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By Rev. Preston K. Mears Jr.
December 2, 2007
The words, sex, sin and salvation catch our attention. Aside from
their shock value, I believe there is value in understanding these
words. One of the messages I received growing up in church, in the
home, and maybe even the drinking water, was that sex was mostly
sinful and salvation was a matter of getting past “it.” Most
certainly, sex outside of bounds of traditional marriage was
strictly forbidden. George Bush, it would seem, is not at risk for
lying about going to war but former President Bill Clinton didn’t
get past “it” and didn’t tell the whole truth about “it” and almost
got impeached for “it.” Indeed, there is even the message out there
that sex is an unfortunate necessity for procreative purposes. I
know from our discussions in the Welcoming Congregation Workshops
that I am not the only one here to have gotten the message.
To start with salvation at the beginning: Ancient Hebrews believed
that salvation in terms of life after death was through ones
offspring and therefore they emphasized procreation. The commandment
against adultery was to assure that a man’s children were his. There
was no DNA testing! The point here is that one will not find any
suggestion in the Old Testament that sex is an “unfortunate”
necessity. The story of Ruth and Naomi in the Book of Ruth is one of
faithfulness to a husband’s family and lineage. The Song of Solomon
is clearly a book of love poetry, one which the early church tried
to get around by saying that the poetry is an elaborate allegory
predicting the relationship of the Risen Christ to His Church.
What changed in the church’s thinking about sex and salvation? For
the Hebrews as an oppressed people going back to the 7th century BC,
salvation also came to be seen as that time when God’s reign would
come to pass with the defeat of Israel’s enemies. The raising up of
God’s people and the dominance of peace is described by the prophet
Isaiah when, “…swords are beaten into plowshares.” It was expected
to be an earthly event. By the time of Jesus, circumstances under
the Romans felt more impossible than ever and people used a language
that emphasized a stark contrast between good and evil. Apocalyptic
language had the virtue of urgency. This time matters. It also had
the vice of lending itself to over simplifying complex realities.
Choose the right side in the battle between good and evil and be
saved. The battle was sort of an earthly phenomenon with heaven
taking over earth.
Then, there came a further complication: Hellenization. The language
of the world was Greek. Most of us remember a little Plato who
described the really real as being the idea of a thing and not the
thing itself. Matter will pass away but the idea is forever. This
aging body of mine does not run as fast as my younger body but there
is a spirit in me that will run forever. So this life is not the end
game, one should not become ensnared in it and the next life is the
real goal. To paraphrase St. Paul, a Hellenized Jew, “We have only
the first fruits now; and, then, (that is later), we shall see God
face to face.”
In the New Testament there is nothing about salvation related to
having progeny as you do in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament,
God told Abraham, “Pray look towards the heavens and count the
stars…so shall your seed be.” In the New Testament the first
necessity was to proclaim that God’s Kingdom was at hand. But the
Kingdom did not come and Rome continued to rule. The hope for
salvation would be in the next life. The Platonic ideal of the
spirit reigning and the flesh being in the way dominated. The Old
Testament and the accounts of teachings by Jesus were seen as really
all about eternal salvation—in the next life. Spirit and flesh
become separated; sex and its desires are unfortunate if not evil.
This division of spirituality separate form the body came at a time
of the world becoming increasingly male dominated. Rabbinical
Judaism had come to dominate. A basic prayer for men was, “Thank you
that I am a man.” For women, the prayer was, “Thank you that I have
a man to take care of me.” Roman culture, similarly, kept women out
of the public forum and “safe” at home.
Then, along came Tertullian. Tertullian concluded that all people
sin, literally, “miss the mark” because of the fall by Adam and Eve
described in the Book of Genesis, and that our fallen nature is
sexually transmitted. Sex is an unfortunate necessity and a man’s
duty to his wife is only in order that there be children. The end of
the world has not come and there is a need to continue the species!
It is in this time period, we find the emphasis on Jesus having been
born, not of a “young maiden,” but of a virgin.
The foundation of Western Civilization as we know it today was built
on a view that sex was bad. Women needed to be in their place and
men, men who chose chastity, defined religious values and what was
necessary to be saved. Women came to be idolized, and set apart.
Indeed, good women were asexual except for their child bearing
function. To be otherwise would be to be damned. Ironically, then
and now, the dominant male heterosexual culture has an element of
anger towards women because it is the fault of women that we have
issues with physical desire. The joke, “Can’t live with them, can’t
live without them…” expresses the ambivalence of desire and anger
nicely. Of course, any sexual expression of a homosexual nature, is
immediately beyond the pale because it can’t lead to progeny. It is
opposite the moral and spiritual.
The good news is that despite all of the religious and cultural
baggage we all inherited, we may have found our way to being friends
with others and, indeed, in some instances, friend and lover. We can
do that without knowing about Judaism, Neo-Platonism and the history
of the early church. But, to me, it was a breath of fresh air to be
able to untangle the history and keep what is life giving in that
history. After all, to be free, is to be saved.
In my twenties, I decided to become a minister and I met Laurie, two
life changing events Given our culture and all the spoken and
unspoken messages, part of me was confused by sexual feelings. What
was sinful? What was bad? Being a heterosexual couple, we could
resolve my ambiguities by marrying and all would be resolved. Sex
wouldn’t be sinful. A disconnect remained for me, however. I was
still basically the same person before and after the ceremony as was
Laurie.
So, newly married, really liking holding hands, off we go to
seminary in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Cambridge, mind you is next to
Boston which, according to some Unitarians, is next to heaven. I
studied Greek, Scripture and early church history. I wanted to
resolve the disconnect between my experience in marriage and all
those messages about sex being bad, wrong and sinful. It seemed
heavenly to me to be able to be with another person confidently,
usually serenely, and just plain glad to bed together in the evening
and greet the morning with a smile. To love and to live in love is
to experience salvation. The shortest sentence in scripture,
attributed to Jesus is this: “ God is love.”
I have attempted to describe the confluence of Apocalyptic Language,
Jewish Messianic history and Hellenistic philosophy and culture
coming together in a way that confused sex and sexuality and sin and
salvation. The discovery of document fragments from that era just in
the past 50 years has opened up new insights into its turbulent
views about sexuality, about men and women and our place and roles
in the grand scheme of things.
It has been some time since I began those studies. In time, I found
myself to be a different person because of my sexual relationship
with another person, encouraged, supported and challenged. I believe
myself to be wiser, more aware and more fulfilled as a person.
Awareness and fulfillment, are these not the stuff of salvation,
something that should happen now in our lives?
I also have come to appreciate that in my sexuality, is the desire
to know and to be known, to be friends with many while mated with
one. I know that I did not choose my particular sexuality. It is a
gift as is everyone’s sexuality and as is everyone’s desire to be
friends and sometimes lovers. As we heard earlier this morning, the
spirit is like the wind, manifold in nature, blowing from the East,
West, North and South. It was the breath of God moving across the
waters at the beginning of creation.
Sin is separation from loving purpose. Salvation is discovering,
embracing and celebrating the person we can be. Our desire to know
and to be known, is basic to our humanity. The tangled history that
decided that sex is sin still looms large in world. It continues to
inflict harm, limit how men and women can relate, and cruelly
restricts the rights and freedoms due all people. I believe the work
we do, to be an inclusive, racially diverse and welcoming
congregation in this place and time, is the work of salvation. We
need not wait for another time or another world.
I hope I have untangled sex, sin and salvation for you.
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