And This Is Love...

    So often we forget that the Gospel's foundation is relationship. Even if we understand that fact, we go about our relating in such a righteous manner that the entire purpose of interaction is lost. 

     The foundation to relationship is understanding and accepting the other person. When you make friends, you do not brush people off, telling them to come back to you once they attain perfection. Instead, you interact with them at their level; knowing them is your highest goal. Only once you have relational trust  can you begin to work through the personal flaws, yours especially.
   
     We cannot continue to disown souls merely because they fail to agree with us.
   
     We need to realize that friendship is not an endorsement of that person's mistakes [nor is their friendship a conciliation to your shortcomings either], but it is instead the first step in beginning to pour out love upon someone. Love is patient, love is kind, love keeps no record of wrongs.

     When we throw out the cliché that Christ was "counter-culture," and so we must be the same, I believe we forget what culture he was counter to. Christ did not come to be religiously conceited, joining the religious leaders in their holy, pontificating disapproval, shunning  the lowlifes who pursued their own lifestyles. It was these lowlifes that Christ made his friends and eventually followers and closest disciples.  Never once did he endorse their mistakes nor approve of their misguided living, yet he stoutly defended them from the religious and social furor so often directed at "the sinners." What an example of love we  miss in the actions of Christ! In the end, it was nothing he ordered them to do or convicted them of that persuaded them of his offered salvation - it was instead his constant service and willingness to sacrifice that brought them to his side. No man hath greater love than this that he lay down his life for his friends.

     His friends were the least of these.

     So what am I driving at? My question is, why we are more likely to invite someone from a bar to church than to let an open homosexual in at the door? Where do we derive the right to befriend or maintain fellowship with someone who cheated on their spouse or involved with pornography, yet deny a gay or lesbian any semblance of relationship?  What have we done to attempt to find common ground with those whom with we disagree? Or have we forgotten that  those faces belong to people too?

     We seem to have this notion that loving a person requires overlooking their wrong. And so, homosexuality and other sins remain unlovable because they appear so offensive. But loving a person is more than ignoring their flaws; it is accepting a person despite them. If we are to even approach culture, we must live with this sort of love.

     We cannot hope to persuade the world otherwise unless the world trusts us first. As it stands, the Church is not seen as trustworthy. Instead, it is viewed as a homophobic, anti-progressive, conservative base rife with stereotypes and fried chicken. Is this what is true? Yes, we differ from popular opinion and disagree with much of secular thought; however, we have allowed our disagreements to widen the already existing rift between the Church and the Culture. We have forgotten that a similar rift - the eternal separation between God and humanity - was bridged through the love of one man, Christ. Let us minister with that self-same love and bridge this modern, ever widening gap. Let us offer more to culture than a repeated condemnation. Let us work to find common ground upon which to build relationships.

     My brother and I have had our disagreements over the years. I was more often than not the overbearing, self-righteous firstborn, burdened with the maintenance of holiness and personal image. I saw him as the wayward sibling with whom I had been tasked to bring back to the sheepfold. For every flaw he counted in me, I would count twice as many in him, and remind him  to boot. And so, we tolerated each other, suspiciously watching the other's action, each convinced the other was wrong. In all those years, we had little affect in our attempts to conform the other to our standards.

     The day came however when I was to leave for college. We loved each other dearly, brothers in battle, comrades in life to the last. Yet that same suspicion remained. The separation of our lives for the next weeks effected a change though.  The suspicion passed away and was replaced by an irrepressible sense of honor. That Christmas was the first time we ever discussed life openly or considered the other's advice.  We replaced what had been a begrudging existence of disagreement with a grateful relationship of love. We loved each other as equals who cared rather than as disapproving competition.

     As I did for so many years, so we too as Christians have forgotten who our brothers really are, and we have forgotten how to love them. When you look into the eyes of a stranger on the street, you look into the eyes of your brother. When you gaze upon a crowd, you gaze upon a gathering of brethren. When you pass by a searching soul, you pass by a soul kindred to your own. 

     But do you seek to bring these searching brothers an answer? Then you must first love. For without love, there is no life to be given.

