The
Presbyterian Church (USA) missed it. The
denomination (of which I am a member) has been debating the issue of sexuality
in one form or another for almost twenty years.
The debate was not substantively different than the one going on outside
the church; one side making the argument that love is love while the other unable to shake the idea that homosexuality is just not right. The most recent outcome of this denominational
debate was a recommendation changing the church’s Book
of Order effectively redefining marriage to include two people of the
same-sex. Additionally it allowed for
pastors to use their own discretion in performing any such marriage.
Scripture
is clear on two things:
In the gospel of John, Jesus gives us a powerful example of His wisdom, grace and mercy amongst a backdrop of sin. It is a story of a woman caught in the act of adultery, a man with whom she committed the act (who is inexplicably absent), and a group of self-righteous scribes and Pharisees who bring the woman to Jesus for their own self-serving purposes. The woman, by law, is to be stoned for her actions. Jesus stoops, writes on the ground and declares that the one among the crowd who is without sin should cast the first stone. One by one, beginning with the oldest, they leave until only Jesus remained with the woman.
- God’s unconditional love for us has no bounds (certainly none based upon our sexuality) and we are to love one another in the same way.
- At best, homosexuality is something God gives us over to when we fail to acknowledge God is God 1; and at worst it is one of several forms of sexual sin. 2
In the gospel of John, Jesus gives us a powerful example of His wisdom, grace and mercy amongst a backdrop of sin. It is a story of a woman caught in the act of adultery, a man with whom she committed the act (who is inexplicably absent), and a group of self-righteous scribes and Pharisees who bring the woman to Jesus for their own self-serving purposes. The woman, by law, is to be stoned for her actions. Jesus stoops, writes on the ground and declares that the one among the crowd who is without sin should cast the first stone. One by one, beginning with the oldest, they leave until only Jesus remained with the woman.
Jesus
looked up and said to her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned
you?" She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said, "Neither do
I condemn you; go and do not sin again.
Love? To be sure. And make no mistake, the law was
fulfilled as well. Jesus paid for her
sin and everyone else’s (yours and mine too) on the cross. God’s grace and love is unbounded and free
but it does not come “cheap”! When
we try and take something that is sin and say it is not, we cheapen our understanding of that grace and we fail to acknowledge
that God is God.
In the midst of the debate about
sexuality lies a group of people whom God loves dearly. Sinners. Sinners who are heterosexual and sinners who
are homosexual. Sinners who are
hiding. Sinners who are self-righteous and
use religion for their own self-serving purposes. Sinners who desperately need to know the
redeeming grace of our Lord. In the
midst of the debate about sexuality we missed an opportunity to be a witness; a people of
grace and truth. May Jesus lead us in
that way and may we have the courage to follow.
1 - Romans 1:22-27
2 - 1st Corinthians 6:9-11
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