Sunday morning, June 22, 2014
Texts: Genesis 2:18-24; Mark 10:6-9
Preacher: Bill Pederson
The 221st General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) met
in Detroit, MI this week. Our congregation was honored to have one of our
own, Youth Elder Carolyn Meyers, in attendance as the Youth Advisory
Delegate of Charlotte Presbytery. It is important to note that many things
happen at General Assembly that go unnoticed because of hotter button
issues. Missions, new church development, church redevelopment,
evangelism, education, and many other aspects of being church and sharing
the gospel and nurturing the faith are considered at each General Assembly.
But the vast work of the General Assembly in strengthening
congregations and their witness to Jesus Christ goes unnoticed as the media
is attracted to decisions made on hot-button social issues. As you have read
or heard, on Thursday of this week the General Assembly voted on overtures
from its presbyteries and GA committees dealing with marriage, particularly
same-sex marriage. I think it important that we hear first today exactly what
transpired.
The General Assembly approved what is known as an “Authoritative
Interpretation” of the church’s constitution that gives Presbyterian pastors
freedom of conscience to conduct same-sex marriages in the 19 states, and
the District of Columbia, where such marriages are legal. This AI goes into
effect across the denomination today, June 22. The vote to approve this
Authoritative Interpretation passed the Assembly by 61 percent. Pastors are
under no obligation to marry same-gender couples in states where such
marriages are legal, nor are sessions under any obligation to approve their
church buildings be used for such ceremonies in states where same-gender
marriage is legal.
Second, the General Assembly passed an amendment to our Book of
Order that would change the current definition of Christian marriage from
between “a man and a woman,” to “two people, traditionally a man and a
woman.” The proposed amendment passed with a 71 percent majority. This
proposed amendment will now go to the denomination’s 172 presbyteries for
debate and vote over the rest of this year and into next spring. Affirmative
votes by a simple majority of presbyteries, 87, will be necessary to pass this
change in the definition of Christian marriage. I think it is important to hear
the exact wording of what the GA is passing down to the presbyteries:
“Marriage is a gift God has given to all humankind for the well-being of the
entire human family. Marriage involves a unique commitment between two
people (traditionally between a man and a woman) to love and support each
other for the rest of their lives. The sacrificial love that unites the couple
sustains them as faithful and responsible members of the church and the
wider community.”
There is no question that the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has been
impacted over the past 30 years by the larger societal debates over gay and
lesbian rights, particularly as those rights pertain to marriage. Within our
religious community, factions have been drawn around basically two poles –
traditionally termed conservative and liberal. The conservative view,
sometimes referred to as the biblical prescriptionist perspective tends to
interpret the words of Scripture literally and to take Scripture for what it
exactly says.
Conservative, biblical prescriptionists would argue that the Bible is
categorically opposed to same-sex marriage. For the prescriptionist, it is
clear from the Creation narrative that God made male and female for
procreative purposes and those sexual, procreative purposes must be
experienced within the context of marriage, where, as the book of Genesis
puts it, “a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the
two become one flesh.” (Genesis 2:24)
For the biblical prescriptionist Jesus upholds marriage between a man
and a woman when he restates in Mark’s gospel the Genesis passage of male
and female, husband and wife, clinging to each other and eternally married
in the eyes of God. For the biblical prescriptionist the biblical script is clear
and unequivocal: Christian marriage is between a man and a woman.
While prescriptionists view the letter of the biblical text and what it
clearly says as authoritative, theological liberals tend to interpret Scripture
through the lens of justice. The liberal, justice-oriented perspective derives
its biblical interpretation from the work and person of Jesus Christ. It
believes that Jesus embodied God’s reconciling justice for all people when
Jesus embraced women, taught children, touched the leper, engaged the
foreigner. God’s justice that Jesus embodied included the outsider, the last,
the least, and the lost as all God’s children.
From a biblical prescriptionist’s standpoint, same-gender relationships
and same-gender marriages are contrary to what the Bible clearly portrays
for sexual relationships and for Christian marriage. It believes the church
should stand firm on this biblical conviction that is time-honored and always
has been the way, it believes same-gender attraction is a choice, it believes
the church should expect gays and lesbians to repent of their sin and change
their lifestyle, and it believes that Christian marriage can only be between
one man and one woman.
The justice-oriented perspective tends to believe that same-gender
attraction is not a choice but genetically derived, it believes that the church
of Jesus Christ cannot exclude any child of God who sincerely seeks to serve
the Lord Jesus Christ and love neighbor, it believes that the church must be
open to new revelations of the truth of Jesus Christ as the Holy Spirit
engages each successive generation with the truth of Christ.
