For more commentary on this week's readings, see the Reflections on the Lectionary page, which includes Anderson's current Living by the Word column as well as past magazine and blog content. For full-text access to all articles, subscribe to the Century.

Just as loving mercy is a means to doing justice, so is walking humbly with God. Yet in the sexuality debates raging in the mainline church, humility is seldom easy to find. Both sides cling to the fiction that they harbor gospel truth.

In 2001 I was appointed to the Presbyterian Church (USA) national task force charged with helping the denomination find a new way forward out of three decades of ecclesiastical warfare. This group, comprised of 20 individuals chosen for their theological diversity, was given five years to do its work. I was the only openly gay person around the table.