Here is my sermon from Sunday. The text was Genesis 18:20-26, 32-33; 19:1-13, 24-29:
There is a
famous cartoon in which a minister is standing before the congregation and he’s
saying “There are some things I need to say to you,” and outside the church
window you can see a moving truck being pulled up. I was thinking of that carton this week as I
prepared this sermon, and found it widely appropriate for what I am going to
say, and maybe what I have to say today will make sure that I get lots of
people to help show up to pack up the moving truck so you can make sure that I
am actually gone, and at the very least it will give the town something else to
gossip about besides for the fact that you are getting a female preacher. But there are some caveats that I have to
make at the start here. The first is
that this is going to be a PG message, because in order to deal with this
passage we are going to have to deal with some sticky subjects. The second caveat is that Sodom and Gomorrah is
not about homosexuality. I know that
will come as a shock to many of you because it’s so often interpreted in that
manner, but the story doesn’t present it as such, nor do the other references
to this story in the rest of the scripture deal with it in that sense, and this
is the most referenced story from the Book of Genesis in the rest of scripture. The final caveat is that even though this
story is not about homosexuality, at the end I am going to talk about how I this
issue, and I do so for the very simple reason that when I asked a year ago last
fall for questions people had that they wanted addressed, one of those
questions was “How should we as Christians think about homosexuality?”
A
year ago I couldn’t have answered that question, not because I didn’t have the
answer, but because we didn’t have the relationship that I believed was
necessary in order to cover this very controversial subject. I hope that now after two years you know and
trust me, or like me enough, to be open to what I have to say, or perhaps
you’ve learned to ignore what I have to say and so it won’t matter. Hopefully you also know that I love you
enough to be saying this out of love, and we also know that we don’t have to
agree with each other in order to be in relation with each other. What I have to say might make you furious
with me, you might want to argue with me afterwards, and that’s okay, but it’s
because of those feelings that I also approach today’s sermon with great fear
and trepidation, and all I can do is to tell you where I am, how I got here,
and how I read scripture to allow me to think what I do about my gay and lesbian
brothers and sisters
So back to the scripture passage. The passage begins with God talking about the
cry that has arisen against Sodom and Gomorrah, and then it says “the men
turned from there and went towards Sodom,” while Abraham and God remain to have
a conversation. The men here are not
really men, but instead they are angels in disguise. These are the same men that had appeared to
Abraham and Sarah to announce to them that even at their advanced age that
Sarah is going to become pregnant. But what
is also crucial in this story is how Abraham and Sarah respond to these guests
making their way to their tent. We are
told that Abraham to meet them and bowed down at their feet, and then he has
then settled in the shade, has their feet washed, and then had his finest calf
slaughtered to provide them with a meal.
This is the example of how strangers are to be welcomed and
treated. Within Judaism, there are 613
Mitzvah, or laws that they are to follow, but hospitality is known as a great
Mitzvah, which means that it trumps other things. If someone has to choose between different
rules, showing hospitality or charity is more important than other things like
attending classes, attending worship or even praying.
And so Abraham demonstrates the
example of radical hospitality, or really from a biblical perspective he
demonstrates normal hospitality, but his charity and compassion extend not just
to these strangers but to others he doesn’t have anything to do with as well,
which is what follows in his conversation with God. God tells Abraham that Sodom and Gomorrah are
to be destroyed for their sin, but Abraham argues with God, to make sure that
those who are righteous will not be destroyed on account of those who are
wicked. Abraham gets God down to agreeing
that if there are even 10 righteous people that the cities will be
destroyed. What Abraham does is
striking, first because he dares to challenge God and in doing so he
demonstrates that righteousness must also involve concern for the other,
compared against Noah. But, the second
striking thing is that Abraham also proves that the lives of righteous people
can cover the sins of the entire populace, not because the righteous seek out
to tell everyone else how wrong they are, or how they should be living and
behaving, and thus saying look at how good I am. Instead, the righteous can cover the sins of
other simply by being righteous themselves, they are like yeast, just a little
bit can affect the entire loaf, which leads us to Lot.
Just like Abraham, Lot greets the
strangers with great hospitality; he bows down before them, invites them into
his home, and “urges them strongly” not to stay in the square, which is sort of
the first indication that something is rotten in Denmark, as Shakespeare said. Once there he too prepares them a feast. Lot demonstrates his righteousness to the
angels the same way that Abraham demonstrates his righteousness. But then the trouble begins. We are told that “all the people to the last
man” come to Lot’s home, notice that women are not mentioned here, and they
demand that Lot send the strangers out so that they might rape them. (lot tries to talk them out of it, offers
them his daughters) but the judgment that is made against the town is not
because they seek to have a male on male sexual encounter. Instead it’s because of their breach of
hospitality and treatment of the stranger, and here is another way we know this.
