Sermon on Psalm 86:11-17; 2 Thessalonians 2:13-17; Romans 7:18-25. Delivered on 7 June 2015 at Pequea Evangelical Congregational Church.
In
the wake of warning about the “man of lawlessness” who would
come, and of the influence already then at work (2 Thessalonians 2:7), Paul notes that some people in this world choose to live in
darkness. Such people are “perishing, because they refused to love
the truth and be saved” (2 Thessalonians 2:10). And because they
steadfastly set themselves against the truth, God hands them over to
their desires. All they have to do is “love the truth,” and
they'd be saved. But they won't: they're “a band of ruffians”
who “don't set [the LORD] before them” (Psalm 86:14). Some people don't love the truth. Given a choice between
the honest-to-God truth and “wicked deception,” their choice is
consistently for the second option. And so, in the end, God lets
them chase down that trail to its end. Because God doesn't coerce
us, he doesn't force us to “love the truth.” He sets the truth
in front of us, he sends his Spirit with prevenient grace, but he
lets us pick how to react to it. We can love the truth, or we can
invite “a powerful delusion” and “take pleasure in
unrighteousness” instead (2 Thessalonians 2:11-12).
Doesn't
that ring true today as much as then? Take the case that has the
media's attention for this moment. You might have heard of Bruce Jenner. Decades ago, he set a world record and won an Olympic gold
medal in the 1976 men's decathlon. He was called the “world's
greatest athlete” and an American hero for winning the medal back
from the Soviets. But all that time, Jenner never felt comfortable
as a man – he described himself as “lonely” and “totally
empty inside” – so he's now gone through cosmetic surgeries and
hormone treatments to portray himself to the world as a woman, just
as he felt he always was – he has “the soul of a female,” he
said. And now Jenner is a very public face – and, with praise from
the president and awards from ESPN and television specials and
endorsement deals, a very well-compensated face – for what it means
to be, as they call it, “transgender,” joining others like the
upcoming Pennsylvania Physician General.
It
would be easy to just give in and live by the motto, “Whatever
floats your boat” – whatever you personally want to do with your
body, whatever you personally want to claim to be, we'll accept you
as the final authority and play along and yell at anyone who
disagrees. That would be the easy road, and many take it. Many in
America today demand that we all agree that this man Bruce Jenner is
now Caitlyn Jenner, a woman in all ways that count. Many in America today insist that we accept one
of two versions of the story. One is that the body doesn't matter;
that the true you is who you feel like you are, that the true 'you'
is your feelings or brainwave patterns and not your body, and that if
the body doesn't fit, then it just has to be fixed. How you feel is the 'real' you, and being
honest and authentic is just asserting your feelings as the final
arbiter of truth. The other version is that 'man' and 'woman',
'male' and 'female' – these are just phases, dealing with inward
chemical and outward form, that doctors can change through the
triumph of science, dominating nature like a potter molding clay (cf.
Isaiah 29:16). In this version, 'male' and 'female' are our
playthings to construct and deconstruct and reconstruct to our whim
and pleasure. As an eminent psychiatrist at Johns Hopkins lamented,
“Without any fixed position on what is given in human nature, any
manipulation of it can be defended as legitimate.” These surgical
efforts, he said, are simply “collaborating with madness.”
That's
because neither of those popular stories is the truth of the matter.
Both are a “deception for those who are perishing” (2 Thessalonians 2:10). The truth is that we are not just our spirits,
nor are we just our bodies. We are living souls, meaning that we're
body and spirit, not one
without the other or one over against the other: “Glorify God in
your body” (1 Corinthians 6:20). The truth is that “from
the beginning of creation, God made them male and female” (Mark 10:6), that “in the image of God he created him; male and female he
created them” (Genesis 1:27). The truth is that no amount of
surgery or chemicals can replicate the unique history of growing from
a boy into a man or a girl into a woman, with all the aches and pains
and experiences that bind together all men and all women as partakers
in a common experience. The powers of Mammon cannot buy true
womanhood for a man, as if it were some trinket that could be
obtained for a price or appropriated through sheer self-will and
autonomous choice. Being a man, being a woman – these are gifts
from God; and in the first century, a magician named Simon learned a
hard lesson from Peter about trying to buy the gift of God with money
(Acts 8:20), nor can this gift of God be appropriated by works, even
medical or pharmaceutical works (Romans 4:4). Many today don't love
the truth. Instead of the popular, easy road, we “walk in [God's]
truth” (Psalm 86:11).
