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Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust

Sexuality in the headlines

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) has been in the headlines.

In August, the ELCA Churchwide Assembly adopted a social statement, Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust. Accompanying the social statement is a four-step process that would, in part, allow congregations “that choose to do so to recognize, support, and hold publicly accountable lifelong, monogamous, same-gender relationships,” and to find a way for people in such relationships to serve as professional leaders of the church.

The social statement calls us “to love and serve our neighbor as Christ loved and served us” and to respect the conscience-bound interpretation of scripture and tradition of our brothers and sisters who may differ from us.

Pastor Marty responds with a pastoral message »

What does this mean for St. Paul Lutheran Church?

What does this mean for St. Paul Lutheran Church in Davenport, Iowa?

We will hold to our core value of radical hospitality. “Everyone counts at St. Paul. Everyone matters. No exceptions.”

We will continue to respect and celebrate differences within our community of faith.

We will continue to share in the unity of the whole Church. We will remain deeply connected to the good work of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

We will continue to do our best to live faithfully.

Are there opportunities to talk about matters related to sexuality?

St. Paul, as one of 10,500 ELCA congregations, is part of the continuing conversation. Two October adult learning sessions provided substance for deeper understanding.

‘Stories that have given me my sight’

By Barbara Brown Taylor, author/preacher, author/preacher

‘The problem I run into at the bakery is that I do not have a position on homosexuality. What I have, instead, is a life. I have a history, in which many people have played vital parts. When I am presented with the issue of homosexuality, I experience temporary blindness. Something like scales fall over my eyes, because I cannot visualize an issue.

Instead, I visualize the homeroom teacher who seemed actually to care whether I showed up at school or not. I see the priest who taught me everything I know about priesthood, and the professor who roasted whole chickens for me when my food money ran out before the end of the month. I see the faces of dozens of young men who died of AIDS, but not before they had shown me how brightly they could burn with nothing left but the love of God to live on. I see the face of my 16-year-old friend, still waiting for his first true love, who says that if he found out he was gay, he would kill himself.

Other people have other stories, I know, but these are the stories that have given me my sight. To reduce them to a position seems irreverent somehow, like operating on someone’s body without looking him in the face.’

The Wideness of Love

By Pastor Peter W. Marty in The Wideness of Love

‘One of the particular joys of serving St. Paul Lutheran Church is that our congregation embraces this indiscriminate grace. We’re not always sure what to do with it, or how to delight in it. But we do our best. The fact that both gay and straight persons (to use the common cultural terms) can find a home at St. Paul is one of the best testimonies we give to modeling Christ’s love for the world.

A healthy, Christ-centered church can afford to be of more than one mind (two? three? three thousand?) if it is of one heart…

Living with diversity is a mark of discipleship. It’s the way Jesus planned it. It’s a mark of love. Admittedly, there are some Christians who will only join a church where everyone else agrees with them. But living in a community with differences is the better way.

At St. Paul, we get to model love. And the greater the love, the greater the respect for diversity. That is true in your family, in your community, and in this your dear church.’