What Vantage Point?

Church Planting Series, Part sixteen

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has decided to make it possible “for people in publicly accountable, lifelong, monogamous, same-gender relationships to serve as ELCA associates in ministry, clergy, deaconesses and diaconal ministers” (quote from ELCA website).

This decision is sending waves of emotion and debate throughout the Church. But what does it all mean for the way we serve God and seek to grow His Kingdom? One takeaway is this: it requires us to ask the question, “What vantage point do you use for making decisions?”

The ELCA is using the vantage point of human observation and reasoning. To the decision makers, it makes sense to take this step. Society is changing. People have needs.

But is that a sound vantage point? What if we were to ask a few follow-up questions regarding that vantage point and human sexuality? Here goes:

-Have we managed sexuality well as a culture?
-Have we cherished women or demeaned them?
-Have we honored children or injured them?
-Have we veered into more trouble or less trouble in the area of sexuality?

You don’t have to think very long and hard to see that we’ve really messed up human sexuality. We do a terrible job! Trouble is at a high point. Women are treated as objects. Children are injured and abused. Sexual corruption is viral—-spreading as fast as the Internet allows, and as quickly as our sin-stained souls latch on to the immoral.

So, how can anyone really believe that we can get the question of same-gender relationships right when we use the vantage point of human observation and reasoning? It’s the wrong standard. It is flawed.

The only vantage point that brings workable, healthy, and life-giving results is God’s vantage point. God’s Word is His blessing that forms our lives, practices, and very souls. God’s Word is the objective vantage point that will never lead us astray. It rescues us from relying on our corrupt perspective of life. It gives us the mind of Christ. It will lead us home.

The question to ask about every issue in ministry is: What is God’s vantage point?

And the question to ask about human sexuality is: What is God’s vantage point? He’s made it crystal clear: “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24 and Ephesians 5:31). The gift of human sexuality is meant to reflect the love of God, the groom, for His bride, the Church. It is about self-sacrificial love. It is about creating new life (procreation). It is good. It is healthy.

The Bible isn’t cryptic about this. Sexual sin has been a destructive point of stumbling for humanity for thousands of years. God doesn’t keep us in the dark about what His intentions are, what is good, and what works.

How can a denomination lose its bearings? The same way we all do. We forsake the vantage point of God and His Word. We substitute our own twisted, darkened vantage point of human observation and reasoning.

Let’s learn from this. If you’re really about God’s Kingdom, choose your vantage point carefully and wisely.