All Saints' Journal
EVENTS THIS WEEK
Sunday, August 24, 2008
The Feast of Saint Bartholomew the Apostle
Holy Communion
9:30 AM
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Do we ordain gay ministers?
No, we do not ordain gay ministers. The reasons for this come from
multiple passages in the Old and New Testaments. The idea is that one
cannot be ordained if they are living active lifestyles that contradict clear
Biblical teachings on morality. First, Leviticus 18:22 clearly prohibits the
practice of homosexuality. In addition, the entire 18th chapter speaks about
sexual purity for the people of God in dealing with practices seen as sinful
in His eyes. In the New Testament, we do not see a direct reference by
Jesus in opposition to this practice. Yet, we do read of the Lord upholding
the Moral Law in a very strong manner throughout His ministry. The Moral
Law includes the entire 18th Chapter of Leviticus. Our Lord said this in
Matthew 5:17, “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets.
I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.” Further, in verse 19, “Whoever
therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches
men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does
and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” Our
Lord is referencing the Law, the first 5 Books of the Old Testament. In this,
He is saying that the practice of Homosexuality along with all the other
sexual sins are not to be practiced among the people of God.
For many in today’s Church that have turned their back on the Bible’s
teaching on morality, especially homosexuality, the argument is that the
people of that day were not enlightened enough about a lot of things and
therefore were simply acting according to the cultural pressures of their
society. The problem with this line of thought is that in Leviticus 18, the
Lord is warning His people of the practices that permeated the people of
the Land of Canaan. These practices included incest, homosexuality, and
bestiality. The Lord wanted His people to enter the Promised Land pure and
holy and not be influenced by the practices of the people present in the
Land before their conquest. So, the argument that those in the Old
Testament who wrote against this practice were wrong and therefore such
a prohibition no longer applies on our enlightened culture is simply an
attempt to give a free license to sin. The question has to be posed to such
advocates of ignoring Leviticus 18:22, “if homosexuality is no longer a sin
and therefore a lifestyle to allow and embrace, why can’t we also throw out
the prohibitions against those that want to engage in incest and bestiality?”
The problem is that once people start chipping away at part of the Moral
Law that Jesus fulfilled, then people in time will in their minds and practice
tear down all Moral teachings coming to us from Scripture.
The Apostle Paul in Romans 1:27 also speaks out against
homosexuality as going against the Natural order or Law that the Lord has
set up that governs all things. Further, Paul condems such practice along
with other sexual sins in I Corinthians 6:9 and I Timothy 1:10. With such
language in the Old and the New Testaments, the Lord has prohibited this
sinful lifestyle for all of His people, from the laypeople to the ordained
ministers of His Word. Further, in I Timothy 3:2 we read the following
concerning qualifications for ministers, “A bishop then must be blameless,
the husband of one wife …” In such language, the option for a minister to
be a homosexualy simply does not exist from a Biblical standpoint.
Do we support gay marriage?
No. The answer to the first question in terms of Leviticus 18 and the
Pauline references prohibits not only the practice but also any attempts by
civic and liberal religious leaders to turn such unions into marriages. Also,
the first reference we have to marriage in the Bible occurs in Genesis 2:24,
“Therefore a man shall leave this father and mother and be joined to his
wife, and they shall become one flesh.” Jesus in Matthew 19:4-6 quotes this
passage from Genesis, therefore saying that what applied for humanity at
the beginning still is in force in the time of Christ and therefore unto all
generations of Christians. By quoting this passage, our Lord is not leaving
us in a grey area, but clearly giving us in black and white what consitutes a
lawful marriage in God’s eyes.
How would we respond if a single homosexual and/or a homosexual couple
wanted to attend our church?
We would respond by using it as a time to present the Gospel to them, that
anyone can repent and come to a saving faith in Jesus Christ. Of course,
for such a couple if they were blatantly telling me that they were an active
gay couple or an active gay individual, I would have to let them know that
they were not welcome to partake of Holy Communion until they repented
and changed their lives. At that point, it would depend on them as to
whether or not the Lord was working on them to bring them to a change of
heart to serve Him.
