An Aversion to Labeling Sin: Pastor Smith

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Pastor Smith and Robert, the young man struggling with his sexuality, met again in Pastor Smith’s office. Robert came about fifteen minutes late in basketball shorts, a sweaty t-shirt, and new Air Jordan’s. He said, “Sorry about being late. I got into a three-on-three game at State’s gym. Sorry about stinking, too.”

“Don’t worry, Robert. It’s good to see you. I’ve had a few good games in my life, too. I’m glad you’re here.”

As Robert put a towel under his sweaty shorts he said, “I’ve thought a lot about our talk a couple weeks ago. I really don’t know why I’m so afraid of going to church. I guess I was programmed that way by my parents. They never went, and they only said how dumb and hypocritical church made you. You’re different, though.”

“I’m not much different than most of the Christians I know, Robert, but thank you for the compliment. It wasn’t Rodney King who started the phrase, “Can We All Just Get Along.” Jesus and the Apostle Paul said something like that 2,000 years ago!”

“That’s funny. I’m not sure if all Christians think that way, though.”

Pastor Smith leaned forward in his chair. “I think most Christians forget a fundamental doctrine of Christianity. We are all sinners, Robert. We get to feeling morally superior over other people all the time. In the 1500’s the Reformers had a phrase, ‘Total Depravity.’ to explain how we don’t have the ability to do much, if anything, perfectly. ”

“But Pastor Smith. That’s what I’ve been saying. Christianity is negative and rude. It labels people. “Good people.” “Bad People.” “Sinner.” “Saint.” “Homosexual or heterosexual.” How can you talk about someone else’s sin when you’ve got sin, too?

“Robert, the Bible doesn’t just condemn sin, but gives the answer to everyone’s inability to live perfectly in a chaotic world. In fact, I think that most people think they don’t sin, including Christians. I had an old Christian tell me once that most days he didn’t sin at all! He couldn’t remember the last time he had sinned. His only problem was that he couldn’t see his pride and indifference to any possible negative effect he had on people in his life.”

“But the Bible constantly talks about sin, doesn’t it?”

“Yes and No. In the Old Testament for every sin or list of sins mentioned, God restates his desire for relationship. He always shows people how he wants to forgive sin, from animal sacrifices to giving His Son as a substitute for our sin.”

“God didn’t say much about homosexuality, though!”

“That’s a good point. He doesn’t except for a few laws against it in Leviticus, which, I might add, are constantly questioned by my friends who do not believe homosexuality is a sin, and three places in the New Testament. Did you know that?”

“Not really, but I did hear some friends talk about how the Bible was twisted by homo-phobic translators, and a few of the translators were gay or lesbian. Wasn’t King James queer?”

“There is some evidence he was effeminate and possibly had male lovers, but his translators didn’t hold back any forceful translations against homosexual behavior, including Leviticus, even though King James used his power to get a translation favorable to his politics. Most modern translators understand that Jewish sexual behavior outside of marriage was due to cultural pressure, not because God allowed it. David had at least six wives. Abraham had a child with his wife’s servant. In the Promised land, the Israelites married Moabite women which God condemned, but we have no record of any man or woman lying with another of the same sex. It just wasn’t part of their mentality. Many wives? Yes. Same sex? As the King James Version says, ‘Abomination.’ I know this sounds hard, but that’s the cultural understanding of the context of the Bible. And it’s the same for the New Testament.”

“I think I’m done here. You’re just as prejudiced as anyone I’ve met.”

“You are welcome to go Robert, but one thing I must say. I’ve made a promise to be your friend, and even, to love you no matter what you do or say. You need to know that. I know we may differ, but if it’s love and acceptance you want, you’ve got it! Remember, I do the same for all my members, but it doesn’t stop me from talking about  sin and God’s tool he has for helping us become what he wants. If only I could help you see that God isn’t condemning because he’s hateful or prejudiced. I think this is the hardest part of the whole Christian doctrine to see, but it’s fundamental to hearing about God’s love, too.”

