Sexual Orientation, and Gender Identity, and Marriage! Oh, My!

Rev. Troy G. Plummer
March 31, 2004

Luke 3:21-22 (Jesus), Acts 8:14-17 (Samaritans); 8:38-39 (Eunuch); 10:45-48 (Gentiles); 15:22-29 (Jerusalem); 16:13-15 (Lydia)

The images of water and baptism in Luke-Acts never cease to amaze me. The energy, the power, the excitement, the willingness of this small group of believers is impressive, yet the new Christian community always struggles to keep pace with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit powerfully calls and pulls them beyond their culture into God’s larger world. And that epic tale always includes water.

Beginning with Jesus wading into the water for baptism, the Luke-Acts community immediately connects water and spirit. For a praying Jesus, water washed by John, the heavens open . . . but this time there is no flood as in the days of Noah: this time there is a gift. While he is in the water, the heavens open, the Spirit descends dove-like upon Jesus, and a Heaven Voice speaks: “You are mine. You are loved. You are pleasing to me.”

In our own lives as a people of faith, water-washed and spirit-born, we need to remember the Heaven Voice. We need to hear, even if we never have before, those words of baptism spoken directly to each of us, each of us hearing personally: “You are mine. You are loved. You are pleasing to me.” Rest. Be Still. Hear the Heaven Voice speak: “You are mine. You are loved. You are pleasing to me.”

The author of Luke-Acts tells the story of the early church on an epic journey. It has always reminded me of another journey in a favorite American fable, Somewhere Over the Rainbow. It’s a journey with munchkins, straw and tin friends into dark places that evoke fear. Do you remember Dorothy in her moment of crisis and place of chaos? Despite unfamiliar territory, she ventures out. She adventures. Everyone she meets is interesting because nobody is normal. Her new friends are as different as tin and straw, but they journey together. The sun goes down, darkness surrounds them, and they hear night noises as they enter a daunting forest.

Let yourself go there.

They keep walking, and they name their fear. What could be out there? There could be Lions! There could be Tigers! There could be Bears! And as they walk along, they repeat the anxious mantra of irrational fear:

They do not know what is Out There, but they keep on going.

The apostles in Jerusalem also enter unfamiliar territory. They hear that Samaritans are now a part of the Jewish movement. They have accepted God! “Impure mixed blood lines—mudbloods--who worship on a different mountain! Oh, my!” So they send Peter and John to check it out. Peter and John verify the reports, adding that the Samaritans have already been baptized into the “name of the Lord Jesus.” Catching up with their faith, Peter and John embody what the Spirit has already done: they pray and lay hands upon them, and the Samaritans actually received the Holy Spirit. “Mudbloods! Oh, my!”

Then they hear another report back in Jerusalem. “Philip has just gone wild in the Spirit. No one seems to be able to keep track of him. First he was in Samaria up north, now he is on the road to Gaza down south. He even talked to a stranger from the end of the world . . . an Ethiopian, but not just any Ethiopian —an Ethiopian Eunuch. Philip not only talked to this exotic foreigner, he got into the chariot with him, and talked about scripture with him, and baptized him! What was Philip thinking? We can’t even ask him; the Spirit keeps snatching him away. But Eunuchs? Really? Oh, my!”

The folks back in Jerusalem don’t know if they can handle any more news! Then they hear about Peter. “Surely this must be good news; Peter can certainly be trusted.” But as they hear the story, they can’t believe their ears. “Gentiles! Gentiles had the Holy Spirit pour on them, and they were speaking in tongues, praising God. They didn’t even let Peter finish preaching before getting the Spirit. Peter was astounded you say? I would think so. Peter did what? He figured they had the Spirit so he might as well baptize them in the name of Jesus? Gentiles? Oh, my!”

Hearing this, the Faithful in Jerusalem think it’s about time to call everyone home for a meeting, fretfully repeating their mantra:

So they issue the call: “Peter, Philip, Paul! It is time for you to come home and to account for yourselves.” But the Faithful in Jerusalem were not ready for the full story. The full story of Paul and Peter opened their hearts, transformed them, and calmed their chaos in a Pentecost place.

