"Let It Be"

7-12-15

Lexington UMC                       “Let It Be”

Luke 1:26-38

26In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, 27to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” 29But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. 30The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. 32He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. 33He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” 34Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” 35The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. 36And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. 37For nothing will be impossible with God.” 38Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.

Last week we started our Beatles series by looking at “Yesterday.” We said that it is natural for us to look at and long for yesterday – especially when our “today” is painful. Then we asked the Holy Spirit to help us see our yesterday more clearly.  Why? Because hindsight is not necessarily 20/20… Right? Then we closed with the reminder that God’s plan always moves forward – not backward – so we just can’t go back to yesterday…no matter how much we would long to do that. Life has to be lived forwards.

Now it’s time to think about a healthy way of looking at “Today”…the present. To put it another way – Life has dealt each one of us a hand today.  How will we play the hand that we’ve been dealt? What do I do about my “today?”

Let us begin… Please look at someone next to you and say, “So…how you doin’?” You take about 15 seconds for them to tell you how they are doing, and then take another 15 seconds to tell them how you are doing. Ready? Go!

How you doin’? What’s up? What’s going on? How are things going? Sometimes we use that just as a greeting. I hope you really meant it when you asked it this morning to the person next to you! It’s nice when someone asks you how you are doing and they really mean it – isn’t it?

What was your answer? Great? Awesome? Fantastic? Fine as frog’s hair? If I was any better I’d be twins? If I was any happier I’d have to sit on my hands to keep from clapping? Or how about, “Just another day in paradise. Thanks for asking?”

Bottom line to all that is that sometimes we’re doing really well. That’s our status report. That’s the hand we are looking at today. Maybe not Four Aces or a Royal Flush – but a pretty decent Full House…

If that’s your today – if you feel like you just entered the Promised Land - there is something to remember… Be thankful! Don’t forget God during the good times. That’s what God told the Israelites as they were entering the Promised Land. Listen to these words from Deut. 8…

For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land—a land with brooks, streams, and deep springs gushing out into the valleys and hills; a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey; a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing; a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills.

When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God…

You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth… (Deut. 8: 7-11, 17-18)

I hope you feel like you are in the Promised Land today! I hope that’s what your today looks like!  Some days are like that…  But other days… Those days when someone asks us how we are doing, and if we are honest, and don’t give the automatic answer… “I’m fine.” If we are honest, some days we would have to answer… “I’m not alright. In fact, I’ve got trouble.” T-R-O-U-B-L-E! I’ve got the troubles of Job! Have you ever felt like that? The troubles of Job?  It was Job who summed up life like this…

A mortal, born of woman, [is] few of days and full of trouble. (Job 14:1)

What do we do when we find ourselves in times of trouble? That’s when we take our cue from Mother Mary. Isn’t that what the Beatles song for today says?

When I find myself in times of trouble, mother Mary comes to me – speaking words of wisdom: “Let it be.”

Seriously – It’s more than just a good song!  Mary does whisper to us the words of wisdom. But before we get to the words Mary whispers… Let’s look at her circumstances… Circumstances that would have others whispering about her…

Mary was engaged – betrothed would be the way they would have said it in her day. That may be no big deal for us these days, but betrothal in that day was a legally binding relationship. What do I mean by “legally binding?” I mean breaking off an engagement literally required a divorce. I mean that if a couple was engaged, and the man died during the engagement period, the woman was considered his widow. So that was the situation with Mary – betrothed to Joseph, but not yet married. Still living with her parents…

So, Mary…how you doin’?

I’m doing great!  I’m engaged to a wonderful guy named Joseph.  Pretty soon we will be married and have a home of our own.

That was the hand that Mary was playing.  It was a pretty good hand.

And then…God breaks into Mary’s “today” with a surprise. The angel Gabriel shows up and says, “Greetings favored one! The Lord is with you!” This scares the fire out of Mary – and who could blame her? And on top of that, she was “much perplexed.” (Next time someone asks how you are doing, say, “Much perplexed!) Mary was wondering what Gabriel meant by his greeting. “Greetings favored one! The Lord is with you!”

