The bible can teach us about making space for people the wider world considers outsiders, and about the complex matter of gender identity
In his book The Compassionate God, the Taiwanese theologian Choan-Seng Song writes about a fractured and divided world seemingly “destined for destruction at our own hands”. Many would agree. However he goes on to remind us that there is an alternative, the creation of a God-sourced “communion of love.” He writes: “As God moves, God suffers with the people, sheds tears with them, hopes with them . . .
Such a communion is anticipated in tomorrow’s reading from Acts chapter 8, where we are introduced to a church that brings together human life in all its richness and diversity. It begins with Philip, a disciple of Jesus with a Greek name, representing a cultural bridge between the Aramaic-speaking disciples of Jesus and the Greeks, and extending even further to include a Nubian official from what is modern-day Sudan.
There are lessons to be learned from this story when we reflect on the complex matter of gender identity, a divisive issue in today’s church and in wider society where some exploit populist feelings against LGBTQ people and others in furtherance of their political ambitions. This message sent to an NSPCC helpline by a mother reminds us of the difficulties faced by families trying to support those marginalised by public disapproval and worse: “I’m calling in relation to my teenage son.
Tomorrow’s epistle from the First Letter of John has a message for the church about making space for those the wider world sees as outsiders as Philip did. It also has a message about how to handle controversy within the church. Probably written late in the first century, a time of bitter doctrinal divisions, the author reminds his readers of the first principles of discipleship. “We love because he first loved us.
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