A Pastoral Concern regarding Pride Month

Part of the Gospel reading for this Sunday is this: “If anyone loves me, he will hold on to my word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.  The one who does not love me does not hold on to my words" (John 14:23-24).  

This means that we take the word of God very seriously.  We conform our lives to his word.  We are not permitted to tweak, edit, or recast God's word to conform to our society.  For this, we are called haters, bigots, etc...  Of course, Jesus warned us that we should expect as much from those who do not love him (cf. John 15:18-20).  Since they do not love him, they do not keep his word.

This does not mean that we despise people.  Part of God's word is, "Love your neighbor as yourself."  Unfortunately, that gets spun by many to mean "Accept your neighbor's sins and do not correct him because that would make him feel bad."  

Our Lord gave the church its mission just before he ascended to heaven: "Repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations" (Luke 24:47).  We call sinners to repent.  That's ALL sinners.  All stand guilty before God, and we are to flee from our sins.  If some sins end up getting more attention than others, it likely has to do with how prevalent those sins are.  I could build a sermon around the sin of hiring a hit man to take out a co-worker, but such a sin is pretty rare.  Other sins are more common, such as sins that have an entire month dedicated to their promotion and celebration.  (It should be noted that the Lord condemns pride as a sin in itself.  But pride in one's sins?  That doubles down on sins.)  

Are Christians guilty of being loveless, arrogant, and judgmental?  Sure.  Have they been hypocritical by ignoring their own sexual sins?  Yes.  For these things, Christians need to repent.  But such sins don't cancel out other sins.  All are called to repent.  

In addition to preaching repentance, we preach the forgiveness of sins.  There is forgiveness for all sins (except unbelief, that is, the refusal to love and keep God's word).  There is pardon for the penitent, no matter how egregious one's sins may have been.  Jesus' sufferings and death paid for every sin of every sinner.  Sadly, many don't want forgiveness.  They demand acknowledgement that their actions are good and pure.  We are called on to bless them.  How can we bless what God does not bless?  Romans 1:22-28 has no blessing for unrepentant sinners.

In all this, I find no joy or feelings of superiority over anyone.  If someone is struggling with severe temptations to commit sexual sins, he or she should be shown great mercy and be in our fervent prayers.  But many do not fight these temptations.  They have given way to them.  To see sins embraced is grieving.  To see them flaunted is infuriating as it emboldens more people to defy God's word and despise Jesus.  

I find great joy in assuring sinners that their sins are forgiven.  But God's command is that forgiveness must be withheld from those who insist that their sins are not sins.  Out of love for Jesus and his word, I cannot budge from this command.  And out of love for Jesus and his word, I will also follow his instruction to pray for the salvation of sinners, whoever they are.

Here are a few other thoughts and a resource to add to this pastoral concern.

A Facebook post from a WELS group:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/2204954201/permalink/10165584894094202/?mibextid=rS40aB7S9Ucbxw6v

A short book which also covers this topic: Gay and God by Rev. Mike Novotny of Time of Grace ministries.