So every single one of you who judge others is without any excuse. You condemn yourself when you judge another person because the one who is judging is doing the same things. We know that God’s judgment agrees with the truth, and his judgment is against those who do these kinds of things. If you judge those who do these kinds of things while you do the same things yourself, think about this: Do you believe that you will escape God’s judgment? Or do you have contempt for the riches of God’s generosity, tolerance, and patience? Don’t you realize that God’s kindness is supposed to lead you to change your heart and life? You are storing up wrath for yourself because of your stubbornness and your heart that refuses to change. God’s just judgment will be revealed on the day of wrath.

___

Seven verses. When people say that the Bible condemns homosexuality, they are referring to seven verses out of a total of 31,102.

Two of the seven verses are found together in the first chapter of the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Church in Rome, a letter which many consider Paul’s opus on Salvation. Unfortunately, for many lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer folks, Romans feels less like a statement about salvation, and more like a proclamation of condemnation.

Romans 1:26-27 reads “That’s why God abandoned them to degrading lust. Their females traded natural sexual relations for unnatural sexual relations. Also, in the same way, the males traded natural sexual relations with females, and burned with lust for each other.”

Sounds harsh! I can hear condemnation in those words. But what if we learned that these verses have been misunderstood and misapplied.

I want to share with you two ways to interpret these verses - interpretations that fit well into a healthy biblical hermeneutic that pays attention to language and history and context.

First, according to Romans, males and females, “traded the natural for the unnatural.”

Many assert that these words mean

that same sex attraction is unnatural,

that sexual identity is determined solely by birth gender,

that same gender love is forbidden.

But is that really what it says?

Let me ask you a question,

Suppose I am a gay man, and I am naturally attracted to men. How is it unnatural if I am naturally attracted?

By definition, a gay person being attracted to someone of the same sex is natural, whereas society compelling a gay person to couple with somebody of the opposite sex for appearance sake would be unnatural.

What would be unnatural is a person’s internal recognition of who they are being forcibly squelched because of heteronormative prejudices.

For me, as a heterosexual person, it is completely natural that I would be attracted to somebody of the opposite gender, but if I am not heterosexual, but find myself somewhere under the LGBTQ+ umbrella, what would be unnatural for me would be to feel forced to be someone I am not.

What is natural and what is unnatural is relative to one’s sexual orientation!

I believe the natural/unnatural comparison in Romans 1 can actually compel us to recognize that LGBTQ folks are completely natural in who they are just as heterosexuals are natural in who they are.

As Gaga reminds us,

“I'm beautiful in my way

'Cause God makes no mistakes”

The second interpretation is a tad more complicated as it is built upon both the history and the internal context of the passage. It takes a bit of time to unpack, so hang with me.

History,

The church in Rome began as first Jews, and then Gentiles (a gentile is anybody who isn’t Jewish), became Christians.

Empower Claudius falsely blamed the Jews for mischief in Rome, and by decree, expelled them in CE 49.

And so, the founding members of the Roman church had to leave the city with their fellow Jews. They were exiled for five years.

In their absence, the church continued to grow, but it’s growth was predominantly among Gentiles.

When the Jews returned to Rome, frictions along ethnic lines erupted between Jewish and Gentile believers.

While Paul’s letter to the Romans is considered by many to be a masterpiece in theology, it is first and foremost an existential plea for harmony between Jewish and Gentile members of the Roman Church.

What’s this got to do with LGBTQ people? Follow along.

Context

In a odd twist, as Paul urges reconciliation, he confronts his Jewish readers by sharing the argument they often make against Gentile, now their brothers and sisters in the faith.

It may seem strange that Paul would strive to broker reconciliation by making accusations against these Gentiles; but there is a “method to the madness.” We’ll get there.

There’s a thing that is important to understand about Paul and his writing, and it is a thing easily missed.

Paul, as he wrote, would include quotes and sayings and lyrics that would have been quite apparent to the original readers, but are lost on us now.

Paul would sometimes attribute these quotes and sometimes not.

Because of this, Paul appears, at times, to contradict himself when he is actually quoting somebody else and then arguing against them, kind a like when Jesus says, “you have heard it said, but I say.”

