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I was reading this week about the
demonstration in front of Parliament by some Christian and other groups
protesting for the conscientious right to continue to discriminate against
people who are gay, trans-sexual, or otherwise living what they regard
as unscriptural or wrong sexual lives. The protest has helped to reinforce
attitudes on both sides of this debate. There are Christians who believe
that the world is imposing an ungodly agenda on them and making them
do things which they believe to be wrong; and sadly there are people
who’ve been reinforced in their view that Christians and other religious
people are full of hatred and prejudice, and wanting to make other people
fit into their world instead of accepting them as fellow human beings.
Both sides share the vision of an inclusive, fair society where no one
is discriminated against because of who they are. But how far can you
go in opposing what people do, when they believe it to be right for
them, but you don’t, and it offends what you believe?
The reality is that we live in a messy and imperfect world. The temptation
of many people, whether Christian or religious or secular, is to think
that you can force other people to be pure and good and consistent,
by using religion or legislation or moral pressure. If God as the great
judge won’t stop delinquency, let’s try ASBOs. But it just doesn’t work,
either way: and our task as Christians isn’t to keep our hands clean,
but to get our hands dirty in the love and service of others, for the
sake of the love of God.
Why do I say that? Because that’s what I see in Jesus, who was spoken
of as a glutton and drunkard, a friend of sinners who associated with
people whose lifestyles were anything but what God might want.
Look at today’s gospel reading, the wedding at Cana. I’ve always loved
that story: it’s a glorious way to begin a gospel account of Jesus being
revealed as God’s Son, by starting with a totally hedonistic & celebratory
miracle. It doesn’t help the poor, it’s totally unnecessary, it undermines
the local wine-producing economy – but, boy, does God know how to throw
a party! Over 1000 bottles of wine at a stroke, & really good stuff
too.
The wartime archbishop William Temple in his "Readings in John’s
Gospel" suggested that the reason why the wine at Cana ran out
was that Jesus & his disciples were unexpected guests, & it
was their fault the wine ran out early. That doesn’t fit with the lavish
scale of most eastern hospitality, where you'd expect half the village
to turn up anyway. I prefer to think that Jesus & his friends, who
after all soon got a reputation for being gluttons & drunkards,
were calling for their fourth or fifth bowl of wine, & Mary came
tut-tutting out of the kitchen to silence them by telling them there
was no wine, & since they’d drunk a lot of it, what were they going
to do about it?
But the key thing is this: look at what Jesus says. His mother expects
him to provide wine: he tells her, in a pretty blunt way, that it’s
not his business, that now isn’t the time for him to be revealed as
Son of God: 'my hour has not yet come'. But in spite of that, he goes
ahead and does it anyway – because his mother asks him and other people
expect it. Jesus doesn’t persist in saying that he won’t do it, that
it goes against his integrity: he gets on with it, because the demands
of love are greater than his integrity, his own belief in what he should
do, and what love demands is more important than what other people might
think about him. Imagine the headlines there could have been in the
Nazareth Times: 'Prophet presides over drunken orgy at local wedding'
- but Jesus goes ahead and takes the risk.
And so I think it is with issues of discrimination around the hot topics
of religion and sex. The reality is that we have to live in an impure
and messy world (as the apostle Paul points out to the Corinthians,
1 Corinthians 5.10). We can’t keep our hands clean. Even if you manage
to make it apparent that you don't condone gay lifestyles, how much
integrity do you actually have in other areas of life? For example:
we also believe in care for the environment – but do we act in accordance
with that belief, buying only local & fairly traded goods, checking
that produce isn't flown in from places with oppressive governments,
and paying more money for things which are sustainable? Do we buy the
Big Issue or give to beggars and help the homeless, which may mean them
choosing to spend the money on drink or drugs not food, or do we walk
away from those in need? Do we have pensions or investments which profit
from the arms trade or alcohol or tobacco? Do we as Christians refuse
to do anything in our jobs or lives which may be inconsistent with our
faith? If we did that, we’d end up like the Amish in America creating
our own sealed-off society, which preserves our integrity but fails
to reach out with God’s love to our neighbours. We need to submit our
integrity to Christ as we follow him into the messiness of everyday
life.
Why is it that Christians get so hung up about being thought to compromise
their sexual purity and not about other kinds of compromise? It’s not
because of what the Bible says – pride and greed are much more important
biblical sins than anything to do with sex. Christians find sex difficult
because it’s about purity, about the feeling of things being disgusting,
about our own experiences of abuse and failure and sexual inconsistency.
It’s easier to point to others who are different from us than it is
to come to terms with our own messy and inconsistent lives and experience.
So instead of loving and accepting others as they are, we distance ourselves
from them because it makes us feel better – even if it means that we
fail to love them as we should.
I heard a comment on the radio this week from a B & B owner who
said that she’d had some lovely gay couples to stay at her guest house,
and the only difficult guest they’d had was a self-confessed Christian
who was not only rude but a racist too.
Our integrity as a person and as a Christian is important, & part
of the Christian life is to be people of integrity. But we mustn’t make
our integrity an idol to be worshipped, an idealised integrity in the
name of which we sacrifice love for other people and discriminate against
them. Instead, let’s follow the lead of Jesus, and go out in love to
serve all people, whoever they are, however messy it makes us feel,
in the name of the love of God in Jesus Christ. For when people experience
love from us rather than judgement or discrimination, then through us
they will truly find God.
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