Gabriel knew she was scared and confused, so he explained.

“Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. 32He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. 33He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

OK…nothing scary about that! That clears everything right up! NOT!

You see there is a word for what Mary is hearing. It’s a word that people used to use all the time when referring to a woman who was pregnant out of wedlock. They used to say, “She’s in trouble.” Do y’all remember when people used to say that? “She’s in trouble.”

And hearing that she was going to be pregnant out of wedlock would have meant trouble for Mary. Her family? Her friends? Her neighbors? What would they be saying? “But Mary could just explain,” you say. “She could just tell them that the angel Gabriel visited her and told her that the baby was conceived by the Holy Spirit.” If you were Mary’s neighbor, would you have believed that?

And Joseph… What would she tell Joseph? How would Joseph react? Joseph would have had every right to put Mary to death. The law in Deuteronomy 22: 23-25 says that if a woman is engaged to a man and she gets pregnant by someone else, then her fiancé has the right to have her stoned to death.

At the risk of repeating myself here – I’ll say it again: “Mary’s got trouble.” At least that’s how it looks from the “lower story.”

On Wednesday nights we have doing a study called, “The Story,” which looks at the whole Bible as one continuous story of God’s interaction with his people. We talk about the “lower story”…the daily life that we are living out here… and the “upper story”…the purpose and plan of God. What we are learning on Wednesday nights is a powerful lesson - Sometimes the lower story looks bleak. But don’t forget about the upper story! That’s the lesson here with Mary.

So the whole neighborhood is going to whisper, “Did you hear about Mary? She’s in trouble!” But listen again to what Gabriel said to her. First – he didn’t say to her, “Mary, you are in trooouublle!”  Instead he said, “Mary, you have found favor – or grace – with God.”

You have found… “Found” is a great word here. Most of the time we are in a hurry to get to “favor,” and we skip right over “found.” It’s the Greek word, eurisko, and it is where we get the word, “eureka!” from. Just for fun, let’s all say, “Eureka!”

“Eureka!” is what people call out when they have a surprising find…like striking gold or something. There’s a cool story about how this came to be. According to legend, the ruler Hiero II asked Archimedes to find a way to determine whether his crown was pure gold or whether it was mixed with silver. Archimedes pondered and pondered over the problem. Then one day, Archimedes stepped into his bath and noticed the water rose when he sat down. Then it hit him. He knew what to do!

And the story goes that he jumped out of the bathtub and ran out of the house naked shouting, “Eureka! Eureka!” (which means “If found it, I found it!”) I’ll bet his neighbors whispered about him, too!

What he realized, though, is that the way to determine if the ruler’s crown was pure gold or mixed with silver was by how much water it displaced. A pure gold crown would displace water differently than if it were mixed with silver.

So back to Mary… What was Mary’s surprising find? She was surprised by the grace that God was bestowing on her. Despite what it looked like in the lower story – in the upper story, God was bringing a Savior into the world. You see? Mary saw that the trouble she would face would be totally outweighed by the profound grace that God was giving to her!

Mary has this hand that God has dealt to her. What were her choices? Let’s stop and think.  Did Mary have a choice in this? Did Mary have a choice about being the “Mother of God?” Now that’s a big, theological question that we don’t have time to fully answer today. But the short answer to that question is… “No and yes.”

The answer is “no” in that Mary didn’t have a choice about the hand that she was dealt. God chose her. She didn’t apply for the job.  God didn’t ask for volunteers this time. God chose Mary.

But the answer is also “yes.” Mary did have a choice as to how she would respond. And here is where Mary whispers words of wisdom to all of us who have come after her. Here is where she tells every one of us how to respond to our “today.” She says, in v. 38, “Here am I the Lord’s servant; let it be with me according to your word.”

Let it be. What Mary is saying here is, “Let me become what you have called me to be.”

You and I have the today we have been given. Life has dealt us a hand.  I say “Life has dealt us a hand,” but I could say, “God has dealt us a hand.”  Do we have any choice in the matter? The answer to that is, “No and yes.” No, in the sense that we have the hand we’ve been dealt. OK?

