#LiefdeIsLiefde - on the weakness of Church law and the inevitability of just change

This article appeared on News24 today:

http://www.netwerk24.com/Nuus/Algemeen/meer-liefde-in-hof-as-kerk-20151128

For those of my friends who do not read Afrikaans, the article tells how Dutch Reformed theologians (among others from Stellenbosch and Pretoria) have engaged the law commission and leadership of their Church because of their retraction (or suspension, pending a church legal inquiry) of the decision to fully recognize persons with a same sex orientation within all aspects of Church life and ministry.

The Church's decision to follow this legal route is deeply disappointing and a very sad betrayal of its stance on the Gospel and human dignity.

It is encouraging to see pastors and theologians standing together on this matter of Christian justice. Of course the change is inevitable - in fact it is an eschatological certainty.

Justice will come because of the just nature of God.

The church's law commission can not subvert God's grace forever.

We are fortunate to have the choice to decide how we will place ourselves in relation to what God will do.

I agree with colleagues Nelus Niemandt and Retief Muller in this article. It is well worth reading. Let's continue to pray and work for justice in this important matter.

This quote below is very helpful. Of course the law referee to here is not Church law, but religious law as found in the Hebrew Bible. But the principle is equally valid!

“For while the law gives us a bottom-line way to live, the way of love calls us beyond the law. Love pushes us beyond duty, rather than stopping there, and acts when we don’t know for sure what the ethical thing to do is. If the ethical question is, “What must be done?” love adds, “I will do more.” If our ethical compass is not able to give us a clear direction to travel, love sets out anyway. The way of love provides a way when ethical demands have had their say or do not know what to say. Is this not what Jesus was calling us to?—to live beyond the law so as to fulfill it. In this way this story attempts to draw out the truly radical nature of love as expressed in the life and teachings of Jesus. For he expressed a love that pushed further than any law could express or command dictate. He exuded a revolutionary life that always sought to be faithful to the law by outstripping it.”

Peter Rollins, The Orthodox Heretic: And Other Impossible Tales

Aluta cotninua. Vitoria ascerta!