It's a messed up world

Thank you to those who commented on my previous post. Unfortunately, it takes a large amount of effort that I don’t really have time for at the moment to work on that project. You may have to wait a long time to read more. So, for now you just have to deal with my normal ramblings.


Katie and I are in a small group at church that has shifted to reading a couple chapters of the Bible before we meet, and discussing the parts that stuck out to us in some way. We are starting with the book of Romans, and I think it is going to be a great time of growth and exploration of ideas and opinions about what God is saying through Paul. For our most recent session we read the first two chapters of Romans.

In recent history, I think that the first chapter of Romans has been used to justify judgment of some individuals in our society. We decide to pick and choose some ideas that Paul expresses, twist them into what fits our motives, and use them to degrade some individuals placing them further away from God than us in our minds and hearts.

Romans 1:18-28 is entitled God’s Wrath Against Mankind and I will paste it below:

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.


For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.


Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.


Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.


Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

Recently there has been a tunnel vision for Christians to focus their attention on verses 24 through 27 in which Paul discusses God giving mankind over to what seems to be homosexuality. Whatever your interpretation of who God is condemning in this section makes absolutely no difference.

Why? Because the section is entitled God’s Wrath Against Mankind.

Mankind, as defined by Merriam-Webster, is “the human race: the totality of human beings.”

Our small group has not reached Romans 3:23 yet, but is says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” The upside down thinking involved in focusing on a certain group of individuals and claiming they have fallen further, or deserve God’s love and grace less, is revolting. We are all a part of mankind and we all are nothing without the grace of God through His son’s death on the cross. If we think there is a difference between us and someone who we hold up as being wholly more sinful than us, we blatantly ignore God’s word when it says that, “righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference (Romans 3:22).”

So if we are all sinners, what are we called to do? LOVE EACH OTHER!

When I first started this blog, I said that I would be looking for God in places that He might not be expected. Some of my friends and I use to get made fun of a lot for doing this in high school. We were in to indie music and movies, and would claim that there was a definite tie between these seemingly secular things and God. I think it is easy to fall into thinking that God wouldn’t want to be in those things, and if the person who created it didn’t mean for God to be there He isn’t. I think that idea is horribly wrong. God does not have boundaries. He does not need us to want Him to be there to show up, and He does His best work when He is found in places no one would expect Him. I mean, think about Jesus. Did the people find him in the temple hanging out with Rabbis? No, they found him on the streets and at parties, hanging out with the outcasts of society. So why couldn’t he show up in a song by Outkast today? I know, bad play on words, but I had to do it.

I got hooked on a show called Skins recently, and watched the first two seasons on Netflix. I originally was pulled into the show because I heard that it was where Dev Patel from Slumdog Millionaire was discovered. I don’t recommend the show for the easily offended, and please don’t think poorly of me if you watch it and do get offended. It is the BBC version the Gossip Girl or The Secret Life of an American Teenager without the censorship laws that we have in the US. For the most part, the storylines are outrageous and make me scared for Europe if it is a real representation of a teenager’s life in that culture. It is filled with a lot of drug use and unhealthy relationships, but at the same time it is a very raw picture of some of the pressures that teenagers today face.

In the first season, Dev Patel’s character, Anwar, is struggling with the cognitive dissonance between the doctrine of his Muslim religion, and the way he wants to live his life. A major issue in this chasm between his religious affiliation and his life is the fact that his best friend, Maxxie, is a homosexual. Desiring to be a good Muslim, and make his father proud, he begins to distance himself from his best friend, which causes a great deal of pain for them both. Anwar’s father, a devout Muslim, is constantly asking him why he has not seen Maxxie around lately, and pressures him to hold on to such a good friend. Anwar does not have the guts to share with his father why he is distancing himself, because he holds on to hope that he will be able to preserve his friendship and his religion. He fears that his father will make this impossible if he finds out his friend is a homosexual, due to the Muslim religions adamant denouncing of homosexuality.

In the season finale, Maxxie refuses to enter Anwar’s birthday party because of fear of what will happen when Anwar’s father finds out he is gay. It has come to a point where the friendship cannot last until it is out in the open. Anwar’s father comes outside with Anwar and sees Maxxie. He hugs him, and begins talking to him about all the food inside while Anwar interjects that Maxxie is gay. His father ignores the comment and continues talking until Maxxie interrupts with the same statement. The following is what Anwar’s father says to Maxxie:

“It’s an (expletive), stupid, messed up world. I’ve got my god. He speaks to me every day. Some things I just can’t work out, so I leave them be, okay, even if I think they are wrong, because I know one day he will make me understand. I’ve got that trust, it’s called belief. I’m a lucky man. Come Maxxie, the food is ready.”

I don’t cry too often at movies or television, but Anwar’s father’s words brought me to tears. Although his religion differs from mine, his concept of how to treat mankind is profoundly like my God wants from me. He loves Maxxie for who he is as an entire person, not for one thing that he thinks is wrong and does not understand. He loves Maxxie because he has faith that his god loves him enough to one day explain to him the things he does not understand. He opens his life to Maxxie and says he knows he is a sinner and still wants him at his dinner table. God’s message showed up in a raunchy BBC television show and shared a message that so many followers of Christ seem to be missing.

We are not commanded to judge, we are commanded to love. Jesus said that every law hangs on two commandments (Matthew 22:36-40):

1. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

2. Love your neighbor as yourself.

There is no room for judgment in these two commandments. There is no room for hate or bigotry. There is only room for love. We are not called to place ourselves closer to God by degrading others. We are called to have the same grace that God’s has for us for all mankind, because we are all in the same messed up world. We are all unworthy of God’s presence, but he invites us to his dinner table anyway. Who are we to think that we have the right or ability to exclude any part of his creation from eating at that table? Who are we to accept God’s grace and divvy out judgment?

Like Anwar’s father said, have faith that God will one day bring clarity to the things you don’t understand. In the meantime, remember the gift you have received, and show your gratitude to God by loving His creation.