How I Came to Change My Mind on SSU: Part 1. Obstacles

For years I have wrestled with questions about the faithful options for Christians who are romantically and sexually attracted to others of the same sex. It has been a topic of conversation and debate in the church for decades and has consumed the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion for the last ten to fifteen years. I have long described myself as ‘on the fence’ – open to considering a rethinking of the interpretation of scripture and tradition, but not persuaded by the arguments for doing so.

There are people who I respect who have come to differing conclusions. As one of my seminary professors liked to say, "Some of my friends say this, some of my friends say that, and I always agree with my friends." But over the years I became increasingly uncomfortable with fence-sitting. Though cautious by nature, I knew I had to risk a more definite position on the subject however complicated, confusing, and contentious.

This all came to a head in the summer of 2012 when, as a deputy to the General Convention of the Episcopal Church, I was called upon to vote for or against a provisional rite of blessing for same-sex unions (SSU). I voted yes. I could be wrong, but I am persuaded that same-sex relationships can be blessed and that such unions can be a means of sanctification (becoming holy, fully human, more like Jesus).

There a number of obstacles that made reaching that conclusion difficult:

1. It is no small thing to adopt a position that is counter to what has been the consistent teaching of the Church and remains the understanding of the vast majority of Christians. Any scriptural argument affirming the bless-ability of Same-sex Unions (SSU) is less than straightforward at best, as even some of its proponents have admitted, e.g., Walter Wink and Luke Timothy Johnson.

2. Most of the arguments for SSU seem tendentious and thus convincing only to those who are already convinced or want to be convinced.

3. Many biblical scholars and theologians I hold in high esteem who have commented on the topic have argued against the bless-ability of SSU, e.g., Raymond Brown, N. T. Wright, Richard B. Hayes, Oliver O’Donovan, Wolfhart Pannenberg.

4. While it is true that, one way or another, the topic of same-sex sexuality has been discussed in various contexts in the Episcopal Church for some decades, I have seen little evidence of genuine conversation, engaging the questions and concerns of those who disagree, and precious little deep and sympathetic listening. And much that has passed for conversation has been manipulative.

5. What exactly is our teaching? The argument in favor of SSU in the Episcopal Church has been ad hoc and uneven. It has been ad hoc inasmuch as there are multiple and not altogether compatible attempts at making the case. And it has been uneven inasmuch as the quality of the argument has varied considerably, much of it, frankly, quite bad. This makes it hard to know just what the Episcopal Church actually teaches on the subject.

What is that teaching?

Is it the same as John Spong’s (Living in Sin?), rooted in a reductionist, rationalistic rejection of anything like classic Christian doctrine and discipline?

Or maybe it is more like William Countryman in Dirt, Greed, & Sex, who reduces biblical sexual ethics to ancient obsessions with purity and property (simplistic and misleading in my opinion). In that case, do we agree that, “[T]he gospel allows no rule against the following, in and of themselves: masturbation, nonvaginal heterosexual intercourse, bestiality, polygamy, homosexual acts, or erotic art and literature [i.e., pornography]” (p. 243)?

Or is our affirmation ultimately based on modern individualistic, consumerist notions of self-actualization, disdain for limits, and individual rights? One gets the impression that for some in the church any argument that leads to the ‘right’ conclusion is acceptable – because that conclusion seems so obviously right to them that it needs no real defense.

Or are we advocating something more like Eugene Rogers who, in Sexuality and the Christian Body:Their Way into the Triune God, approaches the question in terms of what leads to the holiness of disciplined, self-sacrificial love conforming with the way of Jesus?

It is hopeful that Rogers was one of the authors of ,and his approach was reflected in, 'The Liberal View' (beginning on p. 40) in the document on Same-Sex Relationships in the Life of the Church submitted to the House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church in 2010. If this is closer to our 'official' position, it would be helpful if our leaders publicly articulated it in those terms and, just as importantly, made it clear that we reject the other arguments.

