#thestruggleisreal - I Gotta Work on That Whole 'Gentleness' Thing

In May and June, Toni Ruth and I (and Richard) will be preaching a series based on Paul's letter to the Galatians called #thestruggleisreal.  During this series, I'm going to be posting regularly with some brief thoughts on various passages from Galatians.  I hope that you follow along as we look for God's grace in the midst of some very real struggles!

Galatians 6:1 - "My friends, if anyone is detected in a transgression, you who have received the Spirit should restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness."

Some time ago, there was a somewhat controversial vote at Annual Conference1. I was sitting with a good friend of mine and some other pastors that I knew, though not very well. These colleagues were more ideologically inclined than my friend and I were and the mood on our row reflected the mood in the entire auditorium: tense. There was an exchange in the midst of the voting (which was, of course, beset by various complications, painfully drawing out the process interminably) between my friend and another pastor who had always demonstrated love and kindness, in my experience of him. In this instance, however, that charity and kindness were not on display. My friend and I, both for our own reasons, chose to abstain from the vote. The previously kind pastor lashed out at my friend in a way that is still crystal clear in my memory, accusing him of cowardice. The anger in his face and voice was surprising and I was momentarily taken aback.

Sadly, this is how many
people view Christians...

I've been in ministry long enough and have dealt with people long enough that I was not ultimately surprised by the outburst. Controversial issues and heated debates inspire passionate responses from people and I'm not naive enough to think that we can or will simply lay aside our deeply-held convictions in the midst of such debates. I was, however, disappointed. In the moment, this follower of Jesus Christ and pastor seemed to allow his commitment to one particular side of an admittedly contentious issue to dictate his treatment of a brother in Christ and colleague in ministry.

In case you think I'm coming down hard on this pastor or claiming some kind of superiority for myself, I find myself doing the same thing. Not in the same way and maybe not even out loud, but nevertheless, I will often put my theological opinions, political leanings, Scriptural understandings, even college basketball allegiances2 ahead of the fruit that the Spirit wants to bear in my life. And if I am tempted to think that simply not acting on these feelings of superiority externally gets me off the hook, Jesus is pretty clear about where the damage of sin starts.

So when I read what Paul says in the first verse of chapter 6, my thoughts immediately went to my colleague and his unloving response to my friend. If my colleague thought that my friend was in the wrong or guilty of some transgression, then his response should have been to speak to him with gentleness when he felt that he was able to do so. And honestly, in the fractured and divisive climate of the debate surrounding the UMC's response to homosexual persons, we are corporately guilty of ignoring what Paul is saying here. A large number of us are guilty of putting our agendas (theological or political) above our brothers and sisters in Christ. This is not only sad - it is disobedient. Further, it is maddening that pointing this out is often met by cries of: "well, they were being disobedient first!" Our debates and arguments reliably disintegrate into playground taunts and stunningly juvenile name-calling. To echo Paul, this ought not be so…

Here's the really frustrating thing about Jesus: when I say things like the above paragraph, I'm really comfortable putting all of that on the shoulders of other people. I'd prefer to 'take the high road' and assume that I have the right perspective and the best approach. But Jesus won't let me rest easily with my assumptions. Even if in my thoughts or assumptions I'm unloving or I'm lacking gentleness when it comes to those with whom I disagree or those whom are "detected in transgression", I'm disobeying God's clear command to me to be loving and to treat them with gentleness. The reconciliation project that God is undertaking in the world is not just for those people I disagree with - God's got a lot of work left to do in me.  So yeah, #thestruggleisreal…

1Annual Conference is the yearly gathering of United Methodist clergy and lay delegates from their particular Conference. A Conference is a geographically determined area - for example, I am a pastor in the Western North Carolina Conference, with the 'dividing line' between my Conference and the North Carolina Conference bisecting the state just west of Burlington.

2With that said, Go Heels!!!