But a great, big “Yes!” in how we respond to it. We can gripe and complain about it… or we can hear the whispered words of wisdom. We can say, “Lord…let me become today what you have called me to be.”

When was the last time you looked at your hand?  Let me call your attention to just one card.  Lexington, Alabama is found at 34.96615 degrees N Latitude, and 87.372892 degrees W Longitude.  Your card may be slightly different from that if you live outside the city limits, but you get my drift.  What is life like at this particular latitude and longitude?  Pretty good, I would have to say. 

Our family sponsors a child through World Vision who lives at 9.0300 degrees N Latitude and 38.7400 degrees E Longitude…  Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.  What is life like at that longitude and latitude?  Very different from ours…  Abject poverty, skyrocketing cost of living, political, religious and ethnic instability, corruption among tribal leaders, 50% unemployment among youth, and the lowest youth literacy rate in all of Africa…

But would you like to know what our sponsored child said in his last letter to us?  Do you think he complained?  Do you think he whined?

He asked about our family.  He said that he and his family were doing very well.  He was profoundly grateful for the care package we sent him, and thanked us for the picture of our family.  He said we are all very beautiful, and he loves us.

He goes on to tell about the music he likes and his favorite dishes.  He tells about some of their different customs and his dog and cat and chickens.

He said that he is excited to go to school in September and join his friends and teachers.  He loves math and science, and hopes to get better in his reading.

He ends his letter with, “May God bless you and your family.”

And you know what?  God has blessed me and my family.  How about you and yours?  So what are you going to do with your today?  Would you hear one more time the words of wisdom from mother Mary…and make them your own?

“Let it be…  Lord let me become who you have called me to be.”

"Yesterday"

7-5-15

Lexington UMC                                          “Yesterday”

Psalm 137: 1-6

Yesterday is one of the best-loved, most famous Beatles songs of all time.  You don’t even have to be a Beatles fan to appreciate its beautiful melody.  But have you paid attention to the words?  Can’t you just feel the anguish in this song?

Yesterday all my troubles seemed so far away. Now it looks as though they're here to stay. Oh, I believe in yesterday. How I long for yesterday!

This is a different sermon series from any I have ever preached.  It’s just a way of seeing how we can learn godly principles from just about anywhere – including secular songs.  You may be a big fan of Beatles music, or you may not like it at all.  You might be somewhere in between.  But I hope we all can grab on to these life lessons.  Today I want us to see a healthy way of looking at the past.  Three things we need to know:

I.                We need to know that it is natural for us to long for yesterday; especially when our today is painful!

“By the rivers of Babyon – there we sat down and there we wept when we remembered Zion.”

Do you know what is going on here?  The Israelites are looking to - and longing for -  yesterday.  Who could blame them?  King Nebuchadnezzar had marched on Jerusalem with his army.  He had laid siege to Jerusalem.  For 2 years he laid siege to Jerusalem, cutting off their supplies until the people started to starve to death.  In 586 B.C. he took the city.

Listen to the account from 2 Kings 24…

The king of Babylon took him (King Jehoichin) prisoner in the eighth year of his reign.  He carried off all the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king’s house; he cut in pieces all the vessels of gold in the temple of the Lord, which King Solomon of Israel had made, all this as the Lord had foretold.  He carried away all Jerusalem, all the officials, all the warriors, ten thousand captives, all the artisans and the smiths; no one remained, except the poorest people of the land.  (2 Kings 24: 12-14)

So the people sat down, hung their harps on the willow trees, and wept.  And they longed for the good old days.  There is a word for this feeling…nostalgia!

Did you know that nostalgia is big business?  That’s why antiques are so popular and so expensive.  You ever watch Antiques Roadshow or American Pickers?  What are people really paying for?  Just old stuff?  No – they are paying good money to be taken back to yesterday.

Nostalgia is an interesting word.  It comes from combining two Greek words…  The Greek word for “return” is nostsos. Algos means suffering.  Put them together and you have the suffering caused by a longing to return.

This wasn’t the first time that the Israelites wanted to go back to the past.  Remember when they were delivered from Egypt?  They got out into the wilderness and discovered that the going was tough.  Then, as we read in Exodus 16, they grumbled and complained against Moses and Aaron. 