6. The Episcopal Church has done a clumsy job of it. Consecrating Gene Robinson before/without revising the marriage canon was an end-run around the hard work of building a new consensus that such revising was meet and right so to do. However uneven, difficult, and drawn out it seemed, there was a conversation that might have led to more of a consensus if that conversation had not been prematurely cut off.

One does not need to be narrowly conservative to wonder if some inconvenient bits of the Book of Common Prayer and Canons got ignored or finessed. I am convinced that the exercise of more patience and prudence would have avoided much of the turmoil and division we have experienced over the last ten years. As Aquinas would say, how we achieve something is as important to it's being virtuous as what we achieve. And while those who have resisted or pursued schism as a result share the blame, the general dismissiveness by ‘progressives’ toward ‘traditionalists’ has belied their talk of inclusivity. Schism can be provoked as well as pursued.

7. Too often, those arguing for SSU offer no comprehensive sexual ethic that has any continuity with what has heretofore been considered faithful Christian discipline. Indeed, much is dismissive of anything like that discipline or has been indistinguishable from what one might expect to hear from Oprah or read in the heirs of Dear Abby.

8. Given the Episcopal Church’s seeming inability generally to discern the difference between a gospel imperative and liberal/progressive prejudice it is no wonder many suspect us of merely accommodating one segment of worldly culture. As I have written elsewhere, there is a sort of idolatry in the Episcopal Church that compromises our witness (the fact that “conservative” Christianity is just as culturally compromised does not change this).

9. The giveness of male and female and their sexual complementarity cannot be dismissed – as even some advocates of SSU acknowledge, e.g., Jeffrey John.

10. I respect the sacrificial self-discipline of those like Wesley Hill and Eve Tushnet who have embraced celibacy in their determination to live faithfully according the traditional Christian sexual ethic.

11. Our understanding of abstractions like love, holiness, justice, etc. is provisional. So is any interpretation of scripture This side of the kingdom they will be incompletely understood, let alone lived. Thus, it is in the widest communion possible that interpretations and definitions of Christian faithfulness, however provisional, are best discerned. As an Anglican, I take the Anglican Communion to be the most adequate body for such discernment.

12. Being part of the Anglican Communion– a trans-national Christian body– is a basic reason I am an Episcopalian. The actions and reactions on this issue have done great harm to that communion. This has perhaps been the most significant obstacle for me. I have been an advocate for the Anglican Communion Covenant. I would still like to see something like the Covenant adopted – even if that meant that the Episcopal Church might serve some time on probation or something.

So . . .

Given all that, why argue in favor of blessing same-sex unions? That is what I will try to explain beginning with my next post (the beginning of next week).

Next: Part 2. Negative Testimony

Part 3. Positive Testimony

Part 4. Some Thoughts on Interpreting Scripture

Part 5. Why I Am Disinclined to Vote for Revising the Marriage Canon

Part 6. Back to the Bible

Part 7. What Did Jesus Say?

Part 8. Jesus on Marriage and "God made them Male & Female," (i)

Part 9. Jesus on Marriage and "God made them Male & Female," (ii)

Part 10. Romans 1 (i) Context

Part 11. Romans 1 (ii) Unnatural Passions

Part 12. Romans 1 (iii) Natural and Unnatural Sex

           Self-Control: Neglected Fruit of the Spirit

Part 13. Romans 1 (iv) Idolatry, self-control, and same-sex sex

Part 14. The Rest of the New Testament

Part 15. Sodom

Part 16. Abomination (i)

Part 17. Abomination (ii)

Part 18. Creation and New Creation

Part 19. Conclusion

Abiding in the Love and Joy of Jesus

A sermon preached at Nashotah House Theological Seminary on May 7, 2015

John 15:9-17

Joy Davidman, whose husband was C. S. Lewis, wrote a book, Smoke on the Mountain, An Interpretation of the Ten Commandments. Toward the beginning of the book she shares this story. Though the language is a bit dated and Euro-centric, the main point remains pertinent::

There is a tale told of a missionary in a dark corner of Africa where the men had a habit of filing their teeth to sharp points. He was hard at work trying to convert a native chief. Now the chief was very old, and the missionary was very Old Testament – his version of Christianity leaned heavily on thou-shalt-nots. The chief listened patiently.

