When Love Comes to Town: Repentance with Love
This might be one of the single best sermons on repentance I’ve ever read or heard. Delivered by Pastor Candace Chellew-Hodge, a writer and pastor, she explains repentance and it’s relevance in life. Candace, from her bio, is “a recovering Southern Baptist and founder/editor of Whosoever: An Online Magazine for GLBT Christians. Her first book, Bulletproof Faith: A Spiritual Survival Guide for Gay and Lesbian Christians, published by Jossey-Bass is now available at http://www.bulletproofbook.com.”
What almost every critic of LGBTIQA Christians misses is this: Christ doesn’t care who you are; He cares what’s in our hearts and he cares how we live. Since coming out I’ve met alot of people in our community whom I, as a former lay preacher, would have thought twice about. But it’s nice to know that God was patient, even with me, as I learned our community isn’t that different from any other community. And as I learned I was in no ways perfect (and still am not) I did learn about repentance in the process. Pastor Candace’s sermon sums it up best.
So what about our sermon already? Here’s an exerpt, I hope you get a fresh cup of coffee, as I did, and enjoy it completely:
Just this past week we inaugurated a new president. Many liberals – and even many conservatives – expect a lot from this man. Some even expect him to work miracles and move this nation very quickly in the direction they’d like to see it move. The story of Nineveh is a reminder that the best way to change this nation – the best way to lead our modern day Nineveh to true repentance – is by changing ourselves.
In this story God shows us that if we want change – we have to initiate it. By the time the king gets around to sending out a proclamation – it will be too late. We cannot wait for the king – or the president – to tell us what kind of changes need to take place in this world. We already know. We’ve already heard God speaking. Love has already come to town and we don’t need the president to tell us to jump that train or catch that plane. Real change – change that improves the lives of everyone from the banker to the beggar – doesn’t come from the top down. If the past eight years has taught us nothing, it should have taught us that those at the top are most concerned with those at the top. For real change to come to the least of these – the least of these must be the agents for that change.
If you want the hungry fed, feed them. If you want the homeless housed, house them. If you want equal rights, fight for them. If you want the prisoner visited, go visit them. If you want the naked clothed, clothe them. Don’t wait for a presidential decree or for Congress to pass a law. When love comes to town, the least of these understand their task – there is no “us” and “them” – it’s some of us for all of us.
Jonah’s message to Nineveh is just as urgent for us today. “Your time’s almost up. Get moving.”
There’s alot more in her sermon and I hope you are blessed, just as I was 
You may reach her Sermon, “When Love Comes to Town” at Whosoever magazine here.
(photo courtesy of Grey Blue Skies Photos)
Hey Jonah:
Exactly what is a “recovering” Southern Baptist ? Isn’t that part of their belief to begin with … the fact that they are born again and recovering from a past of decadence and sin … Oh My.
As far as our time almost being up it is all to obvious to the olde and elderly that life is way too short and also a very cruel joke on mankind itself. If this is gawd’s sense of humor then s/he and I still have much too talk about.
Love ~~~ Nikki
Well hopefully Jonah will show up to answer … but in case he has taken another ride in a fish and he doesn’t show up, I’ll chime in for him.
You can read about Pastor Candace at her bio here.
As for being born again, you don’t have to be a Southern Baptist to be born again Nikki – you know this (you are such an instigator). You just need to believe in (have faith in) Christ as your savior. As the Whosoever Magazine so nicely puts it, “salvation is between God and the individual and is not open to criticism, question or judgment by others….faith in Jesus Christ is the only justification needed.” That can sometimes be a journey…but I think God wants to have a nice chat with you
But being a born again Christian myself (ummm, very imperfect I might add; still in the “missing the mark” spot with God on stuff; and now with a much wider view of God), I know what Candace means (as do you). But for our long suffering readers…Candace bought the lie that to be any part of the LGBT universe meant you were godless, had thrown away your faith and were doomed to eternal damnation. But that’s just not true. God cares about our hearts, how we live, how we relate to Him (or Her), and how we use the lives that have been so carefully entrusted to us. Not who we are per se.
You are so right about time…it speeds up as we get older! Gosh. Maybe it’s because God wants us to understand that as we get older, and more of our talents appear and are honed for use, that it’s His (or Her) way of helping us to know…time is short, git with what your mission is!
Your long suffering barrista, ~*Becki*~