Exsqueese me – are we reading the same bible?

(Sub-titled… This is what I think about the recent law-change to the definition of marriage… in a round about kind of way…)

Humans excel at creating stereotypes, prejudice and grouping – it’s a default human behaviour. We create groups to keep ourselves in and others out. Somehow this helps us feel ok about ourselves. We manage our insecurities by knowing the rules of the group we are in and our place within it. We divide the world into class and country, colour and race, gender and beauty, religion and sexuality. Socials norms guide our behaviour, our attitudes, our identity and our groupings, which can be ok. Unfortunately, social norms can become rather rigid. In our effort to define ourselves, we alienate others who do not fit. It starts in school with girls who ostracize a misfitting friend, boys who mercilessly pick on a smaller boy, right through to wars on the basis of racial or religious differences. This is not God’s plan for a beautiful world full of harmony and community. The Kingdom of Heaven, that the Messiah signposted, is the very opposite of this. Jesus calls for us to care for the ‘least among you’ (Luke 9v48 onwards). The Kingdom of God is the community we build that breaks down stereotypes and prejudices, that breaks down the walls of the ghettos we have created. That welcomes the outsider, the other, the different.

Yeah, I know that many God-fearing individuals claim that their prejudices are biblical. But really, we choose to interpret or emphasise passages that endorse our (already present) prejudices; those that serve our groupings and our stereotypes. We choose to use the bible not to challenge our arrogance and fear, but to endorse it. It takes a lot of courage to honour someone else, someone different, someone ‘other’. It’s easier not to. So then we look for ‘reasons’ that our stance is ok.

But I just can’t help it, I cannot read my bible without being confronted to go beyond what feels safe. It challenges my arrogance, my desire to surround myself with like people, who endorse and strengthen my sense of identity in my human group and my superiority.  The challenges start with what Jesus calls the greatest commandment. ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself”. A song we used to sing as children translated “Love your neighbour as yourself” as “love all mankind”. But do some of us sing this song with a wee attitudinal disclaimer like, ‘oh sorry not the gay ones. Sorry God I can’t do that’. And I get it, I know it’s hard to love others’, those who are different; with a different faith, with different preferences or lifestyles, but don’t tell me you get permission from the bible you’re reading. That’s a lie you tell yourself to let yourself off the hook.

There’s another great story that Jesus told about the man who ended up owing the equivalent of millions to the King – an amount he could never repay (Matt 18:21-35). It’s a picture of us, and the enormity of what we have received from the Creator of the universe and the idea that no matter what, we can never repay it, but we can accept the grace with which it’s given. In the story, the person who has been forgiven so much (ie between man and God – quite an unbalanced arrangement there!) goes about his business and finds he cannot forgive the insignificant debt of his fellow man (an equal footing relationship). We do this – we have been given everything, yet we hold this offence against our brothers and sisters who live differently to us. Regardless of the rightness or wrongness of the behaviour (something I find quite irrelevant) we do this – we withhold forgiveness and love and community from our fellow man because of what we think they have done and our judgements towards them. Hardly the biblical moral high ground here.

Shall I start on planks and specks? We have a gradient of ‘sin’ don’t we… as humans we judge the behaviour of others as minor sin, bad sin, and really bad sin. The bible says gossipers wont inherit the kingdom of God (Gal 5:21, I Cor 6:9-11) but we don’t excommunicate the elders’ wives who can’t help themselves do we? Y’know that prayer chain y’all have – it’s a gossip chain, let’s be honest. We have decided that we will tolerate gossip (even though it’s pretty clear in the gospel) but same-sex attraction is the worst.sin.ever. Planks and specks people. Planks and specks.

The parable of the Good Samaritan comes to mind as the most obvious. Some of the disgust is lost on our modern ears but the Samaritan was a lesser man in the eyes of the Jewish listeners, from a despised culture; religiously deviant. They were often referred to as dogs, yet Jesus holds him up as a role model for the one who behaved with dignity and love. Take another look how you look at this person, asks Jesus, maybe it’s your perspective that’s out of kilter. In the light of this parable, one has to ask the question. Who are the Samaritans in our world? Would we accept ministry from them?


And let’s talk about heart condition. We go about our lives as hypocrites, saying I am sure God will forgive my interest in porn, or addiction to playstation, or ignorance of injustice, or wasting my time, talents and resources, or hiding my light, or wallowing in consumerism – but thank you God I’m not gay. Sound a little like a Pharisee we all know? Check out Luke 18:9-14 for a few thoughts of Jesus of a man congratulating himself of his own self-righteousness. We have all fallen short of the Glory of God (Rom 3:23) and his plan for human existence. Salvation is not earned by works so that none of us should boast (Eph 2:9). We know that it’s our heart condition that makes a difference (see the sermon on the mount – Matt 5). It is logically possible I would think, to live a ‘perfect life’, managing to avoid any of the really bad sin; murder, adultery, even wanting your neighbour's donkey ie consumerism and greed (Ex 20). It is possible. But if you are able to do this AND you are prejudiced in your heart towards your fellow man who lives a different sexual lifestyle – then you have fallen short of the Kingdom of God – as Jesus proclaimed. God’s heart breaks for the people who suffer prejudice everyday (the least of these) but also for us – those of us who live the Christian life but have missed the point. Missed the point of what a transformed life looks like; an inclusive life, a loving community that reaches out and does not barricade its borders; a life that does not sit within the confines of stereotype and prejudice. But for many; religion is just another form of prejudice.

I could go on, day after day after day about how the Bible I read alters my attitude and my behaviour towards my fellow man and how I seem to be moving further and further away from other interpretations of the bible. The messages I get from the Word are loud and clear; to Love the Lord my God with all that I am and everything I have, and love all of mankind, no matter how I view their (insignificant) behaviour. I’m a little bit tired of a world that sees the Christian faith as list of don’ts. The law (biblical or governmental) has never freed anyone from anything. It binds and controls. But the Kingdom of God is an invitation to a life of ‘dos’– Do love your neighbour, do unto others, do practise love and kindness and faithfulness and self control, and peace and patience, and, and, and... Be transformed through the renewing of your mind (Rom 12:2) and be free from the human condition that separates, and judges, and hates, and prejudices. Do humility, do justice, do mercy (Micah 6v8) no caveats, no disclaimers, no insiders, no outsiders, no in-crowd, no untouchables. That’s my God. That’s my bible.