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Good News to Bad: Sexuality
Romans 1:18
– 2:11; John 13:33-35
Ellen Fewler Skidmore
Forest F^^e Frehyterian Church, Columbia South Carolina;
Union Fresbyterian Seminary, Richmond, Virginia
There is an ancient tale told of a pagan tribe of warriors who were converted as a group to Cristianity. As 1 heard the story, the Franks, like other tribes who were converted to the Christian faith, waded into a river to be baptized en masse. The warriors knew, at some level, that this baptism would make them followers of a new king, Jesus. They also understood that this Jesus was a Frince of Feace, an ironic statement of faith given the warring ways ofthe Franks. But the story has it that when the Frankish warriors came to be baptized in toe waters ofthe Rhine River, they were careful to hold their swords above their heads and out of the waters of baptism, not to save them from rust but to keep them from Jesus, toe Prince of Peace. One of the greatest challenges to becoming a Disciple of Jesus is our desire to hold things above the waters ofbaptism. The truth is that there is nothing that may be kept free ofthe lordship of Jesus Christ: not money, not power, not our wills, and not our sexuality. And it is to this daunting topic that we turn our attention today as we focus on how Christians are to be good news people in a world full of Bad News. As I have worked through this sermon series, I have realized myself, how very easy it is to identify Bad News. In my own lists and notes, toe list of Bad News often outnumbers the Good News two to one or more. As regards sexuality, there is no shortage of bad news. And, just like last week, when we dealt with the wealthy and toe poor, there are many places where Christians of good conscience do not agree. And before I begin, I want to tell you my hopes for this sermon. First, my goal is to encourage us all to think about the issue of sexuality within toe framework of Bad News/Good News and under the guidance of Scripture. I am not going to attempt to lay down all of toe rules and tell you what you must believe, to the first place, that wouldn’t work, and in the second place, I don’t have all toe answers. So, I am not going to mil against toe sexual mores of our culture at large. I am more interested today in how those of us who call ourselves Disciples of Jesus try to hold our sexuality above toe waters of baptism, and I want to challenge us all to think about what it means to submit our sexuality to toe Fordship of Jesus Christ. Having said that, I think there is a lot of Bad News on which we can agree: * I assume that we can agree that it is bad news that toe sitcoms that show up on TV and most of toe music on toe popular radio stations depict sexual promiscuity as normal and acceptable. I think that as people of faith, we can agree that sexual promiscuity is bad news and hurts us all. Adultery, forbidden by toe 10 Commandments, falls into the category of Bad News, a form of promiscuity that destroys people and families. * I assume that we can agree that sexual addictions and pornography are bad news. * I assume that as people of faith, we can agree that the sex trade, alive and well in this state and country, is bad news. And that any time sexuality is used to dominate,
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sell, destroy, or display power is bad news. ٠ The belief that sexuality is somehow bad, dirty, or sinful is also something that people of faith have to eall bad news. Seripture teaehes us that God ereated us as sexual beings, and everything that God created is good. Sexuality is a good gift from God, and attempts to make it bad news is bad news. Now, beyond that there is a lot of disagreement in the church over what is bad news. And most of the disagreement comes when we begin to talk about the issue of homosexuality – which appears to be one of the major topics of conversation in our culture. For some Christians, the bad news is that there are people who are gay, lesbian , bisexual, ٢٠transgender—GLBT. For others, the bad news is that GLBT people are not fully included and affirmed in the life of the church. I trust that we would all agree that the horribly high levels of suicide among LGBT teenagers is Bad News. But agreement on the bad news and the good news when it comes to homosexuality is much more elusive. 1 will tell you this, as I listen to you, 1 have observed that there is not widespread agreement in this congregation about what is good news and what is bad news as regards this topic. Members of this congregation hold a wide variety of opinions on this topic. And let me remind you that the issue of good news and bad news as regards sexuality and homosexuality is not a faceless issue that does not affect us. When we talk about the good news and bad news on the issue of sexuality and homosexuality, we are talking about our children, our Grandchildren, our parents, our brothers and sisters, and our friends. And if you disagree with or are angry with me for something 1 say today, 1 want you to come and talk to me. 1 promise to listen. But before you come to talk to me, talk to your family and friends, because 1 promise you that Good News and Bad News as regards sexuality is not a simple or monolithic position. ٠٠not presume that your Christian family and friends will agree with you. But do make an effort to ask, listen, and understand the different opinions within your own circles. 1 am not troubled by a variety of opinions on this topic. God can handle a variety of opinions, and as in other matters of faith, it is not required that we all believe the same thing. What is required is that we cling to Christ more tightly than we cling to our opinions and that we seek to submit every part of our lives to Christ. When we do that, I am confident that over time God will bring us to toe unanimity that grows from truth. And while Christ is dragging us to where God wants us to be, our job is to follow toe command of Christ to love one another. Christ commanded us to live in such love that toe world will see our love before toey see our disagreement. Having said that, Christians of good conscience «١٢^١ have to agree to disagree on issues of sexuality and especially homosexuality until God makes truth clear. And while we are in toe process of discernment, there are some behaviors and beliefs that are off toe table or out ofhounds for those of us who have submitted our whole selves to the waters of baptism if we want to be Good News people. First, Christians, finding ourselves in an increasingly secular culture, may not allow all of toe sexuality education our children receive to come only from school ٢٠culture. While schools do toe best they can and walk a fine line trying to give our children basic scientific information, we as a church and we as Disciples of Christ have a responsibility to talk with our children about sexuality and to teach toe morals and values that grow from our faith. It is good news that our congregation has begun
