Closing Statements

And the conference is tomorrow!  As such, here, in its totality, is my entire case against a so-called Biblical sexuality.

1) In a culture where death by lynching was an accepted reality even 60 years ago, where not only could people opposed to outlawing lynching run for office openly, and where such people who practiced it are called “Grandpa” instead of “inmate”, it is the duty of any Christian in such a culture, indeed any human being with the barest sliver of a conscience, to hold those who declare an entire class of people sinful, evil, unnatural, or condemned by any Divinity, especially in instances where the so-called offenses are consensual in nature and result in no harm to person, property, or the social well-being, to the strictest standards of political, legal, and spiritual accountability.

2) Because of the nature of the current debate over homosexuality and the current culture that the debate is found in, those in a position of leadership or social influence who declare homosexuality to be ungodly and sinful must have the burden of proof.  If they wish to convince the Church that the loving God whom created all of Mankind and its sexuality would condemn an entire people as sinful, tell them their base identity evil, and force them to deny themselves the very happiness and fulfillment that their hetero brothers and sisters have or risk their immortal soul, they must do so under the strictest scrutiny.  As a Church called to enact Justice and Peace, we as followers of Christ have no other moral option but to insist that they must do so by proving beyond all reasonable doubt, yes, all reasonable doubt, that such is and has always been the case within the Christian religion.  The damage and loss being asked of LGBTQ people for no other reason than the personal discomfort of those against their way of life demands no other standard.

3) Those for Biblical Sexuality cannot remotely meet this burden:

                a) The Bible neither understands itself as a rule book nor the Word of God

b) Jesus the Christ, whom the Bible refers to as the True Word of God, is the final authority within the Christian religion, and his recorded ministry does not involve the subject once.

c) Homosexuality is a modern term important only to a modern world.  Ascribing a 19^th century concept to 1^st century and earlier works would be dismissed as an anachronism in literally any other area of human scholarship.

d) Any and all understandings of the Bible condemning homosexuality come from cultural bias not interpretive diligence, extending even to irresponsible if not deliberate mistranslation.

i) The early chapters of Genesis are poetry and counter-myth, not a chronicle of actual historical events.  Any argument relying on the story actually revealing how God made anything is fallacious.

ii) Homosexual Anal penetration was a common method of shaming in the ancient world, almost always done by heterosexually married men.  Sodom and Gomorrah were condemned because they were xenophobic rapists, not immaculately dressed interior designers or restaurant managers.

iii. Leviticus 18 and 20 lists Old Testament sexual offenses generally, the vast focus being on familial couplings not homosexual encounters.  Even then, “thou shalt not lie with a man as a woman” only covers one sexual position with one gender that mimicked, again, war-time rape.  To say that all homosexual encounters would be outlawed from this verse, and thus an abomination, is at best a stretch

iv. As this is the whole of the testimony of the Hebrew Scriptures on the subject at hand, noting that the KJV has triple the texts on unicorns than it does on homosexuality, we now turn to the New Testament.  As Christ, again, had no words on the subject, we must bypass the gospels and, yes, even the Book of Acts for our next text.

v. Paul in his epistle to the Romans does call homosexual acts “para physis” or against nature this has two problems.  The first problem is that nature for Paul’s time is not “all of nature” but “individual nature”.  Also, God goes against nature in grafting the gentiles into the people of God later in the same epistle so it is very difficult to say that going against nature is necessarily an evil thing.  Lastly it fails utterly to understand Paul’s entire argument.  The entire point for chapter one of Romans is found in chapter 2, “You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.”  That Paul is quoting a Roman speech or oration and then using it to call out the hypocrisy in the Roman church.  The subject literally does not get brought up again.  Once more, Paul is not saying that homosexual relations are sinful and natural, he is saying that Romans say it is sinful and unnatural and yet are doing them anyway.

