|
Wisdom Words
Many people in the steeple
But no one leaves the walls
Quick to stand and speak
All of their beliefs
Quick to leave you if you fall
Never judge you
Always loving
Needs to be what we become
Lifting up the lost
Showing them the cross
Shining brightly like the sun
Chorus
Tell me where's the love
It knows no boundaries
Tell me where's the love
Yeah yeah
Open arms
We need to be
Open arms
*Micheal W. Smith. CD "Stand." 2006.
Comments
An older, grey-haired man, with grim look, walked into my office. He said he needed to talk with his Pastor. He sat down and began interrogating me about homosexuality. I had taken a strong stand of compassionate openness to all persons, regardless of differing thoughts on the ethical issue, and while the issue threatened to lead to a split in our denomination. But my open arms was not enough for him. He urged me to go before the congregation and preach against homosexuality. I told him I would not do that, and that I had taken the position, enunciated by our Bishop, of compassionate openness and inclusion of those practicing homosexuality in the lay ministry or our United Methodist churches. I asked this man, while he continued pressuring me, "If a person of homosexual orientation walked into our church and sat beside you, want would you tell him." His reply: "I would tell him he needed to get down at the altar and kneel and repent." This man, like so many in our churches, showed me his "arms" were closed, and his moral stance was more important than living the open Arms of Christ. He left our church, thankfully, to go across the street and seek a refuge from the Love of God. He could not see his self-righteousness was a greater sin than any could claim against homosexuality.
We each live with "arms." We can wrap our arms around ourselves, saying, "Don't come near me!" We may fear the "unclean" touching us physically or our being "touched" by including emotionally the experience and being of the other we disapprove of or just fail to understand. And we can close our arms around ourselves in a sense of being better than the other, saying, "You do something I strongly disapprove of, thus, you do not deserve my fellowship."
We can push others away with our arms. Here, we are aggressive, while closed arms is passive. The same motives as the closed arms apply: fear, feelings of superiority.
We can live with open arms. Open arms is not a self-righteous, "I am better than you, so I am mercifully including you to help you, to convert you, to change you." "No!" Open arms is, "I'm one with you, broken like you, need Grace like you. I need you as much as you need me, maybe more. Let's be a part of the change Grace will bring about in each other through our opening our arms to each other. Let's embrace the experience and self of each other, even the parts of each other we do not understand. Then, together, we can explore what it means to live courageously and lovingly in a world that often resists both courage and love."
Possibly, if we open our arms, we will learn a wonderful lesson. What is that lesson? The person we call "sinner" is no more or less a sinner than we are. We are all broken; we all need those of open arms to give us a safe and challenging place to heal and grow in Christ-likeness.
Or you willing to be Christ to the person other persons would just say to, "Get to that altar and repent!" If you are, then, you can follow Christ. If not, then, you cannot go where Christ is going to meet persons as they are and where they are, and in solidarity with them.
Suggested Reflections
What does it mean to you to live with open arms? How do you seek to balance ethical~social responsibility and inclusive embrace in your life?
|