“Well, I’ll stick around for one more talk, but I don’t get it. I’m happy where I am, and so are most of my friends.”

“Robert, thank you! My goal is to talk freely with you, and if we can talk freely together, then we can see the most powerful of all the Christian beliefs. What time is good to meet next week?”

Related articles

• Come as you are (media4lifeministries.wordpress.com)
• Scripture and Homosexuality: Romans (six11.wordpress.com)
• Why Is Homosexuality Singled Out? (reneamac.com)
• Homosexuality (conservapedia.com)

Post Chastity Sunday Continued: Pastor Smith Almost Uses the “S” Word, and Robert Slings the “H” Word

Pastor Smith wanted to find out why his new, friend, Robert, had never been asked to go to church before. Robert said, “I guess I didn’t look like the church type. I didn’t fit in.”

“You didn’t think you’d fit in? Can I offer a suggestion to you?”

“You aren’t going to invite me back to church are you?”

“Not yet. How about meeting with me regularly. Would you?”

“Why should I? You aren’t going to accept me. I’m gay!”

“Robert, we have so many people in our church who don’t meet up to other’s expectations or God’s.”

“That’s what I mean! You put me down. You don’t accept my sexuality!”

“Robert, what I mean is that we all have something that, if we let it, makes us think others put us down. About half of our congregation has had a divorce. That’s over 100 people! Some of our members are recovering alcoholics. An elder is an ex-felon. Are you always going to use your sexual preference as a barrier to others who are different from you? Isn’t that what you feel Christians are doing to you?”

“You didn’t hear me! You put me in the same class as felons, addicts, and failed marriages. I am NOT a failure!”

“We are all failures, Robert. We have all sinned and failed to meet God’s standards. It’s easy to forget that we are all in the same boat. The difference between you and me is that I think your choices lead you into more trouble than is necessary, just like getting a divorce is a painful and crazy experience.”

“But that’s what makes you so ignorant. God gave me this gift. You still don’t get it. I’m gay. I’ll never be straight. I am attracted to other men!”

“Are you attracted to me? You met with me today.”

“What do you mean?”

“Do you feel a sexual attraction to every man you meet?”

“Well, not always, but a lot of the time.”

“That’s what I’m talking about. Every person has to make choices. We are not just a pile of impulses and instincts. We can control our impulses. We use wisdom and logic. Unfortunately, most people make up their decisions as they go along. They are never sure. This is what I’ve found talking to other gay men or lesbian women. They tend to blame me or others for their insecurity, and only feel secure when they are around other people who agree with them.”

“So, you’re saying my sexuality is a choice? You just don’t get it. You’re homophobic!”

“I’d like to talk some more about how you make all the choices in your life, Robert. I promise that if you agree to meet with me, I won’t condemn you for your choices. I won’t agree with you on all your choices, but I won’t condemn you. We all need someone to help us think through life as objectively as possible. Would you be willing to meet with me? I’m just letting you know you’re welcome as a friend, anytime!”

Chastity Sunday Continued: Robert Tells All

The turbulent events since Chastity Sunday kept Pastor Smith from many of his normal tasks. Since homosexuality and the church is such a hot topic, the town newspaper wanted an interview. Someone on Dateline and 20/20 called about filming. Vice President Biden or was it, Congressman Frank, sent a letter affirming his hug at the end of the sermon of the gay young man.

Mrs. Closett and Mrs. Jewett began to withhold their tithes. The Church Pastor Relations team met with concerned members. Four members of the 200 in Christ Church actually sought out Pastor Smith to talk.

Pastor Smith began meeting with the young man. The elders thought it was a good idea since they trusted Pastor Smith’s convictions about chastity. They trusted his ability to love and affirm people who had questions of faith and pain. Most of them had met for lunch or coffee several times a year with Pastor Smith who wisely counseled and cajoled each of them to further discipleship.

In his office, Pastor Smith and his new young friend, Robert Hornbeck, began to talk. “So, Robert, how has your interviewing with the media gone?” Robert was now an internet and network sensation. His yelling at the worship service three weeks ago brought him hero status in the media.