vi. While other verses in Paul’s letters are translated to talk about homosexuality, the fact is the words in question are largely unknown and have not been proven.  The words in question are incredibly rare and there is no text, either within the New Testament or even the Greek in which the New Testament was written, that shows any connection between those words and homosexual urge, inclination, or practice.

vii. The actual translation of Jude 1:7 is “Sodom and Gomorah and the surrounding cities indulged in gross sexual immorality and went after the flesh of others (or flesh of strangers) are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of era-long fire.”  None of the words used in this verse have any evidence to back their use to refer to what is understood to be homosexual activity.

viii. And all of this ignores the fact Eunuchs were widely understood to have homosexual tendencies, yet they are clearly included to the Body of Christ without question (Acts 8:27-39) and the fact that David is described as having “romantic love” for Jonathan, the same word “ahabah” used to refer to the feelings of the lovers throughout the Song of Solomon.  It also fails to the Church did not have much to say on the subject of same-sex relationships until over a thousand years later and indeed produced same-sex wedding liturgy.

ix.  All these facts show unequivocally that the belief that the Bible supports one and only one sexuality is simply non-sensical.  If an individual community feels strongly that homosexual relationships are bad then we as their loving brothers and sisters in Christ advise them strongly not to have one.  The facts presented here show that the Biblical Sexuality camp cannot meet a burden of clear and convincing proof or even the preponderance of the evidence, let alone the fierce standard of beyond any reasonable doubt as this situation warrants.  As such, the entire church needs to act like it.  No reasonable and ethical person can continue to uphold such draconian, damaging, and unfounded beliefs as this and we as a Church need to reflect this reality.  Anything less is to slander and make base the very Sacrifice that founded us.  Amen

The True End of Our Religion

Sermon from John 6:24-35

Good Morning!  As someone who has earned both his Master’s of Divinity and his Juris Doctorate, a lot of people ask me what it’s like going from the legal profession to that of Christian ministry.  Well, for one thing I find I can cross running water now, and the ability to cast a reflection really helps when shaving.  People wonder why I have only half a beard… well to be honest it’s the half I still can’t see.

In at least half seriousness though, I sum up what it’s like going from attorney to pastor as my Moses moments and my Rameses moments.  I called being in the legal profession my Rameses moments.  Most people think it’s because the Pharoah was the villain in the Exodus and that we like to think of laywers as villains, but truth be told that isn’t really it.  I call them my Rameses moments because I would be at party, a social gathering, or just waiting in line for a burger and someone would inevitably ask me that terrible question: “So, what do you do for a living?”  And I would answer them like this, “I’ve graduated law school and I am trying to be an attorney.”  And at that point these waves of people looking for free legal advice would come crashing in almost drowning me with thousands of inane selfish questions.  Now, however, I have what I call my Moses moments.  People ask me what I do professionally and I say, “Oh, I’m a preacher,” and it is as if the breath of God goes before me, driving back the seas of people looking to avoid the religious person, and I can walk to my destination unhindered as if on dry ground.  What can I say, it’s handy if there’s a line at McDonalds and I’m in a hurry.

It’s unfortunate, but as any parent of any child knows, offer heavenly advice that pays dividends both in this world and the next and it goes largely ignored, but offer earthly advice for earthly gain and people will mortgage their houses and spend their children’s college money to get their hands on it.  I guess the logic must be that since heavenly advice is given freely it must be worthless.  Such is not only the world that we live in today but it was also the expectation of the crowds in our gospel lesson for today.

Our lesson begins where last week’s left off.  Having performed the deeply Jewish miracle of feeding the crowds in the wilderness with an unending supply of food, Jesus  disappears up the mountain when the crowds saw him merely as another human prophet and yet sought to make him king by force.  Jesus, however, did not stay on the mountaintop but rushed to be with his disciples during the night as they were caught in a sudden storm.  The crowds, already painted by the apostle John as quite thick-headed and oblivious,  set off to the nearest city in order to look for him: Capernaum.

