Family Redefined ...

Most of us hold a special place in our hearts for mom.  Mom generally earned this place because as far back as we can remember, she was there taking care of us, nurturing us, and showing a love for us we could barely understand back then.  Dad’s love was different, likely less expressive, but present.  Dad had a natural instinct to insure the family was safe, secure, and taken care of.  It meant less of his time, but always because of His desire to work for our greater good.  Our siblings are another kind of love entirely.  We grew up with them, fought with them over silly things, and were close to them when in times of need or sadness.  We share their joys and triumphs and share with them their sadness and defeats.  Underneath it all, the fights with them were more about establishing a unique identity in the family unit, than about any “real” disagreements.  And so we define our family unit by blood relations, and are often taught that blood is thicker than water, and only blood can be counted on in the world.  But our premise is mistaken at its core.  It is not just the Supreme Court of the United States that is redefining family, it is Jesus Christ.

Our core premise of family is broken from the outset.  Mom and dad are not actually related by blood (usually), unless you trace back our ancestry to Noah or Adam.  Taking history back that far makes us ALL related by blood (a concept we find Jesus endorsing).  So then mom and dad are family not by blood, but by choice, and by commitment.  In our world choices and commitments fail regularly leading to new family unit compositions, where new partners for mom or dad equate to new roles in the parental offering.  Step dads, or step moms, become part of the family unit through different choices made on the timelines of our lives.  New siblings that may have no blood relation at all enter the family unit, and if things go well, and Christian charity is employed, they can become as close to us, as any blood relation ever was.  The love between the new partner of mom or dad is different as well, and can be more or less intense than the original pairing.  And so how do we judge (perhaps not at all), about the validity of a family unit after it was broken, and now attempting to repair itself in another way?

Our core premise of family is broken in yet another way.  Sometimes children are left alone in this world, because of situations beyond their control.  They may be lucky enough to be adopted by parents who so desperately want to add another child to their family unit.  Those parents invest deeply in the lives of these adopted children, working hard to demonstrate a love that is intended to fill the gap left by the pain and loss found in this world.  No adoptive parent ever makes a distinction in how much they love their child.  While not the biological parent, they are the parent none the less.  These family units are determined by choice and commitment, not by blood.  They are as strong as any family unit, and the restorative love they put on display emulates the love of God as much as any we see here on earth.  And blood relations have little to do with the choice and commitment adoptive parents and children make to each other.

While the Supreme Court recognized that the privileges of a marital family unit are more defined by a choice and commitment than by the sexual orientation of the two individuals making that choice; they only chose to expand our legal definition of family to those who may be a bit different from ourselves.  But I submit, what they did is not new, nor did “they” actually redefine family for us or Christianity at large.  How could they?  We already had homosexuals in our family units, whether by blood, or by choice.  The orientation of a person does not determine their place within a family, it is instead only a characteristic that self-identifies with that person.  Many parents will discover that one or more of their children are in fact gay.  While this revelation may be painful at first, particularly if it is at odds with the values those parents hold to; ultimately it changes “nothing” about how much a parent continues to love that child.  Moms don’t stop nurturing, caring, and loving their child because they discover the child is gay (or they shouldn’t).  And dads don’t stop providing, seeking for safety and security of their families, because they discover a child is gay (or they shouldn’t).  So the inclusion of a gay person in a family unit was ALREADY part of our culture, and our definition of family.

It turns out, we already love people who are gay, whether as siblings, or children, or parents.  Loving someone with this characteristic is NOT against the law of God, nor is it forbidden in scripture.  There is no scripture that demands we ostracize a member of our family because they exhibit some behavior the Bible defines as sin.  If it did, every single parent, spouse, or child who has ever told a lie should be cast out (instead of forgiven).  Every single act of sexual misconduct including “lust” even if only in the mind, would be grounds for excommunication between the family unit and that person.  Under these extreme conditions there would be no family units left, only single individuals who are universally guilty of misguided sexual expression both straight and gay.  If our sin is allowed to separate us from each other and from redemptive love, there is no hope for any of us.  Instead Christians believe and need the forgiveness our Savior offers us.  It is a constant and ever present need, and it spans many more sins, than just those of a sexual nature.  At its core, a family unit is composed of choice and commitment, it is not simply a matter of blood.  But that lesson is not mine, it was Christ’s.