“I’ve had an interview a day, and sometimes two. Next week I go on SNL and reenact the Sunday morning with you, except this time, Kenan Thompson plays you dressed up like a giant prune. (Robert laughs).”

“Robert, I’m surprised by all the attention, even at the level of SNL!”

“Christians have to be exposed as mean and heartless.”

“Have you met many mean and heartless Christians?”

“I’m going to the Community college. I overhear students who go to church talking about how disgusted they are about gays or lesbians. They don’t sound too nice. I’m afraid to be myself or I might get ridiculed.”

“Some Christians probably are mean to you. So, why did you agree to talk to me?”

“You seemed different. I didn’t expect a hug after ruining your church.”

“What did you expect?

“I expected you to call the police or someone would punch me.”

Pastor Smith chuckled. “I don’t expect our eighty-five year old deacons had a chance against you, Robert! You shocked and amazed us. Most of us felt sorry for you that you had to go so far to get that kind of attention. Tell me some more about your background.”

Robert began to talk about his abusive father, and his rough childhood. An uncle molested him when he was eleven. He wasn’t good at sports because his family didn’t have money to play. At seventeen a gay friend invited him to a gay bar where he felt accepted for the first time.

“Robert, why didn’t you think about coming to a church?”

“Nobody asked me.”

Pastor Smith said, “We need to talk about that problem!”

(To be continued)

Sexual Chastity Sunday! XoXoXo!

Pastor Smith declared last Sunday as “Sexual Chastity Sunday! XoXoXo!” His sense of the Spirit’s direction caused him to throw caution to the wind. His wife warned him.

Mrs. Jewett started the gossip train Monday morning. She had that “spiritual gift.” She told her hairdresser, Violet Presser, that Pastors should never grope around the subject of sex. The Baptist preacher’s wife was in the next booth, her hair lathered in soap, but she heard every word. Violet went to “That Orn’ry Bar and Grill” for line dancing that night, and when she told her table of eight girlfriends, they hooted and hollered at the out-of-touch-with-reality church morons. Violet counted the number of marriages around that table, but lost count at 26, to even more laughing and toasts.

By Tuesday morning, the local paper caught wind of the town gossip. The local beat reporter and photographer called Pastor Smith for an interview. He politely declined saying, “I don’t usually finish my sermons until Sunday morning…” The paper ran the story anyway, quoting Violet, Mrs. Jewett, and a couple of town pastors. In the first paragraph, the reporter wrote these damning words, “Pastor Smith of Christ Church declined to comment.”

Sunday, to a packed church, Pastor Smith began his sermon with, “God gave us chastity to benefit the community and families.” At the 4:33 mark. a young man, about twenty, walked up the aisle shouting, “You hate homosexuals. God gave me this gift!” He faced off with Pastor Smith. Sweat beaded on Pastor Smith’s forehead. He whispered to the young man who yelled back. At the 8:02 mark, Pastor Smith started to weep, then grabbed the guy in a bear hug. The angry, young man hesitated, but hugged back ending his rant.

Frozen by the intensity, the congregation now wiggled in their seats. Not once had an elder or deacon even flinched up to this point. Mrs. Jewett now threw a knowing glance to Mrs. Closett, the other member with the spiritual gift of gossip, who nodded back with a wink.

At the 8:49 mark, Pastor Smith turned to the congregation, saying, “Nobody here can boast of sexual purity. We have all sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. This young man’s anger and response is why I knew I needed to speak about Chastity today.”

Mrs. Closett caught Mrs. Smith’s eye two rows up, but only stared.

“It seems chastity got everyone’s attention. We need to live out the benefits of chastity as a gift from God and not make all kinds of negative statements about people who choose otherwise. Now you see how disruptive sexual promiscuity is, and enraging to those who don’t like Chastity. I whispered words for this man’s ears only. He can share them if he wants, but I cannot.”