As I already said, the story of
Sodom and Gomorrah is referenced more than any other story from Genesis in the
rest of scripture, but in only two places does that reference have anything to
do with sexual behavior. Those two
passages are found in the letter of Jude and in 2 Peter. But the issue of both of those is not about
male on male sexual relations, but instead the fact that the men wanted to rape
angels, and so they were concerned about those who wanted to go after a
different order of flesh. In every other
case, it is not the fact that men want to rape other men that causes the
problem it is the fact that they do not practice hospitality; they do not
welcome the stranger. This is what
Ezekiel has to say, “As I live, says the Lord God, your sister Sodom and her
daughters have not done as you and your daughters have done. This was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and
her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid
the poor and needy. They were haughty,
and did abominable things before me; therefore I removed them.” (Ezek
16:48-50a) While Ezekiel does say they
did abominations, there are lots of things besides gay behavior which is
described as being an abomination in God’s eyes. When Jesus makes reference to Sodom, it is
reference to towns who don’t do what?
They don’t welcome the disciples of the gospel message into their
homes. So it’s a refusal of welcome, a
refusal to offer hospitality that engenders judgment. But there is one other story that highlights
the sin of Sodom, and it is a story found in chapter 19 of the book of Judges.
A Levite is traveling back home
along with his concubine. As it begins
getting dark they enter into the city of Gibeah, which was an Israelite city
populated by people from the tribe of Benjamin.
They go to the city square, where no one welcomes them, but then an old
man sees them, tells them not to spend the night in the square, and brings them
into his own home. Then all the men of
the city surround the home and begin pounding on the door telling the old man
to send the men out so that they might rape them, and the old men leaves the
house and begs the men not to do what they are asking for, and instead offers
his own virgin daughter as well as the Levite’s concubine to let the men do
whatever they want to do with them. The men outside refuse this offer. Sound familiar? Now in the Sodom story at this point the
angels pull Lot back inside and strike everyone else blind so they can’t do
anything to them. But in this story, the
Levite grabs his concubine and pushes her outside, where the men precede to
gang rape her for the rest of the night.
The Levite, finding her dead in the morning, carries her body back to
his home and then cuts the body into pieces and sends the pieces to the other
tribes in Israel calling them to rise up against Gibeah for what happened. But the crime was not the rape of his
concubine or even her death, the crime was their lack of hospitality. Their threats of rape were not the cause of
the punishment; they were the outcome of their refusal to practice the mitzvah
of hospitality or charity. So the story
of Sodom and Gomorrah are stories about how we are to welcome the stranger, or
practice charity, and not about homosexuality, but that doesn’t really solve
the issue for us.
There are five passages in all of
scripture that deal with homosexual activities, and the story of Sodom and
Gomorrah, and those that reference them, are not included in that five. Of those five passages, in the Hebrew
Scriptures, only references to men are included, so if we are to look only at
these, then lesbian behavior would be accepted.
Paul corrects that oversight in his lists of sins, which also include
many things, like gossip, that most of us are probably guilt of. So then the question we have to ask is what
parts of the Bible were true for that time, but no longer apply, and which are
true for all time. I know some will say
that all scripture is true for all time, but that is simply not the way that
anyone approaches the Bible regardless of how liberal or conservative you
are. Let me give you the easiest
example. Slavery is discussed in scripture
326 times, and in all but two of those times they accept or support slavery, I
can even tell you how to make yourself a slave to someone else if you are
interested. The two passages that could be used in opposition to slavery are the
apostle Paul telling slave owners to treat their slaves kindly and if they are
Christian to see them as their brother in Christ, not exactly ringing
anti-slavery tracts.
The
fact is, the Bible’s position on slavery is much clearer and much more discussed
then homosexuality, and yet we don’t see things that way anymore. We simply approach the issue slavery very
differently today and interpret the Bible very differently than it has been in
the past. In fact as Methodists we have a strong connection to the anti-slavery
movement because John Wesley was the first theologian of any significance to
come out in opposition to slavery, and not because as some would say that the
ancients practiced a nicer kindler form of slavery than the Americans did
because they didn’t. John Wesley said
that he was a man of the book, and it served as the primary basis for
everything he did and thought, but he was
able to come to the decision he did on slavery because he but he said to
properly be a person of the book that we must look at what scripture says, then
look at what tradition says, then look at what our experience says, and what
our reason says, and combine those to come to our understanding. And because of that he came out in opposition
to slavery.
It
wasn’t very long ago that slavery was justified by scripture, and those in
opposition to slavery were not true Christians or didn’t take scripture
seriously enough, just as it wasn’t too long ago that people justified racism,
or keeping the races separately because of scriptural witness. But you would be very hard pressed to hear
anyone making those same arguments today.
Those passages are still in the Bible, it’s just simply different, and
so we have to ask what is true for all time and what is true for only then, and
we do this all the time even in the injunctions against homosexual
behavior. So for example, Leviticus
20:13 says “If a man lied with a male as with a woman, both of them have
committed an abomination,” that, along with Leviticus 18:22, are the ones most
commonly quoted, and said that scripture is clear on this, that this is a
universal truth that is for all time, but what does the next line say, this is
the one we tend to ignore, and that is that those who commit these acts “shall
be put to death.” Even amongst the most
conservative in this country most are not calling for the death penalty for
those caught in homosexual acts.
