Seven truths as we face a new day as the church

While many have said much about the Supreme Court's June 26 decision legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide, it is important for the church of Jesus Christ not to be silent in the wake of this grievous, barrier-breaking ruling. I introduced yesterday's sermon on I Peter 2:11-12 -- a passage that was providentially appropriate for the occasion -- by declaring seven truths on behalf of Covenant Community Church and our Lord and as a reminder to us as a congregation. Here they are, based on my manuscript, with a few tweaks and, in the seventh point, an additional sentence:

1. God is still sovereign. We may find it difficult to grasp the reason why such a ruling can come forth from five Supreme Court justices who live under the providential rule of the holy God. Yet, we know God does not align Himself with evil. This action did not soil God’s perfect character, but it did occur within His absolute control of all things. God is not without purpose in His sovereign rule.

2. God’s Word is still authoritative. Where the Bible speaks, God still speaks. The Bible has not been reimagined or reinvented to fit the fickleness of a frequently shifting culture. It still judges “the thoughts and intentions of the heart,” Heb. 4:12 says.

3. God’s design for marriage and sexuality is still in effect. The Supreme Court can decide what the governments of this country must recognize as marriage, but it cannot define what marriage is. Marriage was God’s idea. He defined it as only one relationship. The first chapter of the Bible tells us when God made human beings in His image He made them male and female. He gave the female to the male for them to be distinctive and complementary partners. God has made marriage to picture the gospel, and only a man and a woman can portray the Bridegroom and the bride who are the parties in the gospel. So much has happened in the last four weeks, it is difficult to remember what occurred on the first day of this month. Then, the most famous transgender transfer so far was unveiled, when Bruce Jenner appeared on a magazine cover looking like a female. The sexual revolution is bearing bitter fruit its proponents of 50 years ago likely did not imagine. These truths remain: God has made each human being permanently as either a male or a female; He has designed marriage as only between a male and a female; and He has given sexuality as a good gift only to be expressed by a male and a female within marriage.

4. Jesus is still the only Lord and Savior. As has always been true, the Son of God and His life, death and resurrection in our place are the only hope for sinners, and that includes each of us. Whether a person considers himself heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual or transgender, no new marriage, no new gender identity, no acceptance of a new sexual orientation will deliver from the guilt, condemnation, shame, penalty, power and presence of sin. Only Jesus will.

5. We are still ministers of reconciliation. As with all our neighbors, no matter where they live, we remain ambassadors of Christ to them. The lesbian or gay in a same-sex union and the transgender person are not enemies to be reviled or avoided. They are fellow image bearers of God to be loved and served. We have the message of reconciliation with God to share with them. As Russell Moore has pointed out, same-sex marriage will produce great disappointment in many who find it does not satisfy, and we need to be prepared to love, serve, evangelize and disciple these “refugees from the sexual revolution.”

6. We will face new challenges. We should not minimize this reality: This is a new day for evangelical Christians in this country. We are in a strange land for ministry and liberty. We must prepare ourselves, our families and our church for friendship with and ministry to same-sex couples and the children of same-sex couples. We also must prepare ourselves for the intolerance to come. A winnowing is coming. We will face pressures of various kinds to bend the knee to a culture and likely a government that will brook no dissent. Many of us, if not all, will suffer harm. This is our heritage. Our faith sprang up amid hostility, and we have the privilege of joining the suffering saints who preceded us in this great cause.

7. We still win. No matter what happens, victory is assured – not because of any achievement of our own but because of the absolute triumph of King Jesus. We “overwhelming conquer through Him who loved us,” Rom. 8:37 says. We will reign with Him. This calls for humble trust, not haughty triumphalism. While we await that day, may we be joyful soldiers. May we reject fear, anger, frustration and depression. May we practice humility, gentleness, compassion, courage, holiness, faith, hope and love as we follow our Captain, and may we do it together.

It will be helpful to remind ourselves of these truths, and more, as we live as the church and walk united in truth and grace in the days to come.

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Lessons from a long airport wait

Last Sunday, Linda and I spent nearly five hours waiting to fly out of Dulles International Airport, most of that time in the terminal but some waiting on the plane at the gate and on the tarmac. The experience prompted some observations, as well as some applications for the church.

Observations:

1. There is something exceptional and wondrous about a gathering of the nations, including in an airport terminal.

2. A common cause during difficult circumstances produces an atypical camaraderie.

3. Some people serve sacrificially during difficult circumstances to help the needy.

Applications:

1. All the nations will be represented eternally in the exceptional and wondrous gathering around the throne of God.

2. Our common Savior and common cause -- the discipling of the nations -- produce a unique fellowship.

3. All of us have the opportunity to serve sacrificially like our Servant Savior to help the needy.

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How to respond to Bruce Jenner and transgenderism

Monday's unveiling of Bruce Jenner with a new appearance raised the transgender issue to a previously unknown level of cultural consciousness. There are a number of questions Christians face on how to respond to this growing phenomenon, but we must first get the basics right.

