It was another one of those tedious conversations; well, we weren’t really conversing; we were talking and only one of us was listening. The other guy is a member of a big-box evangelical church who has been taught to hate LGBTQ people. He accused our church of being focused on the acceptance of sin, or being in league with the devil, or something like that. At first, when I actually responded to his comments and questions, he seemed genuinely engaged. Then I pushed him on the Bible; since you believe the Bible is inerrant, you must agree that lesbians are acceptable, at least in the Hebrew Scriptures. No, he said; a man not being allowed to lie down with a man as if he were a woman includes women with women. But it doesn’t say that until Romans, I replied; I thought you took the Bible seriously? If it meant women, wouldn’t it have said women? No! God hates these deviants! And … we’re done here.
I continue to be frustrated by so many people’s unwillingness to engage with the facts; and to inerrancy people, the Bible is completely factual. Even when I ask them to read from their own version of Scripture, they will say, “What it means is…”, which is the actual definition of interpretation! They are fully convinced that their understanding of God, supported by the preaching they hear and the books they read, is the real, true, honest-to-god only story about God. It doesn’t matter that the actual, original versions had no punctuation. Which means all punctuation in our Bible is placed as an act of interpretation. It doesn’t matter that we are warned by the very Scriptures we read that we don’t know the mind of God. That was the Apostle Paul’s point in 1 Corinthians 13; “Now we see in a mirror dimly; then we will see face to face. Now we know only in part, then we will know fully, just as we have been fully known.” Paul was guilty of the “My way or the highway approach to God”, but he also understood the danger of that approach.
The work of art I have attached caught my eye the other day. I think it captures just how little we actually know about God. We can believe that the Spirit speaks to us all we want, but when our version of God’s voice dramatically opposes another person’s “genuine” experience of that same Spirit, one of us will end up being a liar. Part of Paul’s point in 1 Corinthians is that the church was destroying itself because it was so divided. People were allowing division to silo them and tear them apart, and the mission of Jesus was suffering. Every part of the body is valuable, he told them, and Jesus is the head. Everything we offer should build up the church, he pleaded with them; stop treating others as if their gifts were inferior to yours. There’s no place for selfish spirituality in the community of faith.
We all know a tiny bit about God. The image of the body works here; the hand matters as much as the foot as much as the ear as much as everything else. We need each other to know God better and to function as a whole; that’s why you can’t really be a follower of Jesus on your own. Where two or three are gathered indicates that, at least with the church, size doesn’t matter. It means we need at least one other person for Jesus to be present with us as the church. I can help you know God better and you can help me in the same way. Alone, we fail. Together, we have a chance to change the world for the better. It keeps us humble. It teaches us to be servants.
Prayer – Holy God, in the midst of our desire to know You and learn more about Your desires, continues to connect us to one another. Life is better that way. Amen.
Today’s art is by Keith Kristich.