8-30-20 Matthew 22:34-40 “Why the Welcome?” Central Christian Church David Shirey

Our theme throughout the month of August has been Answer Me This: Questions from Our Youth. In past weeks, we’ve responded to Why do we pray? Why is the cross so important to Christians? Why did God have to make my mother go away? Why do bad things happen to good people? What does it really mean to be a Christian? This morning: Why is Central so accepting of gay and lesbian people and other churches aren’t? A decade ago, Central’s Elders, after much deliberation, prayer and study, drafted our Welcome Statement. It appears on all our communications. It served as our Call to Worship this morning: “We welcome all persons into membership who seek to follow Jesus Christ regardless of previous religious affiliation, mode of baptism, gender, race, ethnic background, age, sexual orientation...” The youth asked, “Why the welcome regardless of sexual orientation in our church but not every church?” To answer that, let’s look first at the half dozen Bible passages that are often used to condemn and exclude gay and lesbian persons. Some have called them the “clobber passages.” Beginning with the story of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19:4-11). You may know the story. God sent two angels to the cities in human guise. They were invited by Lot to spend the night. “Be my guests,” he said. “I insist!” Good for Lot! He must have known his Bible, not to mention Middle Eastern morality that made hospitality to vulnerable strangers a mandate. Take Leviticus 19:33-34: “When an alien resides with you in your land (we might use the word foreigner or immigrant), you shall not oppress them. The alien who resides with you shall be as a citizen to you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.” But according to the story, some men of Sodom surrounded Lot's house and demanded he bring the guests outside so they could "know" them (a euphemism for having sex). Gang rape is what it would have been. The word sodomy is derived from this passage, as are so-called “sodomy laws” that criminalized same sex relations, thereby linking the sin of Sodom with homosexuality as if what we know as same sex sexual orientation and loving, monogamous, faithful, self-giving intimacy between two people of the same sex can be equated with gang rape. The sin of Sodom wasn’t homosexuality, it was egregious injustice in the form of the refusal to extend hospitality to strangers. Instead of welcoming the aliens as Lot did, the Sodomites perpetrated the worst form of violence against them-- raped them. To the point that elsewhere in Scripture, whenever Sodom is mentioned, its besetting sin is named as injustice. Ezekiel said, “This was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy (16:49). The sin of Sodom-- sodomy-- in its true biblical context is the abuse of the stranger, the alien, the immigrant. That’s against God’s law. There are also twin clobber passages in Leviticus that are often cited to incite denunciations of homosexuality. Leviticus 20:13 reads, “If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination.” The verse continues, “They shall be put to death.” (cf. Lev. 18:22). Some Christians point to the first part of the verse as God’s definitive word about same sex relations and say, Abominable! But if you ask them if the second part of the verse is also God’s eternal Word – calling for the death penalty— they say, “No, don’t do that.” So the prohibition is God’s Word, but not the punishment? That doesn’t follow. So much for taking the Bible literally, word for word. So what do we do with these passages? Context is everything. They’re part of what is called the Holiness Code, a list of rules and regulations spanning ten chapters of Leviticus (17-26) that were intended to do one thing: set Israel apart from the Egyptian culture they fled and the Canaanite culture they moved into. They were to be different than their neighbors. The biblical word for “different than” or “separate from” is holy. The gist of all the rules in the Holiness Code, as Dr. Jerry Sumney made clear in an outstanding lecture at LTS last year1, is “Don’t be like them!” Which meant, among other things2, not trimming your sideburns or beard, not wearing clothes made out of more than one fabric, having no tattoos, and not eating pork or shrimp (or vultures, storks, or bats). All of the above are called “abominations” in Leviticus and what they all have in common is that they were things the Egyptians or Canaanites did, wore or ate. In order to keep the people of Israel separate from them -- holy-- all were prohibited. And here’s the reason: what the writers of the Holiness Code wanted most of all was to keep the people of Israel