sin and disorder

Good morning sisters and brothers,
Today's reading is the longest piece of the New Testament that talks about homosexuality. Paul uses both male and female homosexuality as an example of the disorder that happens when people turn away from God and worship creatures rather than the creator. It is obvious from this that Paul is not "in favor" of same sex relationships. It's important to keep in mind that Paul didn't know anything about loving, equal and long term same sex relationships. In his time same sex relationships were usually in addition to male-female marriage and were often between powerful men and much younger men. In the Jewish culture in which Paul grew up there was a strong association between homosexuality and idolatry since Jews saw this as something gentiles did. All that is to say that Paul's setting was very different from ours and he is not writing about modern same-sex, monogamous relationships. I feel strongly that committed, long term same sex relationships have the same ability to strengthen people in faith and equip them for a life of faithful service to Christ that male-female relationships have.

That said, Paul's larger point is an important one: when we turn away from God as the center of our world, our lives become more and more out of balance. That leads us into more and more sinful lives both individually and as a society. Notice the case Paul is building; so far we have three steps: 1. even those without the law can and should know God through the world around them, 2. gentiles who should have known God instead worship idols and created things instead of the creator, 3. because of that they become selfish and all their relationships are corrupted. The next step will be to fit Paul's Jewish culture into this situation. Stick with this, Paul is getting somewhere wonderful and the introduction is important.

blessings on your week,
Sam


Romans 1:26-32

26For this reason God gave them up to degrading passions. Their women exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural, 27and in the same way also the men, giving up natural intercourse with women, were consumed with passion for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the due penalty for their error. 28And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind and to things that should not be done. 29They were filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, covetousness, malice. Full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, craftiness, they are gossips, 30slanderers, God-haters, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, rebellious toward parents, 31foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32They know God’s decree, that those who practice such things deserve to die—yet they not only do them but even applaud others who practice them.