   When they found him on the other side of the lake they ask him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”  Jesus, however, as he so often does in John’s gospel, answers the crowds by not answering them, at least not directly.  He replies to their question by going deeper, by answering not their words but addressing the very reasons why they are there in first place.  He says, “Truly, I tell you are looking for me not because you saw the signs, but because you ate and had your fill.”  Now, in John’s gospel, the word that he uses to describe Jesus’ miraculous actions is not the word for a miraculous act, not “du-na-mis”  but “say-my-on” literally the word “sign”, the word used to describe the placard outside a merchant’s stall  or the wooden boards outside of town telling you what city it was.  To John, Jesus’ miracles were not mere acts of power, they weren’t  just interesting abilities or strange supernatural events - they were signposts, acts that by their very nature pointed the viewer to something greater, something heavenward.  Jesus says to the crowds, you are not here because you saw something that pointed you to the Father, you are not here because God is even remotely that important  you, rather you are here because your bellies were filled in especially interesting manner and that’s about it”.  He tells them “Do not work for food that spoils, but rather put your efforts into food that endures unto eternal life.  This food the Son of Man will give you, for upon him has God the Father given his seal.” 

It is here that John leads us to believe that perhaps, at least on the surface, that Jesus has finally broken through to them.  “What must we do,” they ask, ”to do the work that God requires?”  While on the surface it would seem that perhaps the crowds are finally reaching out in faith, seeking honestly to live life the way God wants them to.  The reality is this answer is incredibly odd.  For a Jew, steeped in the law and prophets since their birth, for a Jew to ask anyone what the Hebrew God required of his people is akin to a lawyer asking a judge when it would be okay to object.  It’s a very basic matter and the fact that you are asking that question betrays what your priorities truly are.  A lawyer who didn’t bother to read up on basic trial procedure is one who doesn’t value his client or his profession.  Likewise a Jew who doesn’t know how God wants them to live is a Jew who saw no value in either his God or his people.  It is an answer that betrays the hearts of the speakers and foreshadows how this conversation with Jesus is going to end.

Working with what he has, however, Jesus answers them in very basic terms.  “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”  It’s a very basic answer, one that is practically meant for children.  The whole of the Jewish religion was based on this precept, to be a Jew was to obey God’s messengers, to believe in the people that God sent to them.  That’s what Prophets were, from Moses down to Malachi.

How do the crowds reply?  With something that is just mind-numbingly ridiculous.  Like little children waiting for the great Zambini to do another magic trick, and specifically after the miracle that mimicked both Elisha and Moses, they ask, “what miraculous sign will you give, that we might see it and believe you?  Our forefathers ate manna in the desert, as the scriptures say, “He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”  A people who did not believe Jesus after his first miracle want another one?   Are miracles mimicking, no outdoing, your own Prophets so commonplace that you need more to verify where this man comes from?  But still they want to see another miracle, going so far as to quote the Hebrew Scriptures as their reasoning, except in fact that exact line is not found in the Hebrew Scriptures.  It is a hazy rememberence, something close enough in the fog of memory over an item of only passing importance to them.

But Jesus does not quibble semantics, rather as he does throughout John’s gospel he goes to the very heart of the problem.  “You want a sign to prove that I am a Prophet, believing it was Moses that somehow gave your forefather’s bread from heaven.  Moses does not give you bread from heaven, my Father does.  The true bread from heaven is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

Still not remotely getting it, the crowds respond, “Sir, from now on give us this bread.”   

Now, if you all are beginning to think that this is by far the worst pastoral visit ever, you’re probably not that far from the truth.  What is amazing, here, is that Jesus does not ever throw up his hands and give up on them.  Rather, he takes the opportunity to once again reveal who he really is.  Using the Divine Name reserved for Yahweh, he says, “I am the bread of life.  Whosoever comes to me will never go hungry and they that believe in me will never be thirsty again.”  Unfortunately, however, as the scene continues, the crowds despite being given another chance at faith don’t take it.  Indeed, as John’s account continues it becomes extraordinarily evident that this group of people just never will. 

