What Should a Martied Homosexual Do.after Becoming a Born Again Believer
A Sermon on Genesis 9:eight-17 and I Corinthians 13
William Fifty. Hathaway
Get-go Presbyterian Church, Annapolis, Maryland
February 3, 2013
I care a great bargain nearly marriage; the health of your marriages and the strength of the institution of marriage. Strong and faithful marriages are 1 of the keys to our well being. My marriage is fundamental to my life; I've been fortunate to exist with Alison for over 35 years and the vows that we made are integral to who we are and how we alive every single mean solar day. I counted the weddings this week and discovered that I take led worship for 210 couples who have sought out the church to commutation their vows "before God and these witnesses." I have witnessed these men and women making the blithesome and solemn hope to be "loving and faithful in enough and in want, in joy and in sorrow, in sickness and in health every bit long every bit we both shall live." To say the truth, like every minister I know, I accept a great bargain of frustration with the "wedding manufacture," that brings, for too many, an obscene outlay of money and turns worship into a photo op. Still, even with this discomfort and the difficult rate of divorce, I have never soured on the importance of marriage. In fact, I have a sense that the giving and receiving of promises is at the very heart of being human and living in faith. To be fully human is to make promises and to enter into covenant, with God, with loved ones and, for some, with a spouse. It is a remarkable thing to stand in the presence of God and the community of family and friends to pledge 1's life to ane other person. It is an astonishing expression of trust and promise when two imperfect persons, with all their strengths, weaknesses, foibles and weirdness actually pledge to be together whatever comes their way. On account of the fact that union is so important to our well beingness and to the health of the community I have come to the determination that both the church and the state demand to extend the rights and responsibilities of wedlock to same sex couples. Like many in this room, my mind has changed over the years but I believe that information technology is the correct affair to do and the true-blue thing to exercise even if information technology is not yet the bulk opinion within the PCUSA. This forenoon let me say a word virtually organized religion, sexuality and marriage. For many, same sex marriage is hardly controversial and you lot've been waiting for decades for the church building to come around. For some this feels wrong or untimely. Others may be all over the board merely irritated that the issues of gays and marriage take upwardly so much emotional free energy within the church. But, we owe our gay friends and members a response and we owe our children moral guidance.
Let me back up a bit. If, for example, you lot believe that existence homosexual is bad or sinful, then the give-and-take of marriage makes no sense. There is no mode that the church building should sanction sin. Still, a majority of Americans and, at present, a majority of Presbyterians take come up to the realization that sexual morality is nearly behavior not orientation. While gay and direct people akin may experiment or make very poor choices about their sexual beliefs, being gay is not a choice, it is an orientation; something given. The moral choices are about behavior non orientation. Those of us who care deeply about moral behavior affirm sure rules; rules that are built upon the values of fidelity, honesty and kindness. But, the rules are the aforementioned for gay folks equally for straight folks. It is all almost fidelity, honesty and kindness.
"What about the Bible?" good Christians ask (quite appropriately). The Bible says little about homosexuality and what was said was within the context of the abuse of soldiers and the all besides frequent employ of rape as a tool of oppression. Jesus said nothing almost homosexuality and equally New Attestation scholar Brian Blount describes the First Century, "Homosexuality every bit we presently sympathize information technology wasn't a role of their secular or religious vocabulary. No one talked in terms of genetic predisposition or early social conditioning/learning, or equally a mode of life, or a nurturing, caring partnership of two people. That is considering such a concept did not exist." While homosexuality certainly existed, the concept of loving committed aforementioned sex relations simply was not within the framework of Beginning Century Jewish idea. Simply we alive in an age of same sex couples who honey each other, intendance for each other, worry near raising their children and, of all things, live in the suburbs and fret over crab grass. Granted, life has changed at lightning speed merely life has in fact changed.
Does this mean that the Bible is irrelevant? No, not at all. What it means is that nosotros need to bring our Bible and our religion to a reality that did not exist at the time when Jesus walked the earth. Nosotros also turn to some of the core concepts of the Bible and not "cherry choice" a few stray verses. And, as Protestants, we interpret the Bible using the Bible. Namely, details of the Bible are interpreted in lite of the basic themes of the Bible. I suggest that the all-time manner to await at marriage is through the biblical concepts of covenant and honey.
Y'all'll observe that I am not starting with marriage. For marriage has a long, circuitous and changing history in the Bible. I love when folks flippantly speak about "biblical marriage." What does that mean? Are y'all talking about polygamy of the mode of Solomon who was reported to have had 700 wives and 300 hundred concubines? (I Kings 11:i,3) Are we talking most levirate marriage, the tradition and rule of a widow marrying the brother of her deceased husband then that the family name could be carried on? Are we talking about marriage every bit a transfer of belongings from i male potency to another, which is, in fact, the most prominent view of wedlock for about of the Bible and most of human history? Up until contempo years our Presbyterian Church's "Marriage Service" had the line, "Who giveth this Woman to be married to this Man?" That utterly sexist question harkens back to the tradition of marriage equally a transaction between men with the adult female being a commodity. Nosotros don't do that anymore and we don't have that line in our service anymore. Marriage has fundamentally inverse in our world; a change for the good. When couples meet with me, I say that they can write their own vows and look at unlike prayers, just to be married in the Presbyterian Church building ways that we assume the equal status, rights and respect of both men and women in the church, in society and in the language of the wedding service.
