On Sunday,  October 4th (the Gospel text was Mark 10:2-16, Jesus addresses the issue of marriage and divorce) I shared my view on the resolutions about human sexuality that had passed at the ELCA Churchwide Assembly in Minneapolis in August. The following is a modified version of my address from that morning.

In preparation for my class on Christian key doctrines, I have been thinking about sin a lot lately. About sin and grace. Let me start by saying: We cannot not sin. Sin is a part of our nature. It is a part of our human condition. Through our sinful condition, we are separated from God. As a consequence of this separation, we cannot completely fulfill God's law, which conversely becomes evident in our actions.

In Mark 10, Jesus is asked about marriage and divorce. When we talk about marriage, we think – for the most part – in traditional terms, as a union between one man and one woman, ordained and blessed by God. What God has brought together, no one should put asunder, was Jesus response. The couple is supposed to live together until death parts them. Does this mean that a marriage can never be separated? What do we, as a church, tell people who live, for instance, in an abusive marriage relationship? Do we tell them to stay in this relationship, to not divorce, in order to not sin against God? This would be a cruel thing to do.

Unfortunately, part of our experience as social beings is that we live in broken relationships. We are sinful beings and we live in sin. Sin is everywhere. We are infested by sin. As a result, people hurt other people. Nations rise up against nations. Human beings revolt against God. The results of these behaviors can be – but are not limited to – divorce and war. The result of our rebellion against God is (continued) expulsion from Paradise. In biblical terms, since the Fall into sin (see Genesis 3), we live outside Paradise, outside the place of perfect union between the Creator and the created.
All of the above is important in order to understand what I want to say next. Although, I am not quite clear about my own position because I am still wrestling with the issue. It is a very complex matter. And I do not claim that I can offer you the ultimate word of wisdom.

Again, as a church and as believers, we deal with and we are confronted with sin. We deal with the "problem" of divorce. Now we also deal with the "problem" of alternative forms of marriage, unions between couples of the same sex.

You are probably aware by now that the ELCA Churchwide Assembly in Minneapolis passed a number of resolutions that give room within ELCA congregations to modify the policy and the stance on same-sex unions and pastors (and other church leaders) in a committed same-sex relationship. The whole issue has not been one of my priorities in my ministry. It has not been a priority in our ministry at Vashon Lutheran Church. Still, what are the implications of these resolutions? Mainly, there are three options. ELCA congregations are now free to ..

• teach that homosexual behavior is not sinful;
• call pastors in a same-sex relationship;
• bless (or marry) same-sex couples in their churches.

Pretty much every congregation can now decide for itself how it wants to deal with the issue without facing disciplinary consequences.

Personally, I am facing a dilemma. I wish I could call it by a different name, but biblically speaking, homosexuality is a sin (sociologically, for example, it might be a different matter), just as are divorce, adultery, sexual immorality, or other forms of transgressions. Yet I can also see how persons in a same-sex relationship can be a blessing for and to each other. But I cannot perform a blessing or marriage ceremony for same-sex couples because it is lacking the biblical mandate. However, we cannot conclude by saying that all "straight" couples are without sin. Clearly, they are not. They are also "guilty" of sin. For where people live together, people get hurt as a result of sin.

In Jesus' days, lepers were considered ceremonially unclean. Their leprosy was believed to be the punishment for their sin. Because of their leprosy they were not only excluded from the community at large, but they were also not allowed to participate in worship. Jesus, on the other hand, did something outrageous. He was not afraid of lepers. He approached them. He even touched them. He was able to heal some of them. And with all that he indicated that they were not God's forgotten children. God cared (and cares) through Jesus for the lepers. It seems that the lepers in today's society and the churches are those individuals who live (openly) in same-sex relationships. They are shunned. They are not welcome in many religious communities.

Part of me wants to cry out, "Enough. Why this obsession with homosexuality?" The whole issue has caused a lot of damage: there are people who leave their communities of faith because churches are hostile to homosexuals. There are others who leave their communities of faith because these churches seek to include homosexuals in their assemblies. Both responses are, in my view, rather immature because neither approach cares to deal with the tension between sin and grace. We need to keep in mind that homosexual people are not the only sinners. Because we all are sinners. And as such we all depend on God's grace.

This brings me to the next point. I said I have reflected a lot about sin. But I have also reflected a lot about grace. If there were no sin, we would need no grace. Without sin we would not need a Savior. I would have a difficult time believing in a God who takes delight in condemning what he has so beautifully created. Even though we act contrary to God's will, we still live in and under God's grace! For that matter, we should consider what it means that God has given us a way of reconciling us (the sinners) to himself (the righteous and holy One). We believe in justification by faith. This means, we are saved not through our own doing, but through the work of Christ Jesus, who died on the cross for our sins. With this in mind, we need to embrace the notion that we live by God's grace and are made righteous because of God's grace. Grace is God's work in response to our state of sinfulness.

It grieves me when churches single out homosexuality – as if it were the worst of sins. It is too narrow a thought when we try to confine sin in terms of sexuality only. It also grieves me that some Lutherans, even entire congregations, have opted to leave the ELCA. By leaving the ELCA the "problem" does not go away. Even though I do not fully agree with the resolutions, I, for my part, can live in and with a church that wants to reach out to people who live in a same-sex relationship instead of point-blank condemning them. Even though set apart for a special call to ministry, pastors (and other church leaders) are also sinners. With that, I can accept it when a congregation calls a pastor who lives in a same-sex relationship.

In contrast, I could never be a part of a church that abandons the trinitarian faith; neglects the preaching of and the distinction between Law and Gospel; or fails to put sin and grace in proper relation to each other. In the end, we are not saved through our sexuality, but through our faith in Christ Jesus, as the Messiah and the Son of God, who came into the world to embrace the sinner and bring him and her back into the presence of God – to restore the perfect unity which had been lost with (and since) the Fall.

I have always cherished in Lutheran theology the ability to deal with the tension between sin and grace. It seems to me that in recent years, we have lost some of this ability. It is time that we, as Lutherans, do not only put again a strong emphasis on teaching grace, but also assure ourselves of continually living in God's grace. May this be a time in which the grace of God will become manifest when we engage in mutual and respectful conversation on the topic.

Yours in Christ,
Bjoern E. Meinhardt, Pastor