Peter recalls to John Mark an incident that proved just this point.  Mark wrote it down in chapter three and beginning in verse 31 saying … “There came then his brethren and his mother, and, standing without, sent unto him, calling him.”  This occurs at a time when Jesus is deeply engrossed in teaching His followers about the restorative love of God.  His mission is beyond healing only our bodies, but it remains for Jesus to heal our minds, and our souls.  He is demonstrating to his listeners what freedom from sin can really mean.  And during His teachings, His blood relations, or His family come to see Him.  Keep in mind this designation includes not only His mom, but “His brethren” or His siblings.  Mary did not remain a perpetual virgin after having Jesus Christ.  Instead she was a normal wife and mother.  She had sexual intimacy with Joseph, and the brothers and possibly sisters of Christ were a result.  Mary was like any other wife and mother, she loved her children, and her husband.  She had earned a place of respect in the family unit due to her choice and her commitment.  And now she was here with her other children to see Jesus.  But the venue was packed, another standing room only event, and she could not even get close enough to her Son, to ask Him what she was there to ask.  So they had to send in word by messenger.

John Mark records how the message progressed in verse 32 saying … “And the multitude sat about him, and they said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren without seek for thee.”  Whether it was whispered from person to person, or perhaps someone sitting there at the feet of Jesus saw His family outside waiting for Him and just assumed He needed to know, the message about His family waiting was delivered to Jesus.  Of course in so doing, the flow of His sermon was interrupted.  The train of thought had to by necessity pause, while consideration of this new situation was discussed and addressed.  Jesus, being divine, already knew they were there.  In addition, He already knew why they were there and what they wanted from Him.  He had already evaluated their needs and their request in His head before they arrived; had it been more critical to Him than what He was teaching, He would have ended His dialogue early, and met them outside, or on the road to go address what they felt was important.  But Jesus did none of this.  Instead He had remained inside, with these people in front of Him, teaching them something that outweighed the needs of His family.

Then Jesus does what the Supreme Court could not ever do as Mark continues the account in verse 33 saying … “And he answered them, saying, Who is my mother, or my brethren?”  This is not a casual question.  The parentage of Jesus Christ was “the” pivotal question of His ministry here on earth.  Jesus had repeatedly commanded the demons who fled before Him to remain silent on identifying Him as the literal Son of God.  To be born of a virgin was a miracle ONLY God could accomplish, and since it has never been done before or since, it remained an issue of faith to accept.  You will also note in this text, He does NOT ask who His Father is.  That question was to be settled as we examine His life.  But questioning who is His mother, and who are His siblings was intended to shock His audience into thinking deeper about what it means to be in a family with the Son of God.

Then Jesus ups the stakes in the definition of family as Peter has John Mark transcribe the further words of Christ in verse 34 saying … “And he looked round about on them which sat about him, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren!”  Ouch.  If our traditional views of blood relations were all that defined family, Jesus Christ just blew that away.  There would be no special place of respect for His mother standing outside, or for His siblings that grew up with Him.  Mary would be no intercessor with Christ as our Catholic friends might like to believe, as here Jesus plainly equates NO special status to her as to any other person sitting on the floor in front of Him.  To be the blood brother of Christ, did not afford His siblings any more special consideration than to be a stranger sitting at the feet of Jesus.  Blood is obviously not something that defines inclusion in the family of Jesus Christ.

Perfection was not a pre-requisite either.  The crowd sitting in front of Jesus were not well educated wealthy, religious leaders who committed little if any sins.  They were common folks.  The Pharisees who were deeply religious, wealthy, and obsessed with the keeping of the Law, had largely abandoned following after Jesus to learn.   They were instead plotting how to kill Him.  The people here on the floor were common sinners of every variety.  They were not there to justify their sins, or deny them, or make false claims about having already gained perfection.  They were universally guilty of sin.  But the focus there was on restoration and redemption.  To free these listeners from even their desire to sin, was the paramount goal of Jesus Christ.  In that mission, He could not be interrupted for trivial concerns.  And just because you had a blood relation, did not make your request more important that the restoration of one who is bound in sin.

Then Jesus made a declaration that would redefine family forever as John Mark records in verse 35 saying … “For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother.”  It would not be about blood, it would be about choice and commitment.  Those listeners there had chosen to find Christ and learn at His feet, they had committed to being restored by Jesus Christ, and in so doing were named as part of His family.  When we choose to submit ourselves to Jesus Christ and let His will become ours, let Him remake our desires, our thinking, and ultimately our choices … we are making a choice to enter the family of the Son of God.  He considers us family as we unite with both Jesus and the Father God.  When we become in harmony with His Laws of Love, we become part of His family.  This can only happen, as our sin-sick diseased and addicted minds are remade by our Creator God.  We need re-creation, if we are to be brought into harmony with the Law of God which reflects His entry-level definition of what it means to love others. 

