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Valentine's Day the Christian Way.. Christ's Mass - Freedom and Unity.. Gay Christians in a Church that Hates Them.. Thanksgiving, Genocide, and Christian Culpability..
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Valentine's Day the Christian Way
Love Is.... As we enter into yet another Valentine???s Day, I find myself reflecting on love. I suppose that is what men are supposed to do ??? reflect on love. That and we are supposed to buy chocolates and flowers and thus convey the deep secret thoughts of our hearts via dead plants and calories. However, I can???t help but think about all the people that won???t be getting a Valentine???s Day bouquet or card today. This isn???t some ???feel sorry for the singles??? thought ??? I am far too male and insensitive for that. But I am thinking that our society has so wrapped up the idea of ???romance??? with the word LOVE that our day set aside for love has really served only to be that day when singles feel the full weight of their singlehood. The tragic lie that love is a feeling and that love is passive ??? and object seeking rather than active and self-sacrificing is propagated by Hollywood and is evident most on this day for ???Lovers.???
Today we should reflect on our assumptions about love. Is it simply a matter of finding Mr. or Miss Right? Is love that lasts a lifetime a matter of dumb luck ??? and couples that stay together just lucky? Is love a feeling that can die away in a relationship? What do we think we must do in the area of love? Do we think of ourselves as objects? Do we think that if we improve on ourselves that we will become more lovable? Perhaps if we work out harder, lose a few extra pounds, change our hairstyle, get nicer clothes, get a promotion, or learn to be a little more charismatic, we will be more lovable? Can you see how these self improvement ideas betray the fact that we even think of ourselves as objects when it comes to love? We think of love as passive ??? that we just must become lovable. We think that love is a natural feeling and response to an object.
This explains our tragic divorce rate. This explains why so many children end up in single parent households. This explains why so many fathers leave their children and fail to pay to support their children. The person who once was the ???object??? of their undying love somehow changed and became less lovable.
This view ??? the object oriented love ideal ??? is a lie from Satan. It is un-biblical. It is nowhere supported in scripture. It is at no time more evident than it is at the holidays, especially Valentine???s Day, when single people are made to feel like they are less than because they are either not an object of love or have no object on which to let their love grow. The truth is, we are all called to LOVE EVERYONE. It matters little whether you are single or married. We are called to develop the faculty of love within us. Love is an active word ??? it requires action. Love is no emotion. Love is not a feeling that produces songs and tears and romance. Love is a decision that leads to the self-forgetfulness commonplace in saints and historical icons like Mother Teresa and Martin Luther King Jr. Is it the romantic life of those people we remember? I dare say it is not.
Let us close with a look at the Bible???s teaching on love in 1 Corinthians 13: 4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never fails.
Today, as we see the world???s version of love celebrated in frivolous spending and shallow gift exchanges, let us be ever mindful of the self-sacraficial requirements of true Christian love. May the God of the universe touch your heart and make you an instrument of love in an ever widening sphere of influence.
In Christ???s Love,
Kyle Roy
Christ's Mass - Freedom and Unity
Midnight Mass
I had the pleasure of being at the Syracuse Cathedral for midnight mass yesterday to celebrate Christmas, and I am very happy to have made it there with my girlfriend. I spend so much time in various protestant church services that the beauty and antiquity of the mass made church at Christmas the special occasion it should be for everyone.
Often times I get very comfortable worshiping in the way I want to worship, and I forget that the worship is unto God, for God, and not for me or my enjoyment. The solemn setting and the deliberate Tradition in the offering of Holy Mass made me slow down and really let the meaning of Christmas sink in. Not that I don't enjoy the solemnity of Mass. On this day, it was just what was needed.
The Bishop spoke about Christmas as not just a celebration of the birth of Christ in history - as a commemoration of an event 2000 years ago. He called us as Christians to remember that Christ is born in our lives and we are called to be Christ to those around us all year long. He touched on the fact that as the Roman Emperor was living in palatial opulence, and the Roman Legions were crossing the Roman Empire enforcing the decrees of the Emperor and Territorial Prelates, a different world order was emerging in a lowly feed-trough in a barn in a backwater province of the empire. When the Christ was born, even as the most powerful men on earth were gaining strength, a new plan emerged. Up from humble birth came a man who would say that the lowly, the meek, the homeless, the poor, the sick, the handicapped, the oppressed were the loved ones of God. He came to proclaim freedom, equality, peace, and love in place of war, oppression, hatred, power-lust, and self-promotion. Just as Christ was born 2000 years ago, he is born each day in our hearts. Just as he worked tirelessly to bring freedom to the oppressed masses, so must we work our entire lives to do the same. Just as the fullness of God came to earth small enough to fit in a lowly cattle trough, the same God comes each mass into our bodies and hearts as we accept the fullness of God into our lives by the participation in Holy Communion.