Pastor Smith prayed a quick closing prayer, and dismissed the congregation with this benediction:

May the God of creation bless you;

The Prince of Peace sustain you;

The Lover of our souls restrain you.

And will you love this young man, as Christ loves you!

Mrs. Jewett rushed over to Mrs. Closett. They whispered to each other…

(I highly recommend reading Lauren Winner’s book, Real Sex: The Naked Truth About Chastity)

Pastor Smith Wakes the Dead (Sunday School Class)

Pastor Smith watched his Sunday School class slink down in their seats as he read through the Beatitudes. The men’s eyes glossed over. The women started to paint their nails.

After ten minutes of reading, the humble pastor stopped in the middle of Matthew 6 right about where Jesus talked about the “somber” looks of the Pharisees, and felt the Holy Spirit twang his “guilty as read” button. Since Seminary, Pastor Smith knew for a fact that only the book of Revelation had more books written about it than the Beatitudes. Those “Blessed are…” statements were ingenious, mysterious, and downright brilliant! Only a genius or God himself could have thought of them. Why wasn’t everyone amazed!

But his students butts won the battle. Like lead sinkers for blue gill fishing the weight on their chairs increased proportionately to the number of verses he read.

“…do not look somber as the hypocrites do.” Well, that was a direct command from Jesus himself. So much for Amish beards and Calvinist pursed lip demeanor. Pastor Smith felt a filling of the Spirit. He felt a boldness to revive his class from the dead.

He had thirteen students and himself. He stopped, raised his glasses, gazed at each member eye to eye, and took a relaxing inhale. As he opened his mouth to speak, the class shifted from butt dropping to shoulder wiggling trying to get back in the seated position. They knew Pastor Smith got a word from God.

“Now, I can see that you have had a hard time getting the gist of the Sermon on the Mount. So, we’re dividing into seven groups.” The heads of all thirteen members turned to look around. The treasurer, Carl Simon, counted. “Seven groups of two,” he said.”Pastor Smith is on my team!“

Pastor Smith continued with his impromptue instructions:

“Group No.1, find the theme.”

“Group 2, Who is the audience Jesus wants to hear his message?”

“Group 3, What words or subjects would be familiar problems to the people?”

“Group 4, What is God’s role?”

“Group 5, What is the role of faith?”

“Group 6, List the practical behaviors we must do in real-time?”

“Group 7, Find the connections to the gospel.”

Of course, Mrs. Closet complained they could never get it all done in the time left. Pastor Smith said, “You’d better get started Mrs. Closet or Carl’s team is going to beat you!” That’s all the church gossip needed to put her head down and start reading.

After fifteen minutes, every group wrote their findings on some newsprint. For the first time in Pastor Smith’s tenure as Sunday School teacher, he really didn’t have to teach. His students found answers he never thought of. And they were five minutes late to start the worship service!

————–

The Bible is for thinkers.

• You can read it and have your eyes gloss over.
• Or you can scan it for juicy morsels to encourage you.
• Or you can dismiss it as ancient gobbledy gook!

But to make the Bible come alive and personal we’ve got to think about it.

Pastor Smith Reads Pagan Christianity

A friend of Pastor Smith’s handed him a red covered book, and said, “You might like this. Just ignore my underlining.” With that Pastor Smith’s journey into never, never land began. The book was Pagan Christianity, by Frank Viola. He read and felt like his job was threatened. He wandered through the arguments for house churches, and knew in his heart that simpler was better. He asked Mattie, his wife, “But what do we do with the building and all the people who like the way it is?”

He read Viola’s passion and anger at the way Constantine introduced pagan rituals, buildings, and practices to Christians. He took a step back because of that anger. He told an elder, “I feel like my world’s been shaken, but I need to let the dust settle before making a decision.” Pastor Smith mentioned he was reading this book in a sermon only to have Mrs. Bewley and Ronnie Tempest ask him separately if this Pagan Christianity means, “…we won’t be celebrating Christmas around here anymore?”

