If you followed the news of General Convention, you probably know that on July 14, the convention voted overwhelmingly to lift the ban on ordaining gay/lesbian bishops that had been in place for the last three years, since the last General Convention. The ban was enacted three years ago as an attempt to reduce the anxiety of the members of the Episcopal Church here in the US and the Anglican Communion world-wide surrounding the question of whether people who are living in homosexual relationships should be ordained. A companion issue, also under suspension was whether the church should develop an official blessing ceremony for “same-sex unions” as it has for marriages between a man and woman.
Unfortunately, during our 3-year ban on ordaining gay or lesbian bishops, the tensions in the church did not improve. The hope was that churches around the world would be able to reach more of a mutual understanding of how to proceed. In spite of many faithful efforts along those lines, there was also a lot of name-calling and accusation about people not taking the Bible seriously or not letting the Spirit lead the Church into new understandings of such matters, depending on your point of view. Individuals, congregations, and a few Dioceses continued to leave the Episcopal Church over the question of who should and should not be ordained, and especially who should be a Bishop, since Bishops carry forward the apostolic succession and represent the whole church.
During the three year period, Bishops from other nations were expected to agree not to try to interfere in the internal matters of other dioceses, but this behavior continued. There are now churches and dioceses located in North America who have declared that their Bishops are in Argentina or Nigeria. These odd arrangements caused one cartoonist on an Anglican Communion commentary website to draw a bishop reaching his long arm halfway around the world to pluck a church out of the U. S.
The report on the convention vote by the New Your Times stated that other churches are looking to the Episcopal Church “as a bellwether.” I had to double check the meaning of that word to see if it meant sort of like a barometer—like ‘can we take the pressure or will we crack under the strain.’ But, I learned that a bellwether is an old English word for the sheep that leads the flock and has a bell tied around its neck! This seems to me to be a very great honor bestowed on the Episcopal Church by the Holy Spirit, to lead to way by being a church where all baptized persons have equal opportunity to be ordained leaders in the church.
The sermon on July 19 was on the wonderful text from the letter to the Ephesians (2: 11-22):
“Now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is the hostility between us…that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it. So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.”
The letter writer (St. Paul or one of his followers) was referring to the deep divisions between Jews and Gentiles over the customs of circumcision and purity prescribed by ancient Jewish law. The Jews regarded circumcision and keeping all the ancient laws as the only way to be faithful to their covenant with God; so pagan Gentiles were regarded as hopelessly impure and alienated from God’s love.
For their part, the ancient civilized world of Greeks and Romans viewed the Jewish people as barbarians who insisted on performing a strange mutilation on all their males. The Greeks thought that the Jewish custom of circumcision was so disgusting that they wouldn’t even allow Jewish athletes to compete in the Olympic games (which were played in the nude in those days) because they were deformed, mutilated, impure.
St. Paul captures the notion of how the two groups viewed each other with his words “hostility”, dividing wall, aliens.
Isn’t this how it can feel in our society with the tension between straight and gay/lesbian lifestyles? Hostility, dividing wall, alien, unnatural—each side views the other with suspicion if not fear. We have been a long way from that promised state of peace with “those who are far off and those who are near.”
Of course, being the leaders in a wave of Christian renewal is not going to be easy, even when we are inspired by the Holy Spirit. The letter to the Ephesians can help us understand that Christ puts to death on the cross all the divisions that break the world into lost, forlorn pieces. That He truly does create a single, new humanity in himself by his dying and rising, burying the divisions between gay and straight along with barriers between Jew and Gentile; male and female, rich and poor; near and far.
This concept is vital to our theology, our Christology—our understanding of Christ and the role of the cross in our salvation. Our faith holds the awesome truth that something new and wonderful begins at the cross when Christ creates “ in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, reconciling both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it.”
This is grand and wonderful good news, but we need to consider how it affects us in our daily lives together in the household of God that we call St. Martin’s. Even though as a parish St. Martin’s is brilliantly reconciling and affirming of people without regard to their sexual orientation, we need to understand and be aware of how these issues are affecting the church--tearing it apart, as a news report says.
Even among ourselves here at St. Martin’s we are bound to have a range of opinions and many questions on these subjects and the actions of our national church, and we need to be able to communicate with one another. Of course at the heart of the ordination question is the issue of whether both hetero- and homo-sexual preferences are natural and blessed by God; or is the expression of homosexual love forbidden by the Bible and considered a sin? If you are not sure about what the Bible has to say on these topics or why (as with so many things) denominations and individuals disagree, don’t be afraid to ask. You are welcome to come to talk to me or to join a study group that we will start in the fall (Wednesday nights) to study the Biblical perspectives on sexuality. There is no obligation to accept a particular perspective—that is why we engage in Bible study as a community effort—to share our views, not to conform them.
As members of a church in a leadership role, we need to be able to share our point of view with the rest of the world—we need evangelism or mission, if you prefer, or just plain compassion for our friends and neighbors who are so bogged down in the struggle with the morals of sexual preference and its Biblical guidelines that they are completely alienated from their churches and even from their God. You know there are many individuals in our community who are wounded because their churches have rejected themselves or their loved ones. As St. Paul says, “the aliens, strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.”
If you know people who are struggling with these questions, bring them with you to church or to Bible study. We don’t expect everyone to become Episcopalians, but we can make a difference to many people in a hurting world by sharing our church’s perspective. Walter Brueggemann says, “Something new begins when God’s powerful love and loving power are acted out.” Amen to that and on to action!
Blessings,
Winnie+
