by The Rev. Dr. Max Lynn
SCRIPTURE READINGS Luke 6:31-38, Galatians 3:23-29, 1 John 4:16b-21
Transcribed from the sermon preached on JANUARY 30, 2022
As students entered seminary, we had to take several psychological tests to make sure we were stable enough to be ministers in the Presbyterian Church. It has always been a dream of mine to visit with the people who design these tests, so I could test them. They ask bad questions and force you to choose between two answers you don’t like so they can force you into a category they have created to determine if you are sane or normal. But anyway, two parts of my personality that were flagged by the test was that I was abnormally honest and that I held a somewhat loose understanding of laws and social norms.
I was and still am a bit chagrined that being more honest than the average is a personality flaw…not that I know what chagrined means but it sounds right. So, after taking the test I had a conversation with the psychiatrist in which one of the things he did was ask me about why I answered certain questions the way I did. So, there were several questions that went something like this: “Would you ever run a red light?” The way I thought about that is this: Well, if I was out in the middle of nowhere and my wife was in labor and I needed to get to the hospital and there were no cars coming, “yes, I would run a red light.”
Would you ever disobey a law? Well, yes, in Nazi Germany I would hope I would disobey laws of discrimination. Since 1990 St. John’s acted in civil disobedience against the Church’s prohibition against ordination of Gays and Lesbians. Then eventually, after years of making our case with our fellow Presbyterians who held a different view, we changed enough minds to change the law. Basically, there are times when the law of love supersedes the laws of cultures. But another problem with the law is that the law is always an approximation of a pure solution. Law and policy take a particular social issue and must apply a broad solution to the complex and variable issues of life. It doesn’t matter if the law or policy is held or passed by liberals or conservatives, it will always be flawed in some way.
The other issue about law which Paul points out in our passage from Galatians 3 is that law always follows sin. The same principle when we are talking about law in the Bible, law of nations, or laws and norms of our family or culture. We don’t come up with stop lights until people blow it and run into each other at intersections. We don’t come up with a law to say “Thou shalt not kill,” or thou shall not sell an AR15 rifle to an 18-year-olds until after people kill each other. We know from tax law that people will always come up with ways to get around laws. So, we cannot say that because we have followed the law, we are sinless. It is too easy for humans to come up with new ways to sin that the current law hasn’t taken into consideration. Not to mention that one of the sneakiest ways the wealthy and powerful get away with sinning is by writing laws that permit them to do so. To get around though shalt not kill a human being we write a definition of human being that excludes people with black skin for instance. But even when laws and policy are written by people whose intentions are honest and good, they always reflect a certain cultural context and are less that a perfect solution to the problem of sin.
To some degree we need the law as a form of discipline, a custodian, to teach and establish order. So, children learn the basics of decency and we stop at stop lights even when nobody else is around on the principle that following the law is a basic social good which prevents accidents.
Now what Paul is arguing for is that there is a basic and fundamental sense of goodness which, once we receive God’s grace, we want to follow. So, if we follow or don’t follow a law it is not because we are going to Hell if we don’t, or Heaven if we do, or because nobody will catch us or enforce it if we break the law, but because in our heart we want to do and be good. We understand the law does not speak to every complex and dynamic situation or circumstance. So, with faith, whether there is a law which speaks to a particular situation or relationship or not, we can discern how God would have us act.
Now if we are honest and wise enough, we know that if we hold ourselves to God’s standards, every single one of us will not measure up. We all fall short of the glory of God. And yet, Paul says, we are saved by grace. What this means is, among other things, we do not have to turn a blind eye to ways in which we might be sinning. Writing laws in such a way that we can get away with certain sins does not free us from accountability before God. Just because it is legal to take someone’s land or enslave someone doesn’t mean it is not a sin in the eyes of God.
Now the flip side is that by grace we as Christians are given the freedom of choice. Often in life we will find ourselves in situations where none of the choices before us are morally pure. Or, we have to make decisions when we are not smart enough, or self-aware enough or can’t see the future enough to know exactly the best decision to make. Without grace we may be frozen into not making a decision or not taking an action or procrastinating because we are afraid of making an imperfect decision. Now the narcissist will do the opposite and insist despite the complexity of evidence that they knew it all and did everything perfect. But grace enables us to admit the difficulty of the situation, admit our less than perfect knowledge, and by grace to make the best decision we can and act on it. By grace we are forgiven ahead of time. In this mixed up and complex world, by grace, with our heart toward goodness, we are free to make the best decision we can based on who we are and our circumstances. This freedom with grace Paul notes, is extended beyond any lines of class, ethnicity, or gender; [27] For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. [28] There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
So Jesus says in Luke 6: 37 “Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.
Jesus gives us the fundamental rule by which we can judge each and every situation we find ourselves in, whether there is a law which speaks to it or not.
Do unto others as you would have them do to you. A slightly different version of the same principle is Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul, and love your neighbor as yourself. Now who is this God we love? John says, God is love. Those who abide in love abide in God and God abides in them.