Being Jewish was and is not enough to be considered part of the family of Christ.  Being of the bloodline of David or Abraham was not enough.  Being Christian was and is not enough to be considered part of the family of Christ.  It is not just about making a declarative statement that we “believe” in Christ.  It is about taking that belief to Christ and surrendering “who” we are to Him to be remade.  For many a Christian does NOT do the will of the Father God, as instead they cling to the sins that define their characters.  This is not just a gay condition, it is a straight one.  It is not just about sexual expression or behavior, it is about loving self more than loving others.  We could completely abstain from sex altogether and still be found lacking in the pursuit of the will of the Father God, because we have not surrendered our desires to Him to be remade.

Those who focus on sex as the discriminator of proximity to Christ, ignore every other sin they are bound to.  Both gay and straight people lie.  Both steal.  Both love themselves more than they love others.  Both have pride, arrogance, and can reflect a coldness to those in need.  Christians are supposed to be the antithesis of these characteristics yet they are not.  It is the un-surrendered heart that keeps us at odds with the Law of God.  It is our pride in “who” we are that prevents us from being willing to put even our spouse or our sexuality on the altar of God.  We wish instead to retain the things that are important to us.  We wish to retain the things about us that define who we are.  We cherish our characters instead of looking at them with the disdain they deserve.  The only good in us, can be found as we reflect the Love of God to others.  This love does not originate in us, it is only reflected through us.  And that reflection is made dim or non-existent because we refuse to let go of who we are, choosing to try to retain ourselves and find a “partial” salvation instead of a full one.

It is as if we wish to get better from our cancer rather than find a cure for it.  It is as if we are comfortable being HIV positive as long as our condition does not evolve into full blown AIDs.  Jesus was not here to dispense so many spiritual pills to make us feel better about our diseases.  He was here to cure them all, fully.  He was here to restore us to the condition He had in mind for us.  When we are ready to put our sexuality on His altar, even if that means we live the rest of our lives in abstention, or are compelled to find another partner, or must forgive and recommit to the partner we have no matter how bad they treat us … to allow Jesus to reshape what we desire and how we love … is at the core of a full cure from our disease of sin.  Lest straight believers think I am only talking to our gay brothers and sisters, I am not.  Adam withheld Eve from the trust of the Lord to save her.  Eve was the one thing Adam was not willing to give up, and in joining her, he initiated sin into our world and our genetics from then to now.  Original sin was not found in homosexuality, it was found in the love of a husband for his wife, over that of his Creator.  That test remains for us all.  Is there anything, or any part of us, we love more than we love God?  If we hold back any part of ourselves from the restoration Christ offers, we cling to the cancer that kills us.

But, if we are willing to bring all of ourselves into surrender to Christ, then there is no difference between any of us in His eyes.  Our perfection will be the journey Christ brings us to.  It does NOT matter what sins we suffer from today, as ALL of them are to be a thing of the past as He remakes who we are, how we love, and how we think.  In this process, our sole job remains to love each other.  We are to be a family by choice and commitment, not by blood.  I am to love you, no matter what condition of sin you suffer from, or that I suffer from.  I am to love you without precondition, or demands upon you.  For it Jesus Christ who will free both you and I from our sins.  No need to judge your progress on that path, only to encourage you to remain on it, and ask that you encourage me to remain on it as well.  It is not our sins that exclude us from restoration, it is our unwillingness to see those sins disappear.  Letting go all of ourselves to Christ, frees us to love each other without condemnation or judgment.

The Supreme Court redefined legal marriage in our country this week.  But what spiritual marriage is, remains a concept no law of our land will ever fully be able to comprehend or enumerate in legal language.  The relationships that God blesses of family units begins with an entirely different understanding of what it means to love others like He loves others.  If we are not in harmony with how He loves, how we could possibly hope to understand what a true spiritual marriage is all about.  Instead we bring our selfishness into our weddings, and our lives, and look to see what marriage has to offer us; instead of holistically re-evaluating marriage through the eyes of Christ, and what it means to have intimacy between ourselves and our God as the underpinning of any choice and commitment.  The intimacy between each of us and our God must occur prior to the success of anything we call marriage.  If we are distant from the source of Love, how can we hope to truly love each other, as a spouse should be loved?

Before Christians decry the breakdown of the family unit because our country made something legal, they should take a serious look at why the concept of divorce exists, and the damage it causes to our families and our nation.  Divorce exists (and will now impact the gay community), because of the selfishness in how we love others.  It is a reflection of our addiction to loving self, and unwillingness to love another beyond the limits of our lives.  Divorce is enabled because Christians are unwilling to have their desires remade, and be taught a new way to love another.  If we were willing to submit the entirety of who we are in surrender to Jesus Christ, we would be making better decisions before marriage, and better decisions once in a marriage.  It is not the legality of our marriage license that determines the spiritual validity of marriage, it is determined in how much of ourselves we are willing to surrender to Jesus Christ to be remade by Him.  Full surrender will yield full restoration, and we can trust in Jesus to save us from ourselves.  To be part of the family of the Son of God, remains only about choice, and about commitment.  How much of who you are, are you willing to relinquish to Christ?  Or perhaps better stated … how much pain would you like to let go of as our Lord offers a full cure just for that asking?