You see, ladies and gentlemen, to be among the faithful is to argue with those who just will not get it.  There are people so mired in this world’s darkness that when the light comes to them they reject it because they will not understand it…they will not understand it because they will refuse to even try.  Reading through our gospel lesson today, it is clear that the crowds cannot see what Jesus is talking about. They cannot see because they are so very occupied with what is worldly.  Indeed, as Jesus tries to help them by confronting the very motives the crowds have for seeking him; it seems the crowds are just completely obsessed with getting Jesus to give them more bread.  “What sign will you do this time, will you give us bread like Moses?  How about now, will you give us the true bread from heaven?  We want this bread from now on!”  Jesus was right about them, they didn’t come to Jesus because they saw the signs, they didn’t come because their hearts yearned for a relationship with the God who made them sustained them and redeems them, they came because they ate their bread and had their fill and that’s about it.  They came not to be fulfilled, but merely to be filled full.

Such was the problem of the faithful in John’s day and such is the problem with the supposed faithful in ours.  In our day and age the Church seems absolutely beset by problems that are a constant tangent, worldly issues that tangle believers down and gets their priorities set on something other than God.   Turn on the television for even a second and you’ll see many things, like Christians arguing with evolutionists - because Scripture makes it clear that God cannot make adapting life.  The LGBT and the homosexuality question still rages hot - because Christ made it such a focus of his ministry.  Angry hateful people on street corners shout with picket signs - because picking 10 of your own favorite Bible verses to memorize out of context is what makes us Christian.

But what are we to do about this?  How are we at Eastside, a small community little C church, supposed to address the problems of the Big C Church?  I’ll tell you what we do.  We remind the world that there was a reason why Lutheran’s went into the business of church reform in the first place. 

My apologies, but was it the Presbyterians or the Pentecostals that nailed up those 95 theses?  Were the Baptists at the Diet of Worms in front of the Holy Roman Emperor; or was it the Episcopalians protesting indulgences, the selling of heavenly pardons for earthly coin.  In my opinion, I say it’s high time we remind these newbies how we kick it old school!

We need to loudly and proudly remind our brethren just what this business of the Reformation was really about because everybody seems to have forgotten.  The Great Reformation was about Values, Community, and Conscience, not about getting caught up in earthly tangents.  It was about education, in granting the public access to the very Scriptures that revealed who their God is and in a language they could understand, it was not about warring with the sciences.  The Reformation was about Christian community, about valuing everyone from lowly farmer to clergy as well as the king.  It was not about fighting over which people to exclude from bathrooms.  Finally and most importantly, the Reformation was about putting Christ back into center of the life of faith and allowing good men and women the ability to follow their consciences without needless burden by the Church and its earthly traditions. 

At the end of the day, ladies and gentlemen, if I know every aspect of the fossil record and can without a doubt disprove evolution for all time, but I have not Christ, what good is it?  If I come down with a signed document from God Himself, saying that he agrees with the Westboro Baptists saying that homosexuals need to be stoned and we should applaud when a one of them is bullied into suicide, but I have lost the meek self-sacrificing rabbi in the wilderness, what good is it?  Though I have memorized every verse in every translation of Scripture and could quote it flawlessly in any language alive or dead, but I miss the Savior, its central point, what good is it?      

John’s Message needs to be our message, and that message is if the point of our faith is an earthly agenda, something other Christ, whom John calls the very Word of God, the true revealer of the Father, if our agenda is anything other than him then it is folly.  If our agenda is only proving other people wrong, proving ourselves right, or simply picking out a good book to turn into an idol, a book where we care about the words on the page but not one whit for the spirit in which they were given, then we are the fools mired in the darkness of our own worldly wants.  In whatever questions we ask and in whatever side that we take, Jesus must be at its very core or our efforts will be worth nothing.  Let us not be afraid to embrace our Lutheran heritage, the rascal whose name we bear as our tradition, and let us not be afraid to remind the world that it still needs us Lutherans to show these Protestant upstarts how it’s done.  Can I get an Amen!?!          

