Sermon Transcript

The Gospel, the Bible, and the LGBTQ Movement

Redeemer Church, Starkville, MS

Kevin Shoemaker

Scripture: 1 Timothy 1:8-11

Reader: Our scripture today is from 1 Timothy 1:8-11. This is the Word of God: “Now we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murders, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.” The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God will stand forever.

The usual diet of preaching here at Redeemer Church is usually us going through a book of the Bible together. So, we just finished up the book of Acts last week, and next week the plan is to start the book of Titus. And we usually have Old Testament books in the fall, we’ll probably be in Jeremiah this fall, and then we’ll do a New Testament book in the spring. In the summer, it’s kind of a wild card. We might do something out of the Old or New Testament. Sometimes we’ll do a topic. One summer we did a series on prayer.

One thing that we don’t want to do though, is preach the headlines. So, for example, in 2020 there were all kinds of things going on, right? You had Covid, you had race and justice issues, and you had the election. As an elder team we talked some about whether or not we should address one of these things—should we preach on justice or something like that?

We decided that instead of preaching a message or series on one of those issues, it would be better to look back to a time in the scriptures when the world was kind of upside down like our time was in 2020. So we went to 587 BC after the fall of Judah and we studied the book of Lamentations. And so we went through that.

I think it’s good for you and safe for me if we don’t preach the headlines and just kind of stick with the scriptures. Excuse me, not with the scriptures—we’ll always do that—but to stick with just books of the Bible.

But today, we’re going to go outside of our usual diet; like I said we’re in between books, in between Acts and Titus. So today, I’m going to do what we call a stand-alone sermon. That just means it’s a single sermon—it’s not a part of a series.

So here’s what we’re doing. I’m sure everybody knows that we are in what has been called Pride month, where the LGBTQ movement is being celebrated. And even though I understand that this is just the world we live in, and I don’t expect the world at large to be in agreement with what the Bible teaches, it is remarkable at how “preachy” this movement does seem to be.

It’s not just like some hidden event that kind of comes and goes, that only a few people acknowledge. Like, did y’all even know we just had Flag Day not long ago, June 14. It’s on the calendar, it comes and goes, most people don’t know about it, certainly there’s not a whole lot of fanfare about it, but with Pride month it seems to be everywhere. And it’s not just for adults—it’s even in kids’ cartoons, it’s at stores; it’s at Target; it’s just everywhere.

So for that reason we thought it would be good for us to take a moment, consider the issue around Pride month and look at it through the lens of scripture and the gospel.

And let me say on the front end—there are two errors that I’m wanting to avoid here: One response would be harsh and self-righteous judgment. I don’t want to do that. But the other response is to be very affirming and say it’s not that big of a deal. So those are the two errors that I want to avoid.

As we consider this together, I want to consider it in three ways, and the three ways I want to do it is I want to consider three words that I’m going to hang some ideas on.

Here are the three words: The first word is Order; the second word is Instruction; and the third word is Inclusion. Now when I say Inclusion, some of y’all might flinch because that word is usually meant in a way different from the way I’m going to use it.

So here me out on that third point. Just hang in there.

1) ORDER

So let’s begin with Order. In Genesis 1 and 2, God creates the world and everything in it, and he created Order. So God made man, and then he took a part of man and made the woman, and the woman was to be his helper (Genesis 2:17). And so in that, the man was in authority over his wife. We see this clearly in the New Testament too, that leadership in the Christian household is for the man, and the woman in submission to the man in that, that’s just the order that the Bible teaches (Ephesians 5:22-24).

And then, with the human beings, under them were the animals. So there was man over woman, and then there were human beings, man and woman, over animals. That was the Order that God created in Genesis 1 and 2.

Now in Genesis 3, another character enters in. Right? It’s Satan—you guys all know the story. Now what form does Satan take when he enters the garden. He enters in as a snake, as an animal. And so, he’s there as a snake and does the snake, does Satan, go after the man? No, he doesn’t; he goes after Eve. But then after Eve, does he go after the man? No. Eve goes to Adam after Satan goes to her.

