Sermon for the 14th of July - Seventh Sunday after Trinity

I wonder what you think about the contradictory and scandalous parts of the Bible.

Psalm 2:12 [God’s] wrath is quickly kindled

Psalm 103.8 The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

Psalm 137: "You devastator! Happy shall they be who pay you back what you have done to us! Happy shall they be who take your little ones and dash them against the rock!"

1 John 4.7 ‘Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God’.

The Bible is a mixed bag. It contains the whole range of human experience. And it doesn’t have a single colour to its understanding of God and the world: it’s a spectrum of colours.

And as we seek to understand the Bible, its often the religious professional – priests – who get it wrong! Thankfully in the UB, it’s comforting to know that you won’t blindly accept what I say in my sermons!

If it’s the priests who stray from the path of God and get fixated on rules, it’s the prophets who were unafraid to ask difficult, uncomfortable questions. They challenge the status quo. The prophets gave plumb lines - or barometers, in discerning what is good and right and wise.

The prophet Amos spoke out against the current state of life in Israel where the people ignored the poor, the widow, the alien, and the orphan. And, Israel's religious leaders sanctioning the political and economic status quo. 

John the Baptist was another prophetic figure who challenged Herod’s immoral decisions. Herod had him arrested and beheaded. Speaking the truth to power is a dangerous business.

As Christians, inspired by the prophets, we are impelled by the Gospel to speak out, despite the cost this will entail. This might mean challenging systems or attitudes at work; it also means speaking out about injustices within the church.

There will be differences of opinion on this but, in my view, the issue over women in ordained ministry brought out a number of prophetic voices. Rowan Williams explained that he changed his mind 35 years ago.

He admitted that the ordination of women had strained the unity of the Church of England and derailed any hope of organic union with the Catholic or Orthodox Churches. But he insisted that the alternative would have exacted an even higher price - a festering injustice. It would have meant stifling his deeply considered theological and prayerful sense of what was right and true.

The Church of England is currently agonising over the offer of some simple prayers of blessing for same-sex couples. Like re-marrying divorcées, this is left to the conscience of each priest. No priest is compelled to offer these prayers. As a PCC, we discussed our response. Being a signed up member of Inclusive Church, it won’t surprise you that we are affirming of these prayers. We want to be a church which celebrates and affirms every person and doesn’t discriminate.

Yes, but what does the Bible say! Well, as just highlighted, the Bible contains a mixture of views. Conservative Christians who oppose same-sex relationships point to what the theologian Walter Brueggemann calls texts of rigour. These are clear in denouncing same-sex relationships. If you solely focus on these text of rigour – and there aren’t many of them – then you have to denounce same-sex relationships.

Lev. 18:22: ‘You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.’

Deut. 23:1 ‘No one whose testicles are crushed or whose penis is cut off shall be admitted to the assembly of the Lord.’

This text concerns those who had willingly become eunuchs in order to serve in foreign courts. For those who want it simple and clear and clean, these texts will serve well.   There is a big however. Brueggemann affirms that Bible doesn’t speak with a single voice on any topic. And we have to listen to all of its voices. He points to the many texts of welcome.

The prophetic poetry of Isaiah (56:3-8) is an exact refutation of the prohibition in Deuteronomy 23:1:

Do not let the eunuch say, “I am just a dry tree.” For thus says the Lord… I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off … for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.

This text issues a grand welcome to those who have been excluded, so that all are gathered in by this generous gathering God.

In Galatians, St Paul affirms inclusive welcome, without distinction:

There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male or female; for all of you are one in Christ (Gal. 3:28).

In short, there are no ethnic distinctions, no class distinctions and no gender distinctions. None of that makes any difference “in Christ,” that is, in the church.

It’s worth being honest and acknowledging that it’s impossible to reconcile the texts of rigour and the texts of welcome. The Bible speaks with different voices, some contradictory, written over thousands of years, and in a cultural context totally different from today.

Just as eunuchs, women, gentiles, the impure (those with diseases), were previously excluded from worship in the Bible, there is a clear movement in Scripture towards greater inclusion and welcome. And this is the way I look at scripture today. I see that movement continuing, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, helping us become even better at welcoming and including.

This is the prophetic challenge facing the church today. The Church of England had to learn to welcome and include people from racially diverse backgrounds and women in ministry. The time has come to face the same gospel reality about LGBTQ persons – the time has come welcome them as first-class honoured citizens in the community of faithfulness and justice.  And welcomed by the God of love who excludes no one.