DEACON’S DESK
Just a reminder, as you are shopping, pick up a few cans of food for the Salvation Army Mission in
Vacaville, to help feed the homeless.
Alpha Pregnancy Resource is in need of diapers and baby formula
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Trinity 9 2008
Growing in Baptism. Every time we say one of the Creeds in Worship, we
need to recognize that this is a great time to reflect on our own beginning
in Christ. At Baptism, we embarked on a life promising to grow in Christ
and His Religion. Is your Baptism still important to you? Do you reflect on
the promises to God to serve Him always as you partake in the Covenant
Renewal sacrament of Holy Communion? Too often, people take their
beginning in the Lord and stay stagnant, not growing at all, but just
moving on with life being able to say that yes, I have been baptized and
that is all there is to it, so leave me alone until I need the Church for a
wedding, funeral, visitation, etc. It is so amazing how we as Christians can
let this world pull us from growing in our baptisms. As the prayer in our
Prayer Book states about the person newly baptized, “and with one
accord make our prayers unto Him, that this child may lead the rest of his
life according to this beginning.” It does not matter if we were baptized
with the Prayer Book office or by only the Trinitarian formula found in
Matthew 28, we still have a call upon our lives to live according to and to
grow in our baptism in Jesus Christ. Let us this morning look to our
lessons to have a better understanding of living according to this
beginning in Jesus Christ.
What Do We Avoid?
First, it is very important to see what we are to avoid as Christians in
our growth in the Lord. Just as a farmer or gardener avoids certain things
for his crops, so to must the Christian avoid things that are detrimental to
a healthy spiritual life. This passage speaks of all the people of the Lord
having a common beginning, baptism. Our lesson from I Corinthians 10
gives us several warnings or examples of sinful behavior that the Hebrews
of old committed which Christians should avoid. I would like to focus on
two of those elements for our purposes this morning. We need to avoid
lusting after evil things and we need to avoid becoming idolaters.
Avoid Lusting after Evil Things
First, in living and growing in our baptism, we have to avoid lusting
after evil things. This is a serious warning from the actual history of the
people of God during the Exodus to the Promised Land. As we read in I
Corinthians 10:5, “But with most of them God was not well pleased, for
their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.” The first reason God was
not pleased with them stems from the fact that they let sinful desires grow
in their own hearts and minds, lust. Further, lust is simply breaking the
last commandment, “Thou Shalt not covet.” Jesus in the Sermon on the
Mount takes the idea to the point that coveting or lusting can extend to
any of the commandments, whether adultery, murder, stealing, etc. To
lust in our heart is to covet, to commit adultery, murder, or stealing in the
heart.
The important point here is that the Pharisees of Christ’s day thought
that they were covered simply by NOT COMMITTING THE ACTUAL SIN.
The problem though is that as sinful fallen creatures, we have to first let a
sin set in our mind to lust and covet, to grow as harmful weeds until we
have provided the ground for us to fall at the first chance to any
prohibitions in the Commandments. We often wonder what went through a
person’s head when we see them break a commandment. The problem
with sin is that it takes time for lust and covetousness to slowly replace
the good fruit of God with fruits of wickedness and soil that is suitable for
the person to fall. We wonder today at how so many common, everyday
Germans during the Second World War were able to commit heinous
murder and atrocities upon their fellow man? It all was a slow, tedious
process begun in their formative years in the 30’s when Nazism planted
the seeds of hatred and superiority over others while also cultivating such
until the time was right for them to simply obey orders without question
when ordered to murder Jews and civilians or take part in the process. It
took time as all lust does to move one from being abhorred one day at
murder to all of sudden one day to do it without thought on a large scale.
The same is true for any sin.