Why? Because we’ve sort of said
that part doesn’t apply anymore.
And lest you think that this was the
only thing that was punishable by death, here are a couple of others that we
not only call for death about but that we disregard altogether. When is the Sabbath? No, it’s actually on Saturday, and even the
church recognizes this, and what is the punishment for doing any work on the
Sabbath? Death. What is the penalty for adultery? Death.
And that includes if you get married again after being divorced, because
then according to scripture, you have committed adultery. What is the penalty for a child striking or
even disobeying their parents?
Death. What is the penalty for
having sex with a woman who is menstruating, or even uncovering her
nakedness? Death. What is a priest supposed to do if his
daughter becomes a prostitute? He is
supposed to burn her to death. And here
are some things that are also an abomination in the eyes of God, eating pork,
getting a tattoo, sowing your fields with more than one seed, wearing clothing
of two types of fibers, bearing false witness, a woman wearing men’s clothing
or a man wearing women’s clothing, using incense, cutting your beard or
rounding off your hair. But I never hear
anyone railing against these as sins or abominations
Now my purpose here is not to tell
you you are wrong if you think that homosexuality is a sin or even to try and
convince you otherwise, because I don’t think I can do that, nor do I even have
the time to begin to delve into this issue fully. Instead I simply hope that I have given you a
different perspective to push you beyond your comfort zone a little bit, not
that I don’t think you can’t change your perspective, because I was raised with
the conservative position, and that’s what I believed for a long time. But my opinion changed, because then I got to
know gays and lesbians and this is true for most of the younger
generations. When you were growing up
most of you probably never knew someone who was gay or lesbian, but that is
simply not true anymore. Actually it was
never true, you just didn’t know their sexuality. But once I knew people who were gay or
lesbian, and I liked them, and knew that some of them were great Christians,
some of them are even excellent ministers for whom I can see the Holy Spirit
working in their lives, and so I had to reevaluate my prior position, and I had
to look at scripture with different eyes.
Rather than scripture reinforcing my biases, and my biases reinforcing
scripture in sort of a repetitive catch 22 cycle, I had to stop and reevaluate
what scripture said, and I came to a different conclusion than what I had
thought before.
There is room for Christians to see
and interpret this issue differently, and to still take scripture seriously, to
still be people of the book, to still be Christians and to still love each
other. This is not the black and white issue that people want to make it out to
be, and I can even make room in my theology to say that I could be wrong, and
so I ask the same of you. What if we are
wrong on this issue? But if I am wrong
when I come to meet God face to face, I think I’ll be okay, or at least I’ll
have a very good excuse, because I believe that as long as I am preaching a
gospel of love rather than of hate, of inclusion rather than exclusion, of
peace and mercy and forgiveness, then God will forgive me as well, even where I
have failed.
Heterosexuality is normative, but
that does not mean it is the only expression of sexuality. I don’t think that homosexuals choose their
orientation, any more than we may have chosen to be heterosexual. I believe it is something that happens
naturally. Homosexuality has now been
identified in more than 2000 species of animals and counting, including every species
of mammals. Alfred Kinsey said that he
thought 10% of the population was homosexual.
I think that number is too high, and subscribe more to the European
scientific consensus which says that it’s around 5%. But for every one of those 5% they have
parents and family and friends, and so the number of people who know or love
someone who is gay or lesbian is large.
I suspect that even some of you here are in that situation, although you
may be hesitant to admit it to someone.
But here is something that might be even more shocking to you and that
is that there are gays and lesbians in this town. I have met them. I don’t know anyone who is open about it, but
they are here, living amongst us and sooner or later, someone in this town is
going to come out. It’s not a matter of
if; it’s simply a matter of when.
It
might be a teenager, it might be an adult.
But when it happens it is more than likely going to be someone we all
know and care about, it might even be a member of your family. And all that I am asking is this. If you ignore everything else I have said, if
you disagree with everything else I have said, I just ask this of you. When that happens, it is going to be
incredibly difficult and tough for them.
They are going to have friends and family who will turn against them,
turn on them, and probably even shun them.
I can only guess what the other two faith communities will do and say,
and I hope that I am wrong in what I think they will do, but I pray and plead
and beg you to do what I believe is the Christian thing and simply go to them
and tell them that you love them, you are proud of them and that God loves
them. You don’t have to approve of their
“lifestyle”, but what they need more than anything is to be told that they are
loved and that they are treasured and valuable human beings. They need to be told that they are a beloved
son or daughter of God, and that there is nothing which can separate us from
God’s love, and that they will always be welcomed with warm arms into this body
of Christ. May it be so my brothers and
sisters. Amen.
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