I really like this sermon and wanted to share it. It's not a pro-gay sermon (He even seems to share the same position as most Christians on homosexuality), nor it is an anti-gay sermon. I think it's a very level head approach to the issue of homosexuality. It's an open appeal to love each other, no matter their race, gender and yes....even sexual orientation.
It is five parts. I encourage you to watch all five parts. You don't have to agree with every part of the sermon, I know I don't. But it gives you something to think about and consider.
Here's part one:
"Regardless of what your take is on homosexuality, it's not our job to judge or condemn. It is our job to love. We're actually commanded by Jesus to love."
Remember when they said the world would end in 2012?
That supposedly the Mayan calendar had predicted the end was near. Many shows on television speculated about the apocalypse and it even sparked a hit movie. Most universally laughed at the notion and it's now seen as myth and unreasonable paranoia.
I don't know when the world will end but I seriously doubt it'll be 2012. Or 2011.
If you've read the headlines lately, it's hard to miss the "world is coming to an end" rhetoric of Harold Camping and the Family Radio broadcasting network. They believe that date is May 21st, 2011.
That's right! The world will end....tomorrow!
Camping says he has "infallible, absolute proof" that Judgment Day is upon us. According to him and his sketchy mathematics, the Bible predicts tomorrow as the Day of the Rapture. So if you planned a trip to the lake tomorrow, don't worry about it. If you had dinner plans or decided to go out, don't even bother. Tomorrow is when God will call believers to heaven.
.....Or maybe not.
I would like to disprove Harold Camping with two simple facts:
1. We've been here, done this before. Christians have claimed the world was going to end for decades and decades. This is nothing new. Remember when Pat Robertson said it would end in the 1980's? It came, it went and nothing happened. To make matters worse for Harold Camping, he's predicted this before. He said the world would end in 1994. My sister was born in '94 and she's 16 years old now. Harold, she's testimony to your credibility on this whole prediction game.
2. Jesus says you're wrong. Who should I trust? Jesus or Harold Camping. "But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." - Mark 13:32. When Christ speaks, we listen. If he says no one will know the date than no one will know. I tend to take him at his word. Since, uh, well....you know.
So now that we have that out of the way, let's look at the bigger issue here. Harold Camping has become an excuse for the media to attack Christians. Most Christians aren't flocking to Family Radio's side. In fact, most have distanced themselves from him completely and quoted the same verse I just provided. And yet, many take this opportunity to mock Christianity because of this fringe group. Atheist groups are even organizing "Rapture parties" mocking the pie-in-the-face that will no doubt take place tomorrow for Harold.
This isn't the first time recently that fringe Christian groups have made a mockery of religion in the media. The Supreme Court case victory of Westboro Baptist Church made it possible for fringe churches to preach hateful, vicious things and hide under free speech. Then there's the church in Florida that made headlines for threatening to burn the Quran, causing Muslims to promise violence, fueling worldwide anger.
I know what you're saying.....these are isolated incidents of fringe religious groups that do not speak for all Christians. Which is true. But that doesn't stop the media from painting Christianity with a broad brush. And we certainly don't help the case when we attack other Christians and label them heretics left and right.
Insert, Rob Bell. I don't agree with Rob Bell. I don't even think Rob Bell is that great of a communicator or leader. But he's influential, he's got a big church and a big megaphone to spark debate. And he's done that. We can disagree with him and argue with him without throwing out labels or becoming hateful. Many Christians labeled him a heretic over his book "Love Wins" without even reading the book. Many reacted hatefully to a book that interestingly enough had the word "love" in the title.
We don't have to let the media play off Christians as fringe, out of touch and crazy. But when we put fuel on the fire, we have no one to blame but ourselves. When I was an atheist, I easily latched onto things like these as ammo against religion. The problem with Christianity today is it's not a loving conversation but a hateful confrontation. We're eager to be the loudest in the room but not eager enough to shut up, listen to others and then give them our own testimony of God.
Why do we love the "us vs. them" attitudes in America?
We thrive on differences and obsess about conflict. Just look at our politics. Democrats and Republicans. Both parties eager to convince us the other is bad, out of touch and a nightmare for the country. They spend millions of dollars trashing each other and wedging differences between voters to keep power. Never mind that both parties have been corrupted and gutted of moral courage and common sense. They want us to pick a side and defend that side against brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers and neighbors. You're a Republican. You're a Democrat.