With great speed Pastor Smith changed the Sunday night service into a kind of house church within First Church. He broke the fifty or so people into small groups each week. He let the singing be Spirit-led, that is, the music was chosen by the people. He taught a little and then let the people discuss the text. Several weeks in a row, he had people talk about what God was doing in their lives, but that lasted only about an average of ten minutes before someone brought up an ache or a pain which spun the group down “illness of the week” reporting. Overall, Pastor Smith started to see his Sunday night crowd get closer and start doing some homework before coming. He assigned reading week by week, but something more was missing!

Viola had talked about communion being surrounded by a feast in the early church so Pastor Smith announced a potluck dinner the next Sunday night with communion. “Make it simple so you don’t spend your whole afternoon cooking,” he announced. By this time the folks were sure this “Pagan Christianity” kick was sticking, and not so outrageous. Communion was louder than some expected, but Pastor Smith had each group serve each other, then talk about what Jesus death meant to them. The feelings were so intense he felt like singing, “Kum Ba Yah, Ma Lord.” Of course, a couple of older folks told each other it was just a fad and would go away, but the two college children of Elder Johnson who were visiting from school loved it! They told their dad to have Pastor Smith do it again!

Through the years of his ministry Pastor Smith had attended conferences and read books to seek a secret weapon for making ministry easier or more effective. Sure, he could count about forty people in the last five years who said they had never read the Bible like this before, or another dozen or so who had dramatic conversions, but on the whole, everyone seemed to be about the same. Without changing the whole church, or packing up his office and taking down his ordination certificate, Pastor Smith decided that Pagan Christianity was right, but not all right. Those fifty or so folks on Sunday night were having a little revival. He thought he’d let them spread the word about a house church within a church-church if these changes were real.

Pastor Smith’s (unfortunately) Powerful Tongue

Written for my wife for our 26th anniversary today.

Pastor Smith stuck out his tongue at the congregation during his sermon. It was the last time Barbara and Floyd Cloyd would be in that church. Of course, Pastor Smith was making a point totally other than the rudeness of a Bronx cheer. He was making a huge point! He stuck out his tongue at the idols in our lives. And The Mr. and Mrs. Floyd Cloyds missed it. He spoke about idolatry that morning. That’s all.

Afterward, when the elders had convened an emergency meeting to discuss their pastor’s tongue-y behavior, Pastor Smith admitted that if it were a Woodstock crowd he would have mooned the idols! The elders all chuckled, and told him he could just go on preaching with passion. It worked. They’d handle the Cloyd’s.

But Pastor Smith did not let it go. He could fret for days! He knew worry was a sin, but the Cloyd’s had been members for two years. The sat in the front row. Now what? Everyone would see that the woman with the pink hair, and the husband who looked like Mr. Cleaver, would be absent, missing, maybe even “disgruntled.” Those disgruntled members really ate at Pastor Smith’s psyche.

Someone once gave him a three-foot Q-tip to remind him to “Quit Taking It Personally.” It didn’t work. He woke in the night sweating out his anxiety, gave it to God, then analyzed his behavior and the others to see how it could fit together all over again. He knew that in the morning it wouldn’t matter, but even now, after thirty years of ministry, people’s behavior toward him destroyed him for days.

Pastor Smith woke on Monday morning to bright sunshine, crisp air, and a new day. His first thought wasn’t pink hair in the front row or the elder’s chuckling, but the smell from the kitchen. Mattie must have gotten up early to make him breakfast. There she was, fixing eggs, whole wheat toast, and oatmeal. She knew he needed a picker-upper-morning. Starbucks Breakfast Blend was brewed in the coffee press. She read him a short devotional that she had read that morning, and prayed before they ate. “Unbelievable,” he thought. “How did she know that all I needed was to know the world was still a safe place with someone who loved me?”

The rest of the day, Pastor Smith waited for the elders to get back to him about the Cloyd conversation. How did he know that sticking out his tongue to make a point would kick the Floyd Cloyd’s clear out the front door of church. No wonder James says the tongue is so powerful!