Saturday, January 29, 2011

Knitted by Nanas

I bought this birthday card today mainly because it made me laugh out loud in the shop. But really it was a fortuitous choice as it leads nicely into this post, which is a little more serious.

A few weeks ago there was a well-publicised case where a homosexual couple took the Christian owners of a guesthouse to court for refusing them a double room. Normally I don't comment on things in the news because others do it so well and this blog is all about ME and my little world but Nick wrote about it and my comment on his post was misunderstood so I thought I should clarify a little.

I'm not going into all the single room, twin-beds, contract that they wouldn't get up to naughties nonsense, which is all beside the point; instead I want to think about what Jesus would do.

I'd like to be able to disassociate myself from 'Christians like that' but I realise it's only the fact that their flaws have been brought to the public attention that make us different. Fact is we're all sinners.

The God I - and I believe the guesthouse owners - follow doesn't have a sliding scale of sin. Whether it's fiddling your expenses, taking paperclips from work or something we would think of as much much worse, it's sin in God's eyes. (And the reason we need Jesus.)

But Jesus spent a lot of time with those more commonly identified in human eyes as sinners - prostitutes & thieves - and he dealt with them with love, compassion, understanding and forgiveness. Yes, he sometimes said, 'Go and sin no more,' but only after he'd helped them.

The ones he really couldn't stand and the ones he had the strongest words for were the ones who wore their religion like a badge, who were ready to judge rather than help.
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean." Matthew 23:27

I'm not saying this applies to the guesthouse owners but Jesus's comment, 'Let him who is without sin cast the first stone' does come to mind. Our calling is not to judge but to care.

3 comments:

Leslie: said...

I so agree with you on this and even before I read to the end, thought to myself the same thing - He who casts the first stone...

nick said...

Indeed, 'Let him who is without sin cast the first stone'. Those who so viciously attack other people simply for having different lifestyles and tastes should look more closely at their own lives and their own failings. They should put their own houses in order before they complain about other people's.

jams o donnell said...

Well put Liz. Let him who is without sin is applicable to all, whether religious or not