When I was a child, I heard homosexuality condemned in the pulpit, and I read in the Bible about God's wrath pouring out on evildoers in general, and homosexuals (and others) in particular. I developed a pattern of discerning between "us" and "them." At one point as a teenager, I thought it was my duty to condemn those who practiced homosexuality. I was deathly afraid of anyone who purported to be gay, and I developed a vitreous rejection of that lifestyle and the people who practiced it.
When I was first trying to get sober from my own drug and alcohol addiction, I had another friend who I later found out was predatory toward some of my other friends, and even made an advance toward me. It became something of an uncomfortable joke, until one young man was deeply hurt by him, to the point of considering suicide.
When I was recovering from drug and alcohol addiction, I had two roommates that were homosexual. They became my friends, and although both of them relapsed into drug addiction, I was grateful to be friends with them during that time.
Last year, I heard about a ministry in Chicago that reaches out to male prostitutes. Their mission was announced on Dr. James Dobson's "Focus on the Family" broadcast as "Emmaus Ministries." This ministry seeks to restore these men to a right relationship with God and other human beings, by going to where they are, walking with them, and meeting their deep needs.
Around that time, I started going to a church which had the stated mission of "Christ, Community, Culture." This is a Bible-teaching church which is serious about taking the love of Jesus to the folks who need it, including homeless people, drug addicts and alcoholics, thieves, liars, adulterers, students, old folks, children and families, prideful professionals, and yes, homosexuals.
Yesterday I heard a sermon about the mission of God, and it has begun to change me again. The pastor told us that it is not our mission to regulate sin, or to monitor anyone who sins. The entire sin issue was dealt with once and for all by Jesus, the perfect missionary. He completed his mission, and then as we learn in Hebrews 10, sat down to wait for his enemies to be made his footstool. The mission has been accomplished. Now Jesus is overseeing the spread of his mission.
The pastor also told us that lifestyle evangelism is a myth. That the gospel must be transmitted verbally. Of course, when our lifestyle does not match the verbal presentation, then no-one will want to hear us proclaiming the gospel. So when we look to Jesus, the only one who can say he did this life perfectly, we see the model. No other human missionary can be our model. And when we look to Jesus, and his healing and embracing of the lowest and most sinful people of his generation, we see that he was most condemning of hypocrisy and legalism among those who were supposed to be the caretakers of the religious community. How can we stand in judgment of anyone, when we know that Jesus died and rose again to restore us to a right relationship with God and each other?