So, we have come to a new understanding of gender these days, and we have come to understand some of the ways in which gender norms and laws have established forms of inequality and oppression and control, justifications for sin primarily by men, particularly against women but also other gender non-conforming people. I don’t think we have to agree with every single twist and turn of the weekly iterations of this new conversation to admit these expansions of freedom and equality are worth pursuing as Christians. We ought to also acknowledge that it is quite easy to go to an opposite extreme where people are condemned to a progressive humanist hell if they are not up to date and follow the latest politically correct laws and norms handed down from the gods of the internet and the clouded mountain of academia. The left can be legalistic and overly judgmental too. Obviously, there is good reason to be upset about some of the directions our nation is going.
But even as we may be nervous about the direction we are headed, and continue to organize and advocate, we can celebrate with pride the accomplishments we have made.
There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. 19 We love because he first loved us.
We won ordination, and marriage, and women, gay, lesbian and transgender folks are showing up and stepping up and helping create a beautiful community. The stretching of gender norms has pushed an unprecedented rapid rise in performance, creativity, diversity, and equality.
I will share with you one example from women’s surfing. In 2018 the World Surf League decided to grant equal prize money for men’s and women’s surfing, despite the fact that there are way more men who surf and way more men who spend money on surf gear. No small part of the reason for this change was the advocacy of several feminist, gender bending, big wave surfers from San Francisco. The result was incredible. Both the incentive of more money and the spotlight of equality meant that women started going for it harder. This has led to a rapid rise in the performance level of women surfers. The equal money was also accompanied by more equal airtime or media coverage. There will never be a time when especially attractive people do not draw more attention than the rest of us, but nevertheless, emphasis in surf marketing for women shifted from looking good in a bikini to athleticism, having fun and going for it regardless of how you look. It helped change the definition of beauty to include being strong, active, healthy and confident. The result of all of this is that there has been a spike in the number of women surfing and thus women spending money on surfing gear. So, the small amount of money sponsors were forced to spend on prize money has resulted in a rapid rise in money earned in the expanding market. The measure you give is the measure you get back.
This is just one example of how a greater fluidity of gender norms and a push for equality has resulted in changes we can all be proud of, regardless of gender.
But that is the big social perspective. In the midst of this evolution, we hold to the basic and fundamental Christian principle of do unto others as we would have them do to us. This is the principle of equality set down by Jesus and his Judean tradition a couple thousand years ago. And even beyond that we are to love our neighbor as ourselves. Love makes an even more radical claim than equality in that we are to consider the other before ourselves, we are to be servants.
But to love our neighbor as ourselves there is an implicit implication that we love ourselves. Now we can wish and demand that others love us all we want, but in this sinful world there will always be people who don’t love us, and worse, who hate and wish to malign us. If we wait to love ourselves until we have the understanding, love, and support of all of our neighbors and the law and norms of the state, we will never love ourselves.
Bell Hooks, the Queer feminist African American who called herself a Buddhist Christian wrote in her book All About Love: “One of the best guides to how to be self-loving is to give ourselves the love we are often dreaming about receiving from others. There was a time when I felt lousy about my over-forty body, saw myself as too fat, too this, or too that. Yet I fantasized about finding a lover who would give me the gift of being loved as I am. It is silly, isn’t it, that I would dream of someone else offering to me the acceptance and affirmation I was withholding from myself. This was a moment when the maxim “You can never love anybody if you are unable to love yourself” made clear sense. And I add, “Do not expect to receive the love from someone else you do not give yourself.”
― Bell Hooks
This is certainly an issue to those who identify in the LGBTQ spectrum but also for each and every one of us. Self-esteem and self-love and self-acceptance is something that virtually every single one of us struggles with at some point in our lives. Family and social support is not equal in this endeavor, but God’s grace is. With regard to love from parents, or psychological stability of family life, education, privilege or prejudice, we do not all start in the same place. Also, there are many things that might happen to us or our family that doesn’t happen to others. There is good luck and bad luck. So, it is harder for some to reach a place of self-acceptance and self-love than others. But God’s grace comes to us where we are at. Wherever we are, all we have to do is be open to receive it; to have faith God’s grace is sufficient even for us.
The Christian point of view is that we are saved by grace, and that is it. That is all we need. For in Christ Jesus, you are all children of God, through faith. Your gender neither saves nor condemns you, for we are saved by grace.
So, it is my prayer today, that no matter the struggles in your life, no matter what is going on in our culture and nation and world, stop for a moment and say to yourself, you are a child of God.
If you would say with me out loud right now:
God loves me. God forgives me. I can forgive myself. I am beautiful. I am God’s instrument. I have the power to love myself and to love others.
And you are one with me and the people around you here in this church. You are a beloved child of God, a member of this body, we are one with each other. We are saved by grace and called to love others as God has loved us. This is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.