“If only we were back in Egypt by the fleshpots, eating our fill of bread.  You have brought us out into the wilderness to kill us with hunger.”

It is natural to look for, and to long for yesterday…especially when our “today” is painful.

I was appointed to a church several years ago.  I was talking with the church’s leadership about their plans for the coming year.  I discovered that they didn’t have any plans for the coming year.  What they had was nostalgia for years gone by.

One guy – and I can still picture his face – said, “Preacher, we used to have a lot of children, and youth.  And that choir loft used to be full.  We had a good choir.” 

Well the only problem was - that was yesterday – yesteryear, really.  The reality of today was that there were no children (except mine), no youth at all, and four people in the choir.  Literally four people.  And the people were grieving, you see?

Have you ever heard of the stages of grief?  Elisabeth Kubler-Ross wrote a book in 1969 called, On Death and Dying, and in it she named 5 Stages of grief.

(1) Denial – “This can’t be happening!”

(2) Anger – When we realize that denial can’t continue, we get fighting mad.  “Why me?  This is not fair!  How could God let this happen?”

(3) Bargaining – After the anger wears off, we try to bargain.  We’ve made deals in the past.  Why not now?  This usually goes something like, “God if you will ____________, then I will __________.”

(4) Depression – “What’s the point?  How can I go on?”

(5) Acceptance – “It’s going to be okay.  It may not be the same…but it will be okay.”

This church I was telling you about was cycling back and forth between the first four stages of grief…never making to the last one – acceptance.  I understood where they were and why.  But it was past time to move on, you see?  Something else we need to know about looking to yesterday…

II.             We need to know that hindsight is not always 20/20.

Did you know that?  Hindsight is not always 20/20?  Why?  Because we don’t always remember yesterday the way it really was.  Again, we look at Israel for our example.

They said, “Oh, that we could go back to Egypt…where we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill”…  And someone in the back row raises a hand and says, “But Dude…we were slaves!”

They said, “Oh, how we wish we could go back to Jerusalem!  Here we are carried off into captivity!  It is so unfair!”

And prophets like Jeremiah raise their hand and say, “Well…God warned you for over 100 years to turn away from idols and turn back to him.  But you didn’t listen!”

Another problem we have when it comes to seeing 20/20 in hindsight is that we have a tendency to romanticize yesterday.  Don’t we?  We call them the “good old days.”  But the good old days may not have been good for everybody.  They might have felt good for the “insiders,” but bad for the “outsiders.”  For instance…

·      I can say, “I want to go back to my grandpa’s day.  Those were the good old days.”  Grandpa – tell me ‘bout the good old days.  Remember that song from several years ago – a song by the Judds?

Grandpa

Tell me 'bout the good old days.

Sometimes it feels like

This world's gone crazy.

Grandpa, take me back to yesterday,

Where the line between right and wrong

Didn't seem so hazy.

OK - so let’s go back to the good old days of my grandpa.  100 years ago.  Those were the good old days…unless you were a woman.  Then you didn’t even have the right to vote…not until 1920, that is.

·      I can say, “I want to go back to my dad and mom’s day.  They got married in the 50’s.  Man, those were the days!”

OK – Let’s go back 60 years.  Those were the good old days!  Well…maybe.  Unless you were black.  Then you had to go to the back of the bus.

Before we start wishing for yesterday…let’s make sure that we ask the Holy Spirit to help us really see yesterday with 20/20 clarity.  Maybe there was something terribly wrong with our yesterday…maybe our yesterday wasn’t all that great for those who were on the outside looking in.  Maybe the today we are having is a result of us not listening to God yesterday.

Now close your eyes and remember some of the changes that have happened over the last couple of weeks.  Ask yourself…were the good old days – before these changes – were the good old days really good…for everyone?  For people who might be different from us?  For those on the outside looking in?  Was there something God was trying to tell us yesterday that just didn’t realize until today? 

Holy Spirit – give us eyes to see yesterday with 20/20 clarity.  Amen.  One more thing about yesterday…

III.           We need to know that we can’t go back to yesterday…because God’s plan always moves forward – not backward.