July 5th Sermon: Let Us Not Be Distracted (Mark 6:1-13)

Good Morning and Welcome to Eastside Community Lutheran on this sixth Sunday of the Pentecost Season.  Our gospel lesson for today is one that puzzles a lot of people, so to begin today I thought I’d share one of my favorite puzzles.  It goes like this: Mary’s mother had five daughters.  The first was named Nala, the second Nele, the third Nili, and the fourth Nolo.  What was the fifth daughter’s name?  Any takers?  How about if I reword the puzzle this way:  Mary’s Mother had five daughters.  Mary’s first sister was Nala, Mary’s second Nele, Mary’s third Nili, and Mary’s last sister Nolo.  Who has to be the fifth daughter?  Mary!  If Mary’s mother had five daughters, one of them has to be Mary then, doesn’t it?  I love that puzzle because it relies on distraction, it gets your mind to wander elsewhere and not realize that the puzzle already gave you the answer you were looking for. 

Our gospel story is a lot like that.  When we read this text we often get drawn away on its tangents.  Why does the text say Jesus was powerless because of their unbelief?  Is Jesus like TinkerBelle from Neverland, do we have to clap and believe in him for him to exist?  Why are the disciples sent out without food, money or an extra tunic?  What is the point of that?  I could answer all these questions, and I will, but the fact is they are like the four daughter’s names in my puzzle, just distracting and not the real point. 

Let’s read our gospel story again, but this time let’s fill it in with some context and see if it doesn’t make more sense.   

          “After healing Jairus’ daughter, He left that place and came to his hometown of Nazereth with his disciples.   On the Sabbath, as was custom, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, "Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands! Is not this the carpenter, the fatherless son of Mary (in the ancient world, to name you the child of your mother and not your father was an accusation that you were born of adultery, everyone knew Jesus was not Joseph’s son).  Isn’t he the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?  And they took offense at him.

            Then Jesus said to them, "if the Prophet Jeremiah teaches us anything, it is that Prophets are not without honor - except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house." By saying this, he reminded them that Jeremiah was a prophet before the fall of Jerusalem; that Jerusalem was Jeremiah’s hometown and his family rejected him.  Jesus warned them of the dangers of not listening to the bearers of God’s Word. 

            Because the Pharisees were already accusing him of casting out demons by the Prince of demons, doing deeds of power there would only have earned him more enemies and so he could not perform them.  He kept his miracles small in number and, laying his hands only on a few sick people and curing them.  Jesus was absolutely amazed at their unbelief.

Undaunted, he went about among the other villages to teach.  He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits.  He ordered them to go as messengers with such urgent news that they took nothing for their journey except a staff and sandals; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts, not even two tunics.  He ordered them to look as people with such incredibly wonderful and necessary news that they looked like they barely could get dressed before heading out the door.   

He said to them, "When you enter a house, stay there until you leave that place. Honor those who show you hospitality.  If any place will not welcome you, however, and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them." 

So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent for the Kingdom of God was coming. They cast out many demons publicly, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.”

A bit easier to understand this time?  It is rather strange and ironic, I think, that the pieces in here that distracted us in fact kept us from seeing the plain answer, which was namely that Jesus didn’t get distracted.  His priority was the Kingdom and he did not let things like his relationship with his hometown distract him from what was really important…making sure news of God’s Kingdom of Peace, Justice, and Healing reached the ears of those who had been waiting for it.  This plain truth now revealed and our hearts focused on that reality, what things might we learn from our gospel lesson? 

First, we can say with confidence that the story points out that only fools talk themselves out of a Blessing.  Rather than gratefully accept the teachings they admitted were wise and the miracles of healing that they proclaimed openly to be true they chose instead to be jealous and foolish.  Why is this fatherless goat able to do these things? Why should I pay attention to one who left my community instead of staying with his family business and helping us?  Rather than see the bigger picture of what God wanted to do in their lives they got distracted by their social prejudices, receiving a dire warning of judgment instead of the blessings God wanted so desperately to give.  Divine Blessing can come from anyone and anywhere.  If we would deny God’s blessings in our lives because they originated from an Arab, a homeless woman, or a person transitioning from a man to a woman, we will have failed to learn this lesson.  Let us resolve not to be like that.

