Introduction
Last Sunday’s sermon was the first of a two-part message on
understanding and responding to our culture. From Ephesians 4:17-19 we learned
that a culture, which does not acknowledge God as Lord nor the authority of
Scripture, will over time inevitably decline in its moral ways. Without God and
without Scripture, it is the heart that will be appealed to, and the heart will
lead us along our sinful inclinations. We then observed how this decline is
being played out in sexual behavior, as well as the culture’s view of the
Christian faith. We concluded that we must remember what God has done for us in
Christ, that he is in control, and therefore we are to remain faithful to him.
What then do we actually do? How are we to act in the midst
of the changes taking place in our country, changes that are leading to
hostility toward the church? For guidance, we look to another letter of the
Apostle Paul.
Text
Walk
in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. 6 Let
your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how
you ought to answer each person.
The apostle is wrapping up his letter. Like Ephesians he
started the letter reminding his readers of the person and work of Christ. He
exhorts them also to put off the old self and to put on the new self that is in
Christ, giving them specific instructions. As he says goodbye, he asks for
prayer for his labors, which have caused him to be imprisoned. He does not ask
for prayer to be released but that while in prison doors would be opened for
him to declare the gospel and to articulate the message clearly.
That leads him to remind the believers of how they should
behave and speak with “outsiders,” their unbelieving neighbors. They are to, “Walk in wisdom toward
outsiders, making the best use of the time.” To put it another way, we are
to think before we speak. We are to think about what really matters, what will
most honor Christ, what will enhance the reception of the gospel.
And when we speak we are to, “Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned
with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.” Our
speech is to be gracious, not grating; seasoned with salt, not with bitter
herbs. Our goal is not to score points – to put others in their place – but to win
their hearing. Let’s look at a positive example of wisdom and gracious
speech being used to win the hearing and even conversion of a leader in the gay
movement.
Dr. Rosaria Champagne Butterfield was associate professor of
English at Syracuse University. Her specialty was Queer Theory, a postmodern
form of gay and lesbian studies. She became a leading spokesperson for the gay
movement on campus and community. She was completely immersed in the gay culture
– heart, intellect, and soul. Her conversion was not the result of feeling
empty, unfulfilled, and it is her conversion that she describes as a
train-wreck.
I want you to hear, first of all, her description of gay
life. Where we first make our mistake is to lump homosexuals into a category of
sex-crazed individuals that includes a bent for preying on youth.
My life as a lesbian seemed normal. I
considered it an enlightened, chosen path. Lesbianism felt like a cleaner and
more moral sexual practice…
As a professor of English and women’s
studies, I cared about morality, justice, and compassion. As a scholar of the
nineteenth century, fervent for the worldviews of Freud, Hegel, Marx, and
Darwin, I strove to stand with the disempowered. My life at this time was
happy, meaningful, and full.
My next lesbian partner and I shared
many vital interests: AIDS activism, children’s health and literacy, golden
retriever rescue…It was hard to argue that she and I were anything but good
citizens and caregivers. The LGBT community values hospitality and applies it
with skill, sacrifice, and integrity. Indeed, I honed the hospitality gifts
that I use today as a pastor’s wife in my queer community.[i]
Let this sink in. In
my own life in Philadelphia, I have had the privilege to know men and women in
the gay community and observe first-hand their hospitality, friendship,
concerns for justice and compassion. Can you see then how frustrating it must
be for them to receive, as Butterfield did, mail, signs, and taunts that
proclaim God’s hatred of them?
