Last Friday I noted that we were going to look at five points Walter Brueggemann suggests we need to consider as we look to the future of the church. We continue with another look at #2:
In yesterday's quote from Isaiah 56, we saw how the "foreigner" and the "eunuch" were to be gathered into the people of God. Brueggemann goes on to say that these two actions were a "direct and plausible interpretive challenge to the teaching of Moses in Deuteronomy 23:3-6 (foreigners) and Deuteronomy 23:1 (eunuchs).
The Mosaic theology of the book of Deuteronomy was very much on the minds of fifth-century Jews at the time of Isaiah 56. That theology (Deuteronomy) was intentionally exclusionary and had not forgotten anything about previous affronts. In that Torah provision Deuteronomy 23, there is no opening for forgiveness or reconciliation.
...our text from Isaiah 56 breaks from the commandment of Moses in an interpretive maneuver that must have been as radical as was that of Paul in Acts 15 in the welcome of Gentiles into the community of faith.
...the second category of inclusion in our text of Isaiah 56 is even more astonishing: eunuchs... Our text challenges that teaching of Moses. Now it will occur to you, as it has occurred to other interpreters, that the text may, in a relatively frontal way, pertains to current issues of gays and lesbians, as it is a case of reversing exclusion on the basis of sexuality.
The argument I hear so often about why gays and lesbians can be excluded from the church or from certain areas of ministry in the church is that there is no passage that counters the traditional texts that have been used to exclude. And yet, here in Isaiah 56, we do not see texts that deal with homosexuality and the need to include. Rather, we see a better vision. A more broad vision of how through the generations and in new times and new days, that which was written "in stone" as some say...can be let loose. This Isaiah text takes us beyond the nailing of individual notions about sexuality and makes more of a point of gathering in even those who are way out of the bounds of acceptability from another time. Yes, this text only deal with eunuchs, but look at the movement that is made toward bringing all of God's people home. How is it that we cannot bring home and gather in those among us who are loved by the Lord, God, and whose love for the Lord and neighbors is the same as it is among any of us? Well, maybe that hesitation and that long restriction needs to be seen again - in a new day - a day within the Reign of God where Jesus is Lord and this Lord is simply gracious about gathering us in.
In the midst of God's people we will be considered the same - beloved of the Lord. This does not mean that we are saying do as you want or live as you want. Instead, we begin by saying welcome, welcome home, come in with the rest of us. Then, we by our living and loving in the name of the Lord, teach about the way the great command to love God and love neighbor comes to life in any and all of our relationship. Only as a community that blesses are we blessed. In that blessed gathering in, we take the shape of the one who blesses us and we begin to be that light to all...a light that illuminates the city of God.
Connection: We live within the bold welcome of our Lord, Jesus, and that is how the day comes into order and that is then the witness we unveil to those around us. No fear...simply an unbounded gathering in that is the power for new life.
As you take hold of our lives and call us your own and gather us into your loving presence, O God, we are uplifted and introduced to life that is beyond our own capabilities. But as you love us, that power becomes for us the power to entertain strangers and call one another saints of the Lord. We give you thanks for your great outreach of love. Amen.
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