Thoughts from Summer Sunday Sermons

This summer, some sermons in our Sunday morning worship were devoted to attempting to sort out an issue which can be confusing and frightening for many – transgenderism. As followers of Jesus we want to be loyal to the Bible and to interpret it accurately, doing our best to honor what it meant to the original audience, and not trying to read new meanings into the words on the page. And we also know we want to love people and show compassion without compromising the positions represented in Holy Scripture. Psalm 119:105 says to God, “Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” There is an objective standard of truth that is meant to give shape to our subjective perceptions and so enable us to navigate through this world in a way that pleases Him. Jesus prayed for believers in John 17:17, asking His Father to sanctify, or set apart, Christians from the world. What is the dividing line? Jesus prayed that we would be sanctified by truth, and then He said to His Father, “Your Word is truth.” In teaching that there is objective truth, Jesus is not an oppressor of any who feel inclined to experiment with new ways to live. By His death and resurrection, He actually proved to be a self-sacrificing liberator of people enslaved to their own intuitions or the world’s fads. Every true believer was once enslaved to our own desires and held back from reaching a quality of glory and satisfaction that is only available through union and communion with Jesus. So as we approach such a sensitive topic, there must be humility before the Scriptures and a trust that whatever is discovered in them is the way of life.

Jeremiah 17:5 casts this truth in negative terms when it says, “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord.” If the verses cited in the previous paragraph came across with a gentle flavor that makes lack of compliance seem to be no big deal, this verse brings a sober tone.

Can you look back over your life and recognize times your intuition and judgment were off? I recall in earlier years saying that I would never want to move to western Pennsylvania because of all the deteriorating insulbrick siding on houses. I said in college after dating a few different ladies that I was certain there were two groups from which I would not want to find a wife – accountants or musicians. My first house was an insulbrick house in western Pennsylvania, and I have been happily married to an MBA pianist for almost 22 years. How grateful I am that God does not allow our subjective feelings and impulses at one time in our lives to become the final word for our destinies. What blessing we could forfeit! Without His guidance, we would be in grave danger of irreparable ruin.