No longer foreigners

I know that it's been nearly a month since my last post. I partly blame the new school year, for it's been rather busy lately. For all my business, my mind is on other things. Frankly, I'm not sure what more to write about here. Last night in our School of Music Bible study, something did strike my fancy, and I wish to share it with you as a farewell...for now.

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own
doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may
boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works,
which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called
"the uncircumcision" by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the
flesh by hands— remember that you were at that time separated from Christ,
alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of
promise,having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you
who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ...So then
you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the
saints and members of the household of God (Ephesians 2:8-13, 19, ESV).

Before I continue, you must know that I do not wish to espouse a "Faith alone" theology in this essay, nor do I desire to dispute it. That theological debate must wait for another time and another place.

Consider Paul's letter to the Ephesians. Ephesus was a major port city in what is now Turkey, so there would be a great melting pot of all the cultures from within Rome's borders. Along with a trade of commerce and wares would come an exchange of religion, theology, and philosophy. This city was a cosompolitan ancient, the forerunner to our New York City, our Hong Kong, our San Francisco. The majority of Christians in this city during Paul's day would have been uncircumcised Gentiles who were not raised in the air of Jewish law and custom. Circumcision would more than likely be a new and unique concept to them; so too would the notion of divine grace from the Messiah to forgive sin forever be foreign. Eager to believe, converts came quick and a church emerged in this foreign port.

The Messianic Jews of the diaspora from Jerusalem would not have these unclean pigs partaking of their faith. To be truly a follower of the way, they argued, you must be circumcised of the flesh (Cf. v. 11). Then, and only then, could you safely be redeemed and a member of God's family. These Jews were adamant that the Gentiles must change in some way before they can receive fully the cleansing grace of Christ; there is something that they must do in order to believe.

Paul, the expert of the Law and sympathizer unto the Gentiles, rebukes this argument. He says that no work merits the grace of God, and he specifically names circumcision. He notes that this is a cultural custom of the Jews, but it should not apply to the Gentiles in Ephesus. Why should it? Christ fulfilled the Law. The Law, the curse of death, no longer holds its weight in light of Christ's resurrection. Paul - a former Pharisee himself - recognizes this instantly and moves swiftly to counter this exclusionary theology.

Then Paul says something so empowering to these Gentiles who lied at the geological and spiritual fringes of early Christendom: You are no longer aliens or foreigners, but now you are members of God's household. What a wonderful thing for these Ephesians to hear when the "norm" of the early Church was holding a ridiculous custom over their head. You are not foreigners, no matter what language you speak or what religion you believed as you grew up. Uncircumciscion does not mark you as alien in God's house.

We cannot fully appreciate this passage in America, not if you are white, middle-class, Protestant, male, and straight. To embody those traits is to be priveledged; in a way, you get to make the rules of church. You get to determine what people believe and how they get to express it. In America, you are both priveledged and expected to attend church on Sunday mornings; you receive Jesus points for regular attendance to Wednesday night Bible Study or choir rehearsal (or both!). Church in the American South is one part worship experience, one part country club, and three parts business networking, and even senior pastors are quick to befriend the wealthiest of their flock. It's all web of politics.

I think the Church in America is the new "norm" that holds a certain set of standards over different people. We've all been to churches where the establishment expects all parishoners to dress in their "Sunday Best." One visitor in my hometown church was scolded by an old lady for not wearing church approrpiate clothing; it's safe to say that he never returned to my church. That's a more innocent example. But if you're on the fringes of American Christendom - and in this case I must emphasize gay Chrsitians- then maybe these words from Paul resonate more clearly within you.

How many gay Christians have felt the need to become straight before they could feel fully accepted in the life of the Church? How many gay Christians have felt pressured to enroll in reparative counseling before veteran Christians would think to befriend them? How many gay Christians have felt the need to believe a certain theological interpretation of homosexuality -be it a more progressive or more conservative view - before they would feel loved and welcomed by that church? I think that right now, the mainstream American church demands that gay people change in some way before we will accept them as members of God's family.

Yet Paul would say, "You are not foreigners in the family of God because of the blood of Christ. I don't care if you're attracted to other men, and there's nothing you can do to change that. You are loved by God, and you will mature in wisdom and stature as you walk with Christ to. He will mold you into His likeness as He sees fit, and we, the Church, owe you our most genuine love and endearment."

You are not foreigners in the houseof God; on account of the grace of Christ, you belong to this family. You do not need to change anything about yourself to come inside, and you are welcome to sit, to be, to do wonderful works for the glory of God because He has plans for you.

You on the fringes of American Christendom - whoever you may be - you are not foreigners in God's family.