from worshiping like the Egyptians and Canaanites. Which meant worshipping other gods. And the best way to make sure the Israelites didn’t end up worshiping their neighbors’ gods was to steer them clear of their neighbors altogether by not eating with them or wearing clothes like them or looking like them... Or having sex like them. The Holiness Code has numerous sexual prohibitions. Hold on to your hat. Prohibitions against having sex with animals, your neighbor’s wife, your mother-in-law, your daughter-in-law, and “a man lying with a male as with a woman.” Why all those prohibitions? Because the Egyptians and Canaanites had religions in which stories were told of their gods having sex with creatures great and small (animal and human) and worship of those gods included rituals including temple prostitutes (men lying with women not their wives) and what is called pederasty -- men with boys (“a man lying with a male as with a woman”). The people of Israel weren’t to do any of that! Their sexuality was to be different in this manner: The people of Israel were to “be holy as the Lord God is holy” (Lev. 19:2, 20:7, 20:26, 21:8) meaning that when it came to their sexuality, their relations with their beloved were to mirror how God is with God’s beloved. And how does God love humankind? I’ll take Exodus 34:6 as the definition of godly love: “Merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness....” We might use words like fidelity, mutuality, intimacy, selflessness and faithfulness to describe godly love. By contrast, the sexual practices of the Canaanites and Egyptians were promiscuous, adulterous, self-serving, domineering, corrupting. Bottom line: what is outlawed in the Holiness Code is not same sex sexual orientation or monogamous, faithful, self-giving intimacy shared in bonds of enduring love between two people of the same or opposite sex but everything to the contrary. Speaking of factoring in the Bible’s historical context: a couple New Testament clobber passages reiterate the need to do that in terms of the Greco-Roman world in which the NT was written.

1 “The Church and Sexual Ethics,” May 22, 2019 2 http://www.11points.com/Books/11_Things_The_Bible_Bans,_But_You_Do_Anyway 1 Corinthians 6:9, 10 reads, ”Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, sodomites, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, robbers—none of these will inherit the kingdom of God.” 1 Timothy 1:8-11 echoes this passage. Some read the word translated “sodomites” and say, “Homosexuals won’t inherit the kingdom!” but that word translated sodomites (the greek word arsenokoitai) following as it does the word translated male prostitutes refers to the pederastic sex that existed in the Greco-Roman world between married men and boys drawn into temple prostitution. That’s what Paul is denouncing here: exploitative, promiscuous, adulterous sex. Not same-sex relationships that are consensual, covenantal, and committed. Same goes for the clobber passage found in Romans 1:24ff where Paul can be made to sound like he is denouncing homosexuality -- same sex attraction and relations. But in context, Paul is attributing perversions of sexuality and all sin to idol worship. Paul wrote Romans from Corinth where, in Aphrodite’s Temple, worship of that idol led to perverse sexual behavior including Temple prostitution and pederasty. In Paul’s logic, if you turn your back on God and turn to Aphrodite-- practice idolatry-- that’s what you end up doing! Idolatry leads to depravity. But mind you, the depravity Paul denounces is the sex of Aphrodite’s Temple-- promiscuous, adulterous, self-serving, domineering, corrupting. Nowhere is what we would call today homosexual orientation denounced. Nor are same-sex relationships involving two persons whose lives, faith, and intimacy with one another are rooted not in an idol’s Temple but in the church of Jesus Christ-- their love for each other characterized by monogamy, fidelity, and selflessness. A sexual ethic can be derived from Scripture that can guide and bless same sex as well as opposite sex relationships. It’s not the plumbing of the partners that pleases or displeases God. It’s the character of the relationship that God yearns to be Christ-like. It’s not how you and your beloved are made-- God made you both. No matter your orientation, you’re made in the image of God. Your sexuality is God’s gift to you. What you make of your relationship with one another is your gift to God. Is your love for your beloved “Merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness?” Is it marked by fidelity, mutuality, intimacy, selflessness, and faithfulness? If so, God bless you. Or is it marked by promiscuity, adultery, selfishness, dominance, abuse? If so, God