Last summer, I preached a sermon series titled "Gender, Sexuality, and the Purpose and Power of God." I addressed the transgender issue in that series' first sermon, which was on Genesis 1:26-27. In that text, the Bible says, "God created man" -- which is the word for human being -- "in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them."

Here are excerpts from that sermon's manuscript that relate to transgenderism:

Man, as used in these two verses, consists of both male and female. Both are made in God’s image. Both have a responsibility to rule over creation.

Yet, they are different. And there are only two kinds of them – male and female. There is purposefulness in this distinction, a purposefulness by God that is fleshed out in the verses that follow. . . .

God has not changed His pattern from creation. There is nothing in the Bible that indicates a revision in this truth – human beings are male and female. There is a distinction between the two. Each of us is whom God made us to be. And a vital part of who we are is our gender. We are either male or female. That is a reality to be embraced by each of us. A male should embrace the fact he is a male. A female should embrace the fact she is a female. It is God’s purposeful design in our lives. . . .

[H]ow should we respond? With truth and grace. In addition to embracing our gender and thanking God for making us exactly the way He has:

(1) We should not be shocked that such misguided thinking as that of transgender people is found in human beings. They, and we, live in a fallen world where the sin nature blinds us and causes us to believe lies. But we also should not surrender on this reality of Scripture and creation: God has made us male and female.

(2) We should not see those who have what is described as a gender identity disorder as monsters, mutants or freaks. They, like all other human beings, are made in the image of God.

(3) We should love, care for, serve, evangelize – and hopefully – disciple them. They, like all other sinners, need the gospel. And once they have received the gospel of Jesus, we should help them see that part of repenting and following Jesus is not rebelling against their Creator but accepting the gender they were given by God.

Five things to recognize in a 'Fifty Shades' culture

The record-breaking reception for "Fifty Shades of Grey" -- including in the South and Midwest -- provides an occasion for us, as Christians, to consider what it means "to keep oneself unstained by the world" (James 1:27b).

That was the topic a group of brothers and sisters who are part of Covenant Community Church in Fredericksburg, Va., considered the evening of Feb. 15. The discussion came during our monthly care group meeting.

"Fifty Shades of Grey" is the movie about the sadomasochistic relationship between a billionaire and a college student that opened with a domestic box-office haul of more than $94 million, breaking the record for a President's Day weekend. The movie is based on the first of a trilogy of books released three years ago. It took only two years for the series to sell 100 million copies worldwide.

There is a lot that could be written about the popularity of the books and movie. The books have been labeled "mommy porn," apparently because of the primary makeup of their readers. Their popularity with women apparently carried over to the film. An estimated 68 percent of the opening weekend audience was female.

But our concern in the care group discussion was what it means for followers of Christ in light of the definition in James that "[p]ure and undefiled religion" in God's sight includes keeping ourselves unstained by the world. Here are some conclusions I came to with the help of that conversation:

(1) We should recognize we increasingly are going against the current of our culture. The popularity of books and movies such as "Fifty Shades" reminds us of this reality. When a fictional account of the torture of a woman is this popular, we can surmise our culture has passed over a previously uncrossed line of public morality. As followers of Jesus, we progressively find a culture that increasingly worships at the altars of many aberrant forms of sexuality in conflict with the standards of Scripture and the holiness of God.

(2) We should acknowledge the temptations that surround us in a hyper-sexualized culture. Sex is a wonderful gift from God in the context for which He designed it -- marriage between a man and a woman. It also is powerful, and that is a good thing in marriage. Outside of marriage, its power is dangerous. This is nothing new. The apostle Paul warned the Christians in Rome to avoid "sexual promiscuity and sensuality" (Rom. 13:13). John Mark Yeats, associate church history professor at the undergraduate arm of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, recently said of the early church, "During the first couple of centuries, any Christian living in an urban environment would have experienced an all-out assault on Scriptural standards for morality. From sexual exploitation in public baths to sexual rituals as part of worship ceremonies in pagan temples, believers were assaulted with every form of temptation and visual stimuli. Yet the Christian's firm grounding in the Word gave a stronger foundation to the family. Virtue became a clear defining principle of the early church. As the social units of the broader culture continued to collapse and struggle, the clear claims of the Gospel stood in stark contrast. The church truly was a city on hill that couldn't be hidden." While our culture flaunts sexual immorality almost ubiquitously, we have an opportunity to demonstrate by our flight from temptation the overcoming power and love of Jesus.