I have learned that whenever Paul seems to contradict himself, I need to dig into the original language and to scope out commentators because there is a chance that Paul is expressing the thought of somebody else so that he can refute it.

One can read the last half of Romans 1, beginning at verse 18, and compare it to what comes in Romans 2 and discern that there is a startling contradiction of tone and teaching. It has been suggested that what Paul is doing in Romans chapter 1 is making commonly made arguments against Gentiles so that he can dismiss them in his counter-argument in chapter 2.

The argument made against Gentiles as expressed in Romans 1:

-Gentiles knew about God through nature and yet ignored God’s natural law.

-In opposition to God, Gentiles began to make and worship idols,

-So God let them go as they participated in idolatrous sexual practices. The condemnation isn’t aimed at same gender attraction, or same sex intimacy or sexual identity, the condemnation is directed at persons practicing the sexual excesses found in idolatrous cultic religions.

-Such behaviors lead to a complete breakdown in civil society including, according to Romans 1, “injustice, greed, wicked behavior, Jealousy, murder, fighting, deception, malice, gossip, slander, a hatred of God, Rudeness, pride, boastfulness disobedience to parents, disloyalty, hate, and a lack of mercy.” (I’m kinda surprised they didn’t include kicking the family dog on the list).

Some scholars suggest that this polemic against the Gentiles,

from the rejection of God,

to idolatry,

to sexual practices tied to that idolatry,

to a catalogue of detestable sins

is the standard diatribe against Gentiles in the first century and Paul is merely borrowing that argument to make a point.

After cataloguing everything that was wrong with the Gentiles, Paul makes a sharp turn at chapter 2.

Imagine the Jewish readers of Paul’s Roman letter as he lays out what’s wrong with these Gentiles.

Now imagine the Gentiles in complete exasperation “here we go again” as Paul writes line after line of vitriol towards the gentile usurpers.

And then they, the Jews and the Gentiles, turn the page, or roll the scroll, and read

Romans 2:1- “So every single one of you who judge others is without any excuse. You condemn yourself when you judge another person because the one who is judging is doing the same things.”

Boom! There it is!

This verse, and actually the next couple chapters, make sense as you realize Paul has set a trap in chapter 1 so that he could make this point in chapter 2.

Rather than one group lording it over the other as being more righteous, both groups are simultaneously moved into the same space- the “people in need of grace” together space!

The verses found in Romans 1, in which Paul makes the popular argument against the Gentiles is simply a set up for Paul to declare that Gentiles and Jews are not so different.

To our point.

What does this have to do LGBTQ folks? Absolutely nothing. And that’s the point!

The last half of Romans 1, including the clobber verses, is a straw-man that Paul has set up so that he can forcefully proclaim to his readers “let’s quit judging each other and let’s find our place in the grace of God.”

“Let’s quit judging each other,” is pretty ironic in light of the way these verses are misused today.

Sadly, many of us have taken the words meant to free us from judging, and used those very words to judge and condemn.

For centuries, people in churches have used the Scripture to justify their fear of people who are not like them. They have quoted passages that they haven’t even understood to condemn others.

And what we have missed through it all is that Christ, through his love, grace, and acceptance has made us ONE-

We are Jews and Gentiles together,

We are male and female together,

We are black and brown and white together,

We are hetero, gay, trans, queer together,

together in Christ who loves us and invites us to be participants in the Kingdom of love and grace.

Amen.

___

Pastoral Prayer/ Lectio Divina

Jeremiah 30:18-22

The Lord proclaims: I will restore Jacob’s tents and have pity on their birthplace.

Their city will be rebuilt on its ruins and the palace in its rightful place. There will be laughter and songs of thanks. I will add to their numbers so they don’t dwindle away. I will honor them so they aren’t humiliated. Their children will thrive as they did long ago, and their community will be established before me. I will punish their oppressors.

They will have their own leader; their ruler will come from among them. I will let him approach me, and he will draw near. Who would dare approach me unless I let them come? declares the Lord.

You will be my people, and I will be your God.