Out on a Limb:

Homosexuality, God, the Church . . . You and Me

October 7, 1994

John 1:14-17                                                                              Ralph DiBiasio-Snyder

          I want to begin my sermon with a compliment to you, First Congregational Church.  My compliment is that you are here today.  Knowing what I'm going to talk about!  Let's face it: Homosexuality is not something most of us want to talk about - especially in the church, on a Sunday morning!  In fact, in many churches in this town, the topic would be a forbidden one.  But here several people have told me how sorry they were to be out of town today, and wanted to have copies of the sermon to read later.  Not because they expected a good sermon; but because you are a congregation that wants to deal openly and honestly with the issues of our day, even one as emotionally loaded and potentially divisive as gays and lesbians in the church.

          Emotionally loaded.  Because of fears and misinformation and stereotypes that surround it. Because it somehow touches something very deep within us, questions about sexuality in general.

          Potentially divisive.  Because it is so emotional, and because certain Biblical passages and the church at large condemn homosexuality.  Battle lines are quickly drawn in this debate, and our fears turn those lines into walls, and people are rejected and hurt, some of them our own children.

          If the issue is so emotionally loaded and potentially divisive, then why in God's name do I raise it here in the church?  Why not leave well enough alone?

          We raise it first because society is raising it.  Our courts, our legislatures, even our military institutions are all wrestling with issues of civil rights for homosexual people.    The secular world is raising the issue and as citizens of this world we need to deal with it. 

          But the church is struggling with it too. Twenty years ago the United Church of Christ identified the issue of including gays and lesbians in the church as a critical issue for the UCC.  Last June the annual meeting of the Wisconsin Conference was dedicated entirely to exploring the issue.  As you may or may not know, the UCC is the only major denomination I know that allows openly homosexual people to be ordained.  Those are good reasons for us to talk about the issue.  But there is a much more compelling reason.

          Writing in his church newsletter this summer one Wisconsin pastor say,

"In 20th century America it can be painful to be gay or lesbian. . . . Some of God's children are suffering at the hands of others; discriminated against, threatened, denied civil rights and beaten.  Christ calls us to respond to the cries of our neighbors. And gay and lesbian persons are hurt enough to cry out." 

After suffering in silence for so long, some are now able to tell us their pain, and look to the church - their church - for a response.  We must talk about the issue because men and women within our churches are calling us to.  And do we who call ourselves "Christian" really have a choice?  I think not.  Not if we are faithful.  So let us talk.  Let us break the silence in the church about homosexuality.

          But where does one begin?  Let me begin with a story; a story about my own journey, a journey of change in how I have come to think about homosexuality.  Twenty years ago, when I was in seminary and knew everything, I believed the conventional wisdom that said that being a homosexual was a choice that people made, and it was a sinful choice.  I thought people could and should change - be "healed" of their condition - given enough effort and prayer and faith.  I had a friend who was gay, and he too believed that he needed to be and could be changed.  And he tried.  He prayed.  He read his Bible, he studied, and thought and talked with others about it.  He went into therapy.  He joined a support group.  He worked very hard at his faith, working in his church, in his profession. I do not think I have ever known a person more diligent in his faith.  In desperation along the way he even submitted to a baptism or two, and to an exorcism at the hands of Christians who said his homosexuality was the result of demon possession. 

          He prayed, he believed, he worked.  He was not changed.  But over the years as I watched and shared in his agony, his experience forced me to question my assumptions.  What I would like to do today is to take you along with me on that journey of changing my thinking.  I invite you to listen to what I have heard, and see what you think of it! Please understand that these issues are complex and demand hours of discussion.  This is but a beginning.  But we must begin somewhere and sometime; it may as well be here and now.

          We Protestants whenever we have sought to know the mind of God in a matter have traditionally looked to three major sources.  We have always looked to Scripture, to reason and experience, and to one another.  We look first to the Bible as the written Word, a witness to how God has been revealed in the past; in the written Word we find especially Jesus the Christ.  And secondly we look to our own reason and experience in the world; that is, we look for God's guidance in reality around us.  And then we look to the Body of Christ, the gathered community of faith - to one another - believing that it is here that the Living Word, the Spirit of God speaks through our brothers and sisters.  So let me tell you what I think I hear about homosexuality in the Bible, in reason, and in the Body of Christ, the church.  Let's begin first with the Bible!

          . . . where many would say our search will end quickly and clearly and decisively!  What does "the Bible" say about homosexuality?  Way back in the book of Leviticus in the midst of page after page of laws (Leviticus 20:13) there is a verse that condemns sexual relations between males.  In fact, it prescribes the death penalty for it.  Leviticus prescribes stoning or burning for quite a number of things, as a matter of fact!  We'll come back to that in a minute.  For now let us say that homosexual behavior is condemned in the Hebrew Scriptures.

          In the New Testament, Paul weighs in clearly against homosexual behavior.  In the first chapter of Romans he says that homosexuality is the result of rebellion against God.  He calls homosexual behavior "shameless acts," the result of a "base mind."

          "Well," some will say, "That settles it!  The Bible says it's wrong!"  So I thought, when I thought the Bible was a pretty simple, easy to understand book of rules.  But you and I know that it is not so easy as that.  Those who say they believe the Bible from cover to cover either have not read it all, or are using the Reader's Digest condensed version! 

          If you want to say that the law in Leviticus that condemns homosexuality is God's eternal opinion on the subject, you'd better be willing to also say that you are ready to stone your gay and lesbian neighbors.  That's in there too!  Along with laws that say we should stone or burn a whole bunch of other people!  And while you're at it let's go after the pork farmers who produce that forbidden food.  And don't wear clothing made of two kinds of clothe, and you men shouldn't trim the edges of your beards.  The list could go on and on.  Such laws are all there, right beside the prohibition against homosexuality.  And it's NOT clear which of these many laws are God's law for today.

