I have just been taken to task by the Executive Secretary of my church for praying for God’s blessing on a same sex couple. In fact he was so disturbed that he copied his letter to my Bishop and to the chair of our church’s doctrine committee! What distresses me is that we have forgotten the place of the Grace of God.I am convinced that every person on earth needs to hear words of God’s Grace spoken over them. There is no one excluded from God’s Grace. If P W Botha can be buried with words of Grace spoken at his funeral, then a same-sex couple asking to hear God’s Grace spoken aloud should be allowed the same dignity.
Of course I have no control over the blessing of God: this is God’s to give. But I can verbalise the desire of the heart into words of Grace and Love. I hereby give notice that anyone who wants to hear God’s blessing spoken aloud can come to me.
3 comments:
Grace always rises again.
God's Kingdom is not in the institution! I wonder who's kingdom it is.
I stand with you Pete. The grace of God cannot be surpressed or denied, not even by the Church! I think the Reformation is a testimony to that.
Act as your faith in Christ requires, and let the Church act on hers. When the two coincide it is a glorious [grace filled] blessing. When they do not, we need grace all the more!
As for functionaries of Church polity, that is what they are. Nothing more, nothing less. I am reminded of those men with moustaches and blue uniforms who wielded clubs and tear gas at the marches for freedom. They didn't question the law, they merely enforced it (of course it does not release them from culpability). Perhaps they were so weak that they needed the power of something greater than them to be their shield and their sword.
Of course we all remember the words of good old Lord Acton (1834-1902 [dates included because of your recent volumous publication in the field of history]) who said:
"power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely"
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