Two poles of biblical interpretation: conservative, biblical
prescriptionist; liberal, justice-oriented. When things get tough and the
debates get intense, justice-oriented folk are likely to see biblical
prescriptionists as authoritative, judgmental, dispassionate; biblical
prescriptionists are likely to see justice-oriented folk as loose with morals,
compromising Christian conviction to societal pressure, and at worst,
apostates.
Clearly, whether you agree with it or not, the justice-oriented
perspective on biblical interpretation and same-gender marriage has become
the majority view of the 221st General Assembly. It is important to note that
the General Assembly is not looking for trouble or courting public opinion.
The issue of same-gender marriage is being forced on the church from two
directions. One is internal, one is external. The external force is a
grassroots movement that has swept this country over the past five years
with amazing speed in which same-gender marriage is clearly becoming an
approved norm, with 19 states and the District of Columbia now legalizing
same-gender marriage.
The internal force shaping this debate of same-gender marriage has
come from the denomination’s approval, two years ago, of dropping
opposition to gay and lesbian ordination, for those gays and lesbians either
celibate or in committed relationships. If the church is going to allow for
gays and lesbians to be ordained, and expects them to be in committed
relationships, the church was on the clock to engage same-gender marriage
in a reasonable, biblically relevant way.
Whether coming from outside the PCUSA or inside its community,
the issue of same-gender marriage is a pastoral issue. The church has to
decide, it has to seek faithfulness in a rapidly changing societal context.
What does the church see as it looks out across our society, as it looks out
across its pews? The church sees gays and lesbians who are law-abiding,
contributing members of our society. They are young girls and young boys
struggling with their sense of sexual identity; they are teachers and lawyers,
doctors and engineers, musicians and artists, they are your neighbor, your
brother or sister, your son or daughter, your aunt, uncle, or cousin; and yes,
they are fellow members of your congregation.
What does the church have to say to these upstanding citizens, these
beloved family members, these generous contributors to society and to the
church of their time, money, and skills? Can the church of Jesus Christ say
to these people, “Because of your sexual orientation you are not welcomed
to full participation in this congregation of Jesus Christ? Because of who
you are and what you practice sexually, you are not afforded the full pastoral
care and outreach of this community of Jesus Christ?” Can the church of
Jesus Christ honestly say to such humble, gentle people, “Your sexual
orientation is an abomination, you must fundamentally change who you are
in order to be saved and to become a part of this faith community?”
The PCUSA has chosen to bring a justice-oriented biblical
interpretation and its most ardent compassion for all God’s children to bear
on this issue of same-gender marriage. And I believe it does so with a
straight face. Clearly the biblical norm is set in Genesis and upheld by Jesus
that marriage is between a man and a woman. But Jesus recognizes in
Mark’s gospel that Moses allowed for divorce because not everyone was
capable of living up to that norm of marriage.
Might the same principle be at work here with same-gender marriage?
Can the church not acknowledge, as Jesus did, that though the norm for
Christian marriage is a man and a woman bound together as one flesh, that
there are some of our brothers and sisters who cannot live up that norm; who
humbly and sincerely cannot live up to the one man one woman norm for
marriage? And if they humbly and sincerely cannot, does the church of
Jesus Christ not have the capacity to recognize and bless the contours of
Christian marriage evident between same-gender couples? The contours and
textures of a solid, faith-based marriage - fidelity, mutuality, encouragement,
financial security, enduring care?
This is a tough, tough debate. But I do believe that the church cannot
draw back into biblical prescription and shut the door in absolute, final, total
judgment against our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters. On the other
hand, the church dare not collapse into a total free for all, where Jesus’s
justice and mercy is misread and misapplied as live and let live, without any
consideration for time-honored Christian norms of behavior and morality.
I find myself personally within this tension on same-gender marriage
– trying not to shut the door and completely cut off those who seek samegender marriage, while at the same time wanting to make sure the biblical
norm for Christian marriage is not completely compromised as it is applied
to same-gender marriage. How we find faithfulness between prescription
and justice is an ongoing task of the church and its elders and ministers. For
now, I will pray for the Holy Spirit’s guidance in these matters, something
the church has done over and over again through the generations when faced
with bringing to bear ancient truth to new settings (see for example Acts 15,
especially verse 28); I will pray for the Holy Spirit’s discernment in these
matters as the church has done for generations upon generations when it has
faced the difficult task of trying to pour new wine into old wineskins.
(Matthew 9:17)