Much Ado About Nothing

The world is abuzz this morning over the Pope’s remarks yesterday (July 29, 2013) concerning gay people and the church.  The front page of the New York Times blares out in bold type:  On Gay Priests, Pope asks, “Who is to Judge?”  Then in lesser type a sub-headline:  No Change in Doctrine.  Then in even lesser type:  Comments From Francis Are Still a Departure From Benedict’s.  Some gay people are already commenting that maybe they will have to reassess their membership in the Catholic Church and come back home.  Is the Pope really signaling a change in church doctrine and attitude toward the gay lifestyle?  I hope not, I think not.

From this Lutheran pastor’s perspective and opinion, Francis seems to be a Pope who has a lot of personality, is very outgoing, and wants to engage with people in a discussion on theology and life in the church.  He is a people person.  People persons, in my view, are more apt to engage with those who are skeptical of the church and attempt to explain theology and the church in a way that comes across as more loving and compassionate.  The Pope seems to be speaking about homosexuality the way the Scriptures do; the way Jesus dealt with sinners.

Jesus gave a new command when he celebrated the Passover with his disciples on that first Maundy Thursday—Maundy coming from the Latin, meaning mandate or command.  The new command, “to love one another,” wasn’t really a new command but a reiterating of the commandments.  The first table of the Law (commandments 1-3) can be summarized by Deuteronomy 6:5 and Matthew 22:39 “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”  The second table of the Law (commandments 4-10) can be summarized by Leviticus 19:18 and again, Matthew 22:39, “And a second is like it:  Love your neighbor as yourself.”  Thus Love summarizes all of the commandments. First and foremost we love everyone—whether they are Christians or not.  Jesus always spoke to people with love and respect; he always took people where they were and lovingly and gently led them in his direction.  (Check out his conversation in John 2 with the Samaritan woman; also note that Jesus hung out with people that the religious leaders of his day wouldn’t be caught dead with because of their self-righteousness—tax collectors and sinners.) 

And consider his conversation with the woman caught in adultery.  People love to quote from that account where Jesus says, “let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”  In other words, we are all sinners and we shouldn’t be judging people.  But there is way more to this than meets the eye.  First off, Jesus is speaking to the teachers of the law and the Pharisees.  These men were not interested in redeeming this woman; they wanted to shame her and use her as “bait” in a conversation with Jesus so they could trap him and bring up some kind of charges against him.  Jesus was on to them.  Thus the words “let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”  This is much akin to Jesus saying elsewhere that before one can get the speck out of his brother’s eye he must first get the log out of his own.  After the woman’s accuser’s leave, Jesus turns his attention to the woman.  It is his words to her that nobody seems to ever remember let alone quote!  “Go and sin no more.”  Jesus doesn’t condemn her, he doesn’t berate her.  He treats her with love, respect, and compassion—and yet—he tells her that her lifestyle is wrong, sinful, and to repent and no longer engage in that behavior.

All we have to do is substitute gay for adulterer in John 8 and we would see how Jesus would deal with the issue of being gay.  It is not the church that mistreats gay people, but misguided and loveless Christians in the church who mistreat gay people.  God calls us to love one another as he has loved us.  Therefore we treat all people—even gay people—with love and respect.  We call their gay lifestyle exactly what God calls it in his inspired, inerrant Word:  SIN.  But we treat them lovingly, compassionately, and respectfully.  Jesus was not a hatemonger and he doesn’t call us to be hatemongers either.

I suspect that the Pope isn’t going to/ doesn’t want to change church doctrine, just the way he wants the church to relate to gay people; which brings me to a real sore spot with people who say that because I think homosexuality is wrong I am a bigot and a homophobe.  Why can’t I just see things differently than you do and yet still respect you and be nice to you?  Why does disagreeing with you mean I am afraid of you and your lifestyle?  Why does disagreeing with you mean that I hate you!  The gay person would say to Christians that we are judging them without knowing them.  But aren’t gay people doing the same thing to us?  I think Francis just wants people to dial down the rhetoric and be more Christ-like in their attitude toward gay people.

Stay tuned for part two . . . . .