#299 Miles and Miles

This year I am training to run a marathon. It's my first time. (A lot of people are surprised to hear that, but I never really had the urge before.) I am registered for the Des Moines marathon in October. It works out really well because it's a couple days after a family wedding, so I was planning to be off that Sunday anyway.

Last fall I ran a half marathon, so—as you might expect—I never ran farther than the 13.1 miles I ran on race day. When I was in college training for 8000m cross country races as well as 5000m and 10,000m track races, I ran double digit mileage pretty regularly, but never more than 16 miles at a time. It won't be too long before I enter uncharted territory here.

Getting ready for a 26.2 mile race is going to require some serious mileage. My training plans kicks off one week from today. Each week's longest run will be on Saturday, so starting Saturday, July 1, I am going to be running somewhere between 10 and 20 miles every Saturday morning for 15 weeks. If you live in Northwest Iowa and have some free time, I would love to find some people to ride bike next to me while I'm out pounding the pavement. Tess and I have a couple adult bikes, so you wouldn't even need to bring your own transportation. I'll be working hard, but I won't be running very fast for a bike, and it would be great to be able to carry a water bottle on the bike. I'll be happy to make conversation, and I'll be a pretty captive audience if you want to talk to me. Let me know if you're interested and when you're free. Even if you can't commit to the whole run, any little bit helps.

Grace and peace,

BMH

#298 Brotherly and Sisterly Love

In my last post I argued that our sins—ALL of our sins—hurt us, even if they don't hurt anyone else (at least as far as we can tell). I used Christians' current debate about whether or not God approves of sex within same-sex marriages as an example. However, I don't want to leave the wrong impression here. People who identify as LGBTQ+, including Christians, have been hurt far too often by the church.

When I made my argument about sin hurting us, I DID NOT mean to say that we should kick LGBTQ+ individuals out of the church or avoid them as Christians. If I want to start kicking people out of the church for being sinners, I will need to start with myself and then move on to kicking out everybody else. (Now, I believe there are times when it is appropriate for congregations to exclude individuals from some privileges of church membership because those individuals refuse to heed the church's call to turn away from their sins to God, but we won't get into that right now.) Christians are redeemed sinners. We are sinners who are being made holy by the work of God, but we are still sinners. As long as we live in this life, we will not be perfect, though we keep striving to follow Christ's example, and He keeps helping us grow.

As a pastor, I end up talking about sin quite often. It's not something I always enjoy or get excited about. But I talk about sin because it's important part of talking about God's grace to us in Jesus. And I try my best to talk about sin out of love. I really believe that our sins hurt us, weakening our trust in God. And I can't just sit by silently and watch people I care about do things that hurt them. I wouldn't want others to sit by silently and watch me hurt myself.

Too often we act like the church is some sort of club for "good" people or righteous people. Too often we get this country club mentality where we want to keep others out. We should act like the church is a support group for sinners. We should want everyone to come in and hear about how Jesus forgives us and renews us and calls us to a new and richer life. We should encourage and challenge and accompany one another in following Jesus. But I think by and large the church in America is failing at this. I as a pastor and a Christian am failing at promoting and practicing this. Rather than viewing fellow Christians as brothers and sisters that we can journey with, rather than welcoming visitors exploring what Jesus is all about like family members, we so often see each other for a little while on Sunday and then go back to (hopefully) trying to live the Christian life—all on our own. So often we're weakening ourselves and hurting each other by not devoting ourselves to this brotherly and sisterly love. People who identify as LGBTQ+ have often borne even more of the weight of my and our failure.

So please, you and I need to take our relationships as Christians beyond the walls of our church buildings. We need to do and share life together. We need to wrestle with sins together. We need to be patient and kind. We need to love one another by helping each other follow Jesus more closely. We need to keep pointing one another back to Jesus' love. We need a support group. We need a family. Thank God that He gives us one.

Grace and peace,

BMH

#297 Who Does It Hurt?

Who does it hurt? This is a question we ask ourselves a lot when it comes to our behavior, our morals. Christians have a reputation for being uptight about things that most people would say don't really hurt anyone. A lot of us human beings think it shouldn't matter if we use pornography or have consensual sex outside of marriage. We think it's not a big deal if we call someone names behind their back or tell some "white lies" to serve a good end. Being envious of our friends' possessions or being a little materialistic and buying more than we need don't seem very problematic to us. Nor does neglecting worshiping God or placing God after our families and jobs on our list of priorities. We think these actions don't harm other people, so even if they're not exactly what God wants for us, they're not so bad.

Recently I've heard this argument made when it comes to same-sex marriage. Who does it hurt if two male Christians or two female Christians are sexually intimate within the context of a committed marriage? I have some sympathy for the argument. There are other sexual sins, like adultery and sexual abuse, that cause obvious and greater harm to other people. And being in an opposite-sex marriage does not mean that I or anyone else is sin-free. Part of me would like to celebrate any two people getting married and move on. However, as I've said before on this blog, I believe that God teaches us in the Bible that His will is that sex should only take place within marriage and that marriage should only be between one man and one woman. I have not come across an argument from Scripture in support of same-sex marriage that I find convincing. Others disagree with me, and I am not a perfect interpreter of God's will, but I really believe this is how God wants us to live. Let's proceed humbly and cautiously.

So then, if I am correct, and God does not approve of same-sex marriage, who does it hurt? I think the answer is the spouses in the same-sex marriage. I know that might sound ridiculous. What could be wrong about getting what you want in a committed relationship? But, assuming with me that same-sex marriages go against God's will, then being in such a relationship means teaching yourself to disobey God, to sin. It means elevating your own desires above what God wants for His people generally and you specifically. Ultimately, it means acting like you are God and you get to decide what right and wrong is for yourself.

Now—and this is extremely important—this is the way that ALL sin works. Other sexual sins, like premarital sex or even lust, mean the same things for us. Other sins, like hatred and greed and superstition, do as well. At its heart, sin is idolatry. We sin because—even if we don't consciously think this—we believe we can and should control our lives. We trust ourselves instead of God. Now—this, too is extremely important—I do not believe that sexual sins in general nor same-sex sexual sins in particular are worse in God's sight than other sins. Sin of any variety is dangerous because it leads us away from trusting and relying on God, the only source of life and salvation. Only Christ Jesus can save us from any sin, and He can save us from every sin, forgiving us and transforming us to live for Him in grateful obedience. Who does our sin hurt? It hurts us, so Jesus calls us to repent, turning from our sins to Him, because He alone can save, and He freely gives salvation to all His people.

[Don't stop here! Please go on and read the next post.]

Grace and peace,

BMH