During
the past two and one half years, this church has struggled with one of
the most difficult and divisive issues of our day, the place of
practicing homosexuals in the life and ministry of the church. The
struggle has not been in the open but mostly behind the scenes.
When
I arrived eight months ago, it was my hope that we would be able to
steer a middle course. We come from so many denominational
backgrounds—perhaps as many as 35; and so many cultures—perhaps
50 different nationality groups. The debates on this subject are
tearing up major denominations: Presbyterian, Methodist, Episcopalian.
In my own denomination, The American Baptist Churches, we have had
major splits with entire regions pulling out, separating themselves
from the National body.
My hope during these months was that
we could focus on the beliefs we hold in common. There are good
Christians on both sides of this issue. Rather than divide ourselves
into two camps, why not respect the intellectual and moral integrity of
the persons on the opposite side? Wouldn’t our time and
efforts be better spent working together on our church’s main purpose:
namely, witnessing by word and deed to the love of God as seen in Jesus
Christ?
That was my strategy. But at our Semi-Annual
congregational meeting two Sundays ago, the issue was brought forward
in a way that ultimately raises the question of our stance as a church
with regard to the homosexual issue. The Church Constitution says that
the Senior Pastor shall be responsible for the spiritual guidance and
welfare of the congregation. I therefore feel it incumbent upon me to
address this issue, to provide spiritual guidance for the congregation,
and to set forth my thoughts in a way that will benefit this very
special church.
I’d like to discuss this issue from the
standpoint of our Scripture lesson. In this passage, we find
Jesus dealing with a sensitive moral situation. We begin with
John 4:5
So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near
the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s
well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down
by the well. It was about the sixth hour. [that would have been 12:00
noon] 4:7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to
her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into
the town to buy food.)
As Jesus speaks to this woman, he is
crossing a number of cultural boundaries. First, men rarely spoke to
women in public, especially a rabbi, as Jesus was considered to be. In
addition, it was thought that a Jew would become ceremonially unclean
if he used a drinking vessel handled by a Samaritan, since the Jews
held that all Samaritans were “unclean.” There was a long history of
strife between the two groups, and Jews would not even speak to
Samaritans – which is the point the woman makes: 4:9 The Samaritan
woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can
you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
It’s
impressive how Jesus ignores the cultural barriers that got in the way
of developing a relationship with this woman. He wanted to connect with
her. But there were these long-standing prejudices. These were barriers
to his mission, so Jesus simply disregarded them. He didn’t let them
get in the way of reaching out and helping this precious human being. Notice
also how Jesus immediately put this woman at ease by making a very
appealing offer to her -- Jesus answered her: John 4:10 … “If you
knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would
have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
The
Lord is offering the gift of God, not just any gift, but the gift of
living water, everlasting life. And he is also implying that he has the
authority to give this Gift of God. Jesus is obviously eager to help
this woman, to give her hope and wholeness.
But the woman
doesn’t understand, John 4:11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing
to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water?
She fails to see that Jesus is speaking of spiritual water. So,
Jesus gives this thrilling answer in v. 13-- “Everyone who drinks this
water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I
give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in
him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
Again, she
is thinking in terms of literal drinking water -She says to him, John
4:15 “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to
keep coming here to draw water.” She wants what he is offering--- “Sir,
give me this water. . . .”
And Jesus surprises us by shifting the subject to her lifestyle. Jesus says: John 4:16, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
She responds,--John 4:17 “I have no husband,”
And
Jesus agrees-- “You are right when you say you have no husband.
18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is
not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”
Jesus
has just revealed that he knows all about this women, and the
unfaithfulness in her life. And yet, our Lord has just made an offer of
eternal life to her, --to this person with all kinds of
brokenness in her life.
When Jesus started talking to her, she
had put on a face, like so many of us do. We don’t show our hurt, our
guilt, our fears to strangers. But by his words, Jesus shows us that he
is addressing the real person, the broken person behind the mask. And
his words about her past make a tremendous impact on her. She
realizes that he knew all about her, about her sin, --and yet he
offering her living water.
This is how God deals with
us—everyone of us-- with grace, unmerited mercy. She had made a mess of
her life, but Jesus did not degrade her, he did not treat her with any
disrespect; quite the contrary. He was offering God’s great gift to
her. He was opening a whole new future in which she could turn from her
broken past and begin to walk with God. What a tremendous story!
At
the same time Jesus did not ignore her background. Rather, he told her
how she had gone wrong, and that amazed the woman. She responded by
saying, “Sir, I can see that you are a prophet.” (John 4:19) That was about the highest compliment that she could have paid him.
There
may be those who would say that this was obviously a troubled woman,
but not necessarily an immoral woman. And that raises the question of
how one decides whether an action or a behavior or a way of life is
moral or immoral? The human mind has an immense capacity to rationalize
and justify any behavior. So how do we decide what is right and wrong?
Do we go with what our culture says, or do we dare go with what the
Bible says-- even when it is counter cultural?
In my view, the
Bible is a divine word sent into culture from the outside. It is given
to us to guide our lives even though it may place us in conflict with
the culture in which we live. Our Church Constitution supports this
high view of Scripture. Listen to the first sentence in Article
II, under Doctrine: “The Church recognizes the Scriptures of the Old
and New Testaments as the revelation of God in matters of faith and
practice.” Article II.
That’s a solid statement very much in
line with historic Protestant thinking and teaching. We decide what is
right and wrong in our faith and practice by turning to the Bible.