 

Homosexuality in the Church ...

So what should be the church’s position on the acceptance of homosexual members in its midst?  Should we welcome them into the pews beside us, or attempt to keep them beyond our doors?  Should we allow them to participate in our worship or lead in a ministry, or keep them confined in the pews?  Should we accept them as spiritual leaders if they choose to serve, or restrict them from our pulpits until their lives reflect our ideals of what a pastor should be?  To date, the majority of Christian churches have ostracized the gay community if not by direct mandate, then through protests with hateful rhetoric that would imply gays are not welcome in the doors of the local sanctuary.  There are a few other Christian churches that have elected to completely embrace the gay community and declare that homosexuality is “no longer a problem” with God.  Is either correct?  What should be the position of the church with regards to members who do not comply with its ideals?

The predominant church bearing the name of Christ for many centuries was the Roman Catholic Christian church.  It had the widest membership and farthest reach for nearly a thousand years.  When the reformation began, the term Protestantism (or protest against various Catholic dogmas) arose and gained momentum.  But church discipline and traditions still mimicked its Catholic roots for centuries to come.  The early Catholic church viewed dis-fellowship (or in their vernacular excommunication) as being the most severe punishment it could inflict on its erring members.  Those who would not comply with the leadership of the Catholic Church were forced to remain outside its doors.  The thought being that only through the church could one obtain salvation and therefore excommunication essentially doomed a person to eternal hell.  This idea carried through into Protestant churches for a few centuries further.  Though Protestants do not believe that salvation is found exclusively inside a church, they do believe that Christian “standards” must be maintained; and traditionally those found to be in sin were sometimes asked to withdraw their membership from the church and go somewhere else.

Public sin, is an interesting concept.  While a pastor engages in an adulterous affair that nobody knows about, his sermons appear to be just fine.  But after his affair is discovered and revealed, his shame requires him to leave the pulpit and seek other employment, or at least another congregation.  Most traditional churches believe that a “leader” of the flock must live a life more righteous than a regular member.  But this implies a degree of relative salvation, that some of us are effectively more “holy” than others.  It implies we expect a higher degree or a higher level of perfection in our leaders than we do in ourselves.  Interesting given that scripture teaches we are ALL inundated with sin, that NO-ONE is holy outside of Christ, and that ALL of us are created equally.  Scripture does not describe a spiritual hierarchy within the church.  People in spiritual leadership positions are selected based on the gifts of the Spirit, and their own willingness to serve.

Some argue that the model of the first worship services in the sanctuary that was carried through the desert by Moses, then placed permanently in Jerusalem by David and Solomon, had a hierarchical system setup within it.  But this ignores some of the foundations of “why” this method of worship was established and how the hierarchy worked.  The Levites were selected for the priesthood because of all the twelve tribes who exited Egyptian slavery, only they chose to remain loyal to God when presented with the golden calf alternative for worship.  This loyalty on their part was rewarded by God by selecting their tribe for all the various roles associated with the worship of God.  Not all of them were selected to perform every single role in the sanctuary services.  Some performed the tasks of setting up and taking down the structures of the movable sanctuary.  Some performed music.  Some participated in the daily sacrifices.  And one priest was selected to be the high priest, to perform the tasks of entering the most holy place once a year, and to wear the breastplate, and carry the stones that God reflected His will through.  Only one priest was selected to perform the most sacred part of the first ministry.

The high priest was to represent the work of Christ.  The original worship services did not create an organizational hierarchy with the high priest on top, then the next layer of priest leadership, then the next layer and so on and so on.  When Christ Himself came to our world, He established Himself as the head of the church.  He did not delegate that the 12 should rule over the 70, and that the 70 should rule over the next layer and so on and so on.  He setup Himself as the head, all men are equal in His service, no one was set up over his brethren.  Those who wished to lead, would be the servants of all.  So if all are equal under Christ, even our leaders.  And if all are sinners, then why do we hold our leaders to a higher standard than we hold ourselves?

The true Christian church then is any association of believers who are willing to submit themselves to the true leader of our faith – Jesus Christ.  It is only in Christ that salvation is found, not in the buildings we dedicate to our worship services.  It is in Christ that we find truth, not from our own collective wisdom.  The ministry of Christ was to redeem man from his bondage to sin and evil.  In coming closer to Christ, we are transformed by His presence.  It is not our own actions that change us, it is our willingness to recognize that Christ alone can transform us from the pain we embrace to the perfection He intends.  It is an error to think that ostracizing a sinner somehow protects the church, or maintains its standards.  We all fall short of the standards of heaven.  And we all need the transformation Christ provides.  Church discipline then that centers on casting away those caught in sin, or known to be in sin, is merely the elitist classism you would expect to see in a typical high school, not in the ministry of Christ.  Where can the sick go but to the master physician.  To deny them this access for the purposes of preventing further corruption is to ignore the pressing needs of the patient and to disregard the obvious; the disease is already among the brethren.