What does the Bible and our faith take to say about marriage given the radical changes in marriage over the decades? The cadre values are covenant and kindness or, using other words, promise and love. "At its deepest level," biblical scholar O. J. Baab writes, "marriage is a personal-sexual-spiritual companionship ordained and instituted by God. This estimation rests upon the biblical feel of marriage in the light of the biblical faith in the God who is both Creator and Redeemer." (The Interpreter's Lexicon of the Bible, "Spousal relationship" Vol. iii, p. 286)
The reading from Genesis includes the commencement use of the give-and-take "covenant" in the Bible. The remainder of the Hebrew scripture and Christian scripture elaborate on the theme. Religion is fundamentally about covenant: the promises that God makes to us and we brand to God. And, in turn, the core of our lives – morally, existentially and quite practically – is all almost the promises that we make in our twenty-four hours to day living. It is a powerful thing to raise a mitt or to take a hand and make a solemn vow. Withal that is what makes u.s. consciously moral agents and fully human.
Every bit people of faith we are called to love God and dearest neighbor (every bit Jesus summarized the law). The dominion of love is our guide. Yes, we have laws, the X Commandments to bracket our lives, but they flow out of the rule of love. I Corinthians 13 is the most famous clarification of love in the Bible. It is read at many weddings even though those in attendance who take no church building ties have no idea that it is from the Bible. (Back in the early lxxx'south I had i person say, "That was a wonderful reading about love. Did Rod McKuen write it?) Yes, I Corinthians thirteen is a great reading for weddings even if that is not what Paul had in listen. He was writing the bickering, contentious church building in Corinth, known for arrogant leaders and feuding factions. In chapter 12 of his letter of the alphabet, Paul writes virtually the diverseness of people in the church and how, while different, each has a identify within the body of Christ. He ends that affiliate with the line: "And I volition show you a still more excellent way." What is that way? It is chapter thirteen – love. Love is the bottom line, even for all of us "who see in a mirror dimly." Yes, "faith, hope and dear abide, these three, and the greatest of these is dearest."
Because I intendance deeply most the integrity of marriage and base of operations my faith upon the foundation of covenant and dear, I ask the church equally well equally the state to extend the right and responsibility of matrimony to aforementioned sex partners. By the fashion, this is a change for me. As recently every bit five years ago I spoke on the floor of the Presbytery against wedlock in favor of civil unions. Yes, I've long held the view that gay and lesbian members are equal in the eyes of God and the church to straight members just I was a bit troubled by the wedlock linguistic communication, thinking that civil unions would be adequate to support our gay and lesbian neighbors. Two things inverse me. The first, the applied: To requite a gay couple rights that married couples enjoy around problems of inheritance, hospital visitation, fifty-fifty burying the dead would require over a thousand changes in Maryland law. Yet, one activity – legal marriage – grants all the rights and responsibilities. The second reason I changed my mind was from the heart. When I attended the wedding of two women who were legally and faithfully joined together in their 12th year of being together, I realized that they were doing the very same matter that Alison and I did 35 years ago. Fundamentally, there is no divergence. Their witness to covenant and beloved supports my commitment to covenant and love.
Delight note, I am speaking as your pastor today, not for the congregation. The voice of the congregation is our Session. I am not speaking for our denomination; the General Associates does that. Today, I am inviting the conversation. Some congregations are choosing to host same sex marriages as a witness to the broader church and a annunciation of what they believe is the volition of God, but, as of today, the policy of our beloved PCUSA limits marriage to heterosexual couples. I believe that it is time to modify.
Thanks for hanging in for a sermon that is more like a theological accost. Then let me stop with a story. My mom will turn 90 adjacent month. Yes, we will gather in Minnesota in two weeks to heighten a toast to her (when else would ane similar to visit Minnesota!). She is a strong woman with deep conservative and traditional mid-w roots. Recently I sent her a copy of Martha Johnson'south get-go novel about a young gay man in the Presbyterian Church. My Mom read it and is passing information technology around her apartment edifice among a grouping of fourscore and 90 yr olds. My ears perked when she said, "I did not know any gay persons growing upwardly; I had no thought how hard it would be for them." The volume is going around her flat edifice for the local church building, across the street, has been on a entrada to oppose gay marriages and to "out" the gays within the congregation, even, rumor has it, denying them communion. Her friends are upset. Many are confused and conflicted. "Why," my mother asks "would we injure these people?" For Mom and a growing group of her friends information technology comes down to kindness. Information technology is the ethic of beloved.
"Now, faith, hope and love abide, these three, and the greatest of these is love."
Notes:
- The book reference at the terminate of the sermon is In our Midst (2012) by Martha Johnson, an elder within the church and a erstwhile Clerk of Session of our congregation.
- I was asked afterwards worship, "Haven't we already made this change?" Skillful question. The PCUSA fabricated a meaning modify when the rules for ordination were adjusted to allow a congregation to ordain a homosexual person to be an elder or deacon and the presbytery to ordain a homosexual candidate to be a minister. The rules on marriage have nonetheless to change.
Source: https://covnetpres.org/2013/03/20/covenant-and-marriage-what-do-we-say-when-a-gay-christian-couple-ask-to-be-married/
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