It
would be easy to pretend we can buy the gift of God with money or
works, and it would be easy to pretend that we weren't made
essentially male and essentially female from our very start. But it
would also be easy to turn to mockery. In the professing Christian
media, some have taken the easy road of labeling Jenner “a freak,”
“a monstrosity,” “sick,” “disturbed,” and so on. It's
easy to shake our heads and wonder what this world is coming to.
It's easy to just sigh a sigh of disgust and wish that celebrity news
would go away, but this speaks to our culture. This athlete, this
celebrity, this reality TV star, is a man made in God's image; he is
meant for so much more than this. Yet this man is a man in a fallen
world, a world where plenty can go wrong with our body or brain
development or psychology; a world where we're all
full of disordered desires and desperate doubts, not just him.
I
can't even begin to imagine what it might be like to live with gender
dysphoria, the exceedingly rare conviction that your body is the
wrong sex. At National Conference, we put off a suggestion to
address this issue directly in our Discipline,
because it's just too complex a situation to answer fully, fairly,
and graciously without a lot of preparation. Gender dysphoria
must be an unimaginable pain, and yet the procedures some men go
through in their covetous yearnings to possess feminine allure as
their own are, at their best, only a desperate attempt to be freed
from an inner turmoil – and it doesn't work. An estimated 41% of
them later attempt suicide
anyway – which Jenner said he'd already considered. And there are
plenty of testimonies from people like Walt Heyer who went through it
and then repented and reverted years later, and they tell us that it
can't alleviate the inner estrangement between body and soul. It may
give relief for a time, but it can't produce joy. Only the gospel
can heal – though it may take a lifetime of struggle, and though
God may bring healing through therapy and counseling and medications
alongside the ministry of the Word and the Spirit.
Just
the same, I cannot imagine what it's like to live with body integrity
identity disorder, a very real condition where someone experiences a
body part as so foreign that they want to have it amputated or want to become
paralyzed. And some do just that, and some fringe doctors are even
willing to help those people become “transabled,” just as some
doctors are willing to help people with gender dysphoria become
“transgendered.” Nor can I imagine what it's like to live with
species dysphoria, just like gender dysphoria but with discomfort, not over male or female, but over a human body itself. I once had a chance to talk with some people who
suffer species dysphoria, and it was one of
the most perplexing experiences of my life. Neither of those
conditions have met with mainstream applause – yet.
These
must all be painful conditions, so it's easy to pretend that any surgery
that gives surface relief must be okay. And these are certainly
unusual conditions, so it's also easy to ridicule and mock and
denounce and demonize. But neither path is open to us if we want to
follow Jesus. If we listen charitably, Jenner's story is one of
pain, one of sorrow, one of confusion and self-doubt. He and others
like him deserve our compassion and our love, and Jesus insists that
we give it. When we condone, we lose sight of the truth; but when we
mock or scoff, we lose sight of love. And neither condoning or
mocking does any good to someone in pain or sorrow, nor to any of the
silent sufferers watching from the sidelines and wondering if anyone
has an answer or if anyone can love them through their shame and
their longing.
It's
easy to pretend we're better. It's easy to point the finger and say
Jenner has crossed the line, the line whose good side we're safely
on. But “all have
sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). All of
us are past the line. All of us are broken. We all experience the
world
as broken – not just the world outside, but the world within, the
inner sanctuary of the soul, which turns out to be desecrated and no
safe haven. Gender dysphoria, species dysphoria, body integrity
identity disorder – those are just specific ways in which the
shattered pieces of a shattered world cut some. But we all
bear the wounds and scars.
All
of us are alienated, not just from God, but within ourselves. We all
have shame, we all have doubt, we all have confusion. Jenner and
others like him may experience the effects of the Fall in some
different ways, as well as in many of the same ways, but a different
set of struggles doesn't make him worse than us. In Adam, we're all
“sick.” In Adam, we're all “disturbed.” In Adam, we – no
less than Bruce Jenner – feel the dysphoria between our “inmost
self” and “this body of death,” and we know that our members
house “the law of sin” that holds us captive and makes war with
“the law of [our] mind” (Romans 7:22-24). No hormone injections
can reconcile the two; no surgery can assign us back to
righteousness. In our most honest moments, in our confrontation with
our loneliness and fear and shame, our smallness in the face of the
pervasive power of lawlessness even within ourselves, we look in the
mirror and see a “wretched man,” just like Jenner did and maybe
does, and ask “who will deliver [us] from this body of death”
(Romans 7:24).
