Spiritual Hiccups - Loving "Them"

Two days ago, the presbytery (our local governing body) of which I am a member voted on an amendment to our denomination's rules on ordaining pastors, elders, and deacons.  This amendment was passed at last summer's General Assembly (our national governing body), and must now be approved by a majority of the presbyteries in order to become the standard.  Ordinations standards have been a flash-point in this denomination for all my years as a pastor, with the question of whether we will ordain gays and lesbians who are in same sex relationships at the center of the fight. 

The debate on this issue, having been engaged for so long, is fairly predictable.  Generally the same folks stand up whenever the presbytery debates the issue and say pretty much the same thing, opening their Bibles to the the same scripture verses.  In recent years, we've been fairly civil in our debates, but still there are times when a speaker's disdain for those on the other side is obvious.  His or her opinion is clearly rooted in a correct and clear understanding of the Bible, not the patent distortion that the other side is suggesting.  And failing to vote as this speaker recommends will most certainly draw God's ire and set the denomination on the road to ruin.

Sometimes it is very difficult to feel charitable toward such folk.  It is much easier to dislike them and to think similar thoughts about them that they are thinking about me.  In their arrogance and certainty they are the ones distorting the Bible and leading the denomination down the road to ruin.

I doubt that the psalmist had anything of this sort in mind while penning Psalm 36, but as I read it I was drawn up short by a single line there addressed to God.  "You save humans and animals alike, O LORD."  What a remarkable statement.  God saves animals.

God's love and concern extends to the creatures I see as I gaze out my window.  God takes notice of birds and dogs and cats, of rabbits and chipmunks and squirrels, and of all those animals I don't see right now.  Beyond the obvious implications for those who suppose Christians needn't care about the environment or global climate change, I also see an implication for all too human tendency to dismiss those with whom we disagree.

If God saves animals, who cannot even understand the debates about ordination, biblical standards, or correct theological doctrine, surely God is well intended toward us even when our understandings are wrong; or more to the point, surely God has saving designs on those whose arrogance and certainty I deem as deserving of God's ire.

I would never say that it doesn't matter what we do, that God doesn't care how we act or what we endorse.  We should attempt to live as we think God is directing us to do through Scripture.  But I think we should also realize that God's capacity to love and God's desire to save are larger and more encompassing than ours.  And so as we seek to be more Christ-like in our lives, we would do well expand our capacity for love, learning to love even "them."

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