Not a very exciting title, is it? But it’s all I can think about while we wait around to see how the votes we cast at the polls today will be counted later tonight. I’ve watched the ads, the campaigns on social media outlets, and thought long and hard about whether or not we should be standing for or against, and when it’s all said and done, I really feel like this vote is about truth and consequences.
Give me a second to try and explain, and then you can pick the stones back up. I don’t feel like I’m a very good “political” preacher. There are lots of them out there that simply scream the truth the way they see it with a bull horn and a big ‘ol finger pointed squarely at you. They rant and rave and fill the air with such veracity that it makes everyone who hears them wonder if they have actually ever even met the Jesus that they yell so passionately about. Is every pastor (or Christian) that way? Of course not. But in politically charged moments like these, that stereotype is the one that comes to mind for many of us. We see the big Bible and the red face and find ourselves rejecting truth simply because we’ve been subjected to someone, somewhere who wasn’t afraid to share with anyone who would listen, even if they didn’t want to, their version of the truth.
But consequences? They don’t think a lot about that stuff. They just yell what you should do and leave you alone to figure out how to keep the truth from blowing your already broken life even further to smithereens beyond repair. And that, if I’m honest, makes me want to not be that guy. So when the truth seems so clear – and yet so easily misunderstood because it sounds so much like that guy – I feel the tension of saying the truth and yet loving the people whom the truth can hurt the most.
Amendment One has been that for me. Biblically and naturally, the truth seems clear – marriage is for a man and a woman – and yet the consequences are equally clear. A vote for the amendment can easily result in people that I feel called to serve choosing to vote me off as someone who is a bigot, racist, homophobe, or – worst of all – religious. The burden of the possible consequences has been so great that it was enough to make me consider carefully how I should vote concerning Amendment One (and I hope everyone did). The one realization that helped me the most as I debated? My life, my preferences, my passions are subject to the truth and not the other way around.
Truth can seem cold, hard, uncaring and biased, but that’s really only when it goes against what I want, hope or feel. It can seem unfair, but usually only when it goes against my sense of fairness. If I base my choices on possible consequences alone, then I will never make the call that might upset, hurt, or offend someone, and anyone who has ever led any group of people for any length of time knows how unrealistic that scenario is.
It would seem that the only other possibility is to swing so far to the “fair” side in order to not appear judgmental that we aren’t willing to stand for anything that might push others away. And yet we do that very thing everyday in life. We make judgement calls about which restaurant we’ll visit, which doctor will care for us or which church we will attend. How do we decide those things? We decide them based on what seems best to us, and we don’t typically consider the consequences. You choose this doctor and so the other doctor loses business. If loving means acceptance, then you’d have to find some way to see them both, or none at all. Choosing one implies hurting the other, and that’s a judgement call.
But that’s not the only other option, is it? There is another option that is remarkable in its simplicity and revolutionary in its potential. We could simply love each other. Not love based on acceptance without questions, or love based on adherence to religious requirements. Simply love based on the fact that God is love, and because that is His nature, He made a judgement call about all of us. He said that we were all walking in darkness and so He sent us a Light (John 3:19) in Jesus so that none of us would have to feel the shame and condemnation that comes from a life lived apart from Him.
God’s love – and His truth – makes a judgement call about our lives. He doesn’t stand by and say stuff like “to each his own” or “live and let live” or “you live your life and I’ll live mine.” No, His truth is so much greater than our sense of truth that He not only states it without a quivering lip, but also backed it up through the death of His Son in order to make it possible for each one of us to live lives based on truth more than just on consequences.
To those who may find themselves on the wrong side of the voting, you are loved more than you could ever know by Someone much higher than those who may have opposed you heatedly over the past few months, and He is more powerful than any consequences you may face as a result of the vote. And as the non-political pastor of a group of people bent on loving more than arguing, there’s always room for you at The Gathering. We’d be honored to walk with you on the journey.
