Whose Agenda?

One great challenge in life is overcoming the obstacle of hypocrisy. Sitting in a room with an overweight doctor, wheezing and sweating as he stuffs donuts in his mouth and puffs away at one cigarette after another; well it is just hard to hear his sound advice about diet and exercise and healthy living. Please note the conflict "hard to hear" and "sound advice." Our endless worry about hypocrisy can be a barrier to truth. No matter how disconnected the doctor's own life style is from his teaching, what matters is it is true.

I am a priest, the most dangerous career choice in God's house. There are numerous places where the preacher/teacher/leader of the church is told that (s)he will be held to a higher standard. In other words, God expects more from us because of the role we play. The upside is we can do what we love and enjoy serving Him and His. The downside, better be faithful and do it well, or there is hell to pay. Literally...

The Greek word, hypocrites, is where we get our word in English. It literally refers to a stage actor but by extension also can be applied to those who are fakes. In the end, there is a thin line between active faking and failing to live up to one's standards. This is why the word hypocrite is so difficult. Whenever I preach or teach I always know that I fail to do the things I am calling others to do. Always. And that awareness of self can be a temptation to soften the message. It can be a temptation to ignore the word of God and bring it down to the word of Jeff. That is probably understandable and may even (arguably) be motivated by humility or integrity. Whatever the motivation, however, the sad truth is, it is wrong. You see, the agenda of the preacher must always be God's message. And to replace God with me is always a sin. A failure. A missing the mark.

With that long introduction in place, I want to reflect on our reading today from Ephesians 5:1-14. It begins with the exhortation, "Be imitators of God, as beloved children." Yikes! How can anyone as flawed as me invite others to imitate God? As the words flow from my mouth I can only think that I look as nonsensical as the unhealthy doctor I began today's post with. Do I imitate God? Heck, sometimes am I even trying? The sad truth, no. I try and fail, when I try at all. Yet, Paul is clear. This is our vocation, our calling. This is how we model our lives. Yet it is not obvious exactly what that looks like. Certainly Paul does not mean go around creating universes and ruling creation. He does  not mean acting like we are the Supreme Being. What He means is, be holy like God. Be virtuous like God. He provides a list of things to avoid: fornication, impurity, covetousness, idolatry, and silly talk. Rather, he says, "let there be thanksgiving." (Greek word is eucharist)

Fornication, in recent days, had made a huge come back. It is no longer viewed as a vice. And my own life is not pure and holy and innocent, so I am considered a poor candidate to address the issue. I have done some  things I should not have. I have thought some thoughts that were inappropriate. So anything I have to say can be ruled the useless banter of a hypocrite. O well, here goes anyhow. The Bible is clear on sex. It is intended in the context of a marriage. As a speaker once said, it is nice if there is love in the marriage, but love is not the context of sex, marriage is. That is God's intention according to the Bible and two thousand years of Christian tradition (and a long time prior, probably one thousand more years for Judaism)

In our culture, believing in traditional marriage is considered evil, or cruel, or bad. Speaking against fornication is considered judgmental and unfair. Saying marriage is what our Bible and prayer books say marriage is called hateful. We hear that "all love is equal" without reference to what that means. And be clear, that statement (in fairness like most pithy little statements) is not only false, it is actually silly and in the wrong hands, dangerous. But dang if it doesn't sound good and feel enlightened and open minded. Until someone who loves multiple women says it, or someone who loves young boys, or someone who loves... Well you fill in the blank. Reality is, all love is not equal. And even if it is, it doesn't matter as regards sexual expression.

Our own thinking on this issue is clouded. As a young man I was very open to the propaganda machine which told me that the church had an outdated, unrealistic approach to such things. Any argument which justified me doing what I wanted was most welcome. It fit my agenda. And it fits the agenda of most of us. Is sex outside marriage (ie, one man- one woman) the worst evil on the planet. Nope. But making the worst evil on the planet the dividing line is probably a bad place to start. It is, however, according to Ephesians, a cause of God's wrath. [God turns us over to the consequences of our sins.] And the fact that most of us are deaf and  blind to the word on this issue does not keep us from that wrath. God's agenda is no fornication. God's agenda is not our culture's agenda. And that is too bad for us.