Let’s continue. It is 1997 and Promise Keepers were coming to
town. Butterfield wrote an editorial in the town paper criticizing it. She explains:
I received so many letters for
this little editorial that I kept empty Xerox paper boxes on both sides of my
desk, one for hate mail and one for fan mail…. In this batch of mail, I also
received a letter from Pastor Ken Smith, then-pastor of the Syracuse Reformed
Presbyterian Church. It was a kind and inquiring letter. It encouraged me to
explore the kind of questions that I admire: how did you arrive at your
interpretations? How do you know you are right? Do you believe in God? He
didn’t argue with my article; he asked me to explore and defend the
presuppositions that undergirded it. I didn’t really know how to respond to Ken’s
letter, but found myself reading and re-reading it. I didn’t know which box to
file this letter in, and so it sat on my desk and haunted me.[ii]
That wise and gracious letter would lead to a two-year
friendship that culminated in Champagne’s conversion. And yet, it was the very
idea that she was not viewed as a target but as a friend that allowed her to
consider his thoughts. Again, she writes:
I responded to this one letter, and Ken
and I became friends. Real friends. Not friendship evangelism. I was not a
project to Ken. I was a neighbor, and Ken taught me that Christians value
neighbors.[iii]
Wisdom and graciousness – those are the two operative
concepts from which to address our culture – wisdom to understand clearly the
teachings of Scripture, as well as the perspective of “outsiders,” and
graciousness to speak the truth in love.
Consider other biblical texts relaying the same thought:
…even
if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear
of them, nor be troubled, 15 but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy,
always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for
the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, 16 having a good conscience, so that, when you are
slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.
17 For it is better to suffer for doing good,
if that should be God's will, than for doing evil
(1 Peter 3:14-17).
A soft answer turns away wrath,
but a harsh word stirs up anger (Proverbs 15:1).
but a harsh word stirs up anger (Proverbs 15:1).
The heart of the wise makes his speech
judicious
and adds persuasiveness to his lips.
24 Gracious words are like a honeycomb,
sweetness to the soul and health to the body (Proverbs 16:23-24).
and adds persuasiveness to his lips.
24 Gracious words are like a honeycomb,
sweetness to the soul and health to the body (Proverbs 16:23-24).
I fear that we too often take our cues
from radio talk show hosts, who understand that their ability to attract
listeners is to be entertaining and provoking, rather than winsome and
respectful. We who bear the name Christian must always give as much thought to
the manner in which we speak as to the truth to speak.
How we speak and treat our neighbor is
important to God. As Jesus clearly taught, we must love both God and neighbor.
Indeed, we are to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. We do not want to be rudely
spoken to, nor do we want to be mistreated, which leads to understanding one
reason for what we regard as unfair and bias treatment.
I noted last week that we are moving
into an era in which society is growing ever hostile to evangelical Christians,
and to anyone, for that matter, who differ with the same-sex marriage rulings
and embracing of the gay lifestyle. Individuals have lost jobs, businesses have
been fined; the pressure will only grow to keep our beliefs in the closet. “Why,”
we ask, “can we not agree to let there be differences of opinion without being
branded homophobic?” Why are they so unfair?
Consider how our complaint would sound
to a body of people who until recent years had to keep their sexual identity in
the closet. They had to keep quiet in order to work. They were kept from
teaching positions; they could not serve in the military; they faced taunts,
and hate was spilled out against them, often in the name of God. Their families
were ashamed of them; they were the secret that could not be revealed,
especially in the church. Can you understand why there would not be sympathy
now that the tables are turning? Can you understand the fear of going back to
the old ways?
We might rightly call on our gay
neighbors to repent, but they have the right to ask if we have repented from
the ways in which we have treated them as lepers of society. We might claim
today that we are not homophobic, but that comes from society’s acceptance of
gays, not the church’s.
It is repentance – our repentance –
that is most likely to win listening ears. At this past General Assembly I
witnessed the power of this. A resolution was presented on the first day by two
respected leaders in our denomination – Dr. Ligon Duncan and Dr. Sean Lucas.
Here is a report of what followed:
That
resolution called the General Assembly to confess our sins regarding our
complicity and involvement in racial injustice during the Civil Rights era up
until the present day.
These sins had recently been addressed through the research of PCA historians
including the same Rev. Dr. Lucas, Dr. Otis Picket, and Rev. Bobby Griffith (Ph.D.
candidate). According to our rules, the resolution was received by the Assembly
and referred to the Overtures Committee, whose job it is to recommend to the
assembly what action should be taken on the resolution.