They decided that these new people of faith need not mirror the Jerusalem Temple Crowd to be a part of the body of Christ. They didn’t need the same history, the same blood lines, the same race, the same culture, the same gender experience, the same eating habits, the same Moses-covenant sign on their body, the same worship center. Those Samaritans and Eunuchs and Gentiles didn’t have to become just like the in-crowd to be accepted! They were, in Munchkin terms, “ve-ri-fi-a-b-ly, mor-al-ly, ethi-cally, spiri-tually, physi-cally, posi-tiv-ely, abso-lute-ly, unde-ni-ably and re-li-ably” water-washed and spirit-born! Just keep God at the center of your life. Even ruby-slippered Dorothy learned that the much feared Lion could be a courageous companion on the journey.

Change was fast, but Jerusalem caught up with God. So what do you do when the Holy Spirit outpaces your Community of Faith? Why can’t we realize that, on any journey, the Holy Spirit always outpaces the Community of Faith? What does it mean that church history repeats its slowness and stale habits over and over again? The Faithful Ones have again called a meeting (not in Jerusalem, but in Pittsburgh). Again, they have been hearing stories.

And again they chant their mantra of fear:

Lesson 1

Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” — Luke 3: 21-22 (NRSV)

The images of water and baptism in Luke-Acts never cease to amaze me. The energy, the power, the excitement, the willingness of this small group of believers is impressive, yet the new Christian community always struggles to keep pace with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit powerfully calls and pulls them beyond their culture into God’s larger world. And that epic tale always includes water.

Beginning with Jesus wading into the water, the Luke-Acts community immediately connects water and spirit. For a praying Jesus, water washed by John, the heavens open . . . but this time there is no flood as in the days of Noah: this time there is a gift. While he is in the water, the heavens open, the Spirit descends dove-like upon Jesus, and a Heaven Voice speaks: “You are mine. You are loved. You are pleasing to me.”

In our own lives as a people of faith, water-washed and spirit-born, we need to remember the Heaven Voice. We need to hear, even if we never have before, those words of baptism spoken directly to each of us, each of us hearing personally: “You are mine. You are loved. You are pleasing to me.” Rest. Be Still. Hear the Voice of Heaven speak: “You are mine. You are loved. You are pleasing to me.”

“Wesley viewed the sacraments as crucial means of grace and affirmed the Anglican teaching that “a sacrament is ‘an outward sign of inward grace, and a means whereby we receive the same.’” Combining words, actions, and physical elements, sacraments are sign-acts which both express and convey God’s grace and love. (By Water And The Spirit [BWATS], Book Of Resolutions of the United Methodist Church [BOR] p. 803)

“ . . . they [sacraments] are powerful channels through which God has chosen to make grace available to us. Wesley identified baptism as the initiatory sacrament by which we enter into the covenant with God and are admitted as members of Christ’s church. (BWATS, BOR p. 804)

“Working in the lives of people before, during, and after their baptisms, the Spirit is the effective agent of salvation. God bestows upon baptized persons the presence of the Holy Spirit, marks them with an identifying seal as God’s own, and implants in their hearts the first installment of their inheritance as sons and daughters of God.” (BWATS, BOR p. 805)

“There is one baptism as there is one source of salvation—the precious love of God. The baptizing of a person, whether as an infant or an adult, is a sign of God’s saving grace. That grace—experienced by us as initiating, enabling, and empowering—is the same for all persons.” (BWATS, BOR p. 808)

“While we have turned from God, God has not abandoned us. Instead, God graciously and continuously seeks to restore us to that loving relationship for which we were created, to make us into the persons that God would have us be. To this end God acts preveniently, that is, before we are aware of it, reaching out to save humankind.” (BWATS, BOR p. 802)

DISCUSSION EXPLORATION:

• What is your memory or story of your baptism? Where were you? Who was with you? Were you days, weeks, months or years old? What stories were told to you about your baptism? Are there pictures?
  
• What does it mean to you that we affirm baptism as a sacrament? How do you understand sacrament? How do you understand baptism as initiation into the church?
  
• Does this sacrament express God’s grace and love to you? Do you feel like you have an identifying seal as God’s own—a Watermark?
  
• What is your personal experience of being named, claimed, and called pleasing to God? If you don’t have and experience or memory, what does it meant that God says this to you now even if you are unaware?
  
• If baptism is the church’s promise to love a new member, what does the church’s refusal to love say about baptismal covenant with each other and with God?

Lesson 2

Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. The two went down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit (for as yet the Spirit had not come upon any of them: they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus). Then Peter and John laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. — Acts 8: 14-17

“Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?” He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; the eunuch saw him no more and went on his way rejoicing.