So, there’s this org chart where it’s the man over the wife, and man and woman over the animals—that’s kind of the “org chart” if you will of God’s design. And then what Satan did was he flipped the org chart over to where it went from the animal to the woman to the man. And so what Satan is aiming for, what he’s out to do, is to undo the order that God has set up.

In Genesis 1:27, So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. So God made human beings in his image, and one thing that Satan would like to do is to make them not like that. To make them not God-like, not godly.

And then another category that is relevant to the month that we’re in, is that the distinction between a man and a woman is something that Satan would like to undo. So God made the woman for the man. They are designed to be together. And so it would make sense that Satan would want to mess with that order to where he would lead people towards men being with men and women being with women. Or what we’re seeing in the trans movement, where men are turning away from being men in order to become women or women turning away from being women in order to become men. So it makes sense if you know what Satan is up to. He is trying to undo the order that God has created, so it would make sense that he would do what we’re seeing in Pride month.

In 1 John 5:19, we read “the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.” And this is the reason I wanted to bring this up is because a lot of times we might think this is just simply people’s preferences and people just kind of choose to be this way or they have these kinds of tendencies. And I think the scripture is clear that it goes deeper than that.

There’s a battle being fought on a deeper level that God has set up an order and his adversary is trying to reverse that order. So one reason that Christians cannot and must not affirm the LBGTQ movement is because it goes against the order God has set up. And because it works in harmony with Satan’s agenda for the world to undo God’s order.

Another reason that Christians cannot and must not affirm the LBGTQ movement is because it goes against God’s Instructions, which brings me to my second point—God’s instructions.

2) Instructions

So, one verse that often gets used when Christians are talking about this kind of stuff is Leviticus 18:22. It says this: “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.”

But, if you’ve ever seen anyone argue about this issue with unbelievers, one thing they’ll often say about that verse is that Christians aren’t being inconsistent. Because what they’ll say, if they’ve done a little bit of homework, they’ll say, “well hey, turn one chapter over to Leviticus 19:19 and there we see that we should not wear garments made of two types of cloth.”

Probably for most of us, our clothes are made of two types of cloth right now. And they’ll say you’re quoting me Leviticus 18 where homosexuality is forbidden, but here you are breaking the law of Leviticus 19, and so you are clearly inconsistent with what you’re picking and choosing. So, that’s kind of the claim, is that Christians aren’t inconsistent and they’re hypocrites and since you’re wearing clothing made of two different types of material—you should then be okay with homosexuality.

But, this is not an issue for anyone who knows their Bible fairly well. So first we need to figure out what carries over from the Old Testament to the New Testament. I mean that’s kind of basic 101 stuff, and you need to know the answer to that. If you don’t know the answer to that, then you’re not developing as you should. This is something you should learn in year 2 of walking with the Lord, about how the Old Testament is different from the New Testament and how we are to understand what carries over and doesn’t carry over from the Old to the New is important.

So, now, with this, what carries over from the Old Testament to the New, Christians will sometimes disagree on some points. But only some points. Most things are pretty easy to figure out. And here’s the most basic, easy way—I mean there’s books about this, and I could give a six-week series on this—but here’s the most basic way to know what carries over from the Old Testament and what doesn’t. If the New Testament says you don’t have to do it anymore, then you don’t have to do it. It’s like the food laws, you don’t have to do that. And if the New Testament says you still have to do it, then you have to do it. And so as Christians, we interpret the Old Testament through the lens of the New Testament. And it’s kind of that easy. There are certainly some complicated or confusing parts, but that’s where it’s kind of easy. You go with the New Testament, and so if the New Testament continues and affirms what’s said in the Old Testament, then you continue with that.

So some Christians might disagree on how to observe or not observe the Sabbath. We might disagree in this room on that. And the issue is about continuity and discontinuity. How does it come over? And sometimes the New Testament is really clear on this, and sometimes it’s less clear. But one issue that is not up for debate and hasn’t really been up for debate for 2,000 years, is the issue of homosexuality. And the reason this hasn’t been up for debate for 2,000 years is because the New Testament directly addresses this.

