Being Human

Last week, we began our year-long series based on Brian McLaren's book, We Make the Road by Walking. We thought about God's 'wonderful world', the sheer beauty and goodness of creation. So much to celebrate and enjoy. We noted that living creatures and humans were the penultimate act of creation: the final one being Sabbath. God says, 'didn't we do well?!' Even God enjoyed what God had made.

I was preaching at Christ Church, Cockermouth (you can hear it via a podcast at our website www.cockermouthareachurches.org.uk). The occasion was a civic service for our Town Mayor, and several mayors and mayoresses were present from the Borough and other towns in the area. There was much mayoral bling of course, so maybe the song 'Amazing Grace', with its contemporary chorus 'My chains fell off' was not the most appropriate choice!!

So to this week's theme, Being Human. Having celebrated the beauty of God's original creation, from Genesis 1, we move on to the next chapter and its alternative account of creation. It's the story of the Garden of Eden, and the choice with which humankind is faced: to be fully alive, represented by the Tree of Life, or to 'play God', represented by the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. It's a choice between living under God's rule, letting God be God, or trying to make our own choices, by our own standards. The narrative suggests, and the rest of the Bible confirms, that left to our own devices, we inevitably get it wrong.

McLaren uses the image of hands to illustrate our choices: we can make a fist, or reach out in peace; we can play a violin or wield a sword; we can give or we can take away; we can hold on or we can let go. The Gospel reading he chooses to accompany the theme is the story of the man with the withered hand (Mark 3): Jesus chooses to heal on the Sabbath (a day of celebration, remember) rather than to obey Jewish law; as a result, the man himself now has more choices, to bless or to seize.

To be alive means to bear responsibly the image of God. It means to stretch out your hand to take from the Tree of Aliveness  and to join in God's creative, healing work. (McLaren p.12)

On another matter - though I'm sure there is a connection - we have heard this week of a Church of England bishop, who is living in a same sex relationship with his partner. When he was appointed, those responsible knew of his situation but believed that his gifts as a priest and a man of God were more important than his sexuality, especially as he himself (the Bishop of Grantham) had asserted his commitment to the Church of England's discipline on this matter. There has been the predictable outcry from certain quarters, while the bishop himself has been calm, gracious , not crusading for gay rights, but wanting to be known for his ministerial virtues rather than his sexuality. Quite rightly.

I have found myself thinking again that many Christians are missing the point by constantly speaking out against homosexuality. I don't believe that the Scriptures are anything like as clear on the matter as some like to think. In C.S. Lewis's Screwtape Letters, the senior tempter, Screwtape, seeks to induct his nephew and junior tempter, Wormwood,  into the ways of deceiving the 'patient' - a human being. Is it possible that the Tempter is causing Christians to be obsessed with homosexuality so that they miss the point? Sex itself has been removed from the context of faithful, committed unions and become a leisure 'industry', with many, many people falling victim to it. There is a lot more in the Bible - quite explicitly - about sexual purity and marital fidelity, than about homosexuality in particular. Ought not Christians to be more vocal about these matters than about those who are of a particular sexual orientation? Should we not even be glad for the many who are homosexually monogamous rather than sexually promiscuous?