It amazes me how much paranoia I see with in the religious community. How they like to play the game like everyone is out to get them. "It's the enemy, it's the enemy" they'll proclaim when things don't go their way. It could be a cop out for a situation they're responsible for but they blame it on the "enemy" and make it them versus the enemy. Bad kids? Enemy. Bad marriage? Enemy. Bad situation? It's the enemy, stupid. God did say you'll have an enemy. God did mention that the enemy will try and knock you off your path. However, God didn't say you don't have personal responsibility and you don't play a role in your own good and bad situations.
Recently someone close to me had some conflicts with others. After the situation had settled down and simmered a bit, an unleashing of Facebook statuses took place. He would come to me saying "I can't even go on Facebook without ten different statuses about this same situation." The other side of the conflict was posting statuses about how the enemy was attacking, everyones out to get them, people are trying to tear them apart. Now what amazed me about this wasn't the compulsive statuses posted one after another.
It was the fact that these people insisted that they had no personal responsibility and it was some other force out to get them. I've been thrust into this situation by no choosing of my own. I was just an innocent bystander until this person close to me dragged me into it. And maybe I needed to be, to inject some sanity into the mix. Nothing was getting accomplished. But unfortunately, nothing is still getting accomplished. The situation is tense, hurtful and at a fever pitch.
They've made it us vs. them. They've picked their "enemy" to blame it on and decided to ignore their personal responsibility and pretend they have no blame. As for me and my loved one that this blog originates from, we're not going to live our lives that way. I refuse to let us. It's not us versus anyone. I don't have any enemies but myself. And when I get into a hot mess that I've created, I'm going to try my best to admit my mistake and advance forward.
"For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, jthat each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad." - 2 Corinthians 5:10
"For heach one shall bear his own load." - Galatians 6:5
It's one of those moments you don't forget. People who were alive when John F. Kennedy was assassinated can tell you where they were, what they were doing and who they were with. 9/11 was one of those JFK-like moments.
I was in history class talking to my best friend at the time. Our teacher was called out into the hall and came back crying. We turned on the television and sat in silence as we watched the events unfold. I don't think I'll ever forget that moment. I don't think any of us will.
Osama Bin Laden and his band of extremists attacked America and unleashed a war that we're still fighting to this day. Yesterday when my mother called me with the news that Bin Laden finally met his maker, I couldn't help but stop what I was doing to go into my living room to turn on the news.
Like many of you, I stayed glued to the TV for the next few hours. I couldn't help but get involved with the running social network commentary that everyone was doing about the event. I cheered along as Americans celebrated outside the White House chanting, "USA! USA! USA!"
A few weeks ago, I wrote a blog that proclaimed the bad guys always win. The thief gets away with it. The liar slips away untouched. The company that's no good will make record profits while we struggle.
This is one of those situations where good triumphed evil. All the while, I didn't rejoice at the death of Osama Bin Laden. I wouldn't rejoice at the death of any man. But I did rejoice that justice was served and those families affected by his actions may now find peace.
Just like we were united when Osama shattered the hopes of many of our individuals and brought our nation to it's knees, we're united as Osama finds justice.
But how long will the unity last? Not long. Not long at all.
Soon the news media will go back to the Royal Weddings and the Charlie Sheen's of the world. The White House and our government will go back to fighting and positioning for election year. We'll go back to work, get lost in the distractions of our entertainment and move on with our lives.
Maybe unity is just an ideal. Maybe it's not possible. And when it does happen, it's temporal. But for this brief moment, like so many of you--I'm proud to be an American. And I'm proud that good triumphed over evil and that this mass killer was brought to justice after ten long years.
We got together in September and he moved here to escape certain situations and to grow independently in November. We built a great friendship and relationship over the last year that is based on trust and love. I can literally go to him about anything and vice versa. We won't judge one another and there is no wrong answers.
We simply discuss anything and everything, then we help one another. I love that about our relationship. He knows about my past--the good and the bad--and what I desire for my future. I know what makes him happy and what keeps him up at night. It's a beautiful thing we have and I thank God every day for the gift of his friendship and love in my life.