Second, we should realize there is a flip side to the previous lesson: You cannot help someone who doesn’t want to be helped.  Jesus, the lion of Judah, who bounces all over creation, going from mountain tops to cities to villages to countrysides, to hometown synagogues, and back again  casting out demons, healing the sick, and proclaiming the Kingdom of God … at the end of the day even he decided it is best to let fools be alone with their foolishness.   Jesus doesn’t try to spend time arguing with them, he doesn’t try to convince them to see his side, and he certainly doesn’t apologize to them that they took offense.  Rather he remains undistracted.  The long awaited kingdom of God was coming; he helped whom he could but then moved on, teaching his own disciples to do the same.  If we spend time trying to win over friends and family who simply will not listen, who find it more advantageous to be against you rather than to be for you, it is simply time and energy wasted.  Let us resolve instead to remember that old adage to never argue with a fool: they would only drag us down and then beat us with experience.

Finally, there is lesson to not let the people who refuse your help keep you from the people who need your help.   Again, Jesus didn’t see his hometown as a black hole for his time and energy.  Rather than be distracted and focus his ministry there, he left his hometown and commissioned his disciples to do the work of the Kingdom, too.  His focus was on the people ready to hear the gospel, and to that end he not only met their needs himself but specifically trained others to do the same.  He warns his disciples that like his hometown not every place will welcome them, but there are many places that will and gladly so.  He tells them to make the places that desire God’s presence among them a priority, and for the others to wipe the dust of their feet against them and be done.  Let us resolve then to never obsess over our difficulties but keep our eyes always on the opportunities that God is providing.

These lessons are not only important lessons generally.  They are important to learn for us as individuals, but they are especially important for us in this particular community of faith.   Eastside Community Lutheran has some incredible opportunities for ministry in the coming years.  Everyone talks about how bad the denominations are doing, but no one ever talks about how bad.  From a certain denomination’s own statistics, 55% of their own congregations do not bring in enough funds to keep their individual church doors open, and similar situations are being reported across the board.  Between Hwy 61 and White Bear Ave, Larpenteur and Minnehaha, Eastside Community Lutheran is one of only four high-style Protestant churches.  As the denominations continue to do poorly and unfortunately close up shop, our radius of influence is only going to get bigger and bigger.  I am not joking when I say that in the next ten years Eastside could be looking at not only multiple Sunday Services, a flourishing Sunday School, and its own successful side ministries, but on top of that when the financially stable churches can no longer hold up everyone else we will see other churches following our lead and going independent.  The opportunities for a fiscally responsible, denominationally independent church that still values tradition, that is not afraid of having multiple voices in its pulpit, and is so dedicated to Christ’s gospel of love and forgiveness that it bears its wounds and scars proudly - that church has legs.  That church has street cred.   That church has incredible ministry opportunities. 

But if we are going to do that, if we are going embrace the future that God wants for Eastside Community Lutheran we as a community need to learn these lessons and learn these lessons well.  As we grow and are successful, there will be those in our hometown that will say, “Hey isn’t that Eastside Community Church?  Don’t we know who they are?”  We cannot be distracted by them.  There will be those that smugly refuse the help we offer, we mustn’t waste time on them.  Like Jesus, we mustn’t try to form community bonds with people that don’t want them formed, and most especially we must never apologize for the good that we’ve done or the gospel we’ve followed.  To do so would be to sabotage the very kingdom Christ died to establish, let us have none of it.  Let us instead focus on the kingdom and train up others to go out and announce God’s grace to the multitudes willing to listen.  Rather than be distracted by earthly things let us, as our Lord Jesus said, seek first the Kingdom and let all other things follow from there.  Amen and Amen.