So here’s what the New Testament says, we’re going to look at three passages. The first one is Romans 1:24-27 and the idea of Romans Chapter 1 and 2 is Paul is just saying, everybody is guilty, and he’s talking about religious people, irreligious people and when he says in Romans 1:24-27 he speaks directly into the issue of homosexuality. Romans 1: 24 says this:

24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

So in verse 24, Paul says they dishonored their bodies among themselves. Then he goes further in verse 26 and 27 we read that God gave them up to the dishonorable passions, meaning that men were being with men sexually and women were being with women sexually. I don’t know how anyone can read that and think that homosexual relationships are supported biblically. I mean it’s going to be a far reach—you’re going to have to do some serious stretching to come to that conclusion.

Now if you want to flip over to 1 Corinthians 6, we’re going to look at one more place. 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 says this:

9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

Now, I should be clear here that no one is saved by being good enough or by managing their sin well enough. We are saved by Jesus taking the punishment we deserved on the cross and giving us his righteousness, his good record of obedience, being counted for us.

We are saved by repenting and believing in the finished work of Jesus. And then, we are united to Christ in such a way that our sin is cast on him, and his good record of obedience is put on us.

And so when we are united to Christ in that way, we receive the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit lives in us, and when you have this new spirit, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit does not let us live at peace with sin.

Evidence of the Spirit means that you are at least trying to turn from sin and to follow Jesus, and if you are not fighting it, then you need to have concern for your soul. So if a person says they follow Jesus but they practice homosexuality, then they need to have concern for their soul and what they don’t need is affirmation of their sin.

And here’s what makes me angry about what I see happening during pride month—it’s not homosexuality—that’s just another sin. There’s lots of sins; there’s heterosexual sin; there’s lying; all of us are sinners. So it’s not the sin that angers me during Pride month. What angers me are the Christians in churches who are affirming it. Because those who live in that lifestyle have souls that are in great danger, and these Christians and churches are saying “all is well.”

I tell you what, these churches—they don’t get the gospel. Because here’s the deal, you know what the law is supposed to do? There’s three purposes of the law. Here’s one of them, one purpose of the law—to crush you. You’re supposed to see your sin and say, “Oh my, I am in great danger of God’s wrath! I need a savior!” And so what these people are doing when they are affirming this, they’re putting a block for these people to know they need a savior. They’re like the false prophets in Jeremiah’s day who are saying, “Peace, Peace” when there is no peace.

And look, I get it. I’m a people pleaser. I really want people to like me, and even as a pastor, I don’t know, maybe this is bad motives—y’all can judge me however you want to, but I often don’t like sharing that I’m a pastor, and I’m not ashamed of the gospel, but people act differently once you say you’re a pastor. It bothers me that they might think I’m uptight or judgmental or whatever. And so anyway, I get the whole idea of wanting people to like you. But it would be like a doctor not telling a patient they are sick and in great danger because they don’t want to come across as harsh or judgmental—But no, that’s your duty—you must say this.

And you know what I think Christians in churches who affirm the LGBTQ lifestyle, you know what they remind me of? Some of y’all might have a category for this, some of you might not. I think about the parents who so desperately want their kids and their kids’ friends to like them that they let them drink, smoke, and party at their house because they just so want their kids to like them and think they’re cool. I don’t have a whole lot of respect for that, and I certainly don’t have a whole lot of respect for churches and Christians that are doing this for these people in the LGBTQ movement.

And the other reason I have very little respect for Christians and for churches that are so affirming on this, is that I think they care more about how they are perceived by the LGBTQ community than they care about the souls of those in that community. They’re so nearsighted that they care more about being accepted by them than caring for them and where they might spend eternity.

Several years ago, Jen Hatmaker, she’s a popular author and podcast host who is really likable and funny. I’m kind of familiar with some of her work. But several years ago she came out supporting homosexuality and the LGBTQ movement.