It is my prayer that we all can slow down to let this sink in. I pray that each of us looks at the obligation that comes with the Christmas holiday. Are we dwelling on a paradigm of success that causes us to look unto the palatial opulence of the Emperors of our times, or are we looking for Christ in the byways and back alleys of our cities - looking always where to give away our money instead of where to make it? May Jesus Christ enter our hearts and bodies and souls this Christmas and revive the true Christianity he always intended. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Amen. 
Gay Christians in a Church that Hates Them
Love thy Neighbor
I have been thinking about how much I really love Jesus lately. What I mean is, how much does my relationship cost me. Jesus loved those who the religious community shunned and considered vile and wretched - such as the tax collectors, prostitutes, adulterers, and lepers. I was wondering, who is it that our modern-day Pharisees cast out of the human family as unclean. The answer, unfortunately, is not easy. The modern church simply seems to condemn and exclude (institutionally if not expressly) so many people. The social cost, then, for a Christian, is that it is quite possible that in order to imitate Christ, he may have to be hated by many Christians. If it is possible to think like Christ, though, that would be of little consequence. A physician does not work to heal those who think they are well. Only those who recognize their sickness and seek treatment will benefit. Unfortunately, many of the wounds and illnesses that must be treated are inflicted by those who call themselves Christians.
When I look specifically at the issue of homosexuality and Christian doctrine, I am appalled at how so many churches treat the issue. The strangest thing is that the churches which preach sola fide et sola gratis (salvation by faith only through grace only) are the most frequent to institutionally discriminate and actively condemn homosexuality as a separate or more aggrieveous sin. It would be untrue for me to say that I don't think homosexuality is a sin. That the bible considers it sin is obvious and the condemnation is consistent in the old and new testament. However, sexual sin in general is preached against in the old and new testament - and the standard is so high that nobody - gay or straight - is without sexual sin. It is strange to me that churches will refuse membership to gay monogamous couples, but encourage membership of straight people without a single question as to their sexual behaviour.
Often the anti-gay preaching is based on the theory that being gay is an especially grievous sin - an abomination according to the KJV translation. This argument is theologically weak, as the translation is a poor one, and there are many abominations which the church does not discriminate against. I will give a brief survey of the "abominable" sins in the next post to show that if we are going to exclude homosexuality on the basis of it being especially bad, we'll also have to exclude anyone with an interest-bearing investment account. At any rate, for evangelicals to be consistent, either they must preach that faith is all you need - and include any gay member or couple who professes Christ, or they must abandon their faith only doctrine and replace it with a works-based salvation doctrine and start excluding many, many, many more persons.
Either the church needs to embrace the gay community for what it is - a community of Gods children who are loved as precious members of the human family and who are in need of the loving salvation that Christ offers, or the church needs to be consistent and cast out all sinners. The former is Christ's way and the latter would prevent Christianity from having a single member.
Heavenly father, I ask you to forgive me for my bigotry, intolerance, and ignorance. I ask in the name of your son, Jesus the Christ, that you forgive your failing and hateful church, and move us by the power of the holy spirit to love all our neighbors and to welcome all who seek in to the communion of the saints. In Christ's precious name, AMEN.
Thanksgiving, Genocide, and Christian Culpability
 Happy Thanksgiving!
As this annual celebration arrives this year, I am working at the rehab center, celebrating the holiday with the people who have experienced the true wreckage that is visited upon lives of reckless abundance. I can't help but reflect on what cost has been paid for us Americans to celebrate this joyous occasion. I've included a beautiful black and white painting which commemorates that mythical first thanksgiving shared between the christian pilgrims, and the helpful natives. It is such a beautiful thought, western expansionist colonialism and native people living together peacefully. Unfortunately, this only existed in the mythical memories of white folks and is perpetuated by elementary school teachers all across this nation. In order to feel good about all that God has blessed us with in this nation, it seems that we need to create a Godly and happy mythology about how it all came about. Unfortunately, this myth obscures the fact that only America is better, historically, at genocide than Hitler was. The fact is, we slaughtered native Americans - men, women, and children - and we did this in the name of Christ.
