If you have been with us for the last month or so, you know we are going through a book of the Bible together as a church. And I love that because it is easy for me to figure out what to preach each week: we just go where Scripture takes us. This week, we are still in Romans 1 and it is going to talk specifically about homosexuality. And homosexuality is a difficult issue because it is such a divisive issue in the church. And it’s a prominent conversation in our culture: how should communities of faith interact with the gay community? What does the Bible say and what does it not say? Can we love those in the gay community without affirming the behavior? Or is not affirming homosexual relationships in itself an act of hate? And the modern world and increasingly the modern church have both typically had the same spectrum of responses when it comes to the issue of homosexuality: on the one hand, the response is to hate those in the gay community. And the other response is to accept, affirm and advocate for the expression of homosexuality in all of its forms in the growing acronym LGBTQIA+. I believe that the Bible does not allow us to go to either of those extremes of either hate or affirmation. But I believe the Bible and the witness of the early church presents a third way. Let’s see what that way might be together.
