"Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done."
Luke 22:42 (NIV)
I was also upset by a number of Facebook statuses I saw after the ELCA's social statement on sexuality was passed. People were celebrating, saying that the ELCA had "done something right". There was gloating and cheering. I thought that we were the body of Christ - here to support one another. Instead this issue is a passive-aggressive, "us against them", fight? Those messages made me feel like the time I had spent over the last ten years in discernment on this issue was wasted time; because on both sides the lines were already drawn. It doesn't seem to ever have been about coming to an understanding, but about pushing agendas.
I have heard a lot of good talk about discerning God's will in these discussions, but that seems to have gone by the wayside in the euphoria of a win for the home team. In that, if nothing else, we have divided ourselves by defining "winning" and "losing" sides. We are suddenly the body of Christ moving in different directions - pulling apart. This isn't the first time it has happened - look at the reformation. There were many un-Christian things done in the reformation in the name of Christ, and the first was picking sides instead of attempting to reconcile.
I pray for unity in this discernment instead of division.
http://kairosverse.blogspot.com
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