ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHING
April 6, 2022
In yesterday’s Etching, I wrote about Jesus’ spirited exchange with the Pharisees on the topic of divorce. At the end, it gets a little weird as Jesus brings up eunuchs as part of his larger thoughts on divorce. But it even gets weirder when Matthew’s Gospel moves immediately from eunuchs to little children. We will talk more about that tomorrow. In fact, the last thing Matthew has Jesus saying before talking about the little children are eunuchs who made themselves eunuchs for the sake of God’s Reign (yes, that’s exactly what you think it is). Origen, one of the great Christian teachers of the 2nd Century, read these words from Matthew’s Gospel and chose to castrate himself. Wow! That’s commitment, though let me go on the record and say I don’t believe it was quite the commitment Jesus was looking for.
This is all to say that human beings are generally a little messed up when it comes to our understanding of sexuality, and historic Christianity has not always been incredibly helpful in that work. We’ve had a difficult time making sense of human sexuality, especially as we think about being faithful followers of Jesus. In fact, the sexual part of who we are has often been hidden or suppressed because we were told it was an evil part of us that had to be tamed. Sex, in many Christian circles, was only for the purpose of procreating. Enjoying sex was sinful.
Now I think that’s messed up, and it’s part of the reason many of us are messed up when it comes to discussing sex. This is all to say that what we claim to believe about human sexuality, sex and marriage cannot be built around 4 or 5 verses of scripture that have a historic context that we may or may not fully grasp. What would it mean to apply the Fruit of the Spirit, including love, patience, faithfulness, gentleness, etc. to marriage and our understanding of intimacy (including, but not limited to sex)? What would it mean to have two people have a conversation about the fullness of their relationship using the Fruit of the Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control? I don’t know if we would have a simple, one fits all, understanding of what makes for a healthy relationship/marriage. But I do believe we’d take some pretty good steps in that direction.
Holy God, may I bring the fullness of my faith to all of my relationships, including the most intimate and committed of all my relationships. Amen.
