& Christ is the head of the Church
Submitted by Ray on February 23 1999 at 08:55:55
In reply to And here's another one... Submitted by F.O.D. on February 22 1999 at 15:48:20
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F.O.D., You wrote: At church on Sunday we looked briefly at Ephesians, and that reminded of where I had developed the idea of the spiritual significance of gender (in which context homosexuality is wrong because it's a rearranging of the order of creation and a misuse of the symbols God has given us to understand him by). I wrote: Somehow I think you're putting the pull-cart in front of the horse there! I think I better sleep on that one before I say more! I've slept on it! You wrote: Ephesians 5:22-33 "the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church" The genders are a reflection of that reality which is found in Christ and the church. The sexual union between a man and a woman in marriage is a reflection of the union that exists between Christ and the church. Homosexuality is therefore wrong because it denies this imagery and therefore is a rejection of God's order, not just in the physical sense, but also in the spiritual sense of which the physical is but a copy. To say one man can form a union with another is to say Christ is happy to remain with himself, with no thought for his people, the Church. In reference to the Two Commandments to love, homosexuality is a failure to love God with all your heart, since it is a rejection of his order and design. Let me start off by saying that I think every statement in that paragraph is wrong as it stands! And yet there is a kernel of truth! I think you have picked the wrong kernel to run with in your extensions. The union, or unity, and love is the thread that runs through the metaphors, but is what I find in homosexual unions as well! As you, father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, ... . The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have ... loved them even as you have loved me. John 17:21b-23 F.O.D, I think Jesus' prayer for union/unity is a better reflection of God's desire for the world and its order and design than Paul's metaphors of husband and Christ as head from Ephesians. Especially, the extensions you have made from your perceived order and design. (Reality as a human construct is a whole other discussion.) I see homosexuality (and boylove) as parts of that order and design that have been stigmatized and denegrated by society (and the Church) in unsuccessful attempts to control, minimize and eliminate them because Church and society see them as immoral and evil -- unsuccessful because they are part of God's good creation! How's that for a mouthful not to be spoken or heard in most churches! If the blind lead the blind will they all stumble into the ditch before them? Ray |