What Year Is It?

What time is it? 

I have heard a few different interviews with Rosaria Butterfeild over the last several months. Rosaria is the wife of a presbyterian minister who was formerly a lesbian activist and professor of English and women’s studies at Syracuse University. (You can read more about her here, she was also recently featured in a video called “He saves us” made in response to the He gets us ad during the Super Bowl.) In these interviews, she has pointed out repeatedly that as Christians we don’t realize what time it is. What she means is that in response to so many culturally divisive and spiritually damaging topics of our day we still act like we are living in the quasi Christian culture of twenty or thirty or fifty years ago.

A couple of examples might help us to understand this point. In terms of thinking about gender and sexuality, many of us are thinking that the argument is over ethics. Meaning is this behavior right or wrong. Or we may be thinking that the debate is about truth, such as is this gender claim true or false. But actually, the disagreement is much more fundamental, because it is about identity. Our response to the sexual promiscuity and gender fluidity of our day must be with the understanding that the true identity of each and every person is found in being made in the image of God as both male and female (Genesis 1:26-27).

A second example would be our understanding of racialism or tribalism. For many of us the first thing that comes to mind when we hear the term ‘racist’ is a person who hates and persecutes other people because of their skin color or ancestry. But again this is because we don’t understand what time it is. Racism is now defined in terms of power and oppression. In this way of thinking, the needs of the oppressed should always be favored over the rights of the privileged because the privileged are benefiting from the plight of the oppressed. Our argument cannot simply be personal or inalienable rights because again that misses what time we are in. Rather, from the Bible, we must remember that prejudicial partialism is condemned whether it benefits the rich or the poor (Deuteronomy 1:16-18,James 2:1-13).

What these examples and Rosaria’s point about knowing what time it is should help us realize are that often the problems that our lost and sinful culture are bogged down in are not the presenting preversions or the surface sins to which we often react. Rather, we must realize that there are deeper problems which these outward manifestations are revealing. These sins are the result of misplaced beliefs and worship. Human beings are created to be believers and worshippers but when that believing and worshiping nature is corrupted and polluted so that we believe lies and worship false deities then we are left with only emptiness and brokenness (Romans 1:18-32).

Now What?

So, if we realize what time it is, what should we do? First we need to tell the truth out of love for people and not out of fear or anger. Have you noticed that speaking out against most sins has become labeled as fear in many cases? Words such as “homophobic” are used to refer to those of us who would say that homosexuality is sin. But we are not afraid so why this label? I think it is because our opposition is understood as angry and hateful. Of course, no matter our tone, no one likes being told that they are sinning or that they should repent. However, we must still convey the only salvific gospel of Jesus Christ by calling out sin and commanding repentance out of love for sinners and not anger at sin or fear that we are losing our country or culture. It really does sometimes seem to me that many professing Christians just want the sinners to go back into the closet and out of sight. But we must love people enough to engage them with the life changing and hope giving message of the gospel (Titus 3:1-11).

I could give a list here of things that we all know we need to do more. We need to share the gospel more, pray more, etc. But really what we need to do is love more. And loving more means loving enough to say hard things and even risk losing the relationship for the sake of the other person’s soul.

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