Love/Freedom,
-JC

Identity

Have you ever read the Sermon on the Mount? It starts in the fifth chapter of the Gospel according to St. Matthew, and it covers two or three chapters of that book. It’s a long sermon; some might even call it the greatest sermon on earth. Call it what you will, but if you read the message in its entirety, you must admit that Jesus makes a tough stance on issues covering divorce, charity, justice, lust, anger. It’s a road map to a living the life of a disciple. But look at how it starts.

Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 5:1-17)

You know, Jesus spoke those words to a throng of people gathered at his feet, and the crowd listened from the Messiah as He stood on top of a rock. He could have started this sermon with a random anecdote that had little to do with the point of the sermon. Jesus’s first words could have been a polemic against the Pharisees, or He could have harshly condemned the sinful habits of those not among God’s flock. The great Emmanuel did not do any of those things. Rather, he began with a paean to those who conduct lives of simplicity, humility, and holiness. Jesus begins the greatest sermon in the history of sermons by addressing the crucial importance of identity. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake. You are the salt of the earth. You are a light on the hill. Friends, these are issues of identity; Christ offered the people gathered at the mountain a precious peek into the heart and mind of God Almighty. This is how Jesus looks at people: as instruments of peace.  Only upon completion of this appeal to identity does Jesus begin a teaching on Kingdom-centered conduct and lifestyle.

In that crowd of people amassed before the Christ, what kind of people heard these words? Shoplifters? Prostitutes?  Tax collectors? Fishermen? Roman soldiers? Jews? Gentiles? Samaritans? And here I perhaps breach the threshold of anachronism: gays and lesbians? I sincerely hope that a diversity of people gathered at the foot of Christ to hear Him say to all of them, “You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world. That is who you are, friends. Don’t let anybody tell you otherwise.” Ah! Something to unite the people: Salt and Light.

Love/Freedom,
JC

A Fresh Take on Sexuality

Let's try an experiment. I'll say a word, and you say the first thing that comes to mind. Ready?

Sex

What did you say? That one word can illicit so many different responses that cover a wide range of emotions. It can touch the ecstasy of the act, or it can conjure up images of violence and fear. Let's try another word.

Sexuality

How did you respond this time? I often wonder how our history with sex and sexuality colors our perception. Several dear friends of mine were married this summer, so I'm nearly positive that they still have a honeymoon mentality on this, the most intimate part of their bodies and lives. But I also wonder if we filter our understanding of sexuality through darker lenses. Sometimes are sexualities are defined by addictions to pornography, masturbation, and intercourse itself. For others, their sexuality might be tainted by a horrific experience of rape or sexual assault. For people like this - and there are many who struggle with the darker themes of sex - sexuality is not a pleasant thing to think about.

There is yet another layer of sexuality, complete with its colors and nuances. We love to categorize people's sexuality into labels, and when we do this, we begin to view other people through the lens of this arbitrary marker. There are labels like addict, slut, chaste, man-whore, victim, rapist, pure, nympho, infertile, pimp, stud, sexy; all these words paint a picture of a man or woman whose primary characteristic is their sexuality. We also have words like gay and its variants - queer, fag, dyke, lesbian, butch, queen, effeminate, homosexual; it goes without saying that our culture's antonym for gay is straight. Labels like gay and straight along with the other words and terms we have for our sexuality establish preconceived notions of the other and prevent true bonds of friendship and trust from forming.

I don't think we celebrate sexuality for what it is: sexuality. We as humans, as Christians especially, work hard to compartmentalize people's sexuality so that we can say what we want about them. When we look at our sexuality, we tend to view such a precious thing under the lens of our sexual history - even if you are a forty year old virgin who has never once looked lustily upon another person, real, digital, imagined, or otherwise. Indeed, our example here would be seen by some a chaste man or woman of God, by others, as a puritan who needs to get laid.

I have rarely, if ever, heard any of my peers conclude that our sexuality is a gracious gift from our God. We don't ever think that God created us, in His image, to have a sex drive. He did not create us to have labels. Our sexuality is what it is: created by God, and when He made it, He called it good. When sin entered the world, it corrupted everything it touched, which included our sexuality. Those rotten fruits of death include rape, sexual addiction, pornography, and some would argue, homosexuality. And then when Christ died on that cross to redeem His people and creation itself, He also redeemed our sexuality. No one is excluded from that, not even one.

Do you notice that all the labels we use on people's sexuality are secular terms? Those are human ways to look at people, and in some way, it makes us a god over a person's life. We determine and judge a person's character with these terms, or at least we fix our own perception of that person. This is not how God's Kingdom should work. Under the realm of the divine, God created all of us. In one way, that makes us all unique, but in another real way, we're all the same. Who are we to judge a person's character based on our perception of their sexuality?

