April 03, 2013
Same Services
Civil unions are now law in Colorado and the only exemption is that the
bill doesn’t require religious leaders to perform a same-sex marriage ceremony.
Charles Ashby, reporter for the Grand Junction Sentinel states, “Unlike last year’s bill, the new law
doesn’t allow anyone, including religious groups, to discriminate against
same-sex couples by denying them the same services they provide to heterosexual
ones.” Apparently legislators made a distinction between ceremonies and
services. One has to wonder if services include sacraments, baptism, or even
being a candidate for positions of authority – elder, deacon and teacher. It
will be a struggle for churches to navigate the waters of holding fast to the
Word of God and also being forced to be as inclusive as the new law demands. “Warn a divisive person once, and then warn
him a second time. After that, have nothing to do with him. You
may be sure that such a man is warped and sinful; he is self–condemned.” (Titus
3:10-11 NIV)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Gail;
-----Maybe this same-sex political craze is one of the better things that can happen to the church. Last night, Char and I were conversing about the amount of time we actually don’t spend doing hands on things for the church - vacuuming the floors, cleaning bathrooms, preparing for meetings, serving in the nursery, the list is endless. Yet it hasn’t really described service. “Church” invokes the thought of a building of particular architecture and the things that are done there. It has come to be a place you “go to”. Worse yet, it has become a Sunday morning event for the vast, vast majority of us who “go to” church. I am willing to throw open those doors to Mr. and Mr. Barney and Joe and Ms. and Ms. Ellen and Lily. They can have it.
-----Christ’s church will stand against the gates of anybody’s hell. That church is not a place to go, a symbol in public sight, a mere representation of something real. It is something real. It is those who believe Jesus Christ for what He said, who He is, and the power He serves. It is wherever they interact and it does whatever they do. And serving it is attending whatever needs they have, whether need be for encouragement and edification, for being taught and informed, for being inspired, fed, clothed, sheltered, or watered. But if I could guarantee anything I would guarantee you that going to a building once a week for a sermon forgotten within fifteen minutes is little more than a crumb of service. Real service is hard. It costs. And it is not arrayed in trappings recognizable to the public as religious doings. It is merely the bringing out from your treasures what fulfills real needs others could not meet themselves.
-----Of course, those needs include the sermons and Sunday school classes and hymns and songs and communion meals and such, therefore producing regular gatherings, even at a “church” building. But those needs do not include pampering the dead. If spiritual zombies want to marry their own sex, their own dogs and cats and chickens, let them. They can even have the old church building to do it in. They don’t need anyone who loves the Lord and honors His Word with obedience to legitimize their perversion and pronounce legality upon their sickness. They have whole governments full of zombies falling all over each other to do that. Church heals sickness.
-----There is no sin in withdrawing “marriage ceremony” from our list of offered “services”. That does not mean marriage ceremonies would stop happening amongst the people who are His church. Then let the dead marry their own dead. Elsewhere. And that also clears up what is the only thing the church really has to offer the public: Jesus bringing love in the truth to life in any willing zombie.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
Post a Comment