Monday 10 December 2007

We start the week by continuing Brian Blount's comments on "The New Testament and Homosexual Behavior.



Paul was inspired by God's Word in a world where sexuality was understood in a radically different way from how it is understood today... No one talked in terms of a genetic predisposition or early social conditioning and learning, or a way of life, or a nurturing, caring partnership of two people... Paul was very much speaking from and with his surrounding culture in an accommodating rather than a prophetic way. Philosophers of the day, such as Seneca and Dio Chrysostom, considered same-sex activity to be driven by dehumanizing lust. They recognized, of course, that lust was not just a problem for same-sex activity but that it plagued relationships between men and women as well. To them because sexual activity was always motivated by lust, it therefore always had to be avoided.



It is important to note that when a new word or a new idea is brought into a group of people, it is often done slowly...without tipping the boat...without pushing something down the throats of people, and with some sense of what will fly and what must be "accommodated" in order for just the first edge of newness to be considered. Paul was bringing a new word to the world. Even to day - it blows the lid off of things when it is opened up to the fullness of its gracious presentation. The radical notion of the Reign of God doesn't make out well among us. We all need some "buffers." So, how do you talk about sex and sexuality within a culture that cannot go there...or is only able to go there in a particular way and within certain boundaries. Well, maybe you don't talk at all. Then again, maybe you touch on it as part of a greater argument. Then again...maybe you deal with it as only you know how...under the rules and guidelines, taboos and restrictions, and the understanding of the day that are a part of the culture. In that time, it may all be helpful to move into the domain of the graciousness of the Reign of God. But today, in our understanding of sexuality, rather than help to move us into that Reign, we are stuffed within a box...all of us. The sex wins out over the Word. Odd.



Connection: Maybe this is where we learn to listen. Like, "Tell me how you get to that understanding because that is not where I am and I need to listen to you." This is not easy - at least not for me. But it may be valuable in many ways throughout this day.



Open up our hearts, O God, and shake us up so that we can listen to others and yet also lift up our voices so that we may all interact with a bit of integrity even as we disagree...or agree. Amen.