Not long after she came out affirming that, another lady named Rosaria Butterfield wrote a response to what Jen Hatmaker had said. Rosaria Butterfield is a former lesbian who at one time lived with another woman, but she later became a Christian, and she turned away from that lifestyle. And here’s what she said about the problem with Christians, like Jen Hatmaker, affirming homosexuality. Rosaria Butterfield said this,

A few years ago, I was speaking at a large church. An older woman waited until the end of the evening and approached me. She told me that she was 75 years old, that she had been married to a woman for 50 years, and that she and her partner had children and grandchildren. Then she said something chilling. In a hushed voice, she whispered, “I have heard the gospel, and I understand that I may lose everything. Why didn’t anyone tell me this before? Why did people I love not tell me that I would one day have to choose like this?” That’s a good question. Why did not one person tell this dear image bearer that she could not have illicit love and gospel peace at the same time? Why didn’t anyone—throughout all of these decades—tell this woman that sin and Christ cannot abide together, for the cross never makes itself an ally with the sin it must crush, because Christ took our sin upon himself and paid the ransom for its dreadful cost?

So here’s what you need to understand as a Christian: As a Christian it is unloving for you to affirm homosexuality or the LGBTQ movement. “The unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God” and the Scripture is clear that includes those who practice homosexuality. I mean, we don’t have that option—no matter how nice you want to be, how accepting you want to be—it’s just clear in the Scriptures. And that’s not according to my opinion or society or some kind of social construct. That is just what the Scriptures teach and it is plain and simple, and it has been for 2,000 years. And you have to try really hard to make those verses mean something else.

Here’s the last one, it’s the verses we read earlier, 1 Timothy 1:8-11:

8 Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, 9 understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, 10 the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine

So there it is again: Men who practice homosexuality, right there next to what?—enslavers. An enslaver is a human trafficker. So having a month to celebrate homosexuality would be, in God’s sight, like having a month to celebrate human trafficking, that’s what it’s like.

And here’s part of why I wanted to bring this up—I think we’re largely just kind of desensitized to it. It’s not that big of a deal, some people are like that, whatever. But in God’s sight, the list we just saw, what if July was Human Trafficking Month, “Hey, a lot of people feel guilty about their human trafficking, we really ought to lift them up. Let them know, hey, this is a safe place. If you’re a human trafficker, you can come in here and we won’t judge you, you have a place at our table. You can continue doing what you’re doing.”

I think we’re getting shaped and formed by the world we live in way more than we realize. And a lot of us probably realize it’s wrong or the Bible speaks against it, but I think we’ve probably become desensitized to quite a degree.

Now, the last thing that I want to talk about is Inclusion, but like I said earlier, when I say inclusion, I probably don’t mean what you think I mean. As I say “inclusion,” I obviously don’t mean that we should affirm homosexuality.

3) Inclusion

I want to make sure that we include ourselves as sinners with them—that we’re more like people in that movement than unlike them. Because every member of Redeemer Church and every person that is a part of the LGBTQ community, what we share in common is that we are both desperately and equally in need of a savior. Homosexuality is a perversion of what God has designed and anything having to do with sex outside of a husband-and-wife relationship is a perversion of God’s design.

And so when we back up and think about our own life, we have all distorted God’s design and we are all hopelessly guilty. So if we are ever speaking with someone who struggles with this type of sin, we need to remember that we are more like them than unlike them.

In Luke 18 Jesus tells the story of the Pharisee and Tax Collector who were praying. The prayer of the Pharisee is focused on how he’s a pretty good guy and he’s not like this other sinner, this tax collector over here, he’s a pretty bad dude. The prayer of the Tax Collector—he’s just focused on how bad a guy he is and how much mercy he needs from God. And Jesus closed out the parable saying that the Tax Collector “went down to his house justified, rather than the other.”

So if this is something you struggle with, I do not want to encourage you to be ok with it. I don’t want to affirm you in it, and I definitely don’t want to encourage you to be proud about it. It’s one of many sins that should humble you and show you your need for a savior.

