Homosexuality and the Church as Body of Christ

1 Corinthians 12.12-end

Paul’s letters to the Church at Corinth can be a frustrating part of scripture to read, because we only have one side of the correspondence and we may not even have all of Paul’s side of it. Reading between the lines, together with what we know of the history and culture of Corinth, we can appreciate some of the problems Paul was writing to address:

·         Membership was divided, with different loyalties splitting the church and so reducing its health and effectiveness.

·         Some members felt shame and inadequacy, that they weren’t good enough to be part of the church.

·         Others felt proud of who they were in the church and looked down on other, inferior members. They rejected some others from church membership altogether, saying “I don’t need you”.

In today’s passage he addresses both these kinds of people within this lively but chaotic and divided church. Each person, each member is part of a body, the body of Christ and needs to be functioning healthily in order for the whole body to be healthy.

If you prevent a body part functioning healthily, it will function inadequately or unhealthily, affecting the health of the whole body. For example, there is nothing in the Bible against smoking. But if I choose to fill my lungs with tobacco smoke ten or twenty times a day, my lungs will be unhealthy – and not just my lungs; my whole body will be unhealthy as a result. Or I might decide to wear a patch over one eye all the time, as some sort of fashion statement. It will not only be that eye which can’t function normally, my whole body’s judgement of distance and speed will be impaired. If I wear this patch long term, the sight of that eye may eventually be lost. The eye will become incapable of functioning as a healthy eye.

First (v14-20) Paul addresses those who felt INFERIORITY, SHAME, JEALOUSY vis-a-vis others in the church. “Because I am only a foot and not a hand I don’t really belong here. I am not part of this.” Paul insists that they do not cease to be part of the body just because of their feelings of inferiority. God put them there for a purpose and they need to be living healthily, to their full potential, if the body of Christ is to be healthy.

Then (v21-26) he addresses those who felt SUPERIORITY, PRIDE, SELF-IMPORTANCE vis-a-vis others in the church. He tells them firmly that they cannot say “I don’t need you” to others in the church, without losing something essential to the healthy life of the church, the body of Christ (NB not just some-body or any-body, but the body of Christ).

(V25-26) In a healthy body, all the parts serve and support and value each other. When one suffers, all suffer; when one rejoices, all rejoice. Neither shame nor pride are healthy and the body of Christ needs to be healthy if it is to fulfil its purpose in the world.

Now I’d like to relate this teaching to a controversial issue, which is the position of homosexual people in the church. This was in the news last week because of high profile Baptist Church Minister Steve Chalke’s article in Christianity magazine and interviews he has done.

(Here is a link  to Steve Chalke’s article in Christianity magazine and here is a response from Steve Clifford of the Evangelical Alliance, defending the traditional view.)

Many other evangelicals, myself included, have reached same conclusions as Steve, briefly that the Church should bless and affirm gay and lesbian people who wish to live in faithful, stable partnerships. It is not a matter of throwing away the Bible and just deciding to be nice and liberal and inclusive. This change of viewpoint has been reached through seeking to understand the experiences of gay and lesbian christians and a re-evaluation of what the Bible actually teaches about homosexuality. It is not a subject that Jesus said anything about at all and although there are a few Old Testament and New Testament passages which appear to prohibit homosexual relationships, it is likely that the former refer to temple prostitution and the latter to the sexual abuse of vulnerable people such as slaves. It is extremely unlikely that faithful, stable partnerships between people of the same gender are the target of any of these Bible texts.

Personally I agree with Chalke that there is a strong case for revising the Church’s view of the subject and whilst you don’t have to agree, it should at least give us all pause for thought. Especially when we relate this controversy to the Bible passage we are looking at today. If homosexuality is not an aberration or something that needs to be repented or healed of, but intentional and part of the diversity God has created, it follows that the body of Christ as a whole will not function healthily unless homosexual people can live healthily within the Church. The Church of England’s official teaching currently allows homosexual members to live in partnerships but does not allow blessing services for these partnerships. If one of the partners is a priest, the relationship must also be celibate.  Is forcing people to stay single, celibate or silent about their orientation healthy? Celibacy is a very specific and demanding vocation and not something which should be forced on anybody because of their sexual orientation. Wouldn’t it be healthier for individuals and for the whole body of Christ  to encourage, bless and support faithful, stable partnerships, including same gender partnerships?