I
can't imagine life with gender dysphoria or species dysphoria or body
integrity identity disorder or same-sex attraction. I can't imagine life with alcoholism or
heroin addiction or schizophrenia. But I do know what it's like to
lose sight of the light. I do know what it's like to lose all hope
and fall to pieces. I have known what it's like to feel completely
alone, what it's like to feel like I've got something to prove, what
it's like to feel mismatched and full of shame, what it's like to
feel out of control and in a free-fall toward self-destruction. In
the years of even my short life, I've spent time in the darkness,
listening to the voices of self-doubt and of my demons – not all
the metaphorical kind, either. And so I may not be able to relate to
Jenner's specific struggle, and the gospel forbids me from condoning
his actions, but I also can't stand as judge, jury, and executioner.
Finding alienation within his own self, finding his mind and his
body, his spirit and his flesh at odds, Jenner grasped for a
solution. Finding other kinds of alienation within my own self, I've
also cried out, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from
this body of death?” (Romans 7:24). And if I were a betting man,
I'd bet that you can relate to at least some part of that. I've
cried out that prayer, I've felt that pain, I've reached for any way
to cope, any solution – but even when my back was turned, the
Solution was reaching out for me.
What
do we need? We need “eternal comfort and good hope.” And who
can give it to us? “Our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our
Father” (2 Thessalonians 2:16) – so “who will rescue [us] from
this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
(Romans 7:24-25)! The world can give us passing comfort at best. In
worldly ways, we can gain temporary catharsis, dulling our inner pain
for a moment through ultimately self-destructive coping mechanisms.
We can shield ourselves from the full brunt of our burdens that way,
but at what cost and for how long? That's the question for every
addict, those who get trapped in cycles of chemical escape to handle
the loneliness and desperation. But that's the question for all of
us. In the First Adam, we're all sin-addicts. Only in the Last Adam
is there freedom that lasts. Only in the Last Adam is there eternal
comfort made available, to return to again and again. Only in the
Last Adam is there hope that's good.
The
same Jesus who cast out demons at Gadara still pierces the darkness
today (Luke 8:26-33) – I know it's true! The same Jesus who prayed
for Peter still prays for us today (Luke 22:32; Hebrews 7:25) – I
know it's true! The same Jesus who calmed the wind and the waves
still “speaks peace to his people” as the risen Lord (Psalm 29:11) – we know it's true! And the same Jesus still offers
“eternal comfort and good hope” through his love and grace (2 Thessalonians 2:16). He offers it to you, and he offers it to me. Jesus came down and went up to send us
the Holy Spirit as another Comforter to
work real peace, real wholeness, real shalom
within our hearts and souls. He listens to our griefs and our sorrows, our pains and our insecurities, and “he will wipe away every tear from [our] eyes” (Revelation 21:4). We've seen him work wonders already in this assembly called together by God.
We
were called by God – how? “Through our proclamation of the good
news” (2 Thessalonians 2:14), Paul and Silas and Timothy write. We are
chosen by God as the fruit of God's saving work (2 Thessalonians 2:13) – how? By grace, the same grace that gives eternal comfort
(2 Thessalonians 2:16). And how do we recognize the grace? Two
ways. One is “belief in the truth,” the truth of Jesus Christ.
Christians are called to “love the truth,” to walk in the truth,
but do we? That truth is that Jesus died on the cross to destroy our
sin, and that Jesus rose from the dead to give new life, and that
Jesus ascended to heaven to pour out his blessings, and that Jesus is
our living Lord who will return again. The truth is that Jesus is
the Creator who, from the very start, made a universe where two
complementary things are meant to unite in harmony: heaven in harmony
with earth, land in harmony with sea, man united in harmony with
woman – each engaged in a distinctive kind of self-giving. The
truth of confession is that we broke them all and sent them spinning
and crashing. The truth is that Jesus is the Redeemer who wants to
bring heaven back into holy unity with earth, land into holy unity
with sea, man into holy unity with woman as one flesh, mirroring the
eternal distinction and intimacy between himself and his holy nation,
the Church, whose God is the LORD (Psalm 33:12; 1 Peter 2:9; Ephesians 5:25-33).