And if you do not struggle with this issue, never think you are better than anyone who does because there might be an issue that you struggle with that they don’t struggle with, and it doesn’t make you better that you have a different type of sin. So don’t be like the Pharisee; be like the Tax Collector, humbled by his own sin, not the Pharisee, who’s proud that he doesn’t sin the way other people do.

So let me close out with this. If you think about Pride month, there’s a symbol that’s out there—it’s the rainbow. So I just want to close out and speak briefly about the rainbow. It’s the universal symbol, as I understand it, for the LGBTQ movement. We read about the rainbow in Genesis 9:11-13.

11 I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth 12 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: 13 I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.

We, of course, know this as the rainbow, but the word here is not rainbow, is it? The word here is bow, and bow as in a bow and arrow, it’s a weapon of war. God is promising that he will not unleash his wrath again like he did in the flood. And so what’s the symbol that he’s going to use to say I’m not going to attack the earth again like this? He takes his bow, a weapon of war, and he hangs it up. He’s saying, I’m hanging this up; I’m not going to attack in this way again.

Now, some commentators go a step further about this. Most people would agree that the rainbow is not just a pretty sign, it’s a weapon. And God is showing his weapon is being hung up, he’s not using it, it’s being withheld. Other commentators, and I think they might be right, say it’s more than just him hanging it up. The bow is pointing somewhere. It’s pointing to Heaven, it’s pointing to God, himself.

So they suggest that the rainbow is a picture of God turning his wrath against Himself, God’s wrath and judgment being unleashed on Jesus, and that makes a lot of sense to me.

So when you see the rainbow in the sky or when you see the rainbow on some kind of gay pride stuff, we should think about God withholding his wrath; We should perhaps see God’s bow of wrath pointing towards himself. We should see that bow, when we see it in the sky or any kind of gay pride merchandise, we should see that bow pointed towards Jesus… for us!

And with that in mind, how odd it is that the rainbow is the symbol for the LGBTQ movement? Their symbol is literally the symbol of God’s wrath being withheld. Isn’t that ironic?

In light of that, author Jared Wilson says this:

To tout the rainbow, then, as a symbol of man-centered pride, is to urge the Lord, actually, to take up his bow again, to take it back in hand and draw it back. Celebrating pride is courting condemnation.

So, when we see that rainbow, may we pray that may God grant repentance to those who celebrate the LGBTQ movement. They’re all sinners, just like us, and just like us in our sin, they don’t need affirmation. They need repentance and faith in the finished work of Jesus.

And may God grant that to them, and continue to grant it to us, because, as we are about to sing… “our sins they are many, but his mercy is more.”

Let’s pray.

Father in Heaven, thank you for your mercy on us as sinners. And forgive us at Redeemer Church for ways that we make sin to be not sin. We cover it up. We justify it. We look over it, and we rob ourselves from the mercy that we need. And I pray that in Starkville, that those who are in the LGBTQ movement, who struggle with this sin, that you would not grant them peace in their sin, but that you would give them great unrest and that they would see it as sin so that they might come as sinners to Jesus because he offers mercy, richly to all who come, humble in belief and repentance of their sin. And so Lord, would you help us to seek your face, to seek your mercy. May we never be proud because we are all sinners, sinners saved by grace and grace alone. Jesus, it is in your name we pray. Amen.

Why Rest?

by Lloyd Robertson

 

May is a “resting month.”  What is that?  Where did it come from?  Why do we have them?

Well, we adopted the practice from a pastor named Zach Eswine who wrote about it in his book The Imperfect Pastor.  We think there is wisdom in the practice.  Eswine writes:

When I first introduced the idea of “resting months” to our congregation, they didn’t like it. Three months a year we’d give all our weekly ministries a break without guilt (April, August, and December). I did this because of the age of our congregation, made up of mostly young families with kids. These same families were doing all the volunteering at the church and in the community. Between serving and volunteering, going to Bible studies and house groups, people were wearing out. On the flip side, if anyone did take a break they felt enormous guilt, like they were letting God and us down.

