Flies in the face

It flies in the face
Of the Gospel of Grace
To turn to your neighbour and say
If you're not straight,
Trad-married or celibate
Then Jesus won't have you today.

Take the Good News to every creature
That is what Jesus told us to do,
So that they may know God, trust God
And be God's child too.

God, by the Spirit  leads the way
And as God's disciples, we follow.
We know that the journey through life can be slow
We are not perfect; we stumble and over we go
Over and over again.
But God  loves us so much he  helps us to keep going on.

Jesus is gentle,  Jesus is kind;
When we take our  time to rise up
And dust ourselves down
He does not mind.
Jesus always helps us to our feet
Dabs our eyes dry and
Leads us by the hand.

Why do we make a fuss
When others who follow are not like us?
Why do you insist
That everyone subscribe to your list
Of don'ts or dos,  of this or that?
It's salvation but with a caveat.

Our pattern-maker is Jesus Christ
Who came to give us eternal life.
Let us then as much as we can -
Live in peace with our fellow woman and man.
Loving,  as we are commanded to, one another;
Our  neighbour, our sister and our brother.

✏ J. Fairlamb