When young outsiders are asked their perception of Christians, the top two thoughts are that Christians are judgmental and that we are anti-homosexual. Interestingly, these are the same perceptions that young churchgoers have of Christians as well (unChristian 28, 34). I don't think these views are unwarranted.
So I think this, like the issue last week – maybe even moreso with this one – needs to be thought through and dealt with truthfully and kindly.
The issue is nothing new. Unlike some issues that the Bible doesn’t address, this is one that the Bible clearly addresses. As it was a prevalent practice in the Roman Empire, the early church wrestled with the issue of homosexuality too. We see Paul write about it in three separate places. The first that we will look at is in his setup to his letter to the church at the heart of the empire of the day, the church in Rome.
“But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness. They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God. They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.
Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles.
So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies. They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen. That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved.
Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.
Romans 1:18-28 (NLT)
What we see here is a common, rhetorical approach. A way to give a speech that is convincing. Paul is building up in this letter to the church in Rome to a point where he declares us all sinners (Romans 3:23) and to explain that God is transitioning His chosen people from being the nation of Israel to being the church (Romans 9:6-7, 30-31). Yet Paul doesn't start with the lead. He is trying to persuade people. In doing so, he starts with something that they all would view as a sin, homosexuality. That's his lead. From there he goes on to expand the list of sins. What we can conclude here is that Paul felt that people would agree with homosexuality being a sin. That issue was the gimme that the crowd would all go “yep” on. It was the easy agreement before the hard stuff. That was what Paul was trying to do. He's trying to bring them along to his conclusion. But then he hits the hammer down and tells them that they are also all sinners. We're all sinners, and we can't just point our finger at others and declare them sinners.
In another letter, Paul includes homosexuality in his list of sins to the church in Corinth.
“Don’t you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality, or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people—none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God. Some of you were once like that. But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
1 Corinthians 6:9 (NLT)
And here it is mentioned in his letter to his young protégé, Timothy.
We know that the law is good when used correctly. For the law was not intended for people who do what is right. It is for people who are lawless and rebellious, who are ungodly and sinful, who consider nothing sacred and defile what is holy, who kill their father or mother or commit other murders. The law is for people who are sexually immoral, or who practice homosexuality, or are slave traders,liars, promise breakers, or who do anything else that contradicts the wholesome teaching that comes from the glorious Good News entrusted to me by our blessed God.
1 Timothy 1:8-11 (NLT)
These are the verses you should go to if someone wants to know the church’s stance because using the Old Testament story of Sodom, despite its prevalence in discussions about this, is not a great analogy against homosexuality. The prophet Ezekiel gives that story a different meaning and says Sodom was punished because they didn’t help the poor and needy. Nor is it a good approach to pull out the Old Testament law as we talked about last week. Because then you’re left with why did you choose to pick this one out while eating a shrimp or crab dinner with them. Awkward. There is no reason to stretch and include those sections because there is enough biblical evidence in other places without the baggage. People can't relegate the teachings of Paul to being in the Old Testament Law. Paul’s teachings that we read earlier are clear teachings in the New Testament.
Nowhere in the Bible is homosexuality shown as being okay. The argument to make homosexuality biblically permissible has to start by saying that the authors of Scripture don't say what they are clearly saying. The authority of Scripture and the historical methods of interpretation have to be attacked.
This is a method that some are willing to use. William M. Kent, at one time a member of a committee assigned by United Methodists, who are now going through a split over this very subject, to study homosexuality, declared that “the scriptural texts in the Old and New Testaments condemning homosexual practice are neither inspired by God nor otherwise of enduring Christian value. Considered in the light of the best biblical, theological, scientific, and social knowledge, the biblical condemnation of homosexual practice is better understood as representing time and place bound cultural prejudice.” (http://www.albertmohler.com/documents/homosexualitybible.pdf)
The debate over this particular issue goes much deeper than the issue at hand as it attacks the inspiration of all of Scripture to get to the point. To go down that road, we can then make the Bible say whatever we want it to say. Critics may claim that Christians already do that, but I would argue that we don't. We have methods of interpretation that are generally accepted across denominational divides, and we try to follow the Bible’s teachings as best as we can, even when we don’t like what it is teaching.