Practice refers to what is and what is not appropriate Christian
behavior.
When we look up those passages that refer to
homosexuality, we find that some of the passages are dismissed because
scholars see them as being culturally conditioned. I don’t think that
is the case for all of them. For example, the epistle passage that was
read earlier includes a reference to homosexual offenders or sodomites
(1Corinthians 6:9), and Paul was not talking about cultural issues by
was providing a long list of persons whom he called wrongdoers.
An
even more pertinent passage that identifies the practice of
homosexuality as being contrary to the purposes of God, is Romans
1:26-27. Even though some of you may disagree with this passage, I
think it is important that you hear it so that you can better
understand why some of us who are not homophobic and who welcome
friendships with homosexuals, nevertheless, cannot approve of
homosexual behavior. Let me read it to you:
Because
of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women
exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same
way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were
inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with
other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their
perversion.
This statement places us in conflict with the
culture in which we live, doesn’t it? But it is helpful to realize that
it also placed the early Christians in Rome in conflict with the
culture in which they lived. And yet, I believe that the story of Jesus
and the Samaritan woman shows us how we must respond not only to
homosexuals but to all people. I believe that Jesus would have us
be as generous to homosexuals as he was to this woman who was a
divorcee five times over and living out-of-wedlock. He would have
us be as generous to homosexuals as we are to alcoholics or to
others—struggling with this or that besetting sin in their lives.
Not
too long ago an alcoholic couldn't get accepted into the church unless
he stood up and said, “I am no longer an alcoholic.” Now, the alcoholic
can stand up and says, “Hi, my name is Bob, and I’m an alcoholic. I
struggle with the problem of alcohol daily. And I wouldn't be able to
stay sober without the AA group at your church. I can be honest there,
I can be open. I know I have the love and support of the members of my
group.”
Let me share a story told by a sociologist and Baptist
preacher by the name of Tony Campolo. Tony has a minister friend by the
name of Jim. Jim has a small church and also conducts funerals for a
local undertaker. The undertaker called him one morning. He had a man
to bury who had died of AIDS, and nobody wanted to take the funeral.
Jim took it.
He said, about 25 homosexual men came to the
funeral parlor and sat there. Never once did they look up at me. The
whole time I spoke their heads were down. They were looking at the
floor.
We went out and got in some cars and we followed the
hearse out to the cemetery, lowered the body into the grave. I stood on
one side of the grave. These 25 homosexual men were on the other side.
Standing there like statues, neither looking to the right or to the
left, looking straight out into infinity. I read some scripture. I said
some prayers. I committed the body to the grave. I said the
benediction, and I started to walk away. But they didn't move. They
stood there as though frozen. So I came back and I said, ‘Excuse me, is
there anything else I can do?’
"And one of the men said, ‘Yes. I
never go to church. Used to go to church but I don't go to church. The
only thing I really liked about church was when they read from the
Bible, especially the King James. I like the King James. You didn't
read the 23rd Psalm. I thought they always read that at funerals. Could
you read the 23rd Psalm?’"
Jim opened the Bible and read the
23rd Psalm. Another man said, "There's a passage in the 3rd chapter of
John about being born again. I like that passage."
Jim read
that. Then a third man said, "The 8th chapter of Romans, right at the
end, that's what keeps me going."And Jim read to these homosexual men.
"Neither height nor depth, neither principalities nor powers, neither
things present, nor things to come, nothing, nothing can separate us
from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
These
men wanted to hear the Bible but would never step foot inside a church
because they were convinced that church people didn’t want them in
their churches.
Dear friends, whether we agree or disagree on
this issue, let’s not allow discrimination and meanness to be directed
at people who did not choose their identity. Let’s not allow
discrimination and meanness to be directed at people who cannot get out
of their sexual orientation as easily as some would suggest.
I
am not preaching approval. I am preaching acceptance, the kind of
acceptance our Lord extended to the Samaritan woman. By his actions, he
taught us that if there is going to be change of behavior, it can only
happen in the context of love.
I’ve titled this sermon “Open
and Faithful!” It is my prayer that The congregation of the American
Church in Paris can be as “Open” as our Lord was! Welcoming,
befriending, accepting. And it is also my prayer that the congregation
of the American Church in Paris will be “Faithful” to the teaching of
our Lord. Which teaching? To all of his teachings, --but especially to
The New Commandment that he gave on Holy Thursday: when he told
us to love one another even as he has loved us. (John 13:34). We
want to have open arms for everyone. Are there any boundaries? Yes! And
we will differ on this. But I don’t believe Scripture allows us
to make homosexuality a normative behavior. But our emphasis is
not on the boundaries, our emphasis is on the open arms.
Let me
say how necessary it is for us to respect each other even if we have
differences on this matter. We belong together –those of us who
are members of the American Church in Paris and others of us who love
this church -- even if we don't agree on an issue as crucial as this
one. This issue should not destroy the fellowship. A difference of
opinion should not alienate us from one another. Let us be one in
Christ Jesus.
That is our essence at the ACP: our oneness in
Christ,-- not our diversity of beliefs. The essence of the ACP is our
unity—unity in the midst of diversity.
Let’s be determined to
stay together. Let’s be determined to love each other. Let’s stay with
our great purpose: to bear witness by word and deed to the love of God
as revealed in Jesus Christ.
Jesus tells us that the world
will know we are Christians by our love. May that be the essence of the
American Church in Paris: our love for one another and for all who
desire to join with us in the worship God. Amen.