The Anglican Communion is deeply divided on this issue, with homosexual partnerships already allowed and blessed in the Anglican Church of Canada and the Episcopalian church of the USA, but firmly rejected by many other Anglican Churches.For the time being, many of us may have to agree to differ on this emotive issue and I pray that we may be able to do so with respect and compassion and that we may avoid our natural pitfalls of shame and pride.

Forget-me-nots. A short story.

This story came to my mind completely and instantly, as I was preparing for yesterday's service. I hesitate to claim it was from God, but it seemed to touch a lot of people anyway. Here it is:

There was a man who loved God and who also loved flowers. He loved all kinds of flowers, but his favourites were the small, delicate blue flowers called forget-me-nots. They reminded him of God and heaven, and the man thought they were probably God's favourites too. The man moved to a house which had a rather bare garden with no flowers. As he went to bed on his first night at the new house he prayed that he would be able to work with God to grow beautiful flowers in the garden.

That very night, God answered the man's prayer, and when the man opened his curtains in the morning he saw that the garden was covered with beautiful flowers of every colour and variety you could imagine. The man rejoiced and thanked God. Then after breakfast the man found his scissors and a pot of blue paint and went out into the garden. He worked with great care for several hours, painting and trimming the flowers. Finally he stood back and looked at his garden full of forget-me-nots and rejoiced.

And God looked at the garden and wept. And God's tears fell on the garden and tried to wash away the blue paint. But they couldn't, because the man had used waterproof paint. That night the man went to sleep, satisfied with his day's work. But unfortunately, all the flowers which had been painted blue died. And when the man got up in the morning he noticed that some flowers had died. He also noticed that some of the naturally blue flowers which had not been forget-me-nots were beginning to grow back into their original shape. He made a note that he would have to bring his scissors and trim them again. But sadly, during the course of the day, all the flowers in the garden shrivelled and died.

In his sadness, the man walked to the end of his garden and leant over the garden wall. And as his tears fell onto the ground outside the garden wall, tiny buds opened and new flowers of every variety and colour began to open.

It seems as though we see our task as to flatten out the differences between people. Differences which God has built in for a reason. So when we try to make everyone the same and bring them into line we may actually be working against God. And that's not a clever thing to do.

Rob and Mark

Reposted from Robin Parry's "Theological Scribbles" blog. LOL!

Published on LUPA Protestante

An early Christmas present -  I've had a short article published in the online journal LUPA Protestante. Here's the link
:)!

We Need a Hero - Carol Service 2012

Carol Service 2012

·         Yesterday Billie and I enjoyed the privilege of attending the opening ceremony for the Churchill Gardens and Sculpture. We heard tributes to a great European, a man of faith and courage, a motivator, a visionary and a leader.

·         We heard his voice (1940 recording of a radio broadcast from parliament) – and the voice of his Great Granddaughter, Jenny.

·         Winston Churchill used the example of the people of Barcelona – their bravery when bombed by Hitler & Mussolini a few years earlier – to inspire the people of Britain and its allies in their resistance to Nazism.

·         Barcelona and Europe (and the world) are very different today. Again in crisis, but a different kind of crisis. The shadow and fear of evil are here again, but in a different form.

·         The enemy is harder to identify but just as real. Perhaps the spiritual malaise goes even deeper than the physical and monetary problems, so that political leadership alone cannot solve the crisis.

·         Solutions are not easy but once again I believe there is a need for faith, courage and inspirational leadership.

·         We don’t have Churchill but we do have the inspiring words of the prophets and the gospel writers – we have listened to their voices tonight – their witness to God’s extraordinary intervention in world history in the birth of Jesus Christ.

·         Perhaps it is too much to expect Barcelona to be once again an inspiring example to the rest of the world, as it was in the days of Churchill.

·         But my prayer for each of us tonight (at least in this part of Barcelona) is that we will understand more deeply than ever the message that the coming of Jesus Christ into the world is good news of great joy for all the people (Lk 2.10) and that we will leave this place with renewed energy to share God’s love with others and to shine his light into the world.