          But isn't the New Testament more plain?  It is plain that Paul condemns homosexual behavior.  He said it was "against nature."  But this is the same man who said that it is against nature for men to have "long hair."  Who said that it is shameful for women to pray with their head uncovered (I don't notice many hats on you women today!).  Who said that women in fact shouldn't speak at all in church.  Whose advice to slaves was to obey their masters.  You see the problem?  Which of these opinions are God's and which are Paul's?

          We went beyond mere biblical literalism 150 years ago when we saw that slavery is an unjust and morally bankrupt practice, despite a few verses in Paul's letters.  And we Congregationalists went beyond mere biblical literalism 140 years ago when we ordained the first woman in this country, despite a few sentences by Paul.  We cannot simply recite a few verses and think we have "the biblical" answer.  It's not that easy.  I wish it were!  Our task is to hear in the Bible the overarching, timeless truths of God, principles grounded in Christ that will guide us to the "mind of Christ."

          William Sloane Coffin makes this insightful comment on the Bible and homosexuality: "The problem is not how to reconcile homosexuality with [Bible] passages that condemn it, but rather how to reconcile the rejection and punishment of homosexuals [we practice] with the love of Christ.  It can't be done."   He points out that many people like to use the Bible the same way a drunk uses a light post: more for support than for illumination!  That is, they look to the Bible to hold up their opinions rather than seek for truth in the light of the biblical witness.  It is a good warning to all of us.

          Is the Bible of no use then in the matter?  Oh, it is of great use!  For in it we read of Christ and his great love.  For us ever and always the starting point must be Christ, and in that light all other Scripture is interpreted and judged. It is in Christ that we see the grace of God extended to all people.  It is in Christ that we find what one writer has called the "deep roots" of the Bible, the overriding principles of love and respect, of understanding and grace, of truth and faithfulness.  It is those great principles - the law of Christ, the law of love - that ought to inform our beliefs about homosexuality, rather than mere recitation of a few texts. 

          Let us go on to the second avenue of thinking about this issue: reason and experience.   When we think of "reason" we often think of "science."  Does the world of biology have anything to say about homosexuality?  You have probably read in recent years about research that is being done, and there have been studies suggesting that there is a biological reason why we are hetero- or homosexual in orientation.  There is great debate about this, and apparently no compelling proof or consensus as yet.  The question everyone wants answered is "Is homosexuality determined by one's physical/chemical make-up - in-born, as such - or is it a learned behavior?"  The jury is still out - and perhaps will always be.  We may not know the scientific reasons.        What we do know, based on the experience of and testimony of gay and lesbian people, is that they did not choose their sexual orientation.  The homosexual people I have known have universally said that.  It's not as though someone decides to be gay, thus joining one of the most persecuted and despised minority groups in the world!  It is simply part of who they are, just as for most of us being heterosexual is part of who we are.  And that, it seems to me, must play an important part in the discussion. If God has made me heterosexual, has not God made another person homosexual?

          But follow me on now to the last source of guidance: the Body of Christ, the church, where we listen for the Living Word made flesh in Christ and in our brothers and sisters in the faith.  We believe that it is in the community of faith that the Spirit of God lives, and continues to speak.  And in recent years new voices have begun to speak, faithful Christian people within the church - gay and lesbian people have begun to raise their voices. What are they saying?

          They are saying that they are here among us, and have always been here!  They are saying that they are beloved children of God, just as we all are, struggling to keep the faith and to live caring and giving lives.  They are saying that they are people just like us, that they are not the predators that we say they are.  Nor are they the outrageous stereotypes portrayed in the news media.  They are people who look just like us, who work in their professions, who struggle just as we do with life and faith, who have hopes and dreams and ideals.  In fact, they are us.  They are our sons and our daughters; our aunts and uncles, our neighbors, our co-workers, our friends.

          And they are telling us of their hurt and their loneliness.  They are telling us that growing up in our churches they could tell no difference between the world's rejection of them and the church's rejection.  They are telling us of their anger: anger that they are not welcomed in our churches, where ironically we speak so freely of grace and love and unconditional acceptance. And so they are calling us - all of us - to really be the church of Christ.  I believe that the Spirit of Christ today is calling us to rethink how we have used the Scriptures; it is inviting is to talk about and reason about homosexuality in light of what we have learned about it and what gay and lesbian people tell us about their experience; and the Spirit is speaking through our own people to think anew about these matters.

          These are hard questions.  I struggle with them, as my journey continues.  I invite you to struggle with them as well.  To conclude let me make some practical suggestions for us all.     Let us first continue think about the issues, and talk about them with one another.  Read about it, not only from a scientific and sociological aspect, but from a faith perspective as well.  Wrestle with the biblical texts.  Be courageous to ask these questions, asking God to guide us.  May our prayer be that God "save us from cowardice that dares not face new truth, [from] laziness content with half-truth, [from] arrogance that thinks it knows all truth." (Coffin)

          But let us be sure that we don't do this thinking and talking purely in the abstract.  Do what you can to deal with this issue through real live, caring, faithful people who are themselves gay or lesbian.  Listen to their stories.  Listen to their faith.  Try to feel what they have felt.  Several years ago we had a educational series on this, and had several gay and lesbian people come to share their stories.  Perhaps it is time to do that again.

          And let us talk to our children and young people.  Both to counteract the deep prejudice and bigotry that so fills our society against gays and lesbians, but  also so that the gay and lesbian young people in our church, our community, our families will not feel condemned, abandoned, and alone, left to their ignorance.