Unpacking this a bit, there are several reasons for scheduling rest.  We are finite beings.  The limitations we have are not a defect but part of God’s design.  Taking a scheduled rest lowers the chance of taking an “unscheduled” break because we’ve burnt out. 

More than that, we see God has built into creation patterns of rest.  We spend roughly a third of our lives at rest.  The pattern of the seasons enforces a rest on the farmer.  As noted earlier, this is by God’s good design.  In the rules and patterns God gave Israel there are regular, enforced intervals of rest.  “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Exodus 20:8) is the fourth of the Ten Commandments.  Every seventh year Israel was to let the land lie fallow.  (Leviticus 25)  

This was (and is!) countercultural.  We can act like being busy is a modern malady.  It is not.  In one of the Psalms written by Solomon he says “It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.” (Psalms 127:2)  Sleep is a gift.  Rest is a gift.  It’s easy to knock the Pharisees for their rules for the Sabbath.  But spurning the invitation to rest (Matt. 11:28) is not any better.  

In resting, we testify that our hope does not ultimately come from the product of our labor but from the Lord.  In whatever arena we operate – church, parenting, career, school – our efforts matter.  But our efforts are not decisive.  God is.  Consider this parable from Mark:  “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. 27 He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how.” (Mark 4:26-27)  There is a time to “scatter seed”.  But there is also a time to “sleep.” 

We believe in service.  But the need for rest and sleep are a continual reminder that we are not God.  God instructs us to rest so that we are reminded and comforted in the fact that he is the source of all blessing.

A Love Story

by Lloyd Robertson

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The other day I saw a short Twitter thread and thought it worth sharing.

A story of steadfast love.

Lifelong faithfulness proclaims the gospel. In the garden, God said “It is not good for man to be alone.” This is about more than the creation of a companion for Adam. As Peter Leithart puts it, “The great mystery is that God created man male and female, a differentiated unity and a unified differentiation, as a living sign of his covenant bond with his people.”

This sweet story points to God’s commitment to us. We have a God who loves one Bride. He loved her because he loved her, chose her before the foundation of the world and undertook to do all that is necessary in order to bring us to Himself because it is “not good” for us to be alone.

The sweetest marriage is only momentary. But it points to our marriage to a faithful suitor from whom we will never be separated.

Book Review - Confronting Injustice Without Compromising Truth

Book by Thaddeus J. Williams // Review by Lloyd Robertson

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I don’t know when I first realized that race and justice were “issues” that Christians had to deal with.  There were a few African-American students in the small private Christian school I attended.  I didn’t think much of it.  If there were minorities that attended the churches I grew up in – I don’t remember them.  I saw my father become visibly uncomfortable when another man from church used a racial slur and saw them talking later but I didn’t really grasp what was going on.

When I was in high school we attended my older sister’s graduation from Wheaton College.  As part of the commencement ceremony the school awarded an honorary doctorate to John Perkins.  I remember being impressed with the ovation he received from the very large crowd.  Who was this man and what had he done that had earned the esteem of the crowd?  

I grew up in the suburbs of Washington D.C. -- one of the most diverse areas in the nation.  When we were first married we had a neighbor who was a Vice Principal at a middle school.  He told us they hung a flag in the cafeteria for each country represented in the student body.  They hung 41 flags.  There were some exceptions, but the churches I attended did not reflect the diversity of the area.

The church we attended in Minnesota was explicitly devoted to racial reconciliation.  It was part of their written goals for the body and one Sunday each January the service and the sermon was explicitly devoted to the topic.  That emphasis affected my thinking.  My default position had been “people will go to where they feel comfortable”.  I was challenged to see the church in a new way -- as a place where God’s kingdom is showcased.  A distinctive feature of God’s kingdom was that the “natural” ways we organize ourselves should be replaced to reflect God’s priorities and his purpose of creating for Himself a new people from various peoples in the world.  Jesus shed his blood to accomplish this.  In a candid conversation with one of the leaders of the church he confessed that he didn’t think they had been very successful.  Perhaps.  But while the effort may not have changed the make-up of the church body, it did put something on my radar that hadn’t been there before. 

