I keep hearing that if we stand for truth, we\u2019ll alienate people from the Gospel. But today reminds us we need not choose between truth and love.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re on the wrong side of history.\u201d \u201cNot fully affirming LGBT rights is unloving.\u201d \u201cJesus loved everyone, why do you hate gays and lesbians?\u201d<\/p>\n
These are the sorts of things that proponents of one-man, one-woman marriage keep hearing. To oppose gay marriage is to be relegated to history\u2019s ideological dustbin along with those who resisted civil rights for African-Americans or the vote for women.<\/p>\n
And since 2014, more and more self-identifying evangelical voices have joined the chorus. Pastor Rob Bell boldly recently proclaimed on Oprah\u2019s network that churches that reject same-sex marriage will soon be irrelevant. He even chided \u201cthe church\u201d for \u201cquoting letters from 2,000 years ago\u201d to defend traditional marriage. Wow.<\/p>\n
And the media continues to highlight any and every church who declares it has \u201cevolved\u201d on the issue of marriage and has become \u201can affirming congregation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Among the most common reasons offered by these Christians for endorsing same-sex marriage \u2014 or at least for not resisting it \u2014 is that it\u2019s too contentious and so unwelcoming. Taking a stand for marriage, they say, gets in the way of the grace of the Gospel. It excludes people from church. We have to reach out, and strong opinions about sexuality and marriage are only distractions, and therefore unloving.<\/p>\n
Well, I think today of all the days in Holy Week is the time to confront this repeated refrain. Why? Because the Thursday before Easter is known as Maundy Thursday, the day set aside on the Church calendar to remember the Last Supper.<\/p>\n
The word \u201cmaundy\u201d comes from the Latin word for \u201cmandate,\u201d or \u201ccommand.\u201d At this first celebration of communion, Jesus gave His disciples what He called \u201ca new command,\u201d to love and serve one another. And He demonstrated what He meant by washing their very dirty feet.<\/p>\n
Now to fully appreciate this command, we have to remember that at this supper Jesus and the disciples were obeying God\u2019s original command to the Jews to remember the Passover. The Passover meal celebrated God rescuing His people from Egypt, as described in the book of Exodus. For Jesus to have the audacity to offer a \u201cnew\u201d command when the old one was such an important part of Israel\u2019s history, is astounding enough. But Jesus went even further. Rather than remembering the redemption of their forefathers from Egyptian tyranny and the way the angel of death \u201cpassed over\u201d the homes with lamb\u2019s blood on their doorposts, they were now to remember His broken body and His shed blood. In Christ\u2019s death, death itself is not just avoided; it is defeated.<\/p>\n
Since the mid-twentieth century, the American Church has been divided over whether it should be primarily about proclaiming truth or about serving others. But the Lord\u2019s Supper reminds us that this is a false dichotomy. These two things can never be separated. On the same night that Jesus commanded us to remember His broken body and shed blood that rescues us from sin (that\u2019s the truth), He commanded us to demonstrate our new life by loving and serving others (that\u2019s the grace). So we don\u2019t have to choose between speaking truth and showing grace. They always, always must go together.<\/p>\n
Thus we can and we must offer both the truth about marriage and the grace of God to all of our neighbors, including those with same-sex attraction.<\/p>\n
And we ought bring truth, love, and service to every issue that faces the church in our society. That\u2019s precisely what Warren Smith and I are calling for in our new book, \u201cRestoring All Things.\u201d It\u2019s filled with stories of courageous believers who are, in fact, preaching the Gospel with both their lips and with their lives.<\/p>\n
We need not choose between truth and love. After all, the embodiment of Jesus of both in the event we commemorate on this day, was proven true once and forever by the event we commemorate on Sunday. He is truth. He is love. And, He has risen. Indeed.<\/p>\n
________<\/p>\n
Copyright (c) 2015 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. \u201cBreakPoint\u201d is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I keep hearing that if we stand for truth, we\u2019ll alienate people from the Gospel. But today reminds us we need not choose between truth and love. \u201cYou\u2019re on the wrong side of history.\u201d \u201cNot fully affirming LGBT rights is unloving.\u201d \u201cJesus loved everyone, why do you hate gays and lesbians?\u201d These are the sorts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3609,840,3607,981,3606,3610,3608],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6093"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6093\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}