THE NEW SAMARITANS

One thing I love about Jesus is that he always found a way to subvert and undermine everyone’s comfort zone.

The Good Samaritan is a great example of that. When Jesus makes the hero of the parable a Samaritan, he puts every Jewish listener on the defensive.

Not only didn’t Jews like Samaritans, they considered them heretics and socially unacceptable. No Jew in Jesus’ day would have ever invited a Samaritan over for dinner, or allowed them to enter the Temple, or spent any time praying for, or alongside, a Samaritan.

Yet in Jesus’ parable the Samaritan is the one who shows kindness and mercy and love to the Jewish man who is found beaten on the side of the road. Masterfully, Jesus urges everyone to “go and do likewise” which would mean acting like a Samaritan and identifying with them as other human beings who are worthy of love and compassion.

Keep in mind, when Jesus used Samaritans in his parable, he wasn't endorsing their religion or their lifestyle. Instead, he was hoping to upset the negative stereotypes surrounding them. He wanted to challenge the idea that their bad theology made it acceptable for the Jews to hate them and treat them as less than human.

I recently heard a real-life Samaritan story. It had the same effect on me as I’m sure Jesus’ parable had on his audience that day.

Are you ready to hear something that might pull you out of your comfort zone?

This is a true story.

Here we go:

One night two Christian women stepped into the swimming pool which was outside their motel room.

They met another woman at the pool. This woman had rejected God. She had a can of beer in her hand and she stood at the other end of the pool with her husband.

One of the two Christian women began to talk with this woman who was far from God. She asked the woman with the beer can a question: “Is it ok if my wife and I are close in the pool?”

The two Christian women were gay.

The woman with the beer, who was far from God, said, "Well, I don't have to ask anybody for permission to hold my husband's hand and here y'all have been together 16 years. I think it sucks that you have to ask anyone that".

The Christian woman explained that she just didn’t want to offend anyone. “We understand that people get offended by our love,” she said. “They think it's perversion, that we're demonized, in rebellion against God. Others are afraid that we will convert their children by infecting them somehow.”

The woman with the beer, who was far from God, began to weep for these two gay women. She began to share her story with them. She told them about how she had been raised Catholic but had fallen away from the Church. She called herself an agnostic.

“You have shown more grace and love for us than most Christians ever have,” said the Christian woman, who was gay.

Then the two Christian women began to talk to her about Jesus. They told her that Jesus wasn’t like those who had heaped shame upon them. They talked about how Jesus saw everyone as beautiful and dearly loved. They asked her if she wanted to know Jesus in a personal way.

The woman with the beer thought that she had to accept the God of those judgmental Christians or become agnostic. She never knew there was another way.

For the first time in her life, this woman received the news that there was a God who loved her; a God that had nothing to do with any religion.

There, in that motel swimming pool, these two Christian women found common ground with an agnostic woman who was far from God.

Strangely enough, what had united these women together was an awareness that those Christians who had been cruel to the two lesbians and the Christians who had misrepresented the love of God to the agnostic, weren’t really acting like Jesus at all.

Eventually, one of the two Christian women told the woman with the beer something profound. She said, "The God you wanted to believe in has been there all along."

"I have never thought of it that way", the woman with the beer said, and as they continued to talk the woman just kept on repeating it over and over again. "I have never thought of it that way."

Before they left, the two Christians were able to give her some resources and pray with her.

That night, in the swimming pool, these two Christian women had loved this woman, and her husband, back to life. 

Where other Christians, who were straight, had failed to show the love of Jesus to this agnostic woman, these two women had demonstrated the love of Jesus and pointed her towards the Kingdom of God.

Go now, therefore, and do likewise.

-kg


*Special thanks to my friend P.K. Langley for her permission to re-tell her story here.

**
READ MORE?

*NOT A SIN?
*OUR MISSED OPPORTUNITY
*BLESSED ARE THE EUNUCHS
*A LOVE THAT'S BETTER THAN SEX

Our Missed Opportunity

By arguing with gay people about the validity of their love, we've missed the opportunity to talk with them about the reality of Christ's love.

Worse yet, we’ve also lost our chance to demonstrate the love of Jesus to them, and this is something that many of them are most desperate to experience.

What Jesus commanded of us, and what Jesus expects of us, is that we lead with love; and that we love others "as I have loved you" - which was unconditionally and completely.

Instead, we’ve decided that “love” is about telling people the truth. Therefore, by telling people that they are horrible sinners who are destined for an eternal suffering in hell, we are “loving” them and therefore we are fulfilling Jesus’ command to “love others”.

The problem with that is – it’s not love, it’s pride. Arrogance and judgment, maybe, but not love.

When Jesus gave us these commands to love others and to put others first, his examples included showing compassion to our enemies, spending our money to take care of their needs, healing their wounds, transporting them at our personal expense, and treating them the way we would like to be treated.

Here’s a simple test we can use to determine if we’re fulfilling Jesus’ command to be known by our love:

If people feel loved, then you are loving them.

If people feel hated, hurt and judged, you are not loving them.


I feel like we’ve been trying to make this Gay Marriage debate about them, when it’s really about us.

What I mean is, we’ve focused so much on how “wrong” they are – and how “right” we are – that we’ve failed to stop and see all the ways we are wrong.

