but your words sound like...

photo by blake spencer

"I don't speak these
words in anger."

But
your words
sound angry.

I know what
angry words
sound like.

I know what
angry words
taste like.

They've been
on my tongue
and
in my heart.

"I don't speak these words
in judgment."

But your words
sound judgmental
and if your words sound
judgmental,
aren't you speaking words of judgement?

"But I speak
these words
in love."

Anger
nor
Judgement
is love,
in
my
opinion.

Oh, I know all about
righteous anger...
but it never did much for me
when I offered it to others
or when I received it from others.

Don't get me wrong....
I affirm
God has power
to be angry
and to judge....

But I also know
through Scripture
and the one named Jesus,
God's anger and judgement
is accomplished in the context of
unconditional grace.

And because God
has space and power to
be angry and to judge
and has the ability to
do such
in the reality of
unconditional love
does not mean
you
nor I
have such power.

That is....
in my
opinion.

I hear the words of the Fellowship
and the Layman
and others in the
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

Their words sound angry
and judgmental...
in my opinion.

They speak about
homosexuals
in the same breath
with pension and property.

How much of this ongoing
dilemma in the church
is about power,
and security?

In my opinion
it has a lot more to do
with things other than
love.

What would happen
if the angry words
were tossed aside
for
a time....
and we simply spent
a season
doing what
Jesus spoke
and lived:

Love your neighbor
as yourself.

I'm ready to do such a thing.
We really don't have much to lose.
My pension is decent enough.
I have enough property.
I don't require any more power than I currently have...

So that leaves
a lot of room
to discover what might happen if
we spent time
trying to love each other.

In my
opinion.