“I do not understand,” he said at last. “You tell me that I must not take my neighbor’s wife.”

“That’s right,” said the missionary.

“Or his ivory or his oxen.”

“Quite right.”

“And I must not dance the war dance and then ambush him on the trail and kill him.”

“Absolutely right!”

“But I cannot do any of these things!” said the chief respectfully. “I am too old. To be old and to be Christian, they are the same thing!”

Davidman continues:

Not a very funny story, perhaps; there is too bitter a point in the laugh. For, if all the truth were told, how many of us in our hearts, share the chief’s confusion?

How many thousands picture Christianity as something old, sapless, joyless, mumbling in the chimney corner and casting sour looks at the young people’s fun? How many think of religion as the enemy of life and the flesh and the pleasures of the flesh; a foe to all love and all delight? How many unconsciously conceive of God as rather like that famous lady who said, “Find out what the baby’s doing and make him stop”?

That is, how many of us both inside the Church and out have reduced the good news out of Nazareth to a list of thou-shalt-nots?

[...]      

We are in danger of forgetting that God is not only a comfort but a joy. He is the source of all pleasure; he is fun and laughter, and we are meant to enjoy him. Otherwise our Christianity is no better than [the chief’s impression of it].

God is "the source of all pleasure; he is fun and laughter,

and we are meant to enjoy him."

Christians believe that at the heart of all

there is the Joy that is the Trinity.

We believe the world – and each of us – was created for joy.

We believe that the story of creation ends in resurrection joy.

As that contemporary theologian, Bono of U2, writes,

                                    “Laughter is eternity if joy is real.”

To be a Christian is to believe that joy is real.

But, too often we come across as insecure,

cramped moralists, and political scolds.

There are "conservative" and "liberal" versions

of this rather joyless presentation.

But, the Good News we have received is

"of a great joy which will come to all people."

And our Lord came into our midst that

"my joy may be in you,

and that your joy may be complete".

We are meant to be agents of that joy in the world around us.

The mission of the Church is to live in expectation and anticipation

of the joy of God's kingdom.

Our mission is to smuggle some of that joy into a world

that is often all too joyless.

But, too often Christians appear to be just as joyless,

just as anxious,

just as angry

as anyone else –

sometimes even more so.

That is a scandal and a betrayal of the Gospel

If we abide in the love of Jesus

our joy should be evident and infectious.

If we abide in the love of Jesus,

we will know ourselves and the world around us

to be the delight of God.

If we abide in the love of Jesus,

we will know God’s mercy washing over us

and soaking us through and through.

If we abide in the love of Jesus

            we will know that nothing – nothing –

can separate us from the love of God.

If we abide in the love of Jesus

there is nothing to fear or be anxious about.

If we abide in the love of Jesus

            We can resist the fear-mongering of cable news,

social media

and advertising.

If I abide in the love of Jesus

there is nothing I need to prove.

            I do not need to prove my worthiness to God

                        or anyone else.

I can ignore all the naysaying voices in the back of my head:

Who do you think you are?

Today is the day they will discover what a poser you are.

Today your incompetence will be revealed.

Today is the day they will find out that you aren’t really that smart.

Today they will discover some of the internal ugliness

you try so hard to cover up.

Am I the only one here who has those voices in the back of his head?

            I didn’t think so.

I’ve got some bad news for you.

Getting a seminary degree won’t quiet those voices.

Being ordained a priest in God’s church won’t quiet those voices.

Becoming a seminary professor won’t quiet those voices.

I can tell you that being made a bishop doesn’t quiet those voices.

The good news is that

abiding in the love of Jesus

does silence those worries

or at least it reduces them to whispers

that are more easily ignored.

An abiding in Jesus frees us from imposing such anxieties

onto others.

                        It frees us from worrying about whether or not

others get it the way we think they should get it.

I encourage you to abide in the love of Jesus and his joy –

            especially once you are ordained

                        and serving and representing the Church.

Make time for prayer and devotional reading every day.

There is nothing more deadly to the Church

                        than joyless clergy.