What if we slip up and give the enemy an area of our life where we
stumble and sin? We have to take care that when we sin, that we do not
fall into such sin that in time has a lasting and growing foothold in our life
that can eventually bring us down, fully grown. We have to always seek
Christ no matter where we have gone. We have to always see that there is
always hope in Jesus to cling to, no matter how far we have fallen. He is
always there as the Good Shepherd to pick us up to then lead us gently
back, to forge a new path in Him, growing again in Him. He is always there
as the father of the prodigal son in our Gospel lesson this morning.
Forgiveness is the key in Christ. When we fall, we cannot despair thinking
that we no longer are worthy and therefore fall headlong into the abyss.
No, when we fall in a great or a small manner, we must take the hand of
our Savior Who will pull us out. God does all things in His time as we saw
with the Prodigal Son. Hope is always present for those in Christ.
Avoid Idolatry
Next, as our lesson stated, we must also avoid idolatry. This was
another area that the Hebrews of old stumbled and fell quite often. Lust
leads to us following other gods. As we read in our Ezekiel passage, man
in his sin sets up idols in his heart. Closely related to setting up idols in
the heart is the point that the Prophet mentions, that such a person “puts
before him what causes him to stumble into iniquity.” Again, idolatry and
lust cannot be separated.
Even though we live in a time where overt idol worship such as was
present around the Hebrews is not largely around, we can put idols up in
our own hearts every day. Any sin can become an idol that we set up in
our own hearts that causes us to turn our backs upon the Lord. Again,
when we cultivate less and less the holy things of God such as growing in
our baptisms, the ground to our heart is filled by something else. We have
to see that we will serve a master, whether we like it or not. We will
cultivate something in our hearts and minds, whether wicked, righteous,
or even indifferent. By nature, we as human being have to serve a master
in this life. In Jesus Christ, serving Him involves the everyday work of
tending what was started at our baptism.
The Port City of Corinth was a place of rampant idolatry and every
imaginable sin of the flesh. St. Paul in our passage was dealing with a
Church that lived in such harsh territory at all times. We are no different
today in the United States. Of all the Churches we see letters written to in
the New Testament; we probably live in a climate or culture that
resembles Corinth more than any of the other Churches. Therefore, our
call to avoid lust and idolatry is that much more important for all of us.
Take Heed
This brings us to our final point this morning, which is the same
manner St. Paul closes, our Epistle lesson. Verse 12 states, “Therefore let
him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.” We cannot go about
thinking we will be ok by just slipping by as Christians, or just staying in
place. If we take such an approach, the approach of ignoring our spiritual
life in Jesus Christ, we will stumble and fall. The good thing though is that
if we stumble and fall and are repentant and want to make amends, it
means that the Holy Spirit is still at work in us, convicting us of our sin.
Taking Heed is to be humble in the sight of God. God alone provides
the manner in which we can escape temptation as we read in our lesson.
Growing in our baptism is a constant reminder of the means of escape we
have in Christ. WE KNOW WE ARE NOT ABLE TO FOLLOW THE
COMMANDMENTS OF GOD WITHOUT HIS SPECIAL GRACE. In Jesus
Christ, there is always a way back, a way to full restoration. Taking heed
is a lifetime process that tells us that it really is freedom to serve Jesus
and His ways rather than following the wicked ways of this world, a way
that leads to death.
Conclusion
Taking heed involves living our baptism in these words from the
Baptismal service on page 466 of the Prayer Book. Let us close with these
words as we prepare for the Covenant renewal we will all share in a little
bit with Holy Communion, “And that he may know these things the better,
ye shall call upon him to hear Sermons; and chiefly ye shall provide, that
he may learn the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Ten Commandments,
and all other things which a Christian ought to know and believe to his
soul’s health; and that this child may be virtuously brought up to lead a
godly and a Christian life; remembering always, that Baptism doth
represent our profession, which is, to follow the example of our Saviour
Christ, and to be made like unto him; that, as he died, and rose again for
us, so should we, who are baptized, die from sin, and rise again unto
righteousness; continually mortifying all our evil and corrupt affections,
and daily proceeding in all virtue and godliness of living.” Let us grow in
our baptism. Amen.