Lent 2015
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، هoffer faith based sexuality education for our children. Disciples make sure that their children know that sexuality is a good gift from God. If you need help doing that, do not ignore the resources offered in our congregation. They are good news. Second, in order to be good news people, Christians may not engage in hate speech in the name of Jesus when it comes to the GLBT community. If you think that homosexuality is bad news, then you are bound by the example of Christ to love the members of that community. If your foith leads you to believe that homosexuality is sin, remember that Christ didn’t make the sinners mad. They were moved by his compassion. Christ made the religious authorities, who liked to draw lines and make lists of who was included and excluded, furious. And if, on the other hand, you think that homosexual persons who live lives of faith and grace and service are good news, then we need you to actively express the love of Christ to them, so that we can offer an antidote to the hate speech that spews from so many comers of the Christian family. Love them – drat is good news. I think that one thing that will help us in this pursuit to love as Christ commands is to avoid broad stereotypical language. Just as last week I cautioned you against unhelpful stereotypical statements about the wealthy and the poor, so this week also I want to rule out of bounds statements like “The homosexual lifestyle is destroying the fabric our community.” In the first place, there is no such thing as one homosexual lifestyle. Of course there are homosexuals who live a life outside fee bounds of submission to Christ. But there have also always been faithful, Christ-confessing homosexual persons who haveserved faithfully within thechurch.Idon’twantanyone making statements about fee “Heterosexual lifestyle” and using Hugh Hefner as fee example! Again, Good News is always contextual, and Jesus offen addressed good news to individual needs. We are to fellow Christ’s example if we want to be a good news people. Finally, I think it is critical that we as faithful Christians take a long, hard look again at Scripture for guidance on issues of sexuality in general and homosexuality in particular. As I have done before during this sermon series, I have included a long list of scriptures feat I think help us think faithfully about fee issues of sexuality. There are seven mentions ©؛homosexuality in Scripture. Jesus says nothing about it. And, there are good Christian scholars who disagree about what these seven passages mean and how to apply them to our current lives of faith. One of those scripture is fee passage from Romans 1 and 2 that I read today. In Romans, Paul is writing to a Christian community who lives in fee midst of a culture that offers them no support and many distractions. And in Chapter 1, he begins to teach fee Roman Christians about fee dangers of idolatry. Those who follow Christ are to hold to truth and to worship God alone. Idolaters refuse to honor God or to give thanks to God, but instead, “they exchanged fee glory of fee immortal God for images resembling a mortal human being ٢٠birds ٢٠four-footed animals ٢٠reptiles” (1:21-23). It is easy for us to dismiss this warning because we don’t worship statues of reptiles. But be careful—we do give honor and thanks to human beings (especially those who are wealthy, sports icons, ٢٠movie stars), and we do give honor and gloty to beautiful, big houses and fancy cars. We do worship our own pleasure and desires. Idolatty is giving honor, thanks, and glory to something or someone other than God. Putting something other than God at fee center of our lives is Idolatty no matter what fee object of worship looks like.
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And then, ?aul lays out a long deseription of what people who practice idolatry اآ0ا( like. And the list is unsettling. It seems that when we worship other gods and worship our own pleasure, we pursue sexual pleasure no matter the cost, we are filled with wickedness, evil, malice, envy, murder, strife, deceit, craftiness, gossip, slander, insolence, pride, rebelliousness towards our parents, foolishness, faithlessness , ruthlessness, and we encourage such evil in others, ?aul paints a fearful picture of what happens over time to those who worship either themselves ٢٠other things instead of the true God. ?aul is talking about the Roman culture of promiscuity and idolatry that existed side by side with the early Christian community. I can almost hear the early Christians chanting, “Yeah! That’s right! Those Roman idolaters are going to bum in hell.” And then Paul pulls a switch on the early Christians and on us. He turns the spotlight on Christians themselves. Paul writes, “Therefore you have no excuse, whoever you are, when you judge others; for in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things” (2:1). Just when the early church was about to reach a fever pitch of condemnation for those outside their foith community, Paul pulls the cover off of the truth and reminds us all that idolatry is not something that is reserved for those who do not believe. In fact, all of us struggle with foe desire to pursue our own pleasure before all else. All of us struggle to free ourselves of envy, malice, gossip, and rebelliousness. The issue here that Paul is addressing is not homosexuality, per se. There are expressions of sexuality (both heterosexual and homosexual) that are idolatrous. He is using those as examples of what grows from idolatry. But, Paul is addressing idolatry, worshipping something other than God and foe truth we have come to know in Christ. And he leaves us no room for condemning foe culture at large and those outside foe bounds of the sanctuary, because he reminds us that God knows our hearts and knows our thoughts. We all struggle wifo wanting to hold parts of ourselves and parts of our lives above foe water of baptism. The only antidote to idolatry is submission to Christ as Lord and Savior. Out of that submission grows humility, grace, and foe ability to love. As Jesus said, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (Jn 13:35).
I^nt2015
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