2 KINGS 2:1-15
PSALM 114
EPHESIANS 4:1-7,11-16
MARK 6:45-52
Sermon – July 27,
2003
“Maintain the Unity
of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace”
Today we hear one of the great passages from the New Testament’s Letters – a passage just as poignant and just as pertinent now as it was when it was written. In fact it almost feels like a personal letter addressed to every member or friend of the Episcopal Church, USA as our Church’s representatives are about to gather in our great national decision-making gathering, the General Convention of the Episcopal Church, held once every three years. Let’s hear some of these words again:
“I
therefore, a prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling
to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience,
bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of
the Spirit in the bond of peace.”
Humility
is a good quality to have when pondering controversial issues – and when
listening to the positions of others on them.
It is perfectly possible – even necessary, I sometimes think - to believe heartily in a particular
position while at the same time remembering that “It is possible that I
am wrong.” Gentleness is a fine
Christian quality; too many people try to “bull-doze” their way through
life. Patience is as well; just think
how patient God is with us. Giving us time to repent and return to him – should
we not also be patient with others, and “bear with one another in love”? If we don’t, how are we Christians any
different from other people? And
finally, we are called to make “every effort to maintain the unity of the
Spirit in the bond of peace.”
That
unity of the Spirit is likely to be severely tested over the next 10 days. The Episcopal Church is heading toward what
is likely to be the most contentious and potentially divisive General
Convention in a generation, if not ever.
Given the dire warnings issued by some about the impact of our
Convention’s possible actions in the worldwide Anglican Communion, there may be
much diplomacy needed (at the very least).
There
are other issues to be considered by the Episcopal Church’s General Convention
which I consider more important – evangelism, church growth, anti-racism work
and empowering poor people come to mind – but there are no other issues which
have drawn more media attention than those pertaining to homosexuality. One proposal to be voted on by the General
Convention would authorize the Standing Liturgical Committee to draft a proposed
liturgy for the blessing of same-sex unions, which would be then considered at
the next General Convention in three years. Please note the tentative nature of the proposed
legislation. The second is that the
General Convention, as it always does, will be voting to approve the elections
of bishops which have taken place within three months of the General
Convention; what’s controversial is that one of those bishops is the first to
be an openly self-declared homosexual as of the time of his election.
Homosexuals
and homosexuality have been around for thousands of years. There have also been homosexual Christians
and, most likely, homosexual clergy for a very, very long time. This is in spite of the fact that the Bible
– let’s be honest – takes a dim view of homosexuality. It is routinely denounced in the Old
Testament and St. Paul more than once includes it in his lists of “things not
to do.” Jesus says absolutely nothing
about it. For much of Christian history
it was not a major issue – and never, to my knowledge, has it been an issue
which split a denomination.
In
reflecting on the Bible’s position – or positions – on different issues, we
need to remember that the Bible is the inspired world of God “which contains
all things necessary for salvation”, as Episcopalians declare – but that not
everything in it is “necessary for salvation.” In addition, the Bible often contradicts
itself: compare the teaching on war and peace in the Book of Joshua to that in
the Sermon on the Mount, for example.
Our challenge is to try to discern, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit
and collectively within the community of faith, what in the Bible is “timeless”
truth and what was “for a time”.
For example,
polygamy – a man having more than one wife, and sometimes concubines as well –
is assumed as normal in the Old Testament.
Even in the New Testament we are cautioned that “bishops should be the
husbands of only one wife” as though polygamy might be otherwise thought a
defensible alternative. And this issue
is not over in African culture.
For example,
slavery is assumed to be a normal part of life in both the Old and New
Testaments. It was only in the 19th
Century that most Western Christians finally realized Jesus’ love commandment trumped
that appalling practice’s long tradition.
(The Irish had gotten the message under St. Patrick in the 5th
Century). That issue did split
churches in this country, splits that took generations to heal.
For example,
divorce – at the initiative of men alone – is permitted in the Old Testament
but is soundly denounced by Jesus, as well as remarriage after divorce. Jesus was speaking to a situation in 1st
Century Palestine when women had no civil rights and were treated – or
threatened with being treated – like Kleenex tissues by power-mad husbands: use
them and throw them out. Jesus stressed
that the original intent of creation was unity between husband and wife,
unity at a profound level, that marriage was not a convenience to be jettisoned
at the instigation and whim of the more powerful partner.
The unity that
Jesus refers to in his statements about divorce references Adam and Eve’s
state, however, before their rebellion against God – “The Fall” as it is
known – and humanity’s descent into a broken, sinful state in which divorce
might be against the original intent of God but conceivable and sometimes
painfully inevitable. Jesus’ attitude
towards divorced people is illustrated in the story of his encounter with the
Samaritan woman at the well in John 4, a woman who had been married five
times and was now living with someone else, who Jesus transforms profoundly.
The Church,
however, took Jesus’ words on divorce as legal chains to prevent people from
doing something instead of Gospel vision raising peoples’ sights, with the
result that people who had been divorced for whatever reason were virtually
barred from remarriage within the Episcopal Church and felt like pariahs. Until the early 1970’s, when the
General Convention of the Episcopal Church voted to change the canons of the
Church to permit remarriage after divorce and to require premarital counseling
for everyone seeking to be married. At
the time, it was a profound change, and since then I believe has helped
thousands of people who had experienced profound personal pain to have personal
“Easter” experiences of new life and new marriages blessed by the Church. Even though these marriages were contrary to
a narrow and legalistic reading of Scripture.
