Loving the LGBT Community

Luke 6:2 But some of the Pharisees said, “why are you breaking the law by harvesting grain on the Sabbath?” Yesterday I met a friend who was recently asked to represent the church in an IG Live debate against the LGBT community. He wanted to avoid the controversial topic, especially in a public forum where the gay community was heavily promoting to get supporters in this dialogue. But God kept telling him to go so he submitted and accepted the offer. My friend had to answer some hard questions (do you believe being gay is a sin?) and he answered them honestly (yes I do), but he couched the answers with such love (God loves all of us and we’re all sinners). He also spoke about his own struggles with addiction to pornography, and his own attempted suicide, and because he came at the issues with such authenticity and humility, when the comment popped up “hey the church guy is getting too much airtime”, the LGBT opponent replied with “no it’s ok. We don’t have enough Christians addressing these issues in our community. Let’s let him talk some more.” After the IG Live, the opponent, the moderator, and several members of the gay community reached out to him for coffee, and he’s been sharing the gospel with them. Wow. Humans have a tendency to honor those who look and act like themselves, which is why rules become so important in culture. If you follow the same rules as me, you’re like me and so I’ll honor you. But if not, then you’re a bad person, so I will shame you. Jesus came and broke all the rules, because he wanted to show us that we need to honor people regardless of what they look like or what rules they follow. I was really encouraged to hear this account of my brother honoring a community that the church so desperately needs to love. Lord, we’re all sinners and we all need more of you. In pursuing you we sometimes become the very people who hated you. Help us to get past the rules, and get more of your presence. When you’re in our midst, we can’t help but love others, even if they’re different from us. In your son’s name, Amen.