What I would like to do is look at human sexuality through the lens of the Gospel. This may mean that we strip a few words from our conversation, including straight and gay. We need to realize that the sexualities of straight and gay people alike were created and blessed by God, tainted by sin, and opened to redemption when Christ offered Himself as the perfect Lamb of God. All human sexuality is like this. The sooner we understand that there is one Creator over all people, the quicker we will understand that no one person is more of an abomination or blessed than anyone else.

Love/Freedom
-Jimmy C.
3crossroads@gmail.com

Interesting Article

My friend Billy sent this article my way, and I thought I would share it with you. Expect a new blog post tomorrow afternoon.

http://blog.christianitytoday.com/outofur/archives/2009/07/miss_california.html

July 20, 2009

Miss California and the Politics of Sexual Redemption

Is the church being hypocritical about sexual ethics?

by David Fitch

I know this is little late, but for me, nothing illustrates the current state of the church’s witness in regard to sexual issues in America better than the Ms. California/USA pageant episode a couple months ago. It was an embarrassing irruption of the Real that any follower of Christ has got to wince at (it’s so embarrassing).

Here a woman prances before the media in a minuscule bikini (ironically designed by another ex-evangelical, Jessica Simpson), a woman who had ("sexually-enhancing") cosmetic surgery, who had been in a revealing photo shoot of some sort, and she is asked about her position on same sex unions. She responds by saying, “I think in my country, in my family, that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense to anybody out there, but that’s how I was raised.”

The next day on the Today show, she said “I don’t take back what I said.” She added that she “had spoken from my heart, from my beliefs and for my God. It’s not about being politically correct,” she said. “For me, it’s about being biblically correct.” Using the “B” word—"biblical"—in front of the cameras makes her an evangelical stereotype. In the process she becomes a symbol of evangelicalism's lack of political (communal) credibility to witness to the gay/lesbian populations.

By saying what she said about gay unions moments after the swimsuit competition, Ms. California was basically telling the world, “We do the same things, but for gay people it’s sin. Lust is good, objectifying my body is normal, the fulfillment of all desire is good.” Then, on the other hand, she says to the gay and lesbian world, “But you can’t do any of this, because you’re different.”

Such an episode reveals the inner contradiction of our own sexual life and politics as evangelicals. It reveals how pointing out someone else’s sin allows us to ignore the empty frivolity of our own sexual lives. We do not need to fess up that our own sexual habits are so badly skewed, our desires so poorly oriented. We can keep ignoring the emptiness of our own sexual sanctification by displacing our lack of “enjoyment” onto “the others.” This has become the nature of our witness in society.

I believe the gay, lesbian, bi and transsexual groups pose the defining test case of the decade for the witness of the church in the new post-Christendom contexts of North America. And we evangelicals are failing miserably. The broader evangelical church of my heritage has, generally speaking, not been capable of speaking (any kind of) truth into the sexual lives of anyone—nevermind the gay/lesbian community. We have been hitherto incapable (theologically) of embodying the sexual redemption made possible in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And until we get our own communities to line up with the sexual redemption in Christ, to the gay community we look like empty, judgmental, duplicitous fools who see everyone else as thieves stealing away our enjoyment.

We need to ask what kind of people we should be in order to welcome gay and lesbian people into the redemptive and healing salvation of God in Christ for sexuality. In my opinion, most evangelicals date and marry much like the rest of society, where an unexamined sexualized attraction is a guiding factor. We teach that lust before marriage is bad, yet lust after marriage is good (implicitly). In our practice of salvation, there is no formation of desire to be integrated and developed into a narrative of self-giving love and commitment to mutuality, self giving and procreation over time in marriage. Without a communal witness of love and redemptive sexual healing, our words are empty. And so we protest same sex marriage or institute some kind of legislative action. In so doing we reveal our fear for our children and our insecurity in our own sexual formation practices within our church communities.

I believe we need to become the kind of community that

a.) does not indulge hyper romanticist notions of sexuality that objectifies sexual attraction as the basis of heterosexual marriage,

b.) quits disembodying sexuality in the way we do whenever we make the Bible into moral propositions that should be enforced instead of a narrative world to be shaped and directed towards so as to live into.

c.) worships in a way that orders desires towards God and away from narcissism (feel-good pep-rallies), for any other kind of worship cannot train us out of our narcissistic obsessions with sex.

d.) stops acting like heterosexual marriage and sex itself are absolutely essential for a fulfilling Christian life. We should elevate celibacy/singleness as a vocation, testifying that sexual drive and all desire needs to be sub-ordered to God’s purpose and mission for anything remotely fulfilling to take place in our lives.

e.) loves and nurtures the hurting souls and bruised lost ones who seriously desire to be shown another way but are too consumed at this moment to see anything else.

