06-22-23

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
June 22, 2023
Last Sunday, I made an announcement about the sermon this coming week. Without specifics, I suggested it might be a bit more challenging for some folks. In my preaching, I try to balance encouragement, teaching, inspiration, and challenge. No one sermon falls solely into a single category. There is always some overlap. So I don’t believe Sunday’s sermon will only challenge, but it will require most people to stretch themselves in regard to their understanding of scripture and where those lines are drawn. So often, we assume that within scripture there is a single voice with a single message. As you’ve heard me say often, I do not believe the Bible is a book, but a library. And like any library, there are many different voices, not all of them agreeing. Whether it was the Prophets disagreeing with something said in Leviticus, or Jesus suggesting that what people had heard might need a small correction, there is a definite move toward greater inclusion. I think about Deuteronomy 23 that tells us that a eunuch, no matter how a person became a eunuch, shall not, in any way, belong to the Lord’s assembly. Basically, an eunuch is an outsider. In the Prophet Isaiah, there seems to be a change of heart when the Prophet writes about the eunuch, and how they will be "better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that will endure forever." And then Jesus says, " For there are eunuchs who have been eunuchs from birth. And there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by other people. And there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs because of the kingdom of heaven. Those who can accept it should accept it" (Matthew 19:12). I pulled a commentary off my shelf to see what it had to say about this verse, and I laughed out loud when I found out that the scholar simply skipped the verse all together. I guess ignoring it is one way of dealing with it. And though Jesus is using the verse to make a point about marriage and celibacy, it still would have been shocking to his listeners to hear him affirm the idea of someone removing their genitals for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven. You cannot draw a perfect line of consistency through scripture. It was not intended to be read that way, and in fact, it has only been in the last hundred and fifty years or so that churches have attempted to teach such a thing. Keep that in mind this Sunday, but I’ll talk more about things in tomorrow’s Etching.

​Never allow me to think I’ve got the Bible or faith all figured out. Gracious God, continue to teach me and nudge me along the way. Amen.