Expanding On
Alright. First a thank you to anyone who took the time to read my middle of the night ramblings. Now that I’ve had a couple of coffees and sometime to wake up I realize how vague my post last night was.
I’m going to take time to expand on the conversation with my friend I mentioned last post. Basically, in his opinion right now his calling in sharing the gospel is studying and talking about creation and homosexuality. Other people may have different callings but he believes those issues are his. Even though he said others may have different callings, he believes Christians currently spend to much time focusing on the issue of poverty. (he actually said the phrase “poor Christians are a problem for the kingdom” I’ll expand on this one in another post) He wouldn’t admit it, but the way he was talking he basically said others may believe they have different callings, but their callings are wrong.
I have no issue with my friends “believes” on homosexuality for example. (The impact or practice of those believes is another issue) However, the way he was talking it sounded like you had to have all your doctrinal ducks in a row (I like that phrase) in order to come to Christ. When I pressed him on the issue he stated it all came back to coming to the cross of Christ, but then he started arguing passionately about how all homosexuals he had ever met had no interest in doing that and how we needed to stand up for the gospel. Because I’m not quick in conversations (it usually takes me a while of thinking to put together a coherent sentence) I didn’t ask him at the time but isn’t the gospel bigger than one or two issues? Or his view on a group of people?
Then there are others that I know that are really passionate about justice, or poverty, or the environment or whatever and again they will argue passionately about that issue and their cause.
My buddy over at Walk With Me pointed me to a new online community called Missional Tribe. A blog post there yesterday was talking about how different elements of our theology come together to make a whole. Each part relates to each other. Basically each element shouldn’t just be taken on it’s own. Anyway, I really appreciated the article.
So getting back to my whole Christian identity crisis. I wonder if I’m missing something that I’m not overly passionate about a single issue right now. Like my “about the author” page says, I’m just trying to live in rhythm with God, allowing that to impact my entire life and seeing where that (or better put He) leads me.
January 13th, 2009 at 4:08 pm
I struggle with how people equate “sharing the gospel” and “standing up for the gospel” as it appears your friend does.
He’s probably right. It is likely only a very small percentage of the homosexual population that want to emphasize the cross of Christ. (I will certainly not say there are NO homosexuals who want that emphasis…regardless of what I believe about homosexuality.) I don’t get what his point is in attacking it. The affirmation of and practice of homosexuality is not the problem. It is a symptom of the problem. Those who are contentedly living outside the gospel don’t need us to “stand up for” the gospel “against” them. They need us to share the gospel with them. That is to share with them the love and sacrifice and humility and shame of the cross. To help them to get a glimpse of the grace and hope and life and joy that is found in Christ. That doesn’t come by attacking them. I am not contending that one must affirming a homosexual lifestyle to share Christ with them. I believe I can be convinced of certain moral standards, but still act with love and grace and humility towards someone who lives outside of what I believe to be the best and right way to live.
He claims to be standing up for or sharing the gospel. What he is really standing up for and sharing is a certain standard of morality. I am convinced that the gospel is not primarily a moral message. Is there moral implications to it? ABSOLUTELY!! But to reduce it to a level of morality is to rob it of it’s real power. One can live within all the moral parametres of scripture and still not live in Christ. The gospel is so much more!!!
And that’s not getting into his creation=the gospel stuff. I LOVE Genesis 1 and 2…in fact I’m preaching on it right now. But I’ve seen a lot of that creation=the gospel stuff and it seems to really miss the point in so many ways. But that’s a whole other fish to fry (and feed to my dog so we don’t have to smell it any more!).
January 13th, 2009 at 11:12 pm
You know me well enough to know that I agree with what you said here. Especially the struggle of how people equate sharing vs standing up for the gospel. To be honest that’s where part of my “identity crisis” is rooted.