(3) We should value Christ above all. If we would resist the Siren call of sexual temptation, we should find value in the One who is supremely valuable. If we do not treasure Jesus as "our life" (Col. 3:4), we are setting ourselves up to be seduced by a false god. No idol may be more enticing in our culture than that of biblically forbidden sexuality.

(4) We should realize we are in an ongoing fight. This battle against the pull of immorality in a hyper-sexualized culture is a daily one. It requires alertness and perseverance. We must spend time reading and learning from God's Word, as well as in prayer. We must constantly remind ourselves of the truth about God and His gospel -- and what He has accomplished for us in the cross-work of Jesus that gives us true and lasting life, meaning, satisfaction, joy and peace.

(5) We should help one another. We would do well to acknowledge we are all soldiers in this battle. The skirmishes may differ somewhat from disciple to disciple, but we are in the same war on the same cultural battlefield. That calls for prayer for one another, encouragement of one another and accountability to one another. If we would be the true church in this culture, we would graciously support one another as fellow warriors who are dependent on Christ and blessed by His body.

So thank you -- Scott, Rob, Donna, Bob, Di, Jim, Christian and Linda -- for the great conversation and the important contributions to thinking about what it means "to keep oneself unstained by the world."

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A lesson for the church: Avoid 'culturalization'

One of the assignments for any true church is to make certain it resembles the called-out community of God more than the world out of which it has been called.

I addressed this issue during last Sunday’s sermon in my preaching series through the book of Judges. It came during a review of where we were in Israel’s history as we looked at Judges 11. The four-part cycle – God’s people commit evil; God disciplines His people; God’s people cry out to Him; God delivers His people – described in the book does not leave Israel at the same place spiritually after several repetitions. Instead, by Chapter 11, God’s people are in a “plunge,” as Old Testament scholar Dale Ralph Davis calls it. Another writer, Daniel Block, says what we are observing in this book is the “Canaanization of Israel.” In other words, God’s people look more and more like the pagan culture in which they live.

As I said Sunday, it is a lesson for the church in any age. If we, as the church, look and live like the spirit of the age we have been delivered out of, what good are we? We are no longer a distinctive people. We are just baptized idolaters.

It’s like the German churches in the 1930s and ’40s that could sing “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” while bowing to a Nazi madman and his nationalistic fervor that liquidated six million Jews.

It’s like the churches of the American South in the 1950s and ’60s that could sing “Have Thine Own Way, Lord” and “When We All Get to Heaven” while embracing a legal system that enforced the idea that fellow image bearers of God were inferior and unequal because they had a different skin color.

It’s like our church in this day singing “You Are My King” and “The Power of the Cross” while endorsing lifestyles and unions that violate God’s created order or while welcoming to the Lord’s Supper table open fornicators and adulterers.

The fact is the church in any country can easily be prone to “culturalization” in various ways.

For instance, American “culturalization” of the body of Christ could include adopting practices in corporate worship that mirror our popular, celebrity-enthralled society rather than the picture offered in the New Testament – practices that seem to focus on performance and performers on stage rather than to incorporate the entire body of believers as they participate in the worship of God.

May we not be infected with American “culturalization” as a church. Instead, may we look to the Word and the Spirit for the shaping of a community and culture that reflect Christ and glorify God.

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While we wait and the sanctity of human life

Our church followed last Sunday's sermon by singing "Glorious Christ" as the congregational song of response. What a glorious song, and what a glorious way to close that time of corporate worship. The final line of the final verse says: "And all will be made right when You appear."

It was a wonderful truth to proclaim and to remind ourselves of after two weeks of sermons on how we are to live as Christians in an age that does not embrace the sanctity of all human life. Abortion, racism and human trafficking will all "be made right" when King Jesus appears.

But in the "already/not yet" tension of Christianity, those evils continue to exist and wreak havoc on countless human beings. So we have responsibilities as ambassadors of our coming King to bear and share His name, His truth and His love while we wait for the day when "justice [will] roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream" (Amos 5:24).

In these two sermons, I pointed to two primary themes of Rom. 12:9-21:

1. Loving others made in the image of God begins in the church;

2. Blessing others made in the image of God extends to all people.

As we saw in this passage, we do not genuinely love if we do not hate evil. At the same time, we are to bless and not call down condemnation on those behind evil. They also are made in the image of God. So the unborn babies killed, the women trapped as sex slaves and the people oppressed because of their skin color or ethnicity are image bearers of God, but so are the abortion doctors, the human traffickers and the racists. God will mete out justice, we saw in this passage. Our responsibility is to bless our enemies and persecutors and let God act justly in His time and His way. Because He is merciful toward sinners, He will save some out of their evil ways. In all cases, He will punish evil -- either in His judgment on sinners or His judgment on His Son in the place of sinners.

