What do you do when you are wrestling with a big problem and you feel overwhelmed with anger and frustration either from your inability to resolve the issue or because others can’t see it the way you see it so very clearly?
For many people in the church, that’s how they feel about the current discussion on same-sex relationships. And no wonder. Sexuality and sexual identity go to the heart of who we are as human beings. So they involve powerful emotions.
The Bible has remarkably little to say about sexuality. Of the few passages that touch on the subject, it’s clear, as the theme of this issue shows, that none is friendly towards anything same-sex.
Of course it’s also clear we don’t fully understand what most of those passages really mean. Otherwise, we wouldn’t even be debating the matter.
And here’s where things break down for many. One side believes themselves to be true to what little is in scripture about sexual relationships. The other side says they are being true to the Spirit in the way they read scripture more widely.
But surely this is a false opposition. Christians can’t hope to interpret scripture without the Spirit nor can they conveniently ignore what is in scripture.
In fact, we do not merely read scripture in seeking God’s will but we pray scripture. Merely reading scripture was one of the temptations Jesus faced in the desert. His response, albeit scriptural, came from his deep praying over God’s word.
So what to do with those raw emotions roiling under the surface? Maybe they are roiling now because we haven’t said this way or that way is the right way. (We’re not going to.)
But take those emotions and hand them over to God. That’s all. Hand that worry—hand that anger, that fear that the church will change or the fear that it won’t—just hand it all over in prayer.
“‘Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest.
Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace,’” is how Jesus puts it in Eugene Peterson’s The Message.
We cannot make good decisions when we are crippled by fear and anger. Any parent knows that. We can only make good decisions when we are calm. When we truly believe God is in control.
And whatever happens, now or later, God will still be in control.
As we—the church—make our way through this issue, I invite you to read the articles in the magazine, to engage in the fuller documents and videos on our website, and then, to be still.
Put it all aside, and ask the Holy Spirit to fill you and guide you.