One of the great
temptations which lure Christians is the temptation to be “selective
fundamentalists” – to be ferociously in favor of defending a literal reading of
selected passages of the Bible as the final and only authority on their
favorite issue, but not to interpret it this way on other issues. No Christians are legalistic about keeping
Kosher – which, after all, is in the Bible.
How many Christians tithe – give 10% of their gross incomes to the
Church? How many obey everything in the
Sermon on the Mount? It would be
interesting enforcing a law requiring everyone to be a pacifist.
At the same
time, the Bible is the higher authority in the traditional Anglican triad of
Scripture, Reason, and Tradition, so we must wrestle with what it says –
including when it makes us uncomfortable – and continually seek to understand
the Will of God for us today.
Sometimes,
Christians broke through the established consensus on issues and were seen
later as heroes and heroines, like the pioneer anti-slavery witnesses, the
resistors to Nazi Germany, and the Civil Rights martyrs of the 1960’s. They all were vilified or left to suffer by
millions who also called themselves Christians. It was hard to maintain the unity of the Spirit with the bond of
peace with those so bitterly opposed, as Martin Luther King strove to, but
doing so made a great difference.
Having said all
that, where do I stand?
Personally, I believe that some people simply are gay or lesbian;
sometimes they have realized it about themselves for as long as they were
sexually aware and sometimes they experience a growth in self-understanding as
an adult. I believe that the biblical
teaching about homosexuality reflects the culture of the times just as much as
the chauvinism which influences so much of the Bible – except Jesus –
reflects the patriarchal Middle Eastern culture which was the filter through
which the Word of God came to us.
Therefore, as
the Episcopal Church has previously affirmed, I believe that homosexual persons
are children of God entitled to respect and care. Baptism, confirmation, anointing for healing, communion and
reconciliation of a penitent – five of the sacraments – are open to gays and
lesbians (and have been for a long time). The only sacraments which are at issue are ordination and
marriage.
I have known gay
and lesbian clergy my entire ordained life – over 22 years now. Theirs has been a challenging struggle to
win acceptance which is far from over and likely will continue for a long time,
even with a favorable vote from Convention.
Women were ordained in 1976 and have still not been accepted by all
quarters of the Episcopal Church, never mind the worldwide Anglican Communion,
and the issue of ordaining gays and lesbians seems to raise ever deeper and
more emotional opposition than women’s ordination did – although the same
apocalyptic predictions about the demise of the Church were made 27 years ago
by opponents of change then as well.
Bishop-elect
Gene Robinson of New Hampshire reads like an outstanding candidate for the
Episcopate; read this month’s article on him in Episcopal Life
for details. He has deep experience,
including as the number one staff member of the Bishop of New Hampshire for the
last 15 years. What those who know him
best think of him is indicated by his decisive and swift victory in the
election for Bishop of New Hampshire on June 7. The Episcopal Church has a long tradition of respecting different
dioceses’ choices in their elections (which must be by a majority both of
clergy and lay delegates to Diocesan Convention). As a result, we have bishops who represent a diversity of
priorities and ideologies within the Christian faith as wide as that of the
Episcopal Church, USA itself.
Ordination of
homosexuals is not an issue which affects core Christian beliefs;
homosexuality is nowhere mentioned in The Lord’s Prayer, the 10 Commandments,
the Creeds, or the Gospels. At the same
time, I do not expect that all Episcopalians will agree on this, regardless of
how the vote comes out. If I were a
delegate to convention of which I’m not – I would vote to approve Bishop-elect
Robinson.
I do not expect
every member of St. Barnabas to agree with me – and you certainly don’t have
to! Episcopalians have a long tradition
of disagreeing on issues but still striving to “maintain the unity of the
Spirit in the bond of peace” and focusing on what unites us.
I think that at
some point the Church should have some sort of liturgy which affirms the
validity of a profound and exclusive commitment by two people of the same sex
to each other. Everyone agrees that
promiscuity by any sort of person is bad, and monogamy or celibacy are the best
choices. As Bishop Joslin has said,
however, our liturgy is and should be what unites us, and such a service – even
if used rarely and only in some congregations – would at this time be
extraordinarily controversial. I don’t
think the pastoral benefit from its approval would outweigh the divisive
impact, so if I were a delegate I would vote “no”.
Again, not
everyone here may agree with me, you don’t have to, and I welcome discussion
and dialogue on this and any other issue.
There are plenty
of ways gays and lesbians can be welcomed and incorporated by local
congregations without national legislation by the Episcopal Church and
without doing services which are not authorized. St. Barnabas is and has been welcoming for
years without making a big fuss about it.
After all,
what’s more important than who’s gay and who’s straight is the fact that all
of us have fallen short of the glory of God and have been offered forgiveness
of sins and new life by the death and resurrection of Christ.
So, to quote the
final words from today’s Epistle, “Speaking the truth in love, we must grow up
in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body,
joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each
part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in
love.”
(The Rev.) Francis A. Hubbard
St. Barnabas Episcopal Church