--Acts 8: 38-39

The author of Luke-Acts tells the story of the early church on an epic journey. It has always reminded me of another journey in a favorite American fable, Somewhere Over the Rainbow. It’s a journey with munchkins, straw and tin friends into dark places that evoke fear. Do you remember Dorothy in her moment of crisis and place of chaos? Despite unfamiliar territory, she ventures out. She adventures. Everyone she meets is interesting because nobody is normal. Her new friends are as different as tin and straw, but they journey together. The sun goes down, darkness surrounds them, and they hear night noises as they enter a daunting forest. They keep walking, and they name their fear. What could be out there? There could be Lions! There could be Tigers! There could be Bears! And as they walk along, they repeat the anxious mantra of irrational fear:

They do not know what is Out There, but they keep on going.

The apostles in Jerusalem also enter unfamiliar territory. They hear that Samaritans are now a part of the Jewish movement. They have accepted God! “Mudbloods -- impure people with mixed blood lines who worship wrong! Oh, my!” So they send Peter and John to check it out. Peter and John verify the reports, adding that the Samaritans have already been baptized into the “name of the Lord Jesus.” Catching up with their faith, Peter and John embody what the Spirit has already done: they pray and lay hands upon them, and the Samaritans actually received the Holy Spirit. “Mudbloods! Oh, my!”

Then they hear another report back in Jerusalem. “Philip has just gone wild in the Spirit. No one seems to be able to keep track of him. First he was in Samaria up north, now he is on the road to Gaza down south. He even talked to a stranger from the end of the world . . . an Ethiopian, but not just any Ethiopian —an Ethiopian Eunuch. Philip not only talked to this exotic foreigner, he got into the chariot with him, and talked about scripture with him, and baptized him! What was Philip thinking? We can’t even ask him; the Spirit keeps snatching him away. But Eunuchs? Really? Oh, my!”

“Baptized believers and the community of faith are obligated to manifest to the world the new redeemed humanity which lives in loving relationship with God and strives to put an end to all human estrangements. There are no conditions of human life (including age or intellectual ability, race or nationality, gender or sexual identity, class or disability) that exclude persons from the sacrament of baptism.” (By Water And The Spirit, Book Of Resolutions of the United Methodist Church p. 808)

DISCUSSION EXPLORATION

• Why do you think we keep arms length from those who are different from us?
  
• For you, who are the Samaritans in your world? For our time, who are they?
  

-those who we sense are related to us but for whom we have no connection

-those who have intermarried with other faiths or denominations

-those who are of our own faith but whose expression of faith is unfamiliar to us

-those who are of our own denomination whose beliefs contradict our own

• For you, who are the Eunuchs in your world? For our time, who are they? How do you understand the term Eunuch?
  

-those who do not marry

-those who are physically altered by intention or accident or birth (Matt 19:10-12)

-those who are barren or sterile

-those who do not ever plan to have children

-those whose families don’t look quite like everyone else’s family

What came first for these new Christians: faith or baptism? What requirements did the disciples place on those being baptized?

• Do you have an experience yourself of being excluded? Do you have an experience of excluding someone else?
  
• Do you have an experience yourself of being included? Do you have an experience of reaching out and including someone different than yourself?
  

Lesson 3

The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles, for they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter said, “Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” So Peter ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. — Acts 10: 45-48

On the Sabbath day we went outside the gate by the river, where we supposed there was a place of prayer; and we sat down and spoke to the women who had gathered there. A certain woman named Lydia, a worshiper of God, was listening to us; she was from the city of Thyatira and a dealer in purple cloth. The Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly to what was said by Paul. When she and her household were baptized, she urged us saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come and stay at my home.” And she prevailed upon us. — Acts 16:13-15

The folks back in Jerusalem don’t know if they can handle any more news! Then they hear about Peter. “Surely this must be good news; Peter can certainly be trusted.” But as they hear the story, they can’t believe their ears. “Gentiles! Gentiles had the Holy Spirit pour on them, and they were speaking in tongues, praising God. They didn’t even let Peter finish preaching before getting the Spirit. Peter was astounded you say? I would think so. Peter did what? He figured they had the Spirit so he might as well baptize them in the name of Jesus? Gentiles? Oh, my!”

