Friday 31 August 2007

This week ends as we continue from yesterday's piece from William Placher.



Allow me to quote the ending portion of yesterday's devotion:
"Remembering the whole arc of Paul's argument allows us to raise a question: Is Paul teaching that same-sex intercourse is wrong? Or is he teaching something about the relation between human responsibility, the failure to worship the true God, and ethical faults, and in the process assuming, as a Jew moving out into (Greek) culture in the first century would have, that same-sex intercourse is a good example of sin? Is this last point an example of something taught, or is it an example of a shared assumption of a particular culture, taken for granted in the process of making a point about something else?"

I think that's a good question. I happen to believe that it was merely assumption, not teaching - that Paul's reference to homosexuality isn't what he here teaches but an example he draws from the cultural assumptions of his time to illustrate his thesis about the relation of God, sin, and human responsibility...

My primary intent here, therefore, is not to answer the question about the meaning of this text but to say that it is good to ask what it means before we demand that people believe it in order to be faithful to Scripture. Indeed, asking about the meaning of such a difficult passage is the kind of question we ought, as Christians..., to be considering together. Such questions do not, notice, concern how seriously we take the authority of the Bible. People who take its authority equally seriously can disagree about its meaning.



We all take the book seriously. I would like to add that we must be willing to talk about what we intend to do with the way we look a Scripture. In that way, we may begin to talk about our own biases and how those will have an impact on how we enter and exit a text. For example, if I am nurtured in a church that expends considerable energy in casting a vision that attempts to paint a picture of some or certain people being inside and being saved and others who must be kept outside - unless they become like me - then I will look for ways to be specific about who is in and who is out. In addition, I will bypass those broad themes like justice and money because...none of us make it untouched by those texts. Romans 1 is easy to use as a passage against homosexual activity if I'm looking for a very specific point of condemnation. I can stop at one verse and say this is what the Bible teaches - enough said. But then, when we are able to enter into a dialogue about what might be the meaning or the teaching of the text, we will begin to hear many voices. From the whirl of those voices, we will begin to come a bit closer to something we can hear that will bring us more in line with the vision of God's Reign.



Connection: The next time someone says "...but the Bible teaches..." Take a look and see if it really is teaching that...or is it giving us something more important to consider.



Come, Lord of Life, and open our hearts to hear your Word and to be bold enough to wrestle with your Word and to wrestle within the community of your faithful people so that we can continue to learn about the way of your gracious Reign. Amen.