Wednesday, October 17, 2001
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Wednesday, October 17, 2001 |
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Love for 'different' folks is true display of faith, humility By REV JOHN HATCHER Several years ago, in picking up my laundry, I engaged the attendant in church conversation, finally inviting her to River's Edge Community Church. She responded, "I am a Moslem." To which, I responded, "We love Moslems at our church." And, to tell the truth on a stack of Bibles, there is no greater truth that just that: we love Moslems at River's Edge. So, I hope this Sunday a whole bunch of Moslems will show up at the church. Realistically, probably not. But, if they did, they would be loved. Not because they call Mohammed their prophet, in fact a superior prophet to Jesus Christ (they believe). And not because they probably pray more obediently than we do, in fact seven times day. But we will love them because that's our supernatural nature. There's someone in every born-again Christian who just can't help loving any and all of God's creation. Two Sundays ago, I told my congregation that the real test of our love for "different" folks will come when two gay men walk hand in hand into our midst, sit down, and seek to worship. Now, I believe that River's Edge would love those two men as if they were a husband, wife and two kids. Does God make a distinction between his love for folks of varying lifestyles? Certainly not. Here's where my fundamentalist brethren start convulsing. They have just interpreted my remarks as endorsing homosexuality as a valid, Christian lifestyle. Not so. But I will say this: I would rather have a church full of homosexuals who seek to get their lives straight with God and are experiencing victory after victory than a church house full of hypocrites who are most effective in hiding their sins on Sundays and live like the devil the rest of the week. Too often the church has got the reputation as the House of Judgment. Rightly deserved. We act like hillbilly country clubs, deciding who will be allowed into the inner sanctum based on their pedigree, degrees, and dollars. I know. There are churches right here in "river" city who permit their hired shepherds to rub elbows with club rejects, but never allow them into their homes, much less their chummy gatherings like tailgate parties. No. Jesus' house was not a house of prudes, prim and propers. It was a House of Love. The town prostitute was welcome to bring her tithes made from her trade and pour them out at the front of the church at the feet of Jesus. The hated, ostracized tax collector even was paid a home visit by Pastor Jesus with the crowding following. Hardly a church in metro Atlanta has not prayed for revival. We even conduct weeks of revival services, hoping that God will do for us what he won't do. He says that his church needs to humble herself, pray, seek his face, and turn from our wicked ways (2 Chronicles 7:14). Here again, the mistake of the church is to hire a humble pastor. "He's so humble." Revival waits on humility in the pews along with humility in the pulpit.
The Rev. Dr. John Hatcher is pastor of River's Edge Community Church in Fayetteville. |