You say let it go...

      "I'm sorry. How could you ever forgive me?"
      Its a phrase that is always hard to say to a friend, and even harder to hear from one. Its a statement of complete remorse that painfully stitches up the wounds of a wrong.
       Forgiveness.
       Its tough to ask for and sometimes an enormous challenge to give to someone. We often hold on so tightly to our grudges against our siblings, against the world, stewing in the anger or frustration that we believe to be so righteous.

      But let it go.

     Oftentimes we focus so much on Easter Sunday, but we sometimes fail to recognize the magnitude of what happened today almost 2,000 years ago. See, today was the day that Christ died, the day that His blood poured out of His body satisfying God's demand for a righteous sacrifice for the sins of humanity. The price of man's sin had to be paid--and that price was death.
       A death that Christ gave Himself to willingly.
       Because of that death, the cost of every sin of the world--past, present, future--was fully paid. The ledgers of debt were cleared, the negative balance was erased. And every sin--past, present, and future--was forgiven.
       This is a fact that we so often overlook--that everyone has been fully and completely forgiven. You don't have to belong to a megachurch; you don't have to sing in the choir; you don't have to be the perfect father, mother, or sibling; you don't have to have a clean record; you don't have to be straight.
        It has all been forgiven.
       When I step out my front door, I sometimes can't help but look at the world with a skeptical eye, writing it off in my mind as a total, decadent, twisted loss. I turn and look into the mirror of my circle of friends and family, and see us as so much better than the world, those very special few who have a message of righteousness and love to bestow to those we choose. But I forget that Christians all were forgiven just as much as the rest of the world. We've just chosen to recognize the fact. But the fact that we ignore was that Good Friday wasn't about creating elitists, but about destroying the barrier between us and God's love.
      When Christ walked the earth, He didn't selectively pick and choose the righteous rulers to become His comrades; He spent His time and ate His meals with fishermen, with tax collectors, with prostitutes. His love was for the scum of society, the people that the righteous looked upon with repugnance. And when He died, He forgave them all. Even against the soldiers who provided His cruel and painful death, He refused to hold a grudge. "Father, forgive them."

      I firmly believe that you cannot be a Christian if you do not accept Christ's love for you. I firmly believe that you cannot be a Christian and refuse to share Christ's love for the entire world. Yes, God is just; consequences will come for where we all have abandoned Christ in our lives; but we get hung up on proclaiming God's great wrath and justice and forget to explain that every single one of us has been forgiven. We can't selectively choose to discriminate against people just because their sins stand out more or smell worse than the sins of the person next to them. We cannot shut the doors to the Church simply because someone has tried to find love in drugs, alcohol, pornography, or homosexuality.
       We so often urge unbelievers to not waste the gift of forgiveness that Christ's death provides, but I think it is often we who waste this gift by forgetting that every person is loved and is forgiven by Christ. We write the person off as a total loss, failing to see the forgiven soul under the sinful flesh.

        Friends, do not forget the reason for Christ's sacrifice.

       It is hard to forgive someone, yes. My brother? Its hard. Myself? Doubly hard. The world? The challenge of a lifetime.
     
But it all has been forgiven by Christ. Shall we do the same?

[You say let it go]

When you feel like you're damaged goods, broken by your past or by your life, remember: every fiber of your being is loved, and every wrong deed in your history was washed away by the crimson sacrifice of Christ today.

Rasa, Rasa...

Physics tonight. And a poem.

Rasa, Rasa

My heart beats,
As a man, as a drum.
Hear the lifeline of this earth
Dominion and destruction

Return to this paradise
Respite of the fallen
Roll the dice, pass the cup
Revel in this pleasure den.

If you fly higher
You shall fall all the more
Ten graves deeper down
Looking only to travel lower.

Fall away, call away
What are you looking for?
Famed in the darkness
But starbright at the core.

Raise up, rise up.
Rasa, rasa, tabula rasa.
Rewrite your story,
Reclaim those you lost.