help you. It’s not the genders involved that bless or curse a relationship; it’s the character of the love shared and expressed. Having said all that, may I share some personal words in regards to my coming to terms with same sex orientation and relationships? I’m 60 years old. I’ve changed over the years from ignorance and judgment to understanding and embrace. I remember 23 years ago sitting with Dr. Fred Craddock, a favorite New Testament professor and preacher. Someone asked Dr. Craddock, “What do you think about homosexuals?” He replied, “Which homosexual are you talking about? My nephew? Our neighbor? Someone you work with?” Hear that wisdom? It’s people, not labels. I remember walking with my daughter Betsy toward the Convention Center in Kansas City where our church was having its General Assembly 20+ years ago. We were voting on a resolution expressing welcome and affirmation to gay and lesbian brothers and sisters. Betsy was eight years old. As we got closer, we saw protesters with menacing looks on their faces carrying bright fluorescent signs. Betsy asked me, “Daddy, what does that mean?” “What honey?” “That sign: GOD HATES FAGS. What’s a fag, Daddy? Who does God hate, Daddy? Daddy, I’m scared.” I remember in the early nineties volunteering through Hospice to visit men dying of AIDS. I did it for two years. Jennie and I named one of our children in memory of one of those men. I baptized one man in the ICU. I was asked by a few of them to do their funeral. One man’s mother said, “David would you do Terry’s funeral? Our minister said he’d come, but he wouldn’t officiate. He said it wouldn’t be appropriate. He said he knew we’d understand.” I remember a woman who was a student intern at my St. Louis church in the late 1980s say to me mid-year, “David, I’m a lesbian. I’m telling you because I came out to my ordination council earlier this week and they dismissed me. I’ll leave quietly from this church, too. I don’t want to cause any problems for you or the congregation if it’s not too late because the St. Louis Post-Dispatch is apparently running a front page story on it in Sunday’s paper.” I said, “Stop right there. You’re not going anywhere, Jeannette. Let me meet with the elders and I’ll tell you what they say.” I did and what they said for me to tell her was, “You have a place ministering with and to us.” She did. Taught. Preached. Made pastoral visits. Jennie and I left our firstborn with Jeanette and Dorothy. Free babysitting! They’ve spent their lives together. Jeanette was elected four times to the Missouri House of Representatives, the state’s first openly gay legislator. And I remember a woman in our church in North Carolina 25 years ago who was deeply depressed. She’d lost her husband years before. I didn’t know what had precipitated her melancholy. “Doris, what is it?” She told me her 50-year-old son had told her he was gay. “And what did you say to him?” I asked. “I told him I loved him at his birth, I’ve loved him every day since, and I love him still-- I will always love him.” “So why the depression?” “Because I can’t tell anyone else.” “Why?” “Because they won’t accept him.” “But Doris, everybody who knows Wooten loves Wooten.” She nodded. “You can tell our church,” I said. “No,” she said, “I can’t. I can’t tell our church.” “Yes you can, Doris. Of course, you can. Even if you feel you can’t tell anybody else, you can tell the church.” But she couldn’t. And didn’t. I remember when I got the call that she had taken her life by jumping from an upper floor balcony of the assisted living center where she lived. I determined then and there that-- God help me-- no more mothers or fathers or their sons or daughters were going to take their lives on my watch! Because the church I believe in and the God and Christ I believe in are here not to demean and condemn but to affirm and bless. Not to take life but give to give life by blessing lives and relationships in ways that lead to abundant and eternal life. Jesus was asked once, “Lord, there are so many commandments in the Bible. The Holiness Code. Everything the prophets said. All Paul’s letters. There are vice lists, Beatitudes, Ten Commandments. Do this. Don’t do that. It can be so hard to sort it all out and do what’s right. Tell me, Lord, what is the greatest commandment of all? Jesus said, “Rule #1 is “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and might and love your neighbor as yourself’” (Matthew 22:34-40). But Lord, what if my neighbor is gay or lesbian or transgender, has a same sex orientation, or is in a same sex relationship? What then? And Jesus says, “Refer to Rule #1. Love. In all things, in all relationships: love. What don’t you understand about love?”

Let all God’s people say, AMEN.