There are certain issues in the modern church where we wrestle with Scripture (like women's role in the church for instance) and people can come to different conclusions based upon what verse and concept they choose as their starting point. Homosexuality really isn't an issue like this. The view in our society is changing; the view in Scripture isn’t.
Another approach people take is to say the Jesus himself never dealt with the issue of homosexuality. My friend, Samuel Long, who is the academic dean at Great Lakes, my alma mater, and has spoken here, wrote this: "Although Jesus does not discuss homosexuality, and it does not come up in the New Testament with any regularity, when it does, it is clearly done so in a negative way. If God had intended homosexuality to be a viable sexual alternative for some people, He would not have condemned it as an abomination. It is never mentioned in Scripture in anything but negative terms, and nowhere does the Bible even hint at approving or giving instruction for homosexual relationships. Proponents of homosexuality have to start by saying that the Scripture doesn’t say what it clearly says. They have to start attacking the authority of Scripture. And while we can interpret and apply passages differently, discounting clear teachings out of hand make the Bible less than what it is."
Approving homosexuality, biblically speaking, always comes back to disregarding Scripture and reading it in ways that are not good Bible study methods. I have read the most prominent books pushing a pro-homosexuality reading of the Bible. I have read articles doing the same. In the end, it always comes back to this.
So biblically speaking, I do not think we can make a case using historical Bible study methods that homosexuality is not a sin. Yet that still doesn't make it an easy issue.
Now, if I lost you during the Bible study portion or have upset you, please give this message another chance from this point forward.
Now, if I lost you during the Bible study portion or have upset you, please give this message another chance from this point forward.
Issues like homosexuality prove extremely difficult. Because we don’t want an issue like this to keep people away from Jesus or church. I even fear that preaching this sermon could stop my ability to minister to some of you by you withdrawing from the church because you adamantly disagree.
I get it. First, it does hurt a person with any sort of empathy to tell people who disagree or are kind, loving, and monogamous homosexuals that homosexuality is a sin. It hurts to alienate them over this issue. It just hurts to be what comes across as mean. I wish I could just tell people that homosexuality is okay for them if that is what they want. But that just isn’t what the Scriptures teach. I surmise that the Scriptures don’t teach it is okay because homosexuality, like all sins, is not what is best for a person’s life. Can I explain why that is? Nope. I wish I could explain it convincingly, but I can't.
Second, saying that homosexuality is a sin goes straight in the face of what we are taught by our society to teach. And wrestling with our society is difficult on any issue.
There is a tide that we are swimming against when we teach that the Bible teaches homosexuality is a sin. A tide that I would rather not swim against because swimming against the tide is never fun or easy, but I can't if I still hold that the Bible is the inspired word of God. For some, they will just reject the Bible. Others, may just reject God. I am not comfortable rejecting either.
But even if homosexuality is a sin, does that mean that we automatically leap to wanting our earthly nation to legislate our morality. This seems to be where a lot of the conflict in our society over the issue comes from. For many American Christians, the United States has almost become synonymous with the church. This is dangerous and heresy of the greatest sort, but in making this mistake a lot of missteps are made.
I want to propose a different approach for the church. What if we focused on God’s kingdom rather than the kingdom of the United States? Now if you were an elected official making legislation at the state or federal level, this conversation would be different. None of us are in that position, so I’m not going to explore the role of a Christian in those position. Instead, let’s focus on our role in society.
Our teaching that homosexuality is a sin yet we love all sinners becomes a problem in our mainstream culture when we try to make our moral stance a political position, so we have to be very careful when we decide that we should become politically active on any issue, not just this one. Is it possible that in trying to push Christian living onto nonChristians through using the power of the State we are hampering the cause of Jesus?
Politics and our faith can get sticky. Often people just make the leap from "that's wrong" to "we must legislate our position." This ignores a whole discussion that must happen in the middle of those two questions. We must really ask ourselves whether our position is helping the oppressed and those who can't use the instruments of power to help themselves. In those cases, I believe we should pursue helping those who can't help themselves, but I also know good Christians who disagree with me on this.
This is really an issue that I don’t feel we can win in our current society. I still call homosexuality a sin because the Bible clearly teaches that. And that doesn't make one of the sides in our society happy. They want to me to affirm that homosexuality is not a sin, not just accept a homosexual as a fellow sinner. They want me to promote it as just one of many valid lifestyle choices.
