Sarx

I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God– what is good and acceptable and perfect.

For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another.

Do not be conformed but be transformed… Discern what is Good and Acceptable and perfect. We usually stop there, I think. But keep going! Discern what is Good and Acceptable and perfect: which not to think of yourself more highly than others – and to realise that those people over there are members of Christ with you.

The world wants us to think as individuals, and – most importantly – as better than others. The Church gets trapped in this all the time: the Church is better than everyone else. The Church is infallible, even. The Church is perfect. Come into the Church and out of the world.

A lot of good it does to come into an organisation that is just as messed up as the world we’ve supposedly left! We are filled with power politics, egos, the driving in of walls of division (even if Jesus has torn them down already) and the constant sense that – even though we may be sinners, yup – we’re better than they are, cuz at least we know we’re sinners!

Today’s RCL gets right into it, though. In the OT, God says, “My salvation will be forever” using the word that becomes Jesus’ name. Paul reminds us that in Christ we are members of each other. And Matthew tells point blank that *we* are a community called into existence by Messiah – not a bunch of individuals who all happen to be doing the same thing.

I have told this story several times: forgive me if you’ve read it before. Back in the days when I worked at 815 Second Ave, the National Offices of the Episcopal Church, I asked one of my coworkers if there wasn’t room in the Church for those who disagreed with “us” on the inclusion of gay and lesbian persons. I was thinking, then, of certain Bishops. He said strongly, “no”. They were wrong and they either must change or go.

I still don’t like that story for it shows the attitude common to both sides of this argument: those who disagree with us are so wrong as to have to leave.

One’s attitude towards persons who are attracted to the same sex is a major (if not the only) test of orthodoxy at this time. Previously it was women clergy, before that it was pacifism, prior to that it was the word “altar” in the prayer book (for which usage the so-called “Reformed” Episcopal Church broke communion with the rest of us in the 19th century). And, along time ago, it went to allowing uncircumcised Gentiles into the Church.

And, point of order, the fight wasn’t over the Gentiles themselves. It was over the treatment of them. The Jews were not complaining that these people were not Christians. They just didn’t want to have to fellowship with them. Paul said, no: we don’t have that luxury. The fight was between people who said there were two classes of Christians and those who said there was only one.

Today’s fight is, really, the same thing and, because of the way the conservatives are fighting, this is really a fight between two classes of Heterosexual Men. On the one hand there are those who say gays are ok. On the other hand there are those who say gays are not ok. Gays, themselves, rarely enter into the discussion. That’s why, largely, Gene Robinson was on the Outside of Lambeth looking in: the straight bishops – even the ones who supported him – wanted to resolve this issue amongst themselves. Meanwhile, Jesus was outside with those who were not welcomed at the main party.

Both sides want to win this argument.

But that’s not how Christianity is supposed to work. Either there is room for all of us – even in our disagreement – or there is no room for Jesus here.