God had a plan for Israel, and it was a good plan.  He would bring them back out of exile.  Maybe you have heard this verse – it is a great verse.  It may be on a refrigerator magnet in your kitchen.  It is Jeremiah 29: 11…

For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.

Beautiful words…but so often taken out of context.  Yes, God would bring the people back from exile, but listen to what God says back in v. 5…

Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce.  Take wives and have sons and daughters…multiply there (in Babylon) and do not decrease.  But seek the welfare of the city (Babylon) where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its (Babylon’s) welfare you will find your welfare…only when Babylon’s seventy years are completed will I visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place.

“I’ve got plans for you…to prosper you and give you a future,” God says.  Yes!  But my plans are not to take you back to yesterday, but to take you into tomorrow.  OK, God! 

Then God says, “But here’s the thing…So in the meantime…here’s what I want you to do.  I want you to multiply and bless the place where I have planted you.  In its welfare will be your welfare.”

But God – we’re in a foreign land here!  We want to go back to Jerusalem!  And God says, “Well…maybe after the seventy years are up.”  70 years??  Do you know how old I’ll be in 70 years?  (Some of us are reading the writing on the wall to read – man it ain’t gonna happen in your lifetime!)  You literally may not see God’s wonderful plan unfold in your lifetime.

Here’s a sobering thought:  What if our welfare is tied to the welfare of a bunch of people who are very different from us?  Guess what?  It is.  It really is.

Can we be OK with that?  Can we still sing our song?

The Israelites had hung up their harps on the trees.  They refused to sing the songs of Zion to their captors.

Church – we’ve got a song to sing.  And our song doesn’t need to be a mournful song about yesterday.  If all we can sing about is yesterday, we will become less and less relevant to the very ones who need the good news the most.

We need to remember.  Every time we come to the Lord’s table for Holy Communion, we do so “In Remembrance.”  But let’s remember… Life can be remembered backwards, but can only be lived forward.  

A Via Media Manifesto

A Via Media Manifesto

These are interesting times we live in!  So many momentous events in such a short period of time…  The Supreme Court ruled to keep subsidies for the Affordable Care Act.  Some folks cheered, others booed.  Governor Bentley took down the Confederate Flag from the Capitol grounds.  Some folks cheered, others booed.  And then last Friday, the Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage would be legal in all 50 states.  Some folks cheered, others booed. Well…that might be a slight understatement.  What we really have is an all-out culture war!

Reactions to the same-sex marriage ruling have been extreme and predictable.  I saw on Facebook where a minister set himself on fire in protest of the ruling. (Dude…really?)  I also saw a bunch of people on Facebook change their profile pictures to rainbow colors in support of the ruling.  Several of my friends have voiced their support or their concern.  Some have been respectful.  Some have been snarky.  Some have been downright hateful.

Myself?  I resisted the urge to offer a knee-jerk response.  I wanted to spend some time thinking about – and praying about – my response.  Where do I stand?  What is my position?  I find myself standing where I live – in the via media.  The middle way.

What that means is that you will not see me waving Confederate flag, or a rainbow flag.  That doesn’t mean I don’t have a position.  It means that my position is in the middle.  I have some really liberal friends.  They think I’m a bit too conservative.  I have some really conservative friends.  They think I’m a bit too liberal.  Sometimes they get ticked off at me.  I had one really conservative friend say to me one time, “If you walk in the middle of the road you might get run over.”  I replied, “Yeah, and if you get too far over to one side or the other you might run in a ditch.”  (I know – sounds like an elementary school playground kind of thing…what can I say?)

What does it mean to live the via media?  First let me say a word about what it doesn’t mean.  It doesn’t mean that I’m wishy-washy and change my mind all the time.  It doesn’t mean that I have no principles and lack the courage to take a stand.  It doesn’t mean that I have no position on a particular issue.  The middle way is my stand.  It is my position.  It doesn’t mean that I’m taking the easy way out – the path of least resistance.  Let me tell you, it ain’t easy standing in the middle when you dwell in a land where folks rush to one side or the other like a herd of wilderbeasts. 