A situation arose this week when I had to do something uncomfortable for him. Joel has a rough time displaying his emotions sometimes. He feels like no matter what he does, he's seen as wrong and shouldn't even try, because he doesn't have the right answers anyway. A lot of this has to do with his past. It's something I've had a hard time dealing with because he lets the past hold him back and if he's not careful, it will affect his future.
But he had some strained issues with his parents and family he wanted to get off his chest. Stuff that made him upset and ate away at him. Stuff I knew that was holding him back from being the person I know he can be. And that really sucked for me.
So I decided to do what he couldn't. I got the balling rolling for him. I called his father and had a long conversation. I'm not here to air out drama or talk about the conversation but it was very uncomfortable. I'm passionate about a lot of things and one of them is Joel. So I had to come into the conversation with a level head and remember this was Joel's parents.
I knew how hurt he was. And I knew that at one point, my life was under the microscope of these people. So my feelings on the situation were intense and passionate. I had to turn that intensity and passion into a meaningful conversation and not just a shouting match. It didn't really get out of hand (but maybe once--even then I tried to reign myself back in) and I thought I handled it well.
But I didn't want to. I didn't want to get the ball rolling for Joel because he was afraid of starting a conversation he needed to have. But I did it anyway.
I did it because I love him.
I did it because I want the best for him.
I did it because I see a lot of potential and worth in him (that sometimes he doesn't see in himself) and I wanted to make sure this stumbling block didn't stop him from being the person God created him to be.
It wasn't my favorite conversation. It wasn't even my best conversation. I may have not made a difference one way or the other. I may have made things worse. I really don't know. But what I do know is I did it out of love.
I think about all the uncomfortable things we do for those we love. If love was based on comfortability, it wouldn't be unconditional--it would be conditional. I don't want to have fake love for my friends, family or Joel. I want it to be real.
I don't have a problem with parents teaching their children that Santa Claus doesn't exist. Let's face it, he doesn't. He's made up and just a ploy for some parents to get their kids to be good around a stressful time of year in exchange for presents. Some do it because it's tradition and they think it's fun. I grew up going to my great grandmothers every year to sit on "Santa's" lap to tell him what I wanted for Christmas.
I knew it wasn't really him. Secretly, I figured he didn't exist. I may of been six or seven but I wasn't stupid. I just enjoyed the chance to spend time with my family and share memories that I'll probably remember for the rest of my life. There was a sense of family and warmness around that time of the year.
Easter was no different. We would go to my grandparents house for Easter egg hunts and to have big pot luck styled dinners. It was a lot of fun. I wasn't really much of a Christian then, so to me--it was just for fun. My grandparents were deeply religious, so they'd try to teach us about the seriousness of the holiday. Now, that means more to me than it did then.
I'm thankful that they tried to plant that in me. As I've grown and matured, and became a Christian, remembering my grandmother telling us "Jesus is the reason" for the season is an important memory. And now I can't ever forget that, even if I tried.
That doesn't mean we didn't enjoy a laugh or two hunting for colored eggs. Or we didn't exchange candy and have big feasts. Family is something to celebrate. Sharing with each other is something to celebrate. Jesus' resurrection is definitely something to celebrate.
I know the origins of some of the traditions of some of the holidays. Some of the traditions are pagan in origin. If you enjoy the season like I did as a kid because you like candy, presents, family dinners and fake characters like the Easter bunny or Santa--you're missing the point.
But if you're enjoying gifts with family and just making memories together, while celebrating the reason for the season, what's the problem?
What gives for some people?
What's so wrong enjoying some candy on resurrection day? What's wrong with some colored eggs?
You don't want the Easter bunny taught to your kids? Fine, don't do it.
But I don't understand how some people can disagree with Westboro Baptist Church when they're saying soldiers died because of their sins and homosexuals deserve the death penalty; but agree with them when they label those who follow these traditions as idolatrous and holiday worshippers. That's religiosity and an incredibly holier-than-thou attitude.
I don't worship my family. Or candy. Or eggs. I don't even think those are the core reasons for the holiday. I know the reason for the season and I celebrate it.
But I also know not all of my friends and family are Christians. I don't rub my religion in their noses. I celebrate with them and make memories. I don't forget why the day is important and I don't minimize it.
I have some candy, I eat some lunch, I spend some laughs with those I care about the most and I thank God for the blessings he's given me.
I'm thankful and humbled by the fact he died for my sake and rose from the grave for people like me.
"He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.” — 1 Peter 2:24
