I desire mercy.... not sacrifice

     I have been thinking about this a lot this week and then this morning at church as we heard Jesus say,

"Go and learn what this means, 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice'

  In today's sermon we heard the story of the 'Good Samaritan' and now a man who was not Jewish had taken care of stranger who was Jewish and beaten down by robbers and even paid for the mans needs out of his own pocket.    In our world today you could maybe replace the characters with "tea partier" and "democrat" or  "gay" and "straight people" or "Jewish" and "Muslim" or any other combination of people who don't agree.   

    Too many Christians today seek to "sacrifice" themselves for the faith thinking it will earn them points with God even though it is Christ's sacrifice on the cross that has earned for us all the points with God we would ever need.   Recently I read an article about a couple who owned a bakery who did not want to make a wedding cake for a gay couple feeling it would infringe on their faith and they would be sinning against God.   Like the story of the Good Samaritan where a priest and levite both pass by the beaten man on the road.  To touch a man bloodied and possibly dead would possibly make them unfit to serve in the temple until they had gone through a long process of cleansing.   So also this couple felt it would sully them as well.   Jesus commanded us to be "in the world but not of the world".  Would baking a cake make them guilty of being gay?   Of course not.    Instead, it would give them a chance to share their faith.

    At the same time I begrudge the gay couple for suing the Christian couple for obeying their consciences.  Will everyone agree with you all the time?  Should you take to court everyone who disagrees with you on every point?  Of course not.   You would be spending your entire life in the courtroom if that were so. 

    What this world needs more of on both side is this...

     GRACE!

    Grace says I disagree with you but that is okay.  Grace says I am willing to accept those differences and move on in my life.   Grace says I will still be there for you even though we are different. 

    Does it mean that homosexuality (or other sexual sins) no longer matters?  Absolutely not.  It's all about context.  Paul writes in I Corinthians 5:12

¹² What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? ¹³ God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked person from among you.”

     The context being whether or not that person considers themselves to be a member of the body of Christ or not.   If they don't (and they are outside the church), then we are not to pass judgement on them and be loving towards them for they don't know any better.   If they are inside the church then they are not being true to the faith and we should in love expel them so they might come to their senses.   In fact in the very same book of I Corinthians Paul has them do this to a man who is sleeping with his father's wife (most likely a second marriage) and then in 2 Corinthians he has them restore the man after he has relinquished the relationship. 

    In both cases, inside the church and outside, we are to always act in love to reach them for Christ so GRACE may abound.