A man once paid ransom for you,
Heaven met Earth for your soul.
Death brought life: Ni kumaliza
Let your debt be paid in full.

See your deeds, failures, your scars
He sees them, knows where you've been
Where you've lived up, down, tried to let go
But calls you Saint, no more condemned.

Child, child, child
Why do you weep?
When Hope seems gone,
Joy destroyed,
Love has left,
Life at dead end.
Remember: you're the one I chose to keep.

[never stop living]

The "Good" in this Friday...

    Two thousand and twelve years ago this day, a man died. He wasn't the only man to die on that day. He wasn't the most famous man to die on that day. Yet, his death changed the lives of millions.
     He was the King, yet was a pauper. He owned the world, yet had no place to lay his head. He was the source of human life, yet submitted to a common criminal's  death. He rescued his friends, yet his friends deserted Him in the end. He was a man, and He was God.

     On this day in history, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the son of a carpenter, died at the hands of the Pharisees and Romans, suffering to the last on a cross. He was a common man, with an uncommon heritage: His father was the Creator of the world, infinite master of the Universe. Christ stepped from the heavenly realm into human form, still imbued with His ultimate power and love.
     But He was killed.

     How is a day good if it marks the death of the Son of God?

     Because this was the day that you were you were forgiven. Today you were set free from sin.
 
     Throughout history, wrongdoing has always required a blood sacrifice for forgiveness; on this day in history, the  pure and sinless blood of God was spilled, covering and repairing the scars, past, present and future, caused by sin. There was incredible love shown on that cross; this God-man died on behalf of the entire world. Other religions have gods who died for various reasons, but never have any of those gods died because they loved every single person in the world.
      But Christ did. His bloody suffering washed you clean--He took the punishment that was yours from the day you were born. The thorns in his head, the nails through his wrists and his ankles, the shards of metal and glass left in his back by the executioners' whips; but at the end of it all He said, "Father, forgive them."

     Today, the Lord died, but today you were set free.

     Freedom from your sin is an incredible gift--go ahead and take it.
     We live because He loved.
   

You are forbidden to say "No"...

     There is a planet in our universe where right is quickly becoming wrong, and wrong is hurriedly transforming to right. The planet believes that shape-shifting morals is the perfect system for life. This same planet also is a proponent of Inter-Galactic "Free-Choice," where everyone is free to live as they please, act as they like (within legal barriers of course), and think as they want.
     But they aren't allowed to say "No."
    Within this planet, there are specific issues to which it's citizens (and subsequent galactic travelers from other worlds, once they are discovered) simply must comply. If they do not comply, the populace shouts them down as bigots, backwards, and marshmallow heads. They are overruled in the courts.
 
     A few days ago in Britain, an elderly couple who owns a Bed and Breakfast in the English countryside lost their court case to another couple whom they had refused hospitality at the hotel. The presiding judge ruled that the refusal amounted to unlawful, direct discrimination. Discrimination against whom?
    The couple who was trying to stay at the Bed and Breakfast was homosexual.
    Out of their beliefs the elderly host couple refused the two men a room because they believed that solely civil union (as well homosexual union) did not constitute a marriage. The host couple is considering appealing the ruling, especially because they believed that it was in their right as private business owners to allow or disallow people to stay at their inn. In addition, they believed that it was their prerogative to act according to their religious convictions: that homosexuality is wrong.
   But the British court forbid them to say "No."
   The reasoning behind the decision was that as a commercial enterprise, the B&B was subject to community standards, rather than the owners' private standards.
    Is this what religious freedom looks like?
    I realize that the homosexual couple may have been looking forward to a nice weekend at a B&B in the English countryside, but never, never, never should vacation plans supersede religious belief.

     This issue is now growing in America. I foresee many instances like this one where Christians refuse Homosexuals because the lifestyle is one of sin. Homosexuality is unnatural, unhealthy, and detrimental to the entire family, which is the foundation of our civilization. Christians naturally will refuse to extend the hand of welcome to this unnatural lifestyle. They love the sinner, but the sin is something Christians cannot support.

   The question is, whose beliefs will be overruled?