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Sexuality
SERMON - 10.15am, Emmanuel Church, Pokfulam, Hong Kong
Sunday 24th June 2007
Revd. Matthew Vernon
Peter is a friend of mine in England.
He is a wonderful man;
• a kind and thoughtful priest.
We were ordained together 10 years ago.
Before I to Hong Kong, Peter and I had lunch each month.
Peter's first job was in small town in the South of England called Haslemere.
Haslemere is a fairly traditional kind of place,
• with lots of conservative minded people
• of right wing politics
• and sober dress,
• plenty of tweed jackets!
So when Peter got his ear pierced it created a bit of a stir in the parish.
At one of our lunches, I tongue-in-cheek congratulated him on being a modern John the Baptist –
• for stirring it up a bit and challenging the well to do of Haslemere,
• who could be a bit complacent.
Well, Peter's earring was as storm in a tea cup compared to when he came out and told the parish he was gay.
A gay priest in conservative, small town England.
The parish had no idea because Peter was married with two children.
If I'm honest, it took me by surprise too.
Peter, on the other hand, had known that he was gay for many years.
His church background was evangelical and conservative on issues of sexuality.
To be gay was wrong,
• a sin,
• unacceptable in the eyes of God.
As Peter grew up, he learnt to suppress his true self in order to fit in with his church's view.
In that environment he believed he would become heterosexual through living a heterosexual life.
He married Tracy and started a family.
But you can't hide the truth for ever
• and so his dramatic coming out.
Peter is mature and sensible,
• so there was no great, camp scene
• or running off with a lover.
And the parish were wonderful about it.
Whatever they thought personally,
• and I imagine some were deeply uncomfortable,
• they were supportive and accepting.
Peter continued as one of their priests until a couple of years later when it was time to move on.
"There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus."
Wonderful words from the second reading this morning, from the Letter to the Galatians.
In Christ "there is no Jew or Greek, no male or female, no slave or free".
• To which I add "no straight or gay".
In Christ all God's children,
• including gay and lesbian people,
• are full and equal members of Christ's Church.
I'm proud that Peter is my friend
• and proud to have known him during his coming out.
I'm proud too that our Bishop at the time, Bishop John, supported him.
Other bishops in England would have sent him packing.
Like the scene in the excellent film "Priest'.
A young priest is gay and is beaten up.
His Bishop visits him in hospital,
• as any good bishop would.
The bishop gives him a bunch of grapes
• and offers the loving, Christian words, "get the hell out of my diocese".
There are many gay Christians who have tried to become acceptable to God by denying who they truly are.
Peter was lucky.
For many years he convinced himself that he could be heterosexual,
• but his "treatment" didn't include what so many other gay Christians have endured:
• electric shock therapy
• or being bombarded with pornography.
Why have they endured that?
Because of the message the church has given them:
• God does not love you as you are,
• you need to be completely and fundamentally different before God will love you.
An appalling and despicable message.
And deeply unchristian.
For Christianity says God's love for us is unconditional.
There is nothing we can do to make God love us more
• and there is nothing we can do to make God love us less.
It's the message of the Letter to the Galatians:
• "in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith."
We are not acceptable to God by what we do, by fulfilling the law,
• we are acceptable to God because of God's grace and mercy
• shown in Christ Jesus.
Sexuality is an emotive and complicated issue for Christians.
I'm sure there are a wide range of feelings about it here at Emmanuel.
There are of course a huge range of views in the worldwide church
• and sexuality is the hot issue in the Anglican Church at the moment.
For many Christians it gets complicated because of the Bible.
Passages in Leviticus and Deuteronomy,
• in Romans and 1 Corinthians,
• passages which are anti-gay.
There are different ways of reading and interpreting them:
• conservative interpretations that take them literally
• and liberal interpretations that make them less anti-homosexual.
There's not time now to go into every detail,
• so I'll share my view on the issue.
Leviticus says "You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination." (18.22)
But it also says that you shall not "put on a garment made of two different materials" (19.19b)
And that people who commit adultery "shall be put to death" (20.10).
Leviticus comes from an age and culture very different to our own.
The passages from the New Testament are more complicated.
Romans 1.27, for example: "men, giving up natural intercourse with women, were consumed with passion for one another"
Christians that read these passages literally conclude that homosexuality is a sin.
Liberal Christians say that these passages cannot be fairly applied to modern, faithful, lifelong gay relationships.
It's highly unlikely that the writers had in mind the modern understanding of equal, faithful same-sex relationships.
They were instead writing against homosexual prostitution and promiscuity.
St. Paul and other early Christian writers appear to think that people believed homosexuality was a free and perverse choice.
We now understand that for most gay people there is no choice in the matter at all.
• Being gay is their natural sexuality.
• And many perceive that as a gift from God.
There's no conclusive argument either way.
For me, a significant comparison is with slavery and the Bible's support of slavery.
Ephesians 6.5, for example, "Slaves obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, in singleness of heart as you obey Christ."
There are remarkably close parallels between the current debate about sexuality and the debate about slavery in the 18th century.
In America, Christians in the north began to argue for the release of slaves.
Christians in the South, reading their Bible literally, accused the North of playing fast and loose with Scripture.
One eminent Southern Christian said,
• "If the scriptures do not justify slavery, I know not what they do justify. If we err in maintaining this relation, I know not when we are right - truth then has parted her usual moorings and floated off into an ocean of uncertainty".
It's the kind of argument conservatives give against gay bishops today.
One of Virginia's leading Presbyterian theologians was Robert Dabney.
He insisted that: "The teachings of abolitionism are clearly of rationalist origin, of infidel tendency, and only sustained by reckless and licentious perversions of the meaning of the sacred text".
The supporters of slavery claimed to be the "traditionalists".
Those who sought a change in the historic teaching of the church were, in effect, trendy liberals
• more concerned with some nebulous "spirit" of scripture
• than with what it actually says.
Which is exactly where we are today in the debate about homosexuality in the church.
"There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus."
The Bible contains words of great beauty that inspire and encourage.
The Bible also contains passages that we disagree with on fundamental grounds.
If we could just take it all literally life would be simple.
In reality we have the hard task of discerning what God is saying to us today through Scripture.
I'll end with a story I heard this week about sexuality in Nigeria.
Nigerian society has very traditional views on sexuality.
New anti-gay laws have been proposed.
They would impose brutal penalties on all relationships, activism and shows of affection among lesbian and gay people.
Fortunately these new laws have been but on hold for now.
Nigeria is the home of Archbishop Peter Akinola,
• a leader of the conservative wing of the Anglican Church.
He is very public in his anti-gay views.
The story I was told this week was of two women in Nigeria.
They were identified as being lesbian and were attacked.
One was killed and the other suffered horrible damage to her face.
They received little if any support from the church in Nigeria.
So a gay and lesbian Christian group in London raised money to pay for plastic surgery for the disfigured woman.
It reminds me of the story of the Good Samaritan.
And raises the question "which people were being Christians and showing God's love?"
There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; there is no long straight or gay; for all are one in Christ Jesus.
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