The resolution was debated in committee for over nine hours. The predominant
arguments against adoption were that the Assembly needed more time to consider
this issue and that the resolution needed perfecting. There were others who
argued that the PCA didn’t exist during the Civil Rights era, that individual
presbyters themselves did not do these things and therefore could not confess,
that the resolution seemed to cave to political correctness and white guilt,
and that if prominent PCA churchmen were racists perhaps they have repented of
it, thus we shouldn’t call them out.[iv]
Typically the pattern is to have debate
on the floor, then a vote. In this case, leaders worked out a recommendation to
refer the matter to next year’s assembly with the intent of having a clearer
and stronger resolution to act on. That eventually was agreed to but not
without gut-wrenching confessions of sin on the floor. None were more powerful
than that of Jim Baird, former senior minister of First Presbyterian, Macon.
Mr. Moderator, Jim Baird, Mississippi Valley Presbytery.
In 1971 twelve men were elected to form a new denomination. Take two years
and form that denomination. Of those twelve men six were ministers and six were
ruling elders. All have died or left the PCA except two: Kennedy Smartt and me.
And I confess, that in 1973, the only thing I understood was that we were
starting a new denomination, which we did. And I confess that I did not raise a
finger for civil rights. I was taught with one thing, and that was to start a
new denomination for the sake of the Scripture, for the sake of the preservation
of historic Presbyterianism, and for the furtherance of the gospel
proclamation. And so I confess my sin.
I’m not confessing the sin of my fathers, I’m confessing my sin, and of
those twelve men. Were we racists? No. But we did not do anything to help our
black brethren.
Rev. Dr. George Robertson, pastor of First
Presbyterian Church in Augusta, Georgia rose to pray. The report of his prayer
is as follows:
Rev. Dr. Robertson stood up and confessed his own sins but also the sins of
his congregation. He confessed that his church supported slave owning, and that
the African Americans were kept in the balcony away from the white worshipers.
He also confessed that during the Civil Rights era, when local police beat a
developmentally challenged African-American boy to death in the town jail, the
leaders of his church did nothing.
What impact did these men have on our
African-American brethren? One wrote, “This man (Dr. Baird) will
forever have my utmost #respect.” Another replied, “I totally agree…. I’d take a
bullet for Rev. Jim Baird. WOW!!! I’ve been waiting 20 years to finally hear
something like that. Super encouraged by George Robertson’s prayer as well.”
The Stated
Clerk, Dr. Roy Taylor had this to say:
This writer has attended every General Assembly the PCA has ever had.
In his opinion, the periods of prayer and expressions of repentance and
brotherly love on the Thursday evening session of the 2015 General Assembly
were the most evident and powerful work of the Holy Spirit at any PCA Assembly
heretofore.
Repentance
wins respect not disdain. It gains listeners; it does not make ears deaf.
Repentance before our God wins the attention of men and women. They will pay
attention to those who give greater attention to getting the log out of their
own eyes.
Wisdom,
graciousness, and repentance. It is a powerful combination. We are fortunate to
live in a democracy where we can participate (so far) in public debate and
discussion, and through voting. You will need to prayerfully consider your own
participation. You might write your government officials and representatives.
You might support organizations that promote good causes. Whatever you are
convicted to do, exercise these three biblical commands.
It is when
we act out of the ordinary way of responding to those who differ with us and to
those who would even do us harm; it is then that the world takes notice. Has
not the actions of Mother Emanuel Church taught us that biblical lesson?
After all,
we follow the one who responded to a sinful world in the most extraordinary
manner. Remember the example of our Lord:
Have this mind among
yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was
in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,
but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being
born in the likeness of men. And being found in human
form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death
on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and
bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and
under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
We may not change the attitude of others even as we respond in
Christ-like humilty and love. But we will win the commendation of our God as we
honor Christ, and it is his response to us that matters.
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