When we moved to Mississippi, the meaning of diversity changed.  It became a shorthand for referring to blacks and whites.  The awareness and awkwardness of racial differences was prominent in a way I had not experienced in the D.C. area or our time in Minnesota.  Race, slavery, injustice hung in the air like humidity in August.  We were glad to be a part of a racially diverse congregation in Jackson.  The pastor was African-American 25-30 percent of the congregation was as well.  The relationships we developed were sweet and endure to this day.  Two of our daughters were married there – one to an African-American.

Of course, racial tensions and cries for justice are prominent now.  But my heart does not rejoice at these developments.  Instead, I confess to a certain weariness.  The issues are so deep, so complex, and so jumbled together.  Much of what flies under the banner of justice – even from some Christians -- seems so destructive.  Having been through so many of these awkward painful conversations, the temptation (for me) is to just quietly walk away.

But if I take my Bible seriously, that simply isn’t an option.  Jesus began his public ministry by going to the synagogue, taking a scroll “and [finding] the place where it was written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”  And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.  And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”  (Luke 4:17-21)   And consider this passage from Micah:  “... what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God”.  (Micah 6:8)

But what exactly is “justice”?  And how are we to respond to the challenge to join this or that cause to demonstrate our commitment to justice?  These are not just academic questions.  People are sinful.  I am sinful.  People make systems and we move and operate in these systems out of necessity for they form the very fabric of our existence.  If we all are stained by sin, it only follows that the systems we create are stained by sin as well.  But is it even possible to develop new or different systems that won’t be stained by sin?  And let’s face it, systems – like people – can do great things and be flawed.  How are we to evaluate calls for “justice”?  I have found a recent book by Thaddeus Williams, Confronting Injustice without Compromising Truth to be both clarifying and compelling.  (The forward is by John Perkins!)  Williams is generous and charitable when handling various viewpoints.  He cares about social justice, doesn’t demonize those he disagrees with, and thorough in his research.

Early on Williams sets up a contrast between Social Justice A and Social Justice B.  Social Justice A is what the Bible explicitly commands – helping the poor, honoring widows, taking in orphans etc.  Social Justice B is what is often called for in the culture.  The difference is not just in emphasis, but in the world and life view that informs the imperatives. Early on, he discusses how belief in God and the concept of the Imago Dei (the image of God present in all of humanity) should undergird our discernment. Our quest for justice begins by understanding the people whom we long to help, and that even the people who disagree with us, who sit on opposite sides of the aisle, are bearers of the image of God. This provides a grounding for discussing equality, dignity, and value. 

The book’s great strength is starting with God and repeatedly insisting that justice without God is really injustice.  There are few (if any) who advocate for injustice.  But advocating for justice without God at the center gives the same result. Williams examines such topics as group identity, divisiveness, and disparity. He takes on our modern idols (on both the left and the right) that can lead us astray—idols such as the self, the state, or social acceptance. He calls upon us to exercise discernment by examining facts, not simply stories designed to evoke anger and divisiveness.

The book proceeds by asking 12 questions.  In comparing the competing narratives of social justice, Williams illuminates both the grounds as well as the inevitable outcomes of each approach.  Many issues are much easier to grasp with concrete examples and outcome rather than in abstract concepts.  A recurring feature is that at the end of each chapter, Williams includes a short story/testimony.  The story fleshes out the concepts in the chapter and provides a neat hook for the question being discussed.

At the end of the book Williams includes seven appendices labeled A-F.  Each addresses an issue (e.g., abortion, race, socialism, sexuality, helping the poor, fragility, and the culture wars). These provide further background on the issue and point to relevant texts from Scripture in thinking through the issue. Together they provide an excellent high-level reference on these hot topics.