Nor do I make the religious crowd happy with my approach. They seem to want to bash homosexuals. The religious don't want to recognize that their lives are lived in such a way that they are equally separated from God and are only able to have a right relationship with God because of His grace. This is the point of Paul in Romans.
I have a NOT SO SATISFYING SOLUTION. It’s the only approach I can come up with that has both truth and love.
What if Christians and local churches became places known for their grace and love and not for their judgment? Do you think that would be attractive?
Years ago, when we passed the communion trays, I had a gay friend coming to church. He has since moved away. He wanted to help serve the Lord's Supper. At that time, the trays holding the emblems of the body and blood of Jesus were carried by four people and passed among the congregation. My gay friend became one of those guys. And one person became upset because a gay person was handing out the Lord's Supper. He told me, “I don’t want us to be known as the gay church.” I told him that I want our church to be a place where gays, whores, drunks, and sinners like me are welcome. He didn't like my reply because there is this tendency to make homosexuality a greater sin than other sins. Here is the thing. As a pastor, I have sacred knowledge of a lot of your sins. And I also know my own sins. We are committed to loving you despite your sins, and I hope you are committed to loving me despite my sins.
Homosexuality is not an issue I like to address regularly. It’s not beneficial. It has been years since I have talked about this from the pulpit. But if you are interacting with nonChristians this will come up in conversation, and I want you to be prepared and have a grasp on the issue. If we have homosexuals who come to our church (and I hope homosexuals feel comfortable coming to our church), then that is an issue we will discuss in relationships and counseling, not bash them on the issue from the pulpit.
If we have a proper understanding of the role of the church and the role of the state, we will realize that we do not have to relegate our moral thinking to the State. Just because the State says something is right or wrong, doesn't make it right or wrong. Likewise, just because we firmly believe something is right or wrong doesn't mean that we should automatically move to legislate it. So we shouldn't spend our time fighting the political battles of our day. Instead, we should lead out in our society through love. We should focus on the things of eternity.
What happens when the church gets hung up in trying to change the state is that the purpose of the church gets neglected. The mission of the church will not get done if the people of the church don't do it. We have a finite amount of time and we have finite energy. Do we spend it fighting gay marriage or world hunger? Do we spend it outlawing homosexuality or spreading the gospel and love of Jesus?
As I think we all recognize, the recorded teachings of Jesus and the life of the early church show that oppressing others isn't why the church was established. It was established to love others and be a place for God's will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. This mission cannot be neglected to win the game of politics, no matter how alluring that power may be.
Unfortunately, oppression seems to be the magnetic pull of any organized beast or collective group. Most groups -- from Communists to Libertarian, from Republican to Democrat, from black to white, from atheist to Christian, from American to North Korean -- want to denigrate those who disagree with them. Jesus taught an alternative way to the sectarianism of the world. I can understand the desire to ignore His teachings because His followers are ridiculously bad at actually living out this radical life that we are called to live.
What Jesus taught was countercultural, in His time and ours. We can see beautiful reflections of His teachings throughout the church's existence. People loving where there is no love. People helping in the midst of situations that inspire selfishness. People being fed where there is no food. People being giving light in the midst of great darkness, hope in the midst of hopelessness.
However, one doesn't have to throw out believing in right teachings to still be the church. It's those right teachings that should lead us to freedom and empower us to be loving. People who claim to follow Jesus just have to love those who we believe are misguided. There is no us and them. Only people like us who need the grace of God to be right with Him.
All of this does not ignore the complex issues surrounding such topics as homosexuality. But it does mean that we have a new and different starting point for our attitudes and actions: love and grace. Why? Because “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8). Are we willing to follow his example? Are we willing to live for others while they are still sinners? Are we willing to love and eat with sinners? A person stopping to sin is never a prerequisite for us to love them.
We need to have a biblical stance on homosexuality, but we also must realize that this is not one of the large issues. It’s only an issue we are talking about here today because this will be a subject you get challenged on time and time again when talking with nonChristians. Even so, we need to figure out how to never let the biblical stance on homosexuality overshadow our call to love one another, to love the poor, to share the message of Jesus with the world. Unfortunately, with homosexuality, we do disagree with the world. We have to if we are going to take the Bible seriously. But that doesn’t mean we have to be obnoxious or hateful over the issue. Even in our disagreements, we need to always show love.