Throughout the history of Christianity and Judaism, the people in power have always used selective texts within the bible in an attempt to justify their own sins. The Jews did it to justify their massacres in Palestine, the Catholics did it to justify the atrocities committed against the Muslims and Sephardic Jews in Spain, and the Protestants have not missed a beat - using Jesus to justify human rights violations almost constantly from the founding of this great nation forward. As we celebrate this holiday, we should perhaps pause to repent for the sins of our fathers. Perhaps we should ask the world to forgive us and beg God to forgive us for associating his name with such a profane, blasphemous, violent, and wilfully ignorant past. Perhaps as we dine on our abundance, we will think of those all around this world who will not eat today. As we crowd the malls tomorrow perhaps we will think of the children that work in slave-wage conditions in sweat shops to make our Christmas presents. Perhaps we can pause long enough to just think a little. Perhaps we will think about what our biblical assumptions are really based on. Do we justify our prejudices with the bible, or allow the bible to erase our prejudices? Do we read our own wants into scripture or transfer our wants with scripture? May the God of the universe, through his son Jesus Christ, forgive Christians of our violence perpetrated in His holy name. May we be washed clean, forgiven, and may a revival in America lead our wayward souls back to a holy and just form of religion and a more global view of justice. Amen. God bless you and may you and your family have a wonderful Thanksgiving.
The Magic Of Prayer
 Some churches, of the "name it claim it" variety, will preach about how we Christians can speak things into existence, just as God did in creation. They base this on a strange exegetical gymnastics dismount off of Romans 4:17. I used to, being the arrogant man I am, make fun of such people. I would (and still do) say that all you need to do to defeat that doctrine is go up to the one preaching it and claim his car, house, or wife, in Jesus name. That would shut him up. He may say those things aren't in God's will so I can't claim them in Jesus name. I would reply, of course. So why are you even preaching the message. Christ said it all when he said "...not My will but Thine be done."
However, you may notice in this post's picture, there are people in it. There's me, and then there's someone else who is much prettier than me. You may notice I have not posted anything in some time. You may also notice that my last 3 posts prior to me going quiet were all about how God calls us Christians to love one another. I had been praying for a good Christian girlfriend for some time. God kept saying wait. Then, after spend a few weeks meditating on how far I fall short of God's standards, and how much I need to learn about love, it wasn't a week until I met a woman that has to this point blown me away. I don't want to be sappy, but God has never created a more perfect woman. We get along famously. Anyway, I just find it very interesting, now that I have a few minutes to consider re-visiting my blog, that I see a pattern. I pray, I meditate on God's word, and then when my heart is ready, God brings an answer to my prayer that is such a perfect answer that, had I been in charge, I couldn't have chosen better. No, we aren't married. No, I am not buying a ring. No, we aren't shacked up. We are just dating and doing our best to do that according to our mutual understanding of what that means for two christian single people. My point is, how perfect a way to close out a little series on love? In the end, God knows us better than we know ourselves. It seems that his answer to our prayers is far better than our own expectations. There are three loves in the bible; Phileo, Eros, and Agape. The first is brotherly love, the final is Godly love, and the middle is, well, that's why boys like girls. This relationship is teaching me what Godly eros love means, and the process is teaching me more about Christ's love for me.
Next series - on getting a million dollars and a book deal. Think it'll work?
What's Love Got to Do With It?
 "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." Jn 13:34-35
Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. 1 Pe 1:22
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 1Jn 4:7
By this we know love, because he lay down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 1 Jn 3:16
It could not be clearer, it is our Love that measures whether or not we are truly of God. Jesus says to his disciples that this love for each other would be the distinguishing mark of the Christians that separated them from the world. We are also told that love is of God, and anyone that loves is born of God, and knows God. The opposite can be inferred from the statement. Specifically, anyone who does NOT love, is NOT born of God and does NOT know God. What a very sorry and sobering reality this is! When I see that the ideal of human love is exemplified by Christ laying down his life for me, I immediately become aware that I fall terribly short of God's plan for love in my life! We are told to lay down our lives for the brethren, but more often I am worried about myself.
The Christian obligation to love that I am looking at here is different from the evangelical love that is outward directed - to the "un-converted." This love is inward directed and is supposed to be the unifying thread that unites the earthly church - the body of Christ. In the absence of this love, the ligaments in Christ's body have been made of doctrine, dogma, "Tradition," and other empty and man-made ritual requirements. This, however, has only further fractured our unity and has erected seemingly impenetrable walls of doctrine between the various parts of Christ's body - the universal Christian Church. We hear the pope say that all non Romans are in "wounded" communities, and that nothing but the Roman Church is a church at all. He establishes a non biblical definition of apostolic succession as a requirement for church existence, and then uses this to separate his Church from all others. The reformed movement, similarly, erects the doctrine of
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