The first proving ground for true love on the sanctity of human life issue is the body of Christ. Paul tells us in Rom. 12:10 we are to "give preference to one another in honor" or to value one another greatly. Even in a small church like ours, our fellowship increasingly demonstrates diversity. With it, we have a growing opportunity to show to one another and the world that every brother and sister, every human being, is valuable. By the way we live together, we can attest to this non-negotiable truth: Each human being – regardless of location, development, age, gender, size, mental or physical condition, ethnicity, religious belief, social standing, appearance or popularity with the ruling government -- is made in the image of God.

Being a pro-life church means loving one another.

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A future America and the sanctity of human life

(Today is the 42nd anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized abortion nationwide. That ruling ushered in a culture of death that not only has taken the lives of 57 million unborn children but looms over the beginning of life, the end of life and the span in between. Below is my look at what kind of America we may live in a few decades from now. I used this, with only a couple of slight differences, to introduce a sermon in 2009 about Christians living in a culture of death.)

It is April 19, 2041. I am 89 years old, and today is the day I will face the last enemy, as Paul describes it in I Corinthians 15:26. I am rolling down the hospital hallway in a wheelchair. A pleasantly acting young woman is walking beside me, and an equally pleasant young man is pushing my chair.

I should have known better than to come back to the hospital. I should have just stayed at home and waited there. It was foolish of me to think I could go to the hospital and come out again. After almost nine decades of life, I am saddened to say I am still doing foolish things. Well, at least this appears to be the last foolish thing I will do. I don't have to go in a wheelchair, but I don't want to walk voluntarily, as if I agree with the system. Besides, my lungs are so damaged I'm not sure how far I could walk. And I sure couldn't run far, if I wanted to make a dash for it. Of course, 89 year olds don't dash anyway.

There's no deliverance for me at this point, unless God miraculously intervenes. I realize that. My family realizes that. My lungs are shot. The doctors can't explain it. This is the way it is.

This time when I entered the hospital for therapy, word came from the Board of Responsible Care that further treatment for me could not be justified. No more treatments, no more oxygen, certainly no transplant. This is life in an age of rationed health care. Caring for me would take away treatment from someone younger and more capable of benefiting society. I am no longer a productive citizen, the board says. I am no longer of use to others.

So we roll on. We reach it. Above the double, sliding doors are the words: Life Passages. I am rolled into a reception room that may be the most inviting I have ever seen. A few others are already there. I pass on the punch and cookies. Others follow me into the reception room. Most are in wheelchairs. Most have family members with them. I don't, because my family and I oppose this whole regime, and the people in charge don't want anyone in here making a scene.

Soon someone else is rolled into the room without any family -- someone I know. She's a fellow member of Covenant Community Church, someone I've shared Sunday worship and a church covenant with for more than 30 years. She's 10 years younger than me, but she has Alzheimer's. I greet her, but there is no indication she recognizes me. Then, behind her, another person I know is pushed in. He's a 22-year-old member of our church, the victim of an automobile accident that left him severely brain damaged. They say he's in a persistent vegetative state. After all these decades they still haven't come up with a more accurate name for it. They probably haven't tried -- makes it easier to do what they're getting ready to do to my young friend. I think about their families and mine, and ask for God's grace for them.

Soon, all 20 of us are gathered. We are told it is time, and they begin moving us toward the doors at the opposite side of the reception room. We enter a huge, circular room with a high ceiling. Twenty chairs that look like the ones in the dentist's office face outward toward the wall in a circle. I am helped into the chair, and I assume everyone else is. We have three options -- take a pill, take a drink or take an injection. I have chosen the injection. I don't want to start being cooperative now. They say it works slowly, taking about 5 to 6 minutes.

I look to my right and my left and realize I can't see the person on either side, though each is only 15 feet from me. They are viewing the scenes they have chosen to be the last images on their minds. I can't tell what they are seeing -- maybe waves soothing the sand on the seashore or majestic, snow-capped mountains. I don't know how they do it, shooting images onto thin air. I'll never know. They are listening to the music they have chosen as well. There is a little bleed-over. I can hear some faint strains. Me, I don't have a scene or any music. It's that resistance thing again. Besides, I couldn't find any music I liked on the list anyway.

I'm starting to get tired, my eyelids heavy. Then I hear a voice I recognize but have not heard in a long time. It's my friend, my sister in the faith. And she's singing. Maybe the drug made her lucid. Maybe God is going to let her go out singing. It's a song I know, one we have sung as the church of Christ many times over the years. I join in with her. Then I get too tired even to sing. Yet, she goes on. The last thing I hear is her voice, like balm to a weary soul. The last words I hear are: "One with Himself I cannot die; my soul is purchased by His blood; my life is hid with Christ on high, with Christ my Savior and my God."

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