Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Dear Nay-Sayers...

There are lots of nay-sayers out there who seem to think that "the church" is no place to talk about sex. Well...I disagree.

This video pretty much explains why.

ImNotBuyingIt.com Video from Granger Community on Vimeo.

2 comments:

Steve said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Steve said...

As I said on Pastor Beeson's blog, the problem that the "nay-sayers" have with the "sex-sells" series is not that GCC is talking about sex but what they are doing with scripture in these sermons about sex. Of course addressing sexual ethics and sexual morality is important but what the series seems to fail to do is to address the full impact of what our sexual indiscretions mean; ie a violation against the Creator. The video that you put on your blog is powerful and effective, and indeed is a powerful testimony to how far we have fallen short of God's perfect and righteous standard for sexuality, and how it has affected our culture and those around us. But to speak of these things in light of scripture, one must eventually place these sins in the light of the Cross. But, like is too often the case, so far this series seems to have fallen short of that. Scripture is not a how-to book or a life empowerment tool, or an instrument of personal motivation. All scripture, as Jesus Himself says, testifies of Him. And He is, what the very one who was called to announce Jesus' arrival, John the Baptist, declared Him to be, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. All of our sin, including of course our sexual indiscretions, must be exposed to us so we see our complete and utter bondage to sin, death, and the devil. And then it must be proclaimed that all of those sins, even the most heinous of them, were placed upon Christ Jesus before He laid down His life on the cross for you. Failure to do that is failure to proclaim the Gospel. But when sexual ethics and morality is proclaimed in light of the Gospel, then people understand that they are freed not only from the penalty for their sins, but from the addiction, and temptation and sinful nature that compel these indiscretions in us. We still struggle with this sinful nature, but we also undertand that through Word and sacrament, Christ Jesus comes to us and daily sanctifies us and makes of us a new creation, thus freeing us to love and serve our neighbor, near and far, in Word and deed.

It is too simplistic to simply say that the "nay-sayers" just don't want to talk about sex, and I suspect that, deep down, Pastor Beeson and Pastor Stevens know this. But by saying that we just don't like that they are talking about sex, then they make it easy for them and their flock to just dismiss the "nay-sayers" without really thinking about their criticisms.