Full members of the church of Christ

The following sermon was preached in chapel on Tuesday, August 25th by Courtney Wilder


Good morning!
Our text today, from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, is a stirring and dramatic section of his letter, full of advice to followers of Jesus about how to stand firm against evil. The whole armor of God: that is a magnificent image of protection and unity. He reassures his congregation, and then asks for their prayers as he goes about his work, boldly proclaiming the gospel.
I want to put this part of Paul’s letter in conversation with another of his letters, this one written to the Galatians. He writes in Chapter 3:26-28, “for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. 27As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” I love this passage, and I think I quote it in about half of my sermons.
Earlier this month I attended a conference of Lutheran teaching theologians. We spent three days talking and thinking about Paul, and it was so useful and illuminating for me to get a chance to listen to and ask questions of the many New Testament scholars who were present. One of the nuances about Paul that I hadn’t fully appreciated until then is how hard he worked to eliminate divisions between people in the early Christian community. He argued that you don’t have to be born into Judaism to follow Christ. You don’t have to be a Gentile. You don’t have to keep kosher, or follow the ritual practices of Judaism. You don’t have to be circumcised. You don’t have to be rich, or educated, or free. We’re not all the same, but each of us is beloved by Christ.
If you’ve had very many classes with me, or if you’ve paid attention to the work of the recent ELCA churchwide assembly, you might see where I’m headed here. If not, stick with me for a minute.
If you were raised in the ELCA, and you’re deeply interested in church governance, or if you or your parents or pastor feel strongly about whether openly gay and lesbian people with partners ought to be ordained, you probably listened carefully and eagerly for news of the latest ELCA gathering. I know I did. If you weren’t raised in the ELCA, or don’t pay a whole lot of attention to this issue, or if you have been busy starting college this last week, you might not be up to date on this conversation.
It has been a controversial issue for years now, and has recently come to a head. Some folks feel strongly that if an ELCA pastor is gay or lesbian, he or she must agree to be celibate, just as unmarried straight pastors are required to be celibate. Some folks feel as though this denies gay and lesbian clergy the opportunity to have families, and refuses to recognize committed, monogamous relationships between people who typically aren’t allowed to marry. At the heart of this discussion, of course, is the larger question of how the ELCA sees gay and lesbian people – as less than their heterosexual brothers and sisters, as unrepentant sinners, as disobedient to God, or as full and equal members of the body of Christ.
This week, the ELCA has voted, as a church body, to ordain gay and lesbian pastors in committed relationships. What does this mean for us, as a church? Let’s look back to our text for today for a moment. Paul tells the Ephesians, and through them he tells us, “Stand therefore, and fasten the belt of truth around your waist, and put on the breastplate of righteousness.” He tells us to be strong in our struggle, to arm ourselves with the truth and to know that God will protect us.
This might not be a popular decision in some parts of the church. I am confident there will be schisms. I don’t take any joy in the anger or disappointment of those who opposed this change, and I am praying daily for peace and wholeness in our denomination. I am so glad that there are provisions in this recent decision for each person’s conscience to be respected and honored.
The refrain I have heard, and expect to hear in weeks to come, is this: But the Bible says it’s wrong to be gay! I appreciate people’s strong desire to read and follow the word of God; I don’t take that task lightly.
My response to this concern is twofold: one, whatever else the Bible says about homosexuality, and I’m not at all convinced we can always tell, the Bible does not say that faithful and committed lifelong relationships between people of the same sex are sinful. The Bible does not address this situation at all. It’s possible this wasn’t a social reality when the Bible was written; what we do see in the text are somewhat vague references to specific sexual acts, including abuses of other people, and not condemnations of relationships, or of what we as 21st Century folks call gay and lesbian people.
Two, and I mean this seriously even though it sounds flip: the Bible says a lot of things. In his letter to Philemon, the Apostle Paul argues in favor of slavery, which Christians in this country used for generations as justification for owning other human beings. Now we are rightly horrified by the idea of slavery, and by Christians who defended it with the Bible.
The letter of I Timothy, written by a follower of Paul, reads in Chapter 2: “… women should dress themselves modestly and decently in suitable clothing, not with their hair braided, or with gold, pearls, or expensive clothes, 10but with good works, as is proper for women who profess reverence for God. 11Let a woman* learn in silence with full submission. 12I permit no woman* to teach or to have authority over a man;* she is to keep silent.” Although some denominations interpret this passage very strictly, most mainline Christian churches, even those that do not ordain women, do not think that women should be prohibited from speaking in church or from teaching. I presume that most of us in this room at this moment agree.
What does this mean for us? It means that the Holy Spirit is still working. Revelation is still happening. Our understanding of God’s will for us as Christian people is still growing and changing. We are asking new questions, about new situations, and God’s word is still relevant for us today. Today, we’re asking: what does marriage mean? What does love mean? How does God want us to treat other human beings, other Christians, other members of our church, our community, our school?
I am so proud to be part of a church that says, gay and lesbian people are full members of the church of Christ. They are not less than. Their partnerships are gifts from God, just as the partnerships of straight people are. You don’t have to be straight to be called by God to ordained ministry. This is a church that has spoken up for justice, that has proclaimed boldly, after the example set by the Apostle Paul, that all are welcome, all are equal, all are beloved by God. As my pastor said from her pulpit last Sunday, “Halleluiah.” This is the belt of truth that we are fastening about our waists; this is the church that we will proclaim boldly.
Paul’s words from the end of our text for today give us our next instructions. He writes, “Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints. 19Pray also for me, so that when I speak, a message may be given to me to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel,* 20for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it boldly, as I must speak.”
Amen.