Sermon for The 19 th Sunday after Trinity – September 28, 2008
“ Put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another. ”
HE LOOKS perfectly normal, dresses neatly, walks a little fast but steady on his feet. His gaze disconcerts you as it bores in on your face intently. Then he speaks. “I'm not going to bite you! I said that so you wouldn't be scared. I know you can see what I am. So many people just think I'm another person. But I could tell it in your eyes—you know … I'm a coyote .”
Now, some people think and say that they're just about anything: a lizard or a dragon, a bird or a bicycle, a different gender or a being from a different planet. We call them crazy or perhaps creative , and we don't lock them up anymore, so long as they're not a threat to themselves or to others, so long as they're not going to bite us. A little mania may not hurt a person; a little psychological dislocation is permitted. And if he calls himself a coyote or a squirrel , we're going to let him.
But if he insists that I have to call him a squirrel , I may not wish to humor him anymore. And if he creates a law that forces all of us to regard him as one, and to teach our children to call him a squirrel, the world has been transformed into the moon. Unreality is in charge of what is real.
In just this manner, when two men call themselves married , we might wince at it but let it go. After all, it's their lives— only their lives they're affecting by this misnomer. Same-sex marriage has become the great topic of social conversation in our country this last few years, but does anyone even speak out about the emperor's clothes? Same-sex and marriage aren't terms that go together at all, any more than a man can be a coyote. We can let him tell himself such a story, and believe it if it suits him. But when he insists that we call him and his partner a married couple , we know it's a lie and we may not wish to play along.
The Supreme Court of California got caught in this fantasy and, on May 15, by a vote of 4 to 3, published a ruling that struck down two successful California Propositions by pretending they were violations of the state constitution. Not only did they allow gay and lesbian couples to call themselves married , but they ordered us all to call them married and to provide legal same-sex marriages as of June 17.
From time immemorial, marriage has meant one thing. Not everyone subscribes to the Biblical account of Genesis, with Adam, his rib and his strangest dream, but all people have always known the definition of marriage, and the reason for it. Marriage is the starting point for civilization . By marriage we mean ‘ one man, one woman, committed to one another for life for the making of a home and the rearing of children .' Between married couples and other families the agreement over what marriage and family mean creates a bond of trust and mutual support, and then a village rises. With greater complexity, the town becomes a metropolis and the nations of mankind are formed to do great things. These great things are threatened when mankind forgets what made us settle here, what it all means.
In the spring of 1992, civilization ended for six terrible days in south central Los Angeles. 2,000 people were injured, 53 died, 3,600 fires set destroying 1,100 buildings and costing a billion dollars. It wasn't the beating of Rodney King that caused this, though it set a spark to the powder keg. What created that powder keg was the War on Poverty—though nobody meant this to be the result. The War on Poverty sought to keep children from starving by giving money to poor women with kids, single women, mothers with no husbands. The unintended result of this charity was that 70% of inner city kids grew up without fathers, without family—a man, a woman committed for life, for their sake. Civilization stopped as police and fire departments could only watch the city burn, hear the gunshots, carry out the dead.
It's as serious as that. If civilization is the outgrowth of marriage and the nuclear family, then calling something “marriage” affects all marriages and threatens our civil peace. I was asked two years ago to speak at the Stonewall Alliance with a group of other ministers on the beliefs our churches have toward homosexuality and same-sex marriage. I hope I represented you well. God prompted me to go. The other ministers were chosen for their outspoken support of same-sex relations and unions, and I was the goat. I showed them one sheet of paper covered with the Biblical verses that treat on homosexual behaviors. All of it spoke of God's disapproval. “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination.” Lev 18:22 “Their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.” Romans 1:26-27 “Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you.” 1 Cor 6:8-11 Then I showed them another sheet, covered with more verses with God's condemnation of a lot of other sins, some of which cause me to sweat sometimes. The conclusion, I said, is that we all need a savior. But churches may do them a disservice in two ways: to tell them that homosexual behavior is fine with God, or to tell them that homosexuality is the only sin. Neither statement is true. Adulterers, thieves and extortioners go to hell too.
When asked about same-sex marriage, I first quoted Confucius, who being asked if he could change one thing to make the world better, replied: “I would insist on an exact meaning of words.” Then I quoted Abraham Lincoln who had been asked, if you called a tail a “leg” how many legs would a dog have? He answered, “Four. It doesn't matter what you call the tail, it still is not a leg.” Whatever you call same-sex unions, they can't be marriages , for that meaning has been established. We've lost the meaning of the word “gay” which used to mean happy and festive. But “marriage” is more than an idle word. It's the basis of our civilization, and if you want to know the value of civilization, remember south central L.A.
On November 4 th of this year, we voters are asked to save our civilization in two of what are probably the most essential propositions of our lifetime. I've been leading up to Prop 8, which of course you know adds to our state Constitution a line that defines marriage: “only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.” The framers of our laws never thought it necessary to define it—until now no one could have understood it any differently. But someone is insisting that we call him a coyote—by law. This Supreme Court ruling has teeth. One couple recently applied for their wedding license and, faced with the new form that described them as Party A and Party B, they rewrote it as Husband and Wife, just like it was a week ago and every year we've lived. When they returned from their honeymoon, they were shocked to hear the County Registrar notifying them they weren't legally married because they had insisted on the terms husband and wife . If you think this doesn't affect you , think again. I told Stonewall Alliance that if the straight community reacts strongly against their attempts to change the definition of marriage, it's not homophobia. The definition of all our marriages is being changed, and we're not comfortable with that.
The other ballot proposition that we must watch is Prop 4. This Constitutional amendment, called Sarah's Law , seeks to prohibit abortion for minor girls until 48 hours after the physician notifies her parent, legal guardian or, if parental abuse has been reported, an alternative adult family member. In California, a girl under age 18 can't get a tan at a tanning salon, a cavity filled, or an aspirin dispensed by the school nurse without a parent's knowledge and approval. But your thirteen year old can get pregnant and her school nurse take her secretly to Planned Parenthood for a surgical abortion without even letting you know anything about it.
It's called Sarah's Law to remember 15-year-old Sarah who in 1994 visited an abortionist in Houston, Texas. Sarah suffered blood poisoning, fever, chills, abdominal pain, and nausea for four days before finally being admitted to a hospital. Sarah died in the intensive care unit on March 2, 1994. Had she received prompt medical care, she would still be alive today. On a daily basis, older men exploit young girls and use secret abortions to cover up their crimes. More than thirty states currently have parental/family involvement laws like Proposition 4 in effect. States which have laws like Proposition 4 have experienced real reductions in pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases among young girls. A powerful opposition to Prop 4 by abortion providers seeks to keep all minor girls vulnerable, whether 17 or 12 years of age, apart from their parents, frightened, alone and victims of unreported crimes.
Both Proposition 4 and 8 must pass to secure our civilization. Both measures seek to protect and nurture children, preserve families, respect nature's laws and God's Laws. And now look at who is for these measures, and who is against them. Ask your presidential and vice-presidential candidates where they stand on Props 4 and 8, and think what your world will be like with their Supreme Court appointments. 4 to 3 was the vote in California, one vote giving the right to Attorney General Jerry Brown to re-title Prop 8 as seeking to remove someone's rights, rather than to protect marriage. One vote the other way, and we would not be forced to call a man a coyote.
“In the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness… the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts.” We are amazed to find ourselves in Biblical times, aren't we? Don't give up, but “be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and… put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness… putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.” We are civilization.
PFH+