Dear Friends,
I am sure many of you saw the Supreme Court ruling on both
the Defense of Marriage Act, and also California’s Proposition 8. DOMA was overturned, and Proposition 8 was
sent back to the lower court where it was over turned as well.
Both of these actions by the Supreme Court further what seems
to be the inevitable growth of homosexual marriage in our country. Many churches today either turn a blind eye
to the whole situation or warmly applaud and welcome these changes. Our church body is one of the few that still
calls a sin a sin in our world today.
So what is at issue?
God’s word says, “You shall not commit adultery.” Luther’s explanation of this from the
catechism says, “We should fear and love God so that we lead a sexually pure
and decent life in what we say and do, and husband and wife, love and honor
each other.”
In other words, God prohibits any kind of sexual act that
takes place outside of His divinely instituted marriage. This includes premarital sex, affairs,
pornography, and more. Any sexual act
outside of marriage, God clearly calls sin.
Scripture makes it clear, “The wages of sin is death.” Romans 6:23
Believe it or not, homosexuality falls under this prohibition
as well. As Christ says in Matthew
chapter 19, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made
them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his
mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What
therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”
Those are the words that define what marriage is. Christ is quoting Genesis chapters 1 and 2. When God instituted marriage, He did so to
join together man and woman until death do they part. Marriage is intended by God that man and
woman may find delight in each other, that they be companions for each other
throughout their days in this world, and that children may be born as God wills.
Homosexual unions cannot fit this mold. The Bible cannot recognize gay marriage, even
if the government does. Why? In homosexual marriage there is no
biblical man and woman
union, but only non-biblical unions of man and man, or woman and woman unions.
There is no ability to conceive children naturally. Two bodies of the same gender also may not as
easily and naturally find delight in each other (Romans 1). In fact, the only way that homosexuals can
fit the concept of biblical marriage is in companionship, and even a pet
goldfish fits that criterion.
So in the end, homosexual relationships do break the sixth
commandment, as they can never take place according to God’s Word about
marriage. We must place it with the host
of other sexual sins outside of God’s designs.
As we do so, we need to be honest with ourselves as well. For just as a homosexual has broken God’s
sixth command, so too have we if we have ever ogled someone of the opposite
sex, if we have ever slept around, if we have ever looked at pornography (or,
let’s be honest, many TV commercials), or more.
Jesus says in Matthew, “But I
say to you that everyone who looks at
a woman (or man) with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in
his heart.”
As with all sin, including ours, it is sin that kills faith
in Christ. It is sin that separates us
from Him, that turns us inward upon ourselves, and comes between us and our
salvation.
In that sin there is nowhere to turn. We cannot save ourselves. We need a savior, we need Jesus. So God sent His Son into the world to die for
our sin, even our sixth commandment sins.
Jesus suffered, and shed His blood for you and for all homosexuals and
for all mankind, so that we might no longer be killed by sin, but instead that
we may be free of it.
Yes, you heard (read?) me right, Jesus died for sexual sins –
even homosexuality. That forgiveness
belongs to all who repent of sin and receive Christ by grace alone through
faith alone. He has earned forgiveness
and given it freely to all in His church through baptism. Those who belong to Christ are defined by
this forgiveness, and have His name emblazoned upon their forehead by water and
the Word.
Therein lies our concern for so many of our homosexual
friends. They spurn the forgiveness
Christ has earned for their sin. Instead
of saying, “I am a sinner. Lord, have
mercy upon me,” they say “God created me this way, and I am not in sin!” Instead of repenting, they tell God what they
are doing is correct – or even worse God pleasing! Instead of striving to live free of sin, they
embrace it, and use it to define who they are.
So what do we do as Christians? We pray for them. We proclaim God’s Word to them, both the
difficult-to-hear Law, and the wonderful blessing of Gospel. We should not shirk from the truth about
these matters. We ought to confess our
own sexual sins alongside homosexuals. We
ought to look to Christ and Him alone for forgiveness.
Furthermore, we need to honestly think about marriage in
regards to church and state. I believe
either one of two things must happen.
Either the church ought to get out of the “state-licensed” marriage
business and only bless civil unions, or the state should leave marriage to the
religious organizations and treat all individuals, married and single, the same
way. After all, marriage is a
religiously instituted estate, which has been around for thousands of years
before there was a USA. It is only used
by the government for tax purposes.
Perhaps also our congregations should include in our
constitutions a clause that states our opinion on homosexual marriages, so that
we are never forced into choosing between our tax-exempt status and God’s clear
Word (We’d have no choice but to lose our tax status).
If any of you have any questions about these topics, let me
know. I’d be happy to talk with you
about them, or if there are enough interested, perhaps we could talk about it
at Sunday Bible study.
I also think perhaps we should host a circuit-wide “marriage”
conference. We could invite Pastor Tom Eckstein
to talk about these issues in more depth, and host the other local
congregations as well. Let me know if
this would be of interest to you.
In Christ,
Pastor Moline