What if Christians acted among themselves

and in the world

such hat those who heard our words

and witnessed our behavior

looked on with surprise

at our freedom from such anxieties

and wonderment at our joy?

That doesn't mean we should live in "blissed out" denial

of the difficult realities of our lives and those of others.

Nor does it mean that we never ask difficult

or awkward questions,

that we do not persist in resisting evil

or renouncing the evil powers of this world

which corrupt and destroy the creatures of God.

Nor does it mean we should not be serious about obeying Jesus

But, even then, if it is not clear that our words and actions

are born of and lead to joy,

we will appear to those around us

like the missionary appears in Joy Davidman's story

and risk reducing the Good News out of Nazareth

to a list of thou-shalts and thou-shalt-nots.

That will not so if we abide in the love of Jesus

and allow his joy to complete ours.

If God is indeed the source of all pleasure;

if God is fun and laughter,

and if we are meant to enjoy him;

            shouldn’t we desire to abide him and his joy?

And shouldn’t the church be known for its joy?

And might we see part of our mission

to be smugglers of that joy

into the world around us?

What is Trump?

A Sermon*

John 15:9-17

[Shuffling a deck of cards]

What is trump?

When I was growing up in Indiana we played a lot euchre. 

Not just any kind of Euchre, double-deck, bid euchre.

When my mom’s family got together,

we played euchre.

When my dad’s family got together,

we played euchre

One rite of passage to adulthood in our family

was the daunting invitation to play euchre at the adult table

In double-deck, bid euchre, as in regular euchre and bridge,

there is what is called “trump”. 

If you’ve played cards you understand trump. 

Whichever suit of the deck is named trump

becomes the most powerful suit.

Once trump is declared, a nine of trump will beat an ace of anything else

because trump always wins. 

Today’s passage from the Gospel of John has me thinking about trump,

What is trump in my life?

What is trump in your life? 

What motivates us,

animates us in our relationships with others? 

What do we use to measure our own worth? 

What do we rely on for security?

What do I think will make my joy complete?

Maybe clubs are trump.  [Hold up the ace of clubs]

Clubs could stand for force, power, or violence. 

When push comes to shove, do I push? 

Do you shove? 

Do you use force to get people to comply with your wishes? 

Do you use power to get your way?  Coercion? 

Or maybe you like the more subtle kinds of power like manipulation,

manipulating people using such tried and true methods

as guilt to get people to conform to your will, to your desires.

If I can just exercise enough power and influence,

Will my joy be complete?

When we resort to violent solutions or glorify the use of violence,

we are playing clubs as trump.

Clubs –it is one of the more common trumps in human society,

in the human game. 

But, if Jesus is Lord,

clubs is not trump. [Flick ace of clubs onto the floor]

Or perhaps diamonds are trump.  [Hold up the ace of diamonds]

Few of us probably would admit that diamonds is our trump. 

None of us wants to admit that money and possessions

are really what drive us,

what really shape our time and our imagination. 

And yet, in American society, diamonds certainly seem to be trump. 

If you watch television,

if you pay attention

(or even if you don’t pay attention,

because ads and advertising are so pervasive)

you would think that trump in American society

is always diamonds. 

The more you have,

the more important you are;

the more you possess the happier you will be. 

Diamonds is trump when we find ourselves believing,

consciously or unconsciously,

that we just need to buy this one more thing to be really happy,

to complete our joy.

Participating uncritically in a system

in which the opportunities of the “have-nots” are squeezed

while the privileges of the “haves” are protected

is another way of playing the trump of diamonds. 

Diamonds – another popular trump in the human game. 

But, if Jesus is Lord,

diamonds is not trump. [Flick ace of diamonds onto the floor]

Perhaps spades are trump.  [Hold up the ace of spades]

Work, achievement, what you do,

 is another form of trump. 

What have I achieved? 

What have I done? 

How good am I? 

All these questions fall under the category of spades. 

When spades is trump life is all about achieving the things you

(or others)

believe you’re supposed to. 

You have to earn the favor of others

by achievement,

by making a name for yourself,

            proving that you are good enough.