Instead of stopping to ask ourselves what our mission to this culture really is, we’ve continued onward in a frenzy, desperate for the world to hurry up and open their eyes and see how right we are.

And in our impassioned ranting all they can see is how angry, and petty, and dismissive, and condescending, and unloving we are.

Put another way, all we have shown them is just how unlike Jesus we are.

Or, more tragically, we have told them that we represent Jesus, and then we have done what he would never have done; We have rejected them. We have condemned them. We have given them no hope.

The other day I read a blog post by a friend of mine from High School. He’s not a Christian. He’s also gay.

As I attempted to read this blog out loud to Wendy, in our kitchen, I just broke down into tears. His words sliced into my heart and ripped into my soul.

Here’s just a sample of what he shared:

“Apparently, this guy died on a cross so that I wouldn't be able to get married. I don't know how he knew that it would be an issue, over 2,000 years later, but he did it.

[Of course] he never said anything like that in the Bible, if you believe in that sort of thing. I personally don't think this guy died for [that]. I think he died because he tried to show that his God was not what everyone else was saying he was. I think he died because churches had become places of profit, rather than worship.

I think, if I believe the Bible, that he hung out with a whore and 12 other guys who went fishing a lot. I don't think he'd have trouble with guys who like guys.

I'm not even dating anyone, so what do I care? I care, because the oppressive energy behind this religious fervor is disheartening. When I am told that I cannot get married, I'm told I cannot be loved. To say to me that I may not get married is to say to me that I am sentenced to die alone.

I have a very dear cousin who has said to me, that God does not and will not honor my marriage. That I may not get married. I don't know if he realizes that he has said to me; that I may not express my love of someone else; that if I may not reach the destination of marriage, why bother making the trip?

Why bother trying to find someone that you can't marry? And if you're not married, you are living in sin. If you express physical love with someone you are not married to, you are sinning.

God hates sin. God hates you. God meant for you to be alone; [to] die alone.

Certainly, I don't believe any of those things are true, but my cousin does. He chooses to believe that God does not want me to be with someone.

Or maybe, somewhere in the back of my mind I do believe it. Maybe that's why I've gone this long without finding someone. Maybe I am alone because a while back, someone who is so close to me told me that I am unworthy of love.”
*

I know that reading all that may evoke a variety of thoughts and emotions in your heart.

You may be tempted to argue that my friend is arguing with God’s Word. You may be tempted to call him a sinner and point out how depraved his lifestyle is, according to a few verses in the Bible.

But, for a moment, I hope you can understand the value of hearing someone on the other side of this conversation reflecting back to us what we sound like.

Receive this as a gift from God to you. Understand that, in our pursuit of ultimate “rightness” we have been sending a non-Christian person messages like:

“God hates you.”

“You are unworthy of love.”

“You’ve been sentenced to die alone”.

It doesn’t really matter if we’ve intended to send those messages. Those are the messages they have received from us.

To me, the Christian church has missed the mark when it comes to loving the gay community.

Does anyone know another word for “missing the mark”?

Oh yeah, I think it was the word “sin”.

We can do better.

If we can set aside our need to be right and start getting on our knees to wash feet, and humble ourselves just a little, we just might convince people that God’s love is real, and that Jesus really does love them, and that they are not only worthy of love, they are at the center of His heart and dearly treasured by Him – and by us.

In fact, until they are loved and treasured by us, I’m not sure anyone will ever believe that they are loved and treasured by God.

“We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.” [2 Cor. 5:20]

-kg

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READ MORE?
*NOT A SIN?
*THE NEW SAMARITANS
*BLESSED ARE THE EUNUCHS
*A LOVE THAT'S BETTER THAN SEX

FILM REVIEW: STAINED GLASS RAINBOWS

I have a lot of great friends. One of them is Kent Williamson. He was the first guy to introduce me to Christian Alternative Rock music when I was in college. He played bass later on in my Christian Rock Band. He's probably the reason I ended becoming a walking encyclopedia of 90's Alternative Rock Music, which is why I got my job at Diamante Music Group about 20 years ago, which is why I ended up moving to California.

It's a pretty amazing thing.

And now, I am blessed to watch his latest documentary film: "Stained Glass Rainbows".

This film will not serve to reinforce your views on this topic - regardless of what your views may be.

Director Kent Williamson has assembled an excellent cross section of subjects to interview for his film - from Westboro Baptist Church "God Hates Fags" Christians, to "I'm Ok/You're Ok" Liberal Christian Pastors, and everything in between.

By that I mean: Christians who are gay and struggle with it as part of their sinful nature, and Christians who are gay and feel that it is part of who their loving Jesus made them to be.

Everyone interviewed brings a fresh, and challenging range of ideas and thoughts to the table. No one stands out as having all of the right answers, and some of the most profound statements made come from the mouths of those whom you would probably find yourself surprised to agree with.

I highly recommend this film to anyone who is a Christian and is interested in understanding every possible angle of this dialog.

Even if this film doesn't change your mind, it will certainly move the needle closer to the heart of understanding what it means to be gay, and to be a Christian, and how our calling to love one another can be more fully and perfectly practiced within the Body of Christ.

To learn more, and to buy your copy of the DVD for your church or home group discussion go to www.StainedGlassRainbows.com