Romans 1:18-32
The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 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.
Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
Pray. Ask God to give you insight into this passage.
Why is the wrath of God being revealed?
How (where) are God’s “invisible qualities” seen?
What happens when God allows people to pursue their own desires?
What roles do truth and knowledge play?
How does Paul present homosexuality?
What are some of the manifestations of a “depraved mind”?
What's the difference, in Paul’s argument, between practicing and approving of sin?
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
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I hope you had a good Memorial Day weekend. It makes for a short week.
I struggled for a long time before deciding to pursue our topic this week.
Does this conversation belong in a Sunday morning worship assembly?
I think it does IF the conversation is framed correctly. This is what I am seeking guidance for.
What do you think?
A scene at City Hall in one of the states that have legalized same-sex marriage“Next.”
“Good morning. We want to apply for a marriage license.”
“Names?”
“Tim and Jim Smith.”
“Smith? Are you related? I see a resemblance.”
“Yes, we’re brothers.”
“Brothers? You can’t get married.”
“Why not? Aren’t you giving marriage licenses to same gender couples?”
“Yes, thousands. But we haven’t had any siblings. That’s incest!”
“Incest? No, we are not gay.”
“Not gay? Then why do you want to get married?”“For the financial benefits, of course. And we do love each other. Besides, we don’t have any other prospects.”
“But we’re issuing marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples who’ve been denied equal protection under the law. If you are not gay, you can get married to a woman.”
“Wait a minute. A gay man has the same right to marry a woman as I have. But just because I’m straight doesn’t mean I want to marry a woman. I want to marry Jim.”
“And I want to marry Tim, Are you going to discriminate against us just because we are not gay?”
“All right, all right. I’ll give you your license. Next.”
“Hi. We are here to get married.”
“Names?”
“John Smith, Jane James, Robert Green, and June Johnson.”
“Who wants to marry whom?”
“We all want to marry each other.”
“But there are four of you!”
“That’s right. You see, we’re all bisexual. I love Jane and Robert, Jane loves me and June, June loves Robert and Jane, and Robert loves June and me. All of us getting married together is the only way that we can express our sexual preferences in a marital relationship.”
“But we’ve only been granting licenses to gay and lesbian couples.”
“So you’re discriminating against bisexuals!”
“No, it’s just that, well, the traditional idea of marriage is that it’s just for couples.”
“Since when are you standing on tradition?”
“Well, I mean, you have to draw the line somewhere.”
“Who says? There’s no logical reason to limit marriage to couples. The more the better. Besides, we demand our rights! The mayor says the constitution guarantees equal protection under the law. Give us a marriage license!”
“All right, all right.”
“Next.”
“Hello, I’d like a marriage license.”
“In what names?”
“David Deets.”
“And the other man?”
“That’s all. I want to marry myself.”
“Marry yourself? What do you mean?”
“Well, my psychiatrist says I have a dual personality, so I want to marry the two together. Maybe I can file a joint income-tax return.”
“That does it! I quit!! You people are making a mockery of marriage!!”
Truth needs to be spoken, no matter how uncomfortable it may make us feel. But the way it is spoken is vital, This scripture comes to mind:
1st Peter 3:15
But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, 16keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.
Speak the truth in love, Brother.
Pat Arthur
Thanks, Pat. Your point is a good one, and the gentleness/respect aspect is usually sadly missing from the conversation. I am keenly aware of this and hope to communicate the need for both. Thanks, again.
Luke had a great trip to Honduras, which makes me very excited about my own trip there in 29 days!
I've been drinking Honduran coffee every morning since his reture. Good stuff.
We talked more about instrumental music during Sunday morning's class. This morning I saw this article in USA Today:
A cappella voices carry a growing trend to mainstreamOne guy interviewed says, regarding a cappella music:
"It's the essence of music, period."
Blogger keeps messing up my spacing after html codes... I'm trying.
On the marriage thing...
I'm not that interested in talking about the political side of things, at least not in a sermon. I am more interested in helping us think through the issue from God's standpoint, hence the title of the sermon/blog.
It seems to me that a lot of Christians are unclear on the issue, so we need to gently (with respect) remind people of God's intent.
Here's a question for you:
What are Christians to do about what is going on in the culture? What are Christians/churches to do in regard to the move by the states to legalize same-sex marriage?
I think what Christians are supposed to do is share the Good News of Jesus. Our world will change when people come to know Christ. He is the answer for morality. It may seem simple but I believe it to be true.
Pat
Busy day again.
Had another good conversation with "M at the gym." [Shortened my workout but, hey, what's more important?]
He was a minister for a few years, then an atheist, and then "Native American spiritism found me," he says.
We talked for a while about God's creative intent, the fall of man, etc. He says, "Why does God load us up with all these things and then tell us we can't do them?"
"What things?" I ask.
"All the temptations."
That's when I talked about God's creative intent and his redemptive intent. We live in a fallen world, etc. I talked about the New Heaven and New Earth - the Paradise of God - the restoration of all things.
I think I caught his interest a little. He said, "you can convert me!" Told him I really wasn't trying to do that; just want to be friends and talk. [God does the converting.]
I wish I'd asked him about same-sex marriage. I'd like to get his view on it.
Some of the stuff he said seems relevant to the conversation, especially if you believe that some people are predisposed toward homosexuality. [There is no conclusive study to say that people are "born that way." But we've all seen people that make you wonder. Right? Be honest.] Why does God allow some people to be turned that way and then tell them no?
I think a fair companion question is: Why does God make some people with such strong libidos that monogamy is a challenge and the pursuit of promiscuity a constant battle? And what do these people have to do if they want to please God? What does a homosexual have to do to please God?
Did you SEE there is a tsunami alert for Honduras this morning? Overnight there was a 7.1 earthquake off the coast. I don't think there was much damage, and I really doubt there will be a tsunami.
HERE is article about Espicopalian Church kicking out 61 of their clergy. Why? Because these 61 believe the Bible teaches that homosexuality is wrong.
There are a lot of fights going on in the mainline denominations over this issue.
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