There is a difference in attempting to excuse our shortcomings and living with the struggle to submit to Christ to see them removed.  We are none of us perfect yet.  But all of us are on that journey through our submission to Christ.  It may be years before Christ is able to perfect in me what must be changed.  The delay is not His fault.  It is exclusively my own stubbornness and unwillingness to submit.  But as I learn to let go, I free Him to fix in me what must be fixed.  And soon I realize that He is not just fixing what I thought was broken.  He is literally remaking every single part of me; because as it turns out, I am COMPLETELY broken.  I think wrong.  I reason wrong.  I want the wrong things.  I believe I need things that only cause me pain.  I do not know how to really love.  I am bathed in self-centered thinking.  I am an absolute mess.  It will take time to repair me.  The church then, serves as my hospital.  Getting together with other ill patients to talk about how good our Doctor really is, encourages us all.  We all benefit from this encounter.

I may be a liar, or an adulterer, or a murderer, or simply full of pride.  I could also be gay.  The fact that I am diseased with evil is NOT the question.  All that matters is whether I am seeking His perfection, or content in my own self-assured sense of holiness.  When I define perfection based on my own thinking, I tend to disregard what Christ thinks and advocate only what I want.  When I put self at the center of my religion, I begin to try to excuse my condition of evil, rather than to confront my own errant thinking on the matter.  When I put my own views of what is right and wrong, and what is good for me or not, ahead of submitting to Christ; I effectively tell Him … “never mind, I do not need Your help – I am fine on my own.”  This was the state of the Pharisees in the days of Christ.

Christ was content to be found in the company of hookers, tax collectors (cheats), low class, poor, down trodden, those plagued with contagious diseases, even the demon possessed.  Christ was not there with them to participate in their evil, but to free them from it.  They could not free themselves, and had been shunned by the pious who need no such conversions.  Christ had to enter their company in order to reach them.  He was welcomed by those in need.  And He was worshipped for taking from them, what they were unable to free themselves from.  Church in the days of Jesus, was measured in how close you could get to the Son of God.  To be near Him, was to be near the source of Love, and the source of Healing, and the end to pain.  To be freed from sin by Christ was not merely to be forgiven, but to be unbound to the former desires to commit those sins.  When Christ said … “go and sin no more.”  It was not an arbitrary edict for the lame man to rely on his own decisions and willpower and not make any more mistakes.  It was the gift of reform in the lame man’s heart that despite his new found physical abilities, his mind, his heart, his soul were to be henceforth freed from the chains of evil that had so previously consumed him.  This is the kind of freedom that Christ alone can bring.  Our churches are supposed to represent being close to Jesus.  It is the purpose of our getting together in the first place.  Proximity to Christ brings relief to the soul, not the glorification of our evil.

The definition of hell is separation from God.  Conversely the definition of bliss is proximity to our Lord and Savior.  Our churches should accept all manner of sinners into its ranks.  Not for the purposes of excusing our sin-sick diseases, or attempting to glorify the pain we live with, but for the purposes of allowing Christ to free us from it.  We should encourage each other in love.  How are we to do this, if we cast aside all we find in sin?  Gay people should be welcomed into our family of believers, NOT because they are gay, nor because we believe this condition is ideal, or OK with God.  Gay people should be welcomed into our family because our Lord, welcomes us into it.  If we are welcome to sit in our churches, take leadership roles despite our own shortcomings, or preach from pulpits – so should those who suffer from a bit different condition than our own.  We are equally struggling to allow God to completely change who we are.  This is not a gay thing.  This is a Christian phenomenon.  We are all seeking to have Christ completely remake us.  ALL of us.  Our journey’s will be different, our timelines will be varied, but our destinations are all centered in Christ.  ALL are welcome in His kingdom.  In His kingdom ALL of us will be former sinners of one variety or another.  Do you think it will matter in heaven that I am a former liar, and you are a former adulterer, and he is a former person with pride?  God will see us only us in the perfection which He intends and has wrought within us.

