tragedy with sincere disagreements over Christian theology is opportunistic and a sad distraction from the larger reality of lives lost here. The Orlando tragedy is the outworking of a broken heart, which harbored hate and a view of God that would allow for such actions.

To be clear, any attempt to link this tragedy with sincere disagreements over Christian theology is opportunistic and a sad distraction from the larger reality of lives lost here. The Orlando tragedy is the outworking of a broken heart, which harbored hate and a view of God that would allow for such actions.

There can be no room for such a view of God in the Christian community. The beauty of Christianity is presented to us all in a savior that would die, in order that all may live. This is the very antithesis to killing or dehumanizing in his name. The message of Christ’s sacrificial life and incarnational love for all is a message that all who name Christ should rally around.

Today’s tragedy in America, in the gay community, stands as an exclamation point to the call for a changed posture and a call to engage in the humanization of fellow image bearers that Christ loves. It should break us to empathy and action to know that it is highly likely that people died today, who were at odds with family over their sexuality, sons and daughters who did not have a relationship with their parents.

Our faith can never be a reason to turn away from each other, but it should be…must be… the reason we toward each other and press in, even when we don’t understand or approve. Christ calls us to nothing less! When we change these realities, we start to be the people of God, the ambassadors of Christ we are called to be.

Whatever, our theological differences are, make no mistake, LGBTQ persons are our neighbors, fellow image bearers, and fellow souls that Christ died to reconcile to himself. We stand at the same foot of the same redemptive cross, and this is always true! We will waste this despicable tragedy if we fail to see that more intensely today!

What can we do to be the people of God in this moment and beyond?

Today, and in the coming weeks and months, we can model the way of Jesus, who wept over the loss of Lazurus’ life, when we weep over the loss of lives that he surely loved.

Go and be the hands and feet of Jesus, offering food, care, prayer and support.

Open up our churches for prayer services. We should do so unequivocally and without feeling the need to put asterisk or parameters on those services.

Love, live, and speak the good news of the Gospel even more clearly! Christ alone can bring the healing so desperately needed in the wake of Orlando

Be the people of God when we resist the divisions of our culture and society that would prevent us from joining hands with our community and our LGBTQ neighbors. Join hands and arms to weep, to comfort, to pray and to reassure! Speak up!

Speak up…Say something! Do not wait to be a voice for justice and grace. Push past the fear of being labeled. When anyone is devalued or dehumanized because we disagree with their choices and identities believers in Christ should be the first to answer the call with a gospel ethic of value.

Be the people of God that actively involve ourselves in initiatives to end violence, especially violence against sexual and gender minorities. I believe with all my heart that doing so is a beautiful outworking of the Gospel of grace we claim to love and live. We value all life and all dignity because we all bear his image and we are all loved deeply by the God who chose to reveal and relate.

Reflect upon our hearts and ask the Spirit of God what he is leading us to do, what barriers to love need to be crucified, and ask what love looks like. Hard and profitable conversations can bring repentance, empathy and produce the fruit of the Gospel.

“I love you” carries a call to action. Otherwise, it is a “noisy gong or a clanging cymbal” (I Corinthians 13:1)

We can and should be the people of God that intentionally pray for and comfort our LGBTQ family, neighbors, baristas, waiters, coworkers, and more who feel even more scared and vulnerable, because of today’s tragedy.

Finally, we can move forward from the worst mass shooting in American history by not forgetting how easy it is to devalue life and dignity. Commit to the principle that being a disciple of Christ can mean nothing less that intentionally standing up, regardless of differences, when we see lives, Jesus died to save, devalued or dehumanized by hate and ignorance.

So much more could be said, but let us start here and in the immediate days ahead, let us all pray for Christ to draw near with the grace he alone can give and please, God please, let the church take the lead in being the vehicle for that grace!