Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

Fourth Sunday after Pentecost
June 20, 2010

Time Doesn't Change God's Promises
1 Corinthians 6:9-11

I want to talk to you today about a trend in Lutheranism. I could say Christianity, but Jesus told us to address the plank in our own eyes first, since this trend is sinful. And it's reached its logical conclusion in many Lutheran churches.

The trend is to claim that over time, God's promises change. Something He said 6,000 years ago or 4,000 years ago or 2,000 years ago may not be as relevant or true today as it used to be back then.

Today we read some of the Apostle Paul's mail. He lists several sins. Today I want to focus on two of those sins because there are many Lutherans who are saying that those sins aren't sins. The first sin is sex outside of marriage. The second sin is homosexuality.

Many Lutherans declare that sex outside of marriage is not sin. Many say that even if you aren't married, it is okay to act like husband and wife. Teenagers having sex? Sure, kids will be kids. A divorced person having sex with another divorced person? That's fine. A widow and widower? Go for it, you old naughty hipters, you!

Many Lutheran pastors don't discipline couples who live together before they are married—they will still give them Communion and they would never dream of excommunicating them. Many pastors refuse to talk about these serious issues from their pulpits. The result is logical: many Lutherans are living with their partners before they are married.

If they don't stop living together, they are putting their souls on the path to hell.

Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. (1 Corinthians 6:9-10)

Most Lutherans in the pews would say that drunks are sinners. They'd say the same about slanderers, greedy people, con artists, and thieves.

But the leadership in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America says that homosexuality is okay. They spin God's promises around and say, “Well, this may have been true in Paul's time. But our society has seen the light. We now know that alternative lifestyles—unmarried households and homosexuals—are okay, as long as the partners are committed to each other. Paul doesn't speak truth to our society any longer. We are relevant and progressive and we adapt to our culture.”



On August 21, 2009, the ELCA issued a press release.

The 2009 Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) voted today to open the ministry of the church to gay and lesbian pastors and other professional workers living in committed relationships.

The action came by a vote of 559-451 at the highest legislative body of the 4.6 million member denomination. Earlier the assembly also approved a resolution committing the church to find ways for congregations that choose to do so to "recognize, support and hold publicly accountable life-long, monogamous, same gender relationships," though the resolution did not use the word "marriage."

The actions here change the church's policy, which previously allowed people who are gay and lesbian into the ordained ministry only if they remained celibate...

Pastor Richard Mahan of the ELCA West Virginia-Western Maryland Synod was among several speakers contending that the proposed changes are contrary to biblical teaching. "I cannot see how the church that I have known for 40 years can condone what God has condemned," Mahan said, "Nowhere does it say in scripture that homosexuality and same sex marriage is acceptable of God."

But others said a greater acceptance of people who are gay and lesbian in the church was consistent with the Bible. Bishop Gary Wollersheim [he has offices in Rockford and Rock Island—on Augustana College's campus. He was just re-elected to a third 6-year term of office a few days ago.] of the ELCA Northern Illinois Synod said, "It's a matter of justice, a matter of hospitality, it's what Jesus would have us do." Wollersheim said he had been strongly influenced by meetings with youth at youth leadership events in his synod, a regional unit of the ELCA.

(ELCA NEWS SERVICE, August 21, 2009, “ELCA Assembly Opens Ministry to Partnered Gay and Lesbian Lutherans,” http://www.elca.org/Who-We-Are/Our-Three-Expressions/Churchwide-Organization/Communication-Services/News/Releases.aspx?a=4253, accessed June 19, 2010.)



God says homosexuality is sin. The ELCA leaders, like Bishop Wollersheim, decided that they are their own gods and proclaimed that homosexuality is not sin.

The most telling aspect of this sorry affair isn't that the ELCA leadership decided to change God's Word. The ELCA has been doing that for years, decades even. That isn't news. The most revealing thing is what Bishop Wollersheim said. This so-called Lutheran pastor has the gall to claim that Jesus would be just fine with homosexuality.

“It's what Jesus would have us do,” Bishop Wollershiem says. 559 delegates to last year's ELCA convention gobbled up this lie, hook, line, and sinker. For years and decades their pastors have been telling them that time changes God's promises. What used to be true isn't true today.

This is a seductive lie, because it contains some truth. Our knowledge of God's six-day creation had increased by jumps and hops. Though we tend to overestimate the limitations of our forefathers, it is true that we have collected a great deal of facts about the universe and the atom.

But what God has revealed about Himself hasn't changed. Sin is sin. We must tell our Lutheran friends who are not in our fellowship that the truth doesn't change over time. This is true even when men try to change God's promises.

And this promise of God cannot be changed by men: Jesus washes away our wickedness and loves us. You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Corinthians 6:11)

Consider the life of Mannaseh. He despised the legacy that his father, good King Hezekiah had handed down to him. He worshiped idols. He even sacrificed his sons to a pagan idol.

Yet by God's mercy he repented when he saw that he was abandoned by all human help. He was declared not guilty of his sinfulness and he will be in heaven with his father Hezekiah.

But he almost went to hell because no one stood up to him and told him the truth. Once his father was gone, Mannaseh did as he saw fit. He became his own god.

On this Father's Day remember your faithful father who spoke God's promises to you, even when you were being bad. Most father won't do this, so treasure the ones who do. A good dad calls sin a sin. He teaches you that God's promises don't change over time.

Amen.