If we ALL give God the freedom to rule over even our own sexual desires and ideas, then we allow God to craft us into what He intends for each of us.  It is not our place to judge each other in this matter.  It is our place to accept His leadership individually.  Our Lord has more work to do reforming the corrupt hearts of adulterers in our churches than He does altering the lives of homosexuals.  In sheer numbers, there are more straight sexual issues to contend with than gay ones.  Christians live in shame for the sins they commit.  Few try to glorify them.  How many pastors have stood in the pulpits and advocated that we should all be unfaithful to our spouses?  None, or none that lasted very long.  Glorifying evil or trying to excuse evil, is blinding oneself to the pain that evil causes and merely prolonging the agony of evil.  Yet many pastors who have preached sermons on the value of fidelity in a marriage have been caught cheating in their own.  It is not intentional hypocrisy; it is human weakness and self-sufficiency that leads to these failings.

I would not expect a gay person to stand in the pulpit and try to justify his history, his choices, or his point in the process of perfection.  I would not expect him to give us a report on how far God has altered his thinking on his being gay as of this moment in time.  I do not ask pastors to tell us how far along they are in their struggles with sin and submission.  Nor do I volunteer this information about myself to any who seem to have an interest.  Instead, like the publican, I stand afar off, unwilling to lift even my eyes towards heaven, beating my own chest and joining in his prayer … “have mercy on me God as I am the sinner.”   It is no-one’s business to know where I am on my spiritual journey towards the perfection God intends for me; as it is none of my business where anyone else is either. 

I am content then to journey alongside of you, regardless of what it is you struggle with.  You may not think you suffer from a particular evil that I believe exists in your life.  But then, this too is the condition I find myself so often within.  Christ is patient with us both.  He reforms how I think, reveals what must be changed, and then does the work as I allow Him to.  He is patient with me in this process, tender and caring.  How can I be any less with my brothers, whether they be gay or straight or something else entirely.  Those who seek the perfection found in Christ are more than welcome in my home, at my table, in my pew, or in my pulpits.  I realize the truth of inspiration does not come from the person who is willing to serve, but from the God who inspires behind them.  We are vessels of truth to others when we serve God in humility and love without condition.  But we remain vessels not the source.  Christ alone is the unending source of love and truth and change.

It is time for Christians to quit condemning particular sins, and instead focus on the healing of all sins.  It is time for us to forsake the mediocrity of living with cherished evil habits and the pain that comes with them, and seek Christ to be freed from them entirely.  It is time to seek perfection, realizing that ALL must journey to this as well.  There is no time keeper.  There is no yard stick.  There are no standards we do not all fail to meet.  There is only Christ.  There is only the TOTAL transformation we must ALL be willing to embrace before perfection can be achieved.  It is difficult to realize the magnitude of giving literally everything about us over to Jesus, but when we embrace it, it is life altering. 

It is a process that begins here and will one day reach fulfillment.  For those alive to greet Him in the clouds, this process will reach fulfillment in our lifetimes.  For those who die before this perfection is fully achieved, they will be granted the total transformation in the twinkling of an eye at His second coming.  Praise God He is willing to save me, to save you, and to save those who are different from us both.  Praise God He welcomes all into His kingdom, and does the work of perfecting ALL of us from what we are today, to what He intends for each of us.  Our God desires ALL to come to Him.  We should echo His desires in our churches.

Homosexuality and Choice ...

Perhaps one of the most perplexing questions a Christian faces in our world is … “is homosexuality a choice?”  If the answer is yes, then adopting this lifestyle is a matter of conscious choice and as the Bible points out, it is a sin against God.  But if the answer is no, then how can God, or the Christian community hold those without choice accountable for this sin?  But beyond a simply yes or no answer are the gray scale responses that occur when regardless of what might have been the original ability to choose, evil inserts itself and corrupts that choice through abuse or rape, particularly when it occurs on children unable to defend themselves or mature enough to know their own sexual preferences.  In these situations the idea of “choice” itself is even murkier.  But then perhaps on an even more profound basis, we might all ask if sin itself is a matter of choice or not.

Most Christians believe that acts of sin are matters of conscious choice.  If this is true, then man should be accountable for both the commission of sin as well as the cessation of sin.  If I CAN choose not to sin, but do NOT choose to stop sinning, then I am alone responsible for the sin in my life.  And more to the point, if I am able to choose to stop sinning, why do I need a savior to save me from my pain?  It seems then the only role for Christ in this version of Christianity is to provide forgiveness for my past.  Going forward, if the actions of sin are nothing more than choice, I can simply elect to sin no further.  Perfection then, should be instantaneous, complete, and permanent.  Sounds like the twinkling of an eye to me which is not predicted until the second coming. 

