Mary and I met friends for dinner last night. The couple asked me about their neighbors. Two gay men live next door and they believe one is dying. A lot of traffic recently causes them to believe hospice is present. The question from this couple was, “What can we do to effectively minister?” As the rest of us, they don’t want to say or do the wrong thing. What wonderful hearts asking pertinent questions.
So what should be done? I’ll give you my response realizing there are a thousand better and more faithful ones. I urged them to be on that man’s doorstep with food and concern. The key to any move is trusting God to work. God may choose to work through them or they simply may be watering what someone else in God’s kingdom has sown. It seems to me we want these men to know Christians love every neighbor. My goal would be to love this man as closely to the mannerisms of Jesus that can be mustered. I would simply let all in the house know of my concern and see what doors open by God and what ones don’t.
I would ask the man how he’s been doing the last few days. I would ask if he needs someone to sit with him, read to him, pray with him. Eventually, I would ask him if he is afraid. This often unlocks the tightest of stubborn doors. One can only work from his response. I would not go in, at first, bent on winning him; but to be an ambassador for God. I would try to love him as Christ loves all of us. If in that love, the opportunity arises to invade his heart with the too-good-to-be-true news of Jesus, then indeed mission blessed.
I would encourage all disciples to refrain from calculating how to control a situation. God will always take us farther than our scanty imaginations. I’m most proud of my friends and those of you who see beyond the glares of sin to take action to love the sinful as Jesus does us…..Romans 5:1-11.
5 comments:
for more from the words below, see http://www.theology.edu/journal/volume3/sinners.htm
One can scarce turn a page in the four Gospels without running smack dab into a sinner/ tax collector/ Samaritan. In Jesus' day these were the folk looked down upon by the religious and ignored by the powerful. Yet these are the very folk Jesus hangs out with! He eats with them. He stays with them when he travels. He cares about them. And he tried to! get his disciples to do the same thing. In short, Jesus ministered to those who needed the great physician. He cared about those who cared nothing for God or about religious behavior! In doing so he showed them God's undying, undeserved, love.
Terry Rush, your writings often take me to the subject you write about and the answers I receive are often very similar to what you say.
God Bless, Jim Cooke, Midland, TX
Brings back memories from visiting a man dying with aids. I was asked by a family member to come by and by the grace of God, I spent a few months reading, praying, feeding and holding his hand. At his funeral, I shared how God had been revealed to me through that experience (God who uses loaves and fish can use smiles and tears; God can speak through the still small voice of a man with barely enough strength to speak; God can use memories of happy times, etc.) I was asked by a fellow member how the man acquired aids. I responded, "I don't know; we didn't talk about his past. We talked about how God grants strength and gives glimpses of His glory moment by moment--we discussed the beauty of sunsets and the laughter of children." (No, he was never baptized but many of his family members have been. More than that, I know better the One into whom I was baptized.)
Wow! Great advice!
When I was in grad school at UF I lived next door to two gay men. It really challenged me to know what to do and whether or not to invite them to church. Main thing = be Christians to them. Let them see the fruits of the Spirit in us.
You've got to be kidding me, Terry! You think there are "a thousand better and more faithful" responses to your neighbor's question than what you just gave? I don't think so!
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