Williams has done his research and there are extensive endnotes for the book.  But it is an easy read.  He has a breezy style and the witty prose moves along quickly.  I can’t recall another book covering such weighty sensitive topics that went down so easily. 

Don’t look for this book to confirm the biases you already have.  It's easy to criticize the excesses of those we disagree with.  But that is to engage in the same sort of broad-brush stereotyping that we all find so frustrating. 

When I worked in Washington, my regular commute took me by the U.S. Mint.  (That is where they literally “make money”.)  On a tour of the facility, the guide explained how they train people to identify counterfeit currency.  In short, they looked at counterfeit samples, but they studied the real thing.  If we are going to grapple with the issue of justice, (and the Bible says we must), this book is an excellent primer on what justice really is.  I heartily commend it to anyone who wants to consider the topic more deeply in faithfulness to a godly concern for justice (including racial and systemic injustice) without losing a grip on the gospel.  We can have hope that justice will be accomplished.  But the gospel is more than that – it's that we can look forward to mercy. 

Book Review - The Life We Never Expected: Hopeful Reflections on the Challenges of Parenting Children with Special Needs

I’m sure everyone in recent weeks feels like they are living “a life we never expected.”  But this work by Andrew and Rachel Wilson, a couple from England where Andrew is pastor of King’s Church in London is not about the coronavirus.  As the subtitle notes, it is the story of a couple who found themselves parents of two children with regressive autism.  It would be difficult to overstate just how much I think you should read this book.  My worry is that my appeal may fall on deaf ears.  Perhaps you don’t think this kind of book is your cup of tea.  You may not have children, or your children don’t have special needs.  Or you think a book dealing with such topics would be a bit of a downer.  Or maybe you just have so much going on right now to read a book. Or maybe you don’t read books. (That’s a problem!)

Let me give you a brief excerpt from a chapter titled The Orange.

You’re sitting with a group of friends in a restaurant. You’ve just finished a decent main course and are about to consider the dessert menu when one of your friends gets up, taps his glass with a spoon, and announces that he has bought desserts for everyone as a gift. He disappears around the corner and returns a minute later with an armful of round objects about the size of tennis balls, each beautifully wrapped with a bow on top. As he begins distributing the mysterious desserts, everyone starts to open them in excitement, and one by one, they discover that they have each been given a chocolate orange. Twenty segments of rich, smooth, lightly flavored milk chocolate—a perfect conclusion to a fine meal and a very sociable way of topping off an enjoyable evening. The table is filled with chatter, expressions of gratitude between mouthfuls, and that odd mixture of squelching sound and intermittent silence that you always get when a large group is filling their faces.

Then you open your present. You’ve been given an orange. Not a chocolate orange; an actual orange.  Eleven segments of erratically sized, pith-covered pulp . . .
 

As Andrew Wilson goes on to write, you may understand that a real orange is better for you. But “A nice meal has taken an unexpected turn, and you suddenly feel isolated, disappointed, frustrated, even alone.”  All of us have felt like that at one point or another.  What do you do?  How do you go on?  How do you pray to God who could have worked things out differently?

I had first become aware of Andrew Wilson from reading a blog Think Theology where he is one of the primary contributors.  I have always found his writing clear and thoughtful.  Only more recently did I learn about his family situation and the impact it has had in shaping him.  Andrew and Racheal (they write alternate chapters) write movingly of what it means to be the parents of two children with special needs, struggling to navigate life knowing that around every corner is a struggle that other parents don’t have.   And they continue to seek after a God who planned this turn of events in their lives.

There are so many topics that are deftly handled in this relatively short (160 pages) work.  These include sadness, lament, grief, the fight for joy, unanswered prayer and others.  The perspective is not one of triumph but one of lessons learned while in the trenches.  But the subtitle is so true, these are “Hopeful reflections on the challenges . . . “

This is a work of hard-earned wisdom from people who know real disappointment.  They have been, to use Paul’s words “struck down, but not destroyed” (2 Cor. 4:9).  But it is not a journal of grit and determination, but a testimony of hope in our gracious Father God, who loves his children perfectly.