What the via media does mean – at least to me – is that I try to understand all sides of any particular issue.  It means that I try to encourage other folks to take a deep breath and walk a mile in the other person’s shoes.  I am a peacemaker by nature.  I try to be a reconciler.  Why?  I really believe in God, and that “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself,” and that God “gave us the ministry of reconciliation.” (2 Cor. 5: 18-19)  That is the foundation of my faith, the core of who I am and what I am called to do.  It is why I stand in the middle and reach my hands out to both sides.  It has also gotten me “unfriended” by some people.  I’m OK with that.

So where does this via-media-United-Methodist-Christ-following-Southern-American-man stand on the same-sex marriage issue?  Where else would I stand?  In the via media.  I am truly happy for my gay friends who feel like the Supreme Court ruling is a victory.  They feel like they are finally receiving equal treatment under the law.  I can see their point.  I also understand why my more conservative friends are so upset about this.  They see this as a departure from hundreds of years of tradition and an affirmation of something that the Bible specifically condemns.  I can see their point, too.  Both “sides” in this debate declare that this is a simple issue.  One side says that it is a simple matter of equal rights under the law.  The other side says that it is a simple matter of following the black-and-white instructions of the Bible.  Might I suggest that things are rarely as simple as we make them out to be, nor are they as black-and-white as we would like?  (That’s the voice of the via-media, by the way.)

What is my position on same-sex marriage?  It’s simple for some folks.  It’s complicated for me.  Let me explain.  To do that, I will talk about war and divorce.  I know – it’s not apples to apples, but stay with me.

I object to war on religious grounds.  I have read the blood-soaked pages of the Old Testament.  I understand that they lived in a violent culture – a kill-or-be-killed time in history.  I’d like to think we have evolved as a society.  But why I really object to war centers around the life and teachings of Jesus.  I don’t think he was joking when he said, “Love your enemies.” That being said, I am not a pacifist.  I have friends who are.  I understand why.  I love them.  But for me – living in a complicated, broken world, I choose to extend grace to the military and I really want to live in a country with a strong military.  I just might need a soldier to fight for me one day.  War is not God’s perfect will, but I am open to the possibility that sometimes it is God’s provisional will.  (I am making a reference to Leslie Weatherhead’s book, The Will of God, where he talks about God’s perfect will verses God’s provisional will, with thanks to Adam Hamilton in his book, Seeing Gray in a Black and White World for reminding me of this.)

I object to divorce on religious grounds.  Not only is divorce the breaking of a vow, it is condemned by Jesus, and it is one of the things that the Bible says God hates.  I have friends who don’t believe that anyone should divorce…ever.  I have other friends who allow that sometimes divorce is inevitable, but that a divorced person is not free to re-marry, and that a divorced person should never be a pastor of a church.  I understand why my friends feel this way.  I love them.  But for me – living in a complicated, broken world, I choose to extend grace to divorced persons.  I have needed that grace extended to me.  And as far as my being a divorced minister – I know my calling, and if you disagree with it, then you will need to take that up with God.  In some countries, divorce is illegal.  I’m glad I live in a country where it is not illegal.  Divorce is not God’s perfect will, but I believe that sometimes it is God’s provisional will.  I guess I could be the poster-child of this particular view.

Now – I come to homosexuality.  I object to homosexuality on religious grounds.  Every passage in the Bible that mentions homosexuality does so in a negative way.  (If you want a more detailed look at the 6 passages in the Bible, refer to my sermon “The Hot Button” posted in an earlier blog)  I have friends who are very vocal in their condemnation of homosexuals.  I love my friends, and I believe most of them are just trying to be true to Scripture.  I understand why they take the stand they take.  It’s simple for them.  But for me – living in a complicated, broken world, I choose to extend grace to homosexuals.  I ask myself the question – “If homosexuality is not God’s perfect will, could it not be God’s provisional will?”  For me, the answer is yes.  If a person is of homosexual orientation, what choices does he or she have?  For now, let’s set aside the “fixing” of the homosexual person – the pray-the-gay-away thing.  Most folks – even some really conservative folks – believe that sexual orientation is not something a person “chooses,” and the organizations who claim to have “repaired” homosexuals have mostly closed down.  (I’m speaking generally here…you might have anecdotal stories to the contrary.)  So – if a person is of homosexual orientation, their choices would basically be:

1.      Celibacy

2.      Promiscuity

3.      Monogamy

Of these three, for a person who objects to homosexuality on religious grounds, the best option would be celibacy.  But not everyone has that gift.  I’ll be honest – if the shoe were on the other foot?  If most people were homosexual and I was one of the minority who was heterosexual?  Would I be able to live a celibate life?  Nope.  I don’t have that gift or that calling.  I have at least one friend who is homosexual in orientation, and who has chosen the path of celibacy.  He is one of the bravest people I know.

Promiscuity?  Nobody is really advocating for that.  Not even my non-religious friends think that is a good idea.  I mean – do we really want to see homosexuality relegated to the bath houses and the Interstate Rest Stops?  Ewwww!

So what about number 3?  What about monogamy?  If I were gay, I think I’d really like to have that as an option.  To be committed to sharing life with one person…faithfully…for better or worse…  Could this be, if not God’s perfect will, God’s provisional will?  For me it just makes sense.  (Oops.  Some of y’all just unfriended me.)

Am I about to start performing same-sex marriages?  No.  It’s not an option in my denomination, and I take my ordination vows very seriously.  But I would certainly attend a same-sex wedding.  The reason I would do so is because I choose to extend grace in all my relationships.  Why?  Because I remember what it is like to need that grace myself.

I stand in the middle.  My role is that of a reconciler.  I will suffer the slings and arrows of both conservatives and liberals, but I have to be true to who I am. 

At the bottom of it all is my belief that God is in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, and that God has given me the ministry of reconciliation.  I want to see all my friends reconciled to God.  I want to see all my friends reconciled to each other.  I know it is a tall order…but did I mention that I’m also an optimist? 

A Magical Life

 I really enjoy jazz.  And blues.  And bluegrass.  Does that make we weird?  I was thinking about how these 3 different types of music are connected and what draws me to them.  The connection is that you have a strong basic tune, but the musicians are not handcuffed to that basic tune.  The musicians play together and separately at the same time.  Each player knows when it is his or her time to riff off on a variation of the basic tune. Remember the basic tune is still there.  You can pick it out if you listen closely even in the most elaborate of improvisations.  It’s just that the players are given the freedom to follow where their heart takes them, and dance with the basic tune.  When it’s done right, it’s magical!

I was thinking of all this when I read Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount. 

Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.  For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished.  Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.  For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matt. 5: 17-20)

The scribes and Pharisees were always accusing Jesus of trying to do away with the law.  Jesus would do something like healing someone on the Sabbath, and the scribes and Pharisees would freak out.  “You broke the law!” they’d say.  “You’re trying to throw away what Moses and the prophets gave us!” they’d say.  But he wasn’t.  You see, Jesus was there when the “basic tune” – the law – was given to Moses.  What Jesus did with the law was what every jazz, blues, and bluegrass artist does.  He danced with it.

The “law” never was the point, anyway.  The law was meant to point us to a greater reality…God, and God’s love for us and desire to be in relationship with us. The scribes and Pharisees (both in Jesus’ day and in ours) are so obsessed with following the law with mathematical precision that they miss the whole point. 

It’s like my dog, Daisy.  I could point to something that I wanted her to see.  Instead of looking at the thing I wanted her to see, she would stare at my hand.  (Try this sometime with your own dog.)  The scribes and Pharisees were focused on the hand, and not what the hand was pointing to.

A musician can play a piece of music with technical correctness…hit the right notes and all…and not make music.  Does that make sense?  Likewise, a person could keep all the commandments technically, and still miss out on the kingdom of God.  That’s why Jesus said that we would never see the kingdom of God if our righteousness didn’t exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees.

So we don’t throw out the law.  We don’t take our scissors and cut the parts of our Bible we don’t like out of there.  Neither do we focus on the law so intently that we miss what the law is pointing to…loving God…loving our neighbor.  When we do this the right way, it’s magical!