Spades say you have to prove your worth,

you have to pull yourself up by your own bootstraps.

And those who don’t or can’t are worth less.

Spades says each person has to make it on his or her own.

When spades is trump our worth is measured by our resumes

It is a popular trump in American society.

But, if Jesus is Lord,

spades is not trump. [Flick ace of spades onto the floor]

Jesus comes along and says,

"This is my commandment,

that you love one another as I have loved you.

No one has greater love than this,

to lay down one's life for one's friends.”

Jesus declares that hearts is trump.  [Hold up the ace of hearts]

Love is trump. 

In the end, Jesus says, love trumps all. 

It is not how much you have. 

It is not what you do.

It is not what you can get or make or achieve through power

that matters. 

Love is trump. 

On some level, being good, faithful church folk,

we all know this. 

But, we don’t always play are cards as if it were so.

Each of us is born with a full deck – more or less.

From birth, each of us has in our deck of cards each of these trump.

If we are honest with ourselves we must admit – I must admit –  

that, at various times in our lives,

I have played each of them. 

And probably, if we are honest with ourselves,

on any given day we might be able to point to examples

where we have played the trump of spades when

we were convinced that it is what we do that really matters,

or it is what the other person is not doing that really matters. 

Or, we play the trump of diamonds

and allow the accumulation and protection of money and stuff

to dominate our decisions. 

Or we play the trump of clubs

and find ourselves coercing, forcing, manipulating others

to conform to our will. 

As you read the gospels,

you get the sense that

part of what Jesus is up to is reshuffling the deck again and again. 

He says, “What you thought was trump is not trump in the kingdom of God. 

In the kingdom of God the only trump is hearts;

the only trump is love. 

Not vague and undefined love, but love as I loved.” 

Love as Jesus loved – love that is sacrificial,

love that is open and welcoming,

love that is generous and outpouring of self,

love in which we lay down our lives for others.

Love is trump. It sounds nice.

But of course it turns out to be difficult.

Real love and the sustaining of real relationship is hard.

Real love means loving real people.

Each of us at, one time or another,

finds it hard to love someone –

even when that someone is very dear to us.

And each of us,

at one time or another,

is hard to love.

And even at our best efforts at love we are often pretty clumsy.

My father, who was a master at euchre used to tell us,

when we complained about the hands we were being dealt,

“Learn to play with those and we’ll give you better ones.”

By analogy, the people in your life

are the hand you’ve been dealt.

They are the ones you are supposed to learn to love.

This family. These relatives.

            These neighbors.

                        These opponents. These enemies.

When you join the church – in baptism, confirmation, or by being received –

            You are being dealt into this hand.

These people – you people –

are the hand you’ve been dealt.

The people you know and like,

the people you don’t know so well or like less,

the people with whom you agree,

the people with whom you disagree,

the people push your buttons or rub you wrong –

these people are the hand God has dealt you.

Learn to play with them.

Learn to love one another.

That, as much as anything, is what church is about.

Such a love is only possible

if we are open to receiving the love God pours into us so freely. 

There is our worth measured. 

There is our security.

There is our joy.

As we open ourselves to the Holy Spirit

and allow that Spirit of Christ to be poured into our lives

hearts is trump and love begins to pervade and prevail. 

The really good news is that

Christians don’t just believe that love is trump.

We do not only believe that love is at the heart of it all.

We believe that out of the heart of it all,

the one who is at the heart of it all

has entered into the game to play it for us through us.

Christians believe God has entered into the game in the person of Jesus –

the Jack of Hearts.

And when we were in the hole,

against all odds,

the Jack of Hearts shot the moon.

Now, when we give our hearts to the Jack of Hearts,

we can begin to know the forgiveness and healing of all brokenness.

All broken hearts can be mended.

All relationships can be healed and healing –

relationships with family, friends,

neighbors and strangers.

And even enemies.

Most importantly, our relationship with God – the Love at the heart of it all.

            And that is where our joy is made complete

Brothers and sisters,

What is trump in your life?

*The inspiration for this sermon came from a quote of G. K. Chesterton's I read some years ago.