Others believe it is the action of the Holy Spirit that drives sin from our lives.  That once “the Spirit falls” on us, our sin is removed from us and we are made perfect by the indwelling of the Spirit.  At its heart this is true, but we are still free to reject our salvation from sin, even after the Spirit has fallen.  On the Day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was made manifest in the upper room, all present were “of one accord”.  All 12 of the disciples as well as the rest of the servants of Christ were physically touched by the Spirit of God.  They spoke, and their words were heard in the native languages of all present.  It was a miraculous event.  Yet it did not prevent later dissention over preaching to the Gentiles, even in the heart of Peter who had to receive a further dream from God before he was convinced the gospel was meant for ALL the world, not just all Jewish peoples.  It did not prevent the later dissention about who should accompany various disciples on their journeys to spread the word.  Arguments were not permanently disabled thru the initial touch of the Holy Spirit.  They were abated only while His presence was among them.  Later imperfections still revealed themselves and it was obvious perfection had not been obtained through that singular incident.

Paul considered himself chief among sinners.  This was not merely a reference to his murderous past, but a declaration about his immediate present as he penned those words.  “That which I would not, that do I do” – these words reflect Paul’s struggles against sin long after his Damascus Road conversion being directly touched by Christ.  Paul knew the horror of sin, as well as the love of Christ.  His written letters of encourage to the churches of his day were designed to point all to the love and ministry of Christ on our behalf.  Paul who was responsible for writing nearly half the books included in the New Testament portion of our Bible, inspired of God, had not reached the perfection we all seek.  Paul who died a martyr’s death, had not reached perfection despite his being so close to Christ.  Paul’s own words reflect on our discussion of choice – Paul states – “that which I would not” – this means that Paul does not desire to do what he does, yet he does it anyway.  If sin was merely an act of choice why would Paul simply not do, what he does not wish to do.

Scripture also provides us with incidents that do appear to be matters of choice such as the act of Judas in betraying our Lord.  Judas makes a bargain with the Jewish religious leadership to betray Christ to them for a few pieces of silver.  No one knows why he committed this act.  It could have been to simply increase his greed.  But it might also have been to force Jesus to act to save himself when confronted with his imminent death.  Judas may have been trying to compel Jesus to become the earthly king the Pharisees had so long predicted would come.  There was no doubt in Judas’ mind as to Christ being the Son of God.  He had been with Jesus almost as long as any other disciple, he had seen the same miracles, and performed them himself like all the others.  He had the same understanding of scriptures as EVERY other disciple did.  They ALL used to argue about who would be greatest in the coming kingdom Jesus would implement in this world.  They ALL believed Jesus would eventually be an earthly king.  This is what their religion had taught, and what history had always seen develop.  Israel would sin, be invaded, and after repentance (which John the Baptist had called for), they would be delivered from their enemies.  Their current enemy was Rome, so they all believed Jesus would deliver them from Roman oppression.  Judas may have only believed he was forcing this to occur sooner rather than later.  So his act was a conscious decision, despite what his motives may have been.  A sin of choice.

Peter too sinned by choice.  Peter in an attempt to preserve his own life, denied even knowing his Savior.  These were sins of self-preservation, lies told to protect himself from the fear of discovery and association with Christ; sins that broke the heart of Peter when the words of Christ earlier in the day rang true in his ears with the cock crowing.  Judas’ sin broke his heart too as he realized that the ministry of Christ would not be to setup an earthly kingdom at all.  Both saw the death of Christ as a permanent thing (forgetting the words of Jesus about His own resurrection).  They saw their own acts of shame in the demise of Christ as unable to receive forgiveness for their Lord had died.  Judas elected to hang himself in his despair.  Peter simply cowered in the shame of what he had done.  Had Judas waited and witnessed the resurrection of his Lord, he too might have gotten the forgiveness of Christ he so longed to have.  No one can judge.  But clearly both men chose to do as they did.  Neither was compelled to do so.

So perhaps sin is sometimes a choice, and seems sometimes to be beyond what we would classify as choice.  Choices do have consequences.  It is the nature of sin to be addictive.  Not just the sins that alter our body chemistry through drugs or alcohol; but every sin has the propensity to become habit.  Any action we repeat can move from singular acts to acts of habit.  As habits grow they become part of our nature, part of who we are.  It is our brain chemistry itself that is altered with repeated behavior that moves a single choice, into a repeated pattern, into a “natural” part of who we are.  The pathways in the brain develop electrical superhighways that conduct the electricity in our brains with greater and greater ease as we repeat actions over and over again.  Ever heard the term “pathological liar”?  A person who lies over and over and over again, it becomes more natural to lie than to tell the truth – even when the truth might be better for you – even when telling the truth would decidedly prevent pain from lying, the liar may still lie, and defy explanation in doing so.