I’ve assumed a lot of things in this rant, including stuff in moral theology (hoping it was just intuitive). Sorry! For those who need to know, I do not affirm gay/lesbian sexual practice as normative for the Christian church. This makes communal, embodied, incarnational witness to our gay neighbors all the more indispensable. There’s no way I could clarify all my positions concerning gay, lesbian sexuality etc. So I welcome questions and discussion.

On Sexuality

As of today, I'm going on a 10-day vacation from the blog. I'm in Missouri for a wedding, and then next week I'm busy moving into my new house as well as preparing for a massive choral concert in Raleigh featuring the legendary John Rutter as conductor. Needless to say, I'll be busy that first week of August. To keep you, dear reader, busy with this blog, I give you the following questions to prepare your mind for this blog's next discussion.

What if we removed the words gay and straight from our vocabulary?


What if, in our conversations on sexuality, we elected to not qualify same-sex or opposite-sex attractions?


What if we recognized that our sexuality is important but not important enough to become an obsession?


What if we subjected our understanding of human sexuality to the authority and supremacy of God the Almighty?


What if we believed that God created sexuality, and therefore not only should we subject it to his authority but that sexuality (and sex) is a good and beautiful part of our lives?


What if we realized that nobody is exempt from the blessing and authority that God holds for our sexuality?


Please feel free to discuss these questions while I'm not writing for this blog. Though there will be no new blog posts till August 12th, I will read your comments whenever I can.


Until then,
-Jimmy C.
3crossroads@gmail.com

Love is an Orientation X: Connect the Dots

“Bridge building is not evangelism. Bridge building is a sustainable friendship, a relationship, a bond, camaraderie, closeness and strong confidence” (Marin, 170). Lest there be any conclusion, Marin makes it clear that in the work of bridge building, Christians should not attempt to fix a gay person’s sexuality or change their religion. This work requires Christians to listen, which itself necessitates silence on your part. Even when you hear a gay man or lesbian speak something that disagrees with your own theology, this is not the time or place to correct him or her. Rather, try to understand their life and relate to them on their terms. This may mean things like dropping the word “homosexual” or “gay lifestyle,” as I wrote about earlier this summer. You will need to drop some old rhetoric. For example, it’s not the wisest thing to say, “Homosexuality is like any other sin, like murder or stealing.” Think about that sentence. Most gay people don’t like to be called murderers, particularly when they are innocent of such a crime. Marin, with tongue-in-cheek humor, comments that most murders don’t want to be grouped with gay folks either (Marin, 171).  

Marin writes to tell you that in bridge building, you are not in control. You do not come to the table with a pre-conceived agenda or prepared time table. God must be the foreman of this project while you remain the hired hands. It is not your responsibility to save the souls of gay people everywhere, nor are you to correct a person’s walk with God. As Marin writes, if a GLBT person feels God’s grace telling them that it’s okay to be gay, then you do not have a right to interfere with that walk. Marin: “And whether or not GLBT people hear such a thing from God, the final factor that will usher someone into eternity is through their ability to stand on their own two feet as a believer and account for their life according to there one-on-one relationship with their Father...Such a strong will to be the salvation solution for our gay friends has the unintended consequence of turning a person’s legitimate spiritual journey into a forced single moment of crisis that the person might not be ready to handle” (Marin, 175).

Though God is in control of bridge building, you do have a responsibility to be faith in your tasks. The most important of all tasks is what Marin calls “Street cred.” For him, his ministry suffers a flaw if he does not take a vested interest in the community through replacement in the midst of queer culture. He encourages straight Christians to follow Jesus’ example, who taught in Jewish synagogues, the very ground of the religious leaders who resisted Him. Christ had quite the following among the marginalized, poor, and dejected, and no doubt that was assisted by the presence of Jesus Christ on their ground. What if you took it upon yourself to attend your campus’s gay-straight alliance meeting, or go with a gay friend to their gay bar? With if you became intimately familiar with their life and culture simply by being there with them?

