Dear Nancy,

Today I read a quote from you in a news article.

“I declined to prepare her taxes because of my religious beliefs,” Nancy Fivecoate said in a statement.

“I am a Christian”, you said.

I am a follower of Jesus, too. That makes us both Kingdom people. So, Sister, I’d like to remind you that there is no higher ethic of the Kingdom, which Jesus declares is already in effect among His Disciples, than to seek to make whole what is broken. Blessed are the peacemakers.

You say you won’t serve a woman who is outside God’s definition of marriage. It is sin.

So, I ask is your plan to provide services only to those without sin in their lives? Will you turn away those who are divorced? Surely, their sin is equal to hers. What about those who harbor resentment to a family member? Will you screen them out as well?

If your conviction is that this woman’s life is marked by sin because she’s married to another woman, then Sister, that is precisely why you must gladly be of service to her and prepare her taxes with joy in your heart!

How could following Jesus and living in His upside-down Kingdom possibly require any other action? We’re talking about our Lord, Jesus. The same Jesus that tells us if we are sued not only do we not retaliate or shun our adversary, but we are to respond in love by giving them more than they demanded! Jesus who showed us that we are not to shun our fellow image-bearing humans for their sin. We don’t withhold our gifts from them. We don’t cause fractured relations in our community. We don’t stand on religious pride! We do the opposite.

Can you see the squandered opportunity to witness to Jesus’s grace? A grace that is absolute, inflexible, all-encompassing. A grace that extends even to the people who nailed Him to the cross. God is unequivocal in His command that we reflect that grace.

Can you hear His call? You have been given the gift of an encounter with people whose beliefs oppose your own. We’ve been given plenty of those examples in Scripture. You’ve been given a chance to show the world what a disciple of Jesus looks like. If you truly believe these women, the Brazzels, are somehow broken and compromised in their lives than your path couldn’t be clearer: you serve them for you are a Christian.

Your brother in Christ,
Joshua