"Don't Bring Jesus Into It"

So, there are those moments you live for in ministry and those moments where if you didn't laugh, you'd cry. One of my fellow ministers had one of those moments yesterday, and it's a story I had to share.

While manning the phones at the office, he received a phone call from a man who had a concern, but wished to remain anonymous (I'd have hung up right then, but my fellow ministers are more patient than me). The man had seen a sign at one of the local churches that read "Homosexuals Welcome" and wondered what stance our church would take.

Of course, this gets into difficult issues of "love the sinner, hate the sin" and of selecting certain sins as "unforgivables." I won't get into those here, and my fellow minister didn't necessarily want to get into them with an anonymous stranger over the phone. Nevertheless, he began with "well, my feeling is-"

He didn't get much farther than that. The man cut him off and said, "I don't want to know your feeling, what is your church's stance?"

My fellow minister tried a different approach. "We try to be like Jesus. His example shows-"

Here's where the wheels came off the conversation. The caller (who, if you missed it, had his own agenda) said "don't bring Jesus into it, what does your church think?"

Of course, the notion is laughable. Imagine trying to take a position or develop a doctrine without bringing Jesus into it. Problem is, many of us don't have to. We've seen it done.

We've seen (and, let's be honest, been a part of) churches developing their own views and then calling them God's will. We've heard preachers, pundits, and politicians co-opt Christ for their own initiatives. We've put together a plan or program and then asked that God would bless it. We've read the Bible in order to know the Bible better instead of knowing God. Being a Christian is so much easier when you can just leave Christ out of it.

When Christ jumps in, things get messier. Our world gets shaken up, the Spirit moves like a whirlwind and only what is of God remains. Then we have to decide whether we follow Christ or cling to what is being blown away.

Christ brings in a new kingdom with new values, new ways, new meanings for what is "good." Good people don't hang out with "good" people, but with sinners and tax collectors and prostitutes and (dare we suggest it) homosexuals. "Don't kill" becomes "don't hate" and "love your neighbor" goes hand in hand with "love your enemy." The new regime doesn't fit into the old world without completely destroying it. This is why we die and are brought to life again; anything less wouldn't change us.

And we must be changed. The new kingdom can't simply be placed over the old one any more than new wine can go into old wineskins. The new kingdom bursts the seams and breaks through in dramatic, and often painful, ways. New life means new birth and all the labor and joy that go with it. The new kingdom is foolishness to the old world and a stumbling block to its citizens.

I once taught a class on "love your enemies" and was confronted by an irate parent who, unknowingly, summed up the gospel of Christ by shouting "you are teaching our kids to love to an unnatural extreme." One can only hope.

But she was right to be upset. These teachings are scandalous. They subversive, they are a danger to the old ways. They could get someone killed.

They did, in fact. That's our story. "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son..." He loved the world so much that He brought Jesus into it. Praise God for His infinite grace.