Why did no one dare ask him any more questions?

Mark 12.28-34 “No one dared ask him any more questions”.

Imagine you live in a politically unstable country where an election is due and uncertainty is in the air. You attend a meeting at which a charismatic but controversial politician is speaking. You have many burning questions for him, but you wonder if it is safe to ask your questions. After all, this politician is well-known for his stinging replies!

Then someone near you asks a tricky question and you wait to see what will happen. To your surprise and relief the politician answers gently and politely. The questioner agrees with the answer and they compliment each other. Now you feel more confident to ask your questions.

Compare what happens in our gospel story. The conversation between Jesus and the Teacher of the Law also seems to go very well. They agree on which is the most important commandment and even make some additional progress by agreeing the second commandment. They compliment each other “Well said Teacher”, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God” – and it all seems very benign and friendly. Then at the end of the reading the gospel writer comments “And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.”

Isn’t that the opposite of what you’d expect? You could understand this comment if it came after the clearing of the Temple or after one of the hostile encounters between Jesus and the religious leaders – but here it is surprising, after probably the mildest conversation between Jesus and the religious leaders in Bible. “No one dared” is very strong and requires an explanation.

What have we missed? What is going on?

Clues

·         Notice what the Teacher of the Law (I’ll use the abbreviation TotL) leaves out when he repeats the Shema (Deut 6.4-5) back to Jesus:

Jesus: “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.”

TotL: “He is one, and besides him there is no other and to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength…”

I suggest there is something significant in his leaving out the word Lord on all the occasions it comes up in the Shema. Bearing in mind he knew this prayer off by heart and would have said it several times a day (Lords included).

·         Also notice what Jesus leaves out when he quotes the ‘second commandment’ (Lev 19.18)

Jesus: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.”

Leviticus: “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbour as yourself. I am the LORD”

I suggest that when Jesus quotes only part of this verse, the whole verse is implied – just like if I say “A bird in the hand …”. Not all the crowd would pick this up, but the scribe and other religious people who were present certainly would.

Context

·         If we briefly survey the whole of chapters 11 and 12, we can see how prominent is the issue of the source of Jesus’ authority, his relationship to God and God’s Lordship, and to the current religious leaders and the whole Temple system.

·         In 11.3, sending the disciples to fetch a donkey, Jesus claims the title Lord for himself.

·         In 11.9, Jesus accepts the crowd’s assertion that he is ‘the one who comes in the name of the Lord’.

·         Then (11.12-25) we have the cursing of the fig tree and the cleansing of the Temple, followed by the dispute about his authority (11.27-33) in which Jesus implicitly claims his authority comes from heaven.

·         From 11.18 onwards, the chief priests and TotLs begin plotting to have Jesus killed.

·         In 12.1-12 Jesus, still in the Temple precinct, tells the parable of the murderous tenants, in which he casts himself as the vineyard owner’s (i.e. God’s) son, predicts that the tenants will kill him, and that their murderous act will be overturned by God.

·         The chief priests and teachers of the law recognise that the parable has been aimed against them.

·         In 11.13-27 Jesus deals with two trap questions, the first from the Pharisees about paying taxes to Caesar and the second from the Sadducees about marriage and resurrection. Jesus gives sharp replies and his questioners are silenced.

Explanation

·         Although the TotL’s question to Jesus is, on the surface, benign, we readers know about the plot by the TotLs and others to have Jesus arrested and killed.

·         With this in mind, and the background of Jesus’ claims in words and actions to be Lord (a title only God was worthy of), I think we begin to see how loaded Jesus’ saying  the Shema (Deut 6.4-5) is.

·         I think the TotL realises that Jesus is including himself in the Shema, as its object, as Lord (which, incidentally, Paul also does in 1 Corinthians 8.6). He also realises that Jesus knows about the plot. You can’t love the Lord if you are plotting to kill him!