And finally, what do you do when somebody asks you that dreaded question, “Are gay people going to hell?” There are a handful of loaded questions that stir up the most debate in some Christian circles, and that one is as powerful as a nuclear bomb. Marin looks to Jesus for wisdom, and the Jesus we see in the Scriptures does not directly address the close-ended questions that Pharisees, strangers, and his own disciples toss his way. Whether it’s about divorce, fasting, adultery, being the Christ, or Sabbatical laws, nearly every time somebody asked him a pointed yes or no questions, Jesus returned with a response that examined the bigger picture. He mediated on how the Law fit within the broader context of salvation and discipleship. We too are to live with this wisdom as people throw these intellectual and spiritual grenades are way. Do not merely avoid the question; address it. But instead consider the bigger issues of eternity, sanctification, identity that belie each of these inquiries.

We end the book club today. What did you learn this month? What have you thought about, and how so in a different way?Does this make sense? Do you agree? Disagree? Let’s hear those thoughts!

Love/Freeom
-Jimmy C.
3crossroads@gmail.com

Love is an Orientation IX: Be Honest.

In the words of the great Billy Joel.

When I'm deep inside of me
don't be too concerned.
I won't as for nothin' while I'm gone.
But when I want sincerity
tell me where else can I turn.
Because you're the one I depend upon.

Honesty is such a lonely word.
Everyone is so untrue.
Honesty is hardly ever heard.
And mostly what I need from you.
("Honesty," Billy Joel)

Last time, we talked about the necessity to be committed and bold in our relationships. This does not mean that Christians need to be in a gay person's face about sin, eternal damnation, and God's disapproval of the gay lifestyle; rather, what is important is this ministry of presence that seeks to simply be with a person. In chapter 9, Marin discusses the importance of transparency and truthfulness in our relationships, and he writes that Christians have no edge in the realm of being trustworthy when it comes to the gay community. He writes, "Just because a person is a Christian doesn't give them an inherent right to be trusted. Christianity hasn't historically given many GLBT people the arm and comfortable feelings of being safe. My experience has shown that it is more important to be known by gays and lesbians as being honest and vulnerable than it is to be known as a Christian" (Marin, 163).

In some cases, honesty is more important to me than "being a Christian," which is such a loaded and vague phrase when you think about it. While most of my dearest friends are genuine followers of Christ, there are a few in my close circles who aren't Christian. I trust them because they are true to themselves; they are honest and genuine in who they know themselves to be. That's so incredibly important to me not only as a gay man but also as a disciple of Christ; for me, I operate under the default that somebody has a hidden agenda unless the other proves to me that there is no agenda other than mutual respect and love for one another. I need you to be honest to yourself and trustworthy enough to respect me as a human being.

So how do you live like this? How do you enter in a friendship with a gay neighbor when you believe that homosexuality is a sin yet you don't want to betray their trust with a hidden agenda or ulterior motives? Be honest about yourself. Be willing thrown down the facade living that perfect life. I know that you have your imperfections because you're human like me, so if you're honest about them and admit that you struggle with life's big questions, with sin, with temptation, it'll make things easier for me to relate to you. Your vulnerability will show me that we're in this together. Marin writes:

A sense of mutuality fosters a spirit of reciprocity; it opens the door for either side to clearly articulate who they are and what they believe. Such dialogue is greatly advanced by an honest and transparent assessment of life, love, and living for God. The Christian life must be put on trial - fair or unfair, that is what must happen. I have spent countless hours divulging my life not only to my best friends but also to random GLBT people I have just met. Nothing is too sacred. I've been told many times that I give way too much personal and intimate information, but by doing so I set the tone for my relationships. How can you expect GLBT people to share their deepest and most intimate parts of the life with nothing in return? That's why most relationships are stuck at a stagnant superficial level void of productive kingdom growth - everyone is too scared to be honest about their true colors and admit we're in a mess together (Marin, 164).

Of course this is difficult. Christ did warn us that the life of a disciple was difficult, or something about picking up a cross and dying to yourself. But if you're willing to walk down this path, you can find some rich relationships along the way with neighbors you'd never expect to befriend. When I started sharing my story openly and honestly, I found myself becoming good friends with evangelical zealots, Southern frat boys, athletes, and a host of other characters that you don't typically pair with a gay guy on friendly terms. And you know what? Not only could I share my life with them, they began to open up to me. How bizarre and beautiful that is, just like the Kingdom of God would have it.

I should say that this is not a formula for instant best friendship. We are working with people, and people are always fickle. People need time to reveal themselves, and no matter how honest you are about your life, you may not immediately connect with your neighbor. That's okay. Your job as a Christian is not to befriend every person you meet on the street. Some, like Andy, possess that quality in abundance, but that's beside the point. What is important is that you take it upon yourself - extrovert or introvert - to honestly, humbly, and with genuine heart seek significant relationship with your neighbor, gay or straight.

We have one more entry left in this book club! Stay tuned.

Much Love,
-JC