Hearing this, the Faithful in Jerusalem think it’s about time to call everyone home for a meeting, fretfully repeating their mantra:

“Infant baptism rests firmly on the understanding that God prepares the way of faith before we request or even know that we need help (prevenient grace). The sacrament is a powerful expression of the reality that all persons come before God as no more than helpless infants, unable to do anything to save ourselves, dependent upon the grace of our loving God.” (By Water And The Spirit [BWATS], Book Of Resolutions of the United Methodist Church [BOR] p.809)

“The baptism of infants is properly understood and valued if the child is loved and nurtured by the faithful worshiping church and by the child’s own family.” (BWATS, BOR p. 809)

“Neither parents nor infants are the chief actors; baptism is an act of God in and through the church. . . . The UMC does not accept either the idea that only believer’s baptism is valid or the notion that the baptism of infants magically imparts salvation apart from active personal faith.” (BWATS, BOR p. 810)

DISCUSSION EXPLORATION

• How many of you were baptized as infants? Did your families pass on their faith as they promised at your baptism? What does it look like for a whole household to be baptized like Cornelius and Lydia’s?
  
• The adults seem to be spirit-born and then water-washed, while the children seem to be water- washed then spirit-born. Does the order matter?
  
• Who are considered Gentiles in our world?
  
• Peter sees the Holy Spirit, then responds by baptizing asking, “Can anyone withhold the water?” How do we withhold love, nurture and family today even when the Holy Spirit is at work?
  
• Have you ever been astounded by the Holy Spirit?
  

Lesson 4

Since we have heard that certain persons who have gone out from us, though with no instructions from us, have said things to disturb you and have unsettled your minds, we have decided unanimously to choose representatives and send them to you, along with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, who have risked their lives for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will tell you the same things by word of mouth. For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to impose on you no further burden than these essentials: that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled and from fornication. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.

-- Acts 15:24-29

So they issue the call: “Peter, Philip, Paul! It is time for you to come home and to account for yourselves.” But the Faithful in Jerusalem were not ready for the full story. The full story of Paul and Peter opened their hearts, transformed them, and calmed their chaos in a Pentecost place.

They decided that these new people of faith need not mirror the Jerusalem Temple Crowd to be a part of the body of Christ. They didn’t need the same history, the same blood lines, the same race, the same culture, the same gender experience, the same eating habits, the same Moses-covenant sign on their body, the same worship center. Those Samaritans and Eunuchs and Gentiles didn’t have to become just like the in-crowd to be accepted! They were, in Munchkin terms, “ve-ri-fi-a-b-ly, mor-al-ly, ethi-cally, spiri-tually, physi-cally, posi-tiv-ely, abso-lute-ly, unde-ni-ably and re-li-ably” water-washed and spirit-born! Just keep God at the center of your life. Even ruby-slippered Dorothy learned that the much feared Lion could be a courageous companion on the journey.

Change was fast, but Jerusalem caught up with God. So what do you do when the Holy Spirit outpaces your Community of Faith? Why can’t we realize that, on any journey, the Holy Spirit always outpaces the Community of Faith? What does it mean that church history repeats its slowness and stale habits over and over again? The Faithful Ones have again called a meeting (not in Jerusalem, but in Pittsburgh). Again, they have been hearing stories. And again they chant their mantra of fear:

What would happen, friends, if our General Conference would wade in the water, see the heavens open, and feel the Spirit descend anew on us? What would happen if each and every delegate and volunteer at General Conference heard the Voice of Heaven proclaim: “You are mine. You are loved. You are pleasing.” What would it mean for a water-washed, spirit-born people to recognize God’s watermark on others once regarded as fearful and not demand that they or their families must mirror mine to be fully compatible with the body of Christ?

Wade in the water!

Wade in like Jesus did!

Expect to be surprised by the water and snatched up by the Spirit!

Wade in!

Oh My!

“Baptism is not only a sacrament of radical grace, but also a sacrament of radical equality. In Peter’s vision described in Acts 10, God jolted and scandalized the apostle into recognizing that the divine favor is not limited by prejudicial human standards.” (Gayle Carlton Felton, Open Hands [Fall 1997], p. 8)

DISCUSSION EXPLORATION

• How do you understand the decision to “impose no further burden”?
  
• What do you think it meant for this community to let go of so many dear rituals and requirements (food laws, circumcision, etc.) in order to follow God’s Spirit?
  
• What is your definition of fornication? Do any of these fit?
  

-sexual activity for money or material gain

-sexual activity outside the marriage of a man and woman

-sexual activity where there is no intent to procreate

-sexual activity that violates another, inside or outside of marriage

-sexual activity that is idolatrous, impairing your relationship with God

-sexual activity that treats partners as disposable commodities

• What do you do when the Holy Spirit outpaces your community of faith?
  
• What would it take for you to wade into the water?
  
• What would you need to do to truly accept being named by God, claimed by God, and pleasing to God?