So there may be a choice that an alcoholic makes to take the first drink, but once the chemistry is altered in his brain, taking the second drink is significantly easier.  Over time, he loses his ability to choose.  Over time, he becomes an addict to alcohol.  Adam once had the ability to choose not to sin.  When he consumed the forbidden fruit, he lost the ability to say no to sin entirely.  He could war against it from then on, but was destined to lose.  Adam lost for us our dominion over ourselves.  We no longer have the ability to “just say no” to sin.  We are slaves.  We are addicts.  We have generations of our parents propensities built into our DNA, along with an environment of moral decline that has existed for over 6000 years.  We are programmed to fail in our current state.  When scripture proclaims there is not “one” who is holy outside of Christ, it states a fact of obvious observation.  So then our only real choice is “who” we wish to dominate our lives – not whether our lives will contain sin.

When we choose Christ, we learn to submit ourselves to Him.  Submission is not merely an act of acknowledgement that we require forgiveness for our past.  It is an act of surrender regarding our desperate need of a Savior in our present.  We must be saved from ourselves.  It is “I” who is the enemy of Christ.  It is “self” that must die, in order that life can be worth living.  Our surrender or submission to Christ then is about letting Christ change “who we are”.  We need to allow Him to remake what we want, what we desire, and what we love.  We need to allow Christ to teach us “how” to love, and what love really means.  We need to be willing to “let go” every shred of what we think is wisdom and instead accept what He teaches us as being truth.  Our own common sense must be abandoned in favor of trusting God.  Many times in scripture our God asks us to do things that defy common sense, and we agree miracles are performed by His great power.  The miracle of a changed life does not occur in the strength or desire of the subject, it occurs in the complete domination of a life submitted to Christ.  It is Christ’s strength that drives sin from our lives, our hearts, our minds, even our DNA.  It is Christ’s strength that is sufficient to do what cannot be done through “normal” means.  It is Christ alone who can, and “we” who can do nothing.

In this context, it does not matter whether homosexuality is brought on by choices repeated over time, or by inherent propensities of our genetics, or by the victimization of predators upon young prey.  The reason why a condition exists becomes less important than the process to reach perfection in our lives.  Gay, straight, adulterer, liar, drunkard, no matter our condition – we ALL exist in sin at the present.  And we ALL require healing.  And there is only ONE method by which healing can be attained; in the complete and total surrender to Christ.  When Christ leads, the reasons why we are in the condition we are do not matter, only that we reach the life He intended for us.  It is NOT up to us to define the sins of others, it is up to us to allow Christ to remove the sins that harbor within us.  It is not up to us to define how others must love; rather it is up to us to allow Christ to teach us what love means and how to love others without condition.  We must ALL learn to love like He loves, and not according to our own ideas on the topic.

The problem Christians truly face in questions of homosexuality is not about choices, but about judgment and condemnation.  We center our attention on a sexual sin, most of us are not confronted with, and decry it as being an abomination before God.  Yet we completely ignore the pride in our own hearts that would lead us to make these declarations.  We ignore the greater sin of self-focus in our own lives and hearts and focus only on what we believe to be aberrant in others; all this while indulging in lies, pride, avarice, greed, manipulation, and lust of another variety.  Our own cups of iniquity are overflowing while we cast dispersions and judge the motives and histories of others who are caught up in a different kind of pain and struggle than our own.  It is the world who would have us believe we should be “all we can be”.  It is the world who would have us believe we should be “true to ourselves”.  It is scripture that teaches us that “we” cannot be trusted to want the right things.  It is scripture that teaches us that our ideas of wisdom are actually folly.  It is scripture that teaches us that we can be SO much more than we are, if we are willing to allow Christ to remake us into His image once again.

The work of a follower of Christ must reflect the work of their leader.  Christ did not come to our world to condemn it, but to redeem it.  We are NOT called to condemn the sins of others, but to work for their redemption.  We must lead in this work by submitting to it ourselves FIRST.  We are not capable of witness to a life in pain, while we embrace the pain of evil in ourselves.  We are not capable of witness to how evil is defeated while we continue to war against it in our own strength, denying our need of a savior, and calling sin merely a matter of choice.  We must lead lives of submission found only in Christ before we have anything to say to the world around us.  We must see sin taken from us FIRST.  We must see sin disappear in our hearts FIRST.  We must see the clear leadership of Christ in our OWN desires, needs, wants, and love BEFORE we are qualified to talk to others about what Christ has done for us.  The process for the removal of sin, all sin, is the same.  The journeys are as different as fingerprints and DNA that make us unique.  God must reach each of us personally, if we are to be saved.  It is in our interests, and the interests of those we would wish to save, to keep from inserting “ourselves” in the process and allow Christ ALONE to do the work He alone is capable of doing.  We must learn to trust our own salvation to Him, and allow Him the freedom to do the same with others, in the manner He sees fit, in the timeline He chooses to use, and without our considered second opinions on the process at all.

If there is to be a choice at all – let it be to choose Christ and give Him the freedom to save us from ourselves.  This alone is the only “choice” worth making.