Today’s Sabbath

Wow, I haven’t been here for a while! I’ve been running a bunch of stuff over in my head lately though, and it all came to a head as I was writing this weeks sermon, in which Jesus reminded folk what the Sabbath was all about — and it got me thinking about marriage, gender issues, and really the stuff that Christians seem to have been putting way too much effort into lately.

This week, a group of predominantly Southern Baptists put out a statement (creatively called the “Nashville Statement”, as it was written in Nashville) confronting LGBTQ* issues from the conservative Christian perspective. I have two major issues with their statement, but really they’re both the same issue.

First, I think this statement will cause harm to people who are LGBTQ*. It gives more ammunition for those folk who use the Bible as a weapon to abuse people who identify in this way — and that abuse can be physical, emotional, spiritual, or any combination of the three. It will add further turmoil for those folk who seek to reconcile their “queerness” with their faith, as they now see this statement that tells them they are especially sinful and cannot be accepted without changing something that is part of their core being.

Second, and theologically worse than the first (though much more minor in a “human suffering” sense), is the elevation of doctrine regarding LGBTQ* issues to the same level as the deity of Jesus, the resurrection, or the Trinity. You might think I’m exaggerating there, but here’s the direct quote from Article 10 of the Nashville Statement: (full text here)

WE AFFIRM that it is sinful to approve of homosexual immorality or transgenderism and that such approval constitutes an essential departure from Christian faithfulness and witness.
WE DENY that the approval of homosexual immorality or transgenderism is a matter of moral indifference about which otherwise faithful Christians should agree to disagree.

That’s … big. To affirm LGBTQ* is to not be a Christian. That is a huge line to draw in the sand and one that I think is a disturbingly incorrect jump to make.

This is about that disturbingly presumptive leap.

Here’s the deal, when it comes to LGBTQ*, the Bible is a lot less clear than folk on either side of this would like to admit. When it comes to people who are transgender, genderqueer, intersex, or similar, the Bible is quite silent on the matter. There is a verse in Deuteronomy about cross-dressing, but that’s in the Old Covenant that Christ fulfilled — we are living in a New Covenant in his Blood, after all. Much of the Christian response comes from God creating humanity male and female in Genesis 1:27, but to expand that to transgender issues is entirely interpretation. It’s simply not something that the Bible talked about.

When it comes to homosexuality, the issue is also more muddled than either side would like to admit. The sin of Sodom, often said to be homosexual acts by the people there, is specifically said in Ezekiel 16:49-50 to be “She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed, and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. They were haughty and did detestable things before me.” So there’s that one. The two condemnations in Leviticus are similarly challenging for the same reason as the cross-dressing bit in Deuteronomy; we live under the New Covenant and not the Old.

So that brings us to the New Testament — especially Paul’s letters. Now before we dive into this, I want to first quote a thing from the Didache, or, in its longer title, The teaching of the Lord through the twelve apostles to the Gentiles. This is an early Christian work, most likely from the first century, and is kind of a “holiness primer” for the Christian. It summarizes a lot of Jesus’ teaching from the gospels, a bit from Paul’s letters, and some just general good advice for Christians. (Including, I believe, a one-off about not aborting a fetus or killing a child that is born. This is one of the earliest Christian references to abortion I’m aware of.)

Anyhow, the second paragraph/section starts like this: “Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not engage in pederasty, do not engage in sexual immorality.” It continues later in section 5: “And the path of death is this. First of all it is evil and filled with a curse: murders, adulteries, passions, sexual immoralities, robberies, idolatries, feats of magic, sorceries, rapacious acts, false testimonies, hypocrisies, split affection, deceit, arrogance, malice, insolence, greed, obscenity, jealousy, impertinence, pride, haughtiness, irreverence.” Note the conspicuous lack of mention of homosexual practices, excepting of course the inherently consent-less act of pederasty.

That in mind, let’s look at the clobber verses. Romans 1 is always brought up as saying homosexuality is unnatural, but this is the opening statement of an argument leading up to “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. Some early fathers thought it referred to homosexual behavior in general, others that it was about pagan cultic behavior, and others that it is about certain heterosexual behavior. It’s just … fuzzy.

1 Corinthians 6 and 1 Timothy 1 are popular as well, because “homosexuality” is included in a list of things that are bad, but — what do they mean by that? Does it mean abusive pederasty? Does it mean cultic prostitution? Or does it mean homosexual acts in general? It’s complicated, in large part because ancient Rome did not typically view homosexuality in the same way that Modern society does. There are 2,000 years and many more miles of cultural difference to sort through.

And that is why the Nashville Statement frustrates me so very much. They elevate an issue that the Bible lacks clarity on (and therefore, in my opinion, must be subject to interpretation) and makes it into a dividing line among Christians and a point of suffering for people who are LGBTQ*.

So what does all this have to do with Jesus’ teaching on the Sabbath? Well, in Matthew 12, when confronted with an accusation of breaking God’s Law, Jesus says, “If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not condemn the innocent.” Jesus is particularly saying this in response to being told his disciples were picking grain on the Sabbath. He then followed it up by doing “work” on the Sabbath, and healing a man with a disability in the middle of church, saying, “It is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”

In my sermon Sunday, I’ll draw the connection between Jesus’ teaching on the Sabbath and our view of Sacrament — that it’s important not to keep something so holy that we end up missing the point of that thing. Holy Communion, as an example, is meant to be a vehicle through which we receive grace and forgiveness; if we have to keep ourselves pure in order to take the Sacrament, why have it at all? Communion is for sinners to come forward and be made worthy to take the Sacrament through the very work of Christ that is worked in us as we take the Sacrament. Like the people of Jesus time needed to be reminded not to make the Sabbath so important that we forget why it exists, we need to be reminded not to make the Sacraments so important that we forget why they exist.

The Nashville Statement is an example of making something too important. The distinct lack of Scriptural clarity regarding LGBTQ* issues makes these issues something that should never be used as a litmus test in defining “true Christianity”. Indeed, Jesus himself tells us the mark of a “true Christian” in John 13: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”