And,
Paul says, we're chosen as the fruit of God's saving work “through
sanctification by the Spirit” (2 Thessalonians 2:13), the same
Spirit who inspired the scriptures that minister comfort unto hope in
“the God of steadfastness and comfort” (Romans 15:4-5), the same
Spirit whom Jesus called “the Comforter” (John 14:26) and who
guides us into the truth we're called to believe and love (John 16:13) and who brings “life and peace” for sure (Romans 8:6).
We're chosen by being made holy, we're chosen by being set apart,
we're chosen through the Spirit of Eternal Comfort, who changes and
transforms us and leads us through the valley of the shadow of death
but teaches us step by step not to fear (Psalm 23:4).
Why
has God chosen us? Why has God given us eternal comfort? For what
purpose? “To obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ,” and to
“stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught by
us,” and to be made strong in “every good work and word” (2 Thessalonians 2:14-17). On the one hand, we aren't to hold loosely
to what the apostles handed down. Many churches do hold them
loosely, very loosely, refusing to keep a solid grasp on what the
apostles taught about faith, or about money, or about sexuality, or
about human life, or about the reality of God and the lordship of the risen Christ or about the life-changing power of
the Holy Spirit. But we're meant to have a strong grip on these
things. “Stand firm in your faith, be courageous, be strong” in
the face of this world's challenges (1 Corinthians 16:13). Are we
“standing firm in one spirit, striving side-by-side with one mind
for the faith of the gospel,” being “in no way intimidated” by
those who try to shout us down (Philippians 1:27-28)? Can we see
that opposition, if it's because we're standing for the truth and not
because we're being jerks in the truth's name, is a “privilege not
only of believing in Christ, but of suffering for him as well”
(Philippians 1:29)?
At
the same time, we were chosen and gifted with eternal comfort to be
made strong in “every good work and word” (2 Thessalonians 2:14-17). Our faith, our hope, our comfort – it isn't a gift for
our own private reserve. That isn't what God is doing. It's meant
to minister to others within the church and to the world around us
with good deeds and good words. What words are good words? How
about “sound speech that cannot be censured” so that “any
opponent will be put to shame, having nothing evil to say of us”
(Titus 2:8)? How about words that are “always gracious, seasoned
with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer everyone”
(Colossians 4:6)? How about an answer about our good hope, made “with
gentleness and respect, keeping your conscience clear” (1 Peter 3:15-16)? When we talk about celebrities and politicians, are our
words “always gracious”? When we discuss issues of serious sin,
both inside and outside the church – because Bruce Jenner isn't
just a political conservative but even a professing Christian – is all our talk both “sound speech” and “always gracious”? Is
it well-seasoned through biblical wisdom and experience before we grumble or accuse? Are we truly
“quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger” (James 1:19)?
“When words are many, transgression is not lacking, but the prudent
are restrained in speech” (Proverbs 10:19). Do we show, by our
willingness to listen and our gentleness in bringing Scripture to
bear on the situation, that we're inviting all people into Christ's love,
the love where we turn for comfort from the storms and senselessness of our very souls? Does our
character imitate the “God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and
abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (Psalm 86:15)?
Does
our church look like God's mercy seat? Is our church a community
where Jenner could “fervently kneel,” could “bring his wounded
heart, tell his anguish,” and find that “earth has no sorrow that
heaven can't heal”? Can others bring their wounded hearts and
tell their anguish and sorrow here, in the presence of heaven's
healing? If we're holy, are we also an embracing space where sinners
can come and meet that healing, find and approach that eternal
comfort in the Way, the Truth, and the Life? Is it true that this church is “a hospital for [all] sinners and not a museum for saints”? Can people come to our
church and find comfort for their ailing bodies and hope for their
despairing souls, and reconciliation between the two? Can people
come and find loving hearts to seek them relentlessly through all
their shame –
hearts with love that, like Jesus, will “love
through every changing scene,” in spite of any wanderings, any
relapses, any agonies to overcome? Do we offer the bread of life and
the “waters flowing / forth from the throne of God, pure from
above”? Because there's eternal comfort and good hope in the name
of Jesus Christ! Neither sin nor hell can turn that eternal love and comfort away. Does it flow through us also? Are we known for “speaking the
truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15)? But to share that love, God first
had to love us (1 John 4:19). When we open our arms wide for each
other, when we open our hearts to one another to share our hurts and
our fears and our loneliness and our doubts, we do it in the name of
the LORD who first “helped [us] and comforted
[us]” (Psalm 86:17). “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our
Lord” (Romans 7:25)!
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