·         The TotL either has his Lord and God (or a very convincing imposter) standing in front of him. That could be why he can’t bring himself to say ‘Lord’. There is only one Lord, which is God. Therefore Jesus cannot be Lord unless …

·         Perhaps we could insert John 5.39-43 here, as Jesus’ unspoken thoughts:

You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you possess eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life. I do not accept glory from human beings, but I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts. I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me.

·         The implications are perhaps dawning on the TotL as he adds that love of God and neighbour is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.  If God is present amongst his people in a new way, in the flesh, the whole Temple system is obsolete. The challenge to the Temple becomes expicit in Ch.13.

·         So the reason people did not dare ask any more questions would be because, just maybe, God was here standing in front of them. The silence was one of holy fear.

·         Interestingly, in the following section (12.35-40), Jesus comes back to the matter of his Lordship (The Messiah is David’s Lord, not his son), and denounces the TotLs on the grounds that their love for God and neighbour is only a sham.

Lessons

·         I think we all tend to reduce our faith/religion to a matter of observing a set of rules. This gives us control and certainty, all the better if we can reduce everything to just two rules.

·         But look where rule-based religion can lead us – to a point where, in spite of all our studying, we can not see God standing right in front of us and may even find ourselves opposing him, observing the letter of the law while we violate its spirit.

·         It is also worth reminding ourselves that Jesus was a rule-breaker, that is, he never let religious rules get in the way of loving God and neighbour. I wonder if Jesus wants us to be rule-breakers, in this sense, rather than rule followers or enforcers.

·         Perhaps he wants us to commit ‘crimes of passion’ – not in the sense of harming people because we have lost our temper -  but in the sense of being driven by our passion for God and other people to transcend the limitations of rules.

·         In the end Jesus will prove to be the perfect example of love of God and neighbour, all the way to the cross and beyond (Greater love has no man than this…).

·         Finally, lest we fall into the classic religious trap of dividing people up into the good and the bad, we need to remember that Jesus’ definition of neighbour includes enemies too. The Teachers of the Law are indeed not far from the Kingdom of God.

What is the Bible?

I recently received an email from a man describing himself as a new convert to the Kingdom. He asked four questions about the Bible, which he said had been troubling him for some time. 1.What is the Bible? 2. Is the Bible truly God's Word? 3. Why should we read the Bible? 4. Does the Bible contain errors, contradictions, or discrepencies? How would you have answered? See what you think of my attempt below:-

Hello M,

Thank you for sending me your questions, which I found very interesting. Here are my responses, which I hope you will find helpful:

1. The Bible is a library of books of various genres including poetry, history and religious law, through which God is revealed to us. The revelation of God is progressive through the Bible, so that for example the depth of understanding of God in the new testament gospels and epistles is far more accurate and complete than that of Joshua or Judges.

2. Jesus Christ is the living Word of God who reveals exactly what God is like and fulfils all of God's purposes (John 1.1-18, Isaiah 55.10-11, Hebrews 1.1-3). The Bible is the written word of God and although it has reached us through imperfect human writers and translators, it is able to reveal to us the living word, Jesus Christ.

3. We should read the Bible because "All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching the truth, rebuking error, correcting faults, and giving instruction for right living, so that the person who serves God may be fully qualified and equipped to do every kind of good deed" (2 Timothy 3.16-17). What better reason could there be for reading the Bible?

4. Yes, in all our modern translations of the Bible there are errors, contradictions and discrepencies. This should not surprise us in such an old book with so many different writers, editors and translators. In spite of this, what the Bible does is reveal to us the true and living word of God, Jesus Christ. When we read and think about the Bible we encounter the living word of God which "is alive and active, sharper than any double-edged sword. It cuts all the way through, to where soul and spirit meet, to where joints and marrow come together. It judges the desires and thoughts of the heart" (Hebrews 4.12).

To sum up, I would say that the Bible is something more mysterious and powerful than just an infallible book. It is a gateway to meeting the living God who saves and heals and loves us and who is bringing his kingdom on earth. To understand the Bible we need to study it within the christian community (the church), with faith, and with the guidance of the Holy Spirit who, as Jesus promised, "will lead you into all the truth" (John 16.13).

God bless you on your journey of faith,

With love and prayers, Rev Andrew Tweedy