‘”Transgenderism” has been in the news constantly. Though many of us had just barely heard about the “T” of LGBT prior to the Supreme Court’s decision in favor of same sex marriage, the developments since then have proven beyond all doubt that same sex marriage was simply one more goal checked off in the ongoing agenda that seeks to transform completely our culture’s views about sexuality. Almost immediately, the push for transgender “rights” began as activists focused on one of the last places in society where the absolute distinction between male and female was maintained: the bathroom.
Our culture now says that gender is not the same as sex. Biologically we may identify an individual as male or female, but what really matters is their gender and this is not determined by biology. Instead, a person is whatever gender he decides he is (for the purpose of simplicity I will use the male example in this post, but obviously all of the same things are true for females). So if a biological male decides that he is in fact a woman, then that is his gender and no one can question this. All people who interact with that individual must acknowledge and operate on the basis of this self-identification.
This cultural influence directly impacts the Church. There are members in our congregations who adopt the culture’s thought about transgenderism. There are individuals outside our congregations and fellowship who identity in these ways and come to us in the hopes of being received as members. What are Lutherans (and Christians in general) who believe and confess the truth and authority of God’s revelation in Scripture to think about this? How are we to respond to these individuals?
Naturally, the place to begin is with God’s Word. We read in Genesis 1:
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Genesis 1:26-28 ESV)
We learn here that God created man to be male and female. He then commanded them to reproduce and have children.
Next in Genesis we read:
Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” Now out of the ground the LORD God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.
Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman,
because she was taken out of Man.”
Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. (Genesis 2:18-24 ESV)
We learn in this text that God created woman from the man in order to be the helper corresponding to him. He created them to be different from one another, yet complementary. This fact is bodily demonstrated in sexual intercourse as they become one flesh – a union with profound implications for how God now views the couple. This one flesh union also produces the children that God commanded in Genesis 1.
Finally, Jesus expresses this very same view:
He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”
(Matthew 19:4-6 ESV)
These texts describe how God has ordered his creation. One does not need to know these texts in order to recognize this ordering. Thus all through history people have recognized that there are men and there are women, and that they are different. They are distinguished by obvious differences in anatomy. They have different genitalia. Only a woman can carry a developing baby and give birth to the child. It is necessary for a man and a woman to have sexual intercourse in order to conceive a child. Two men cannot achieve this, nor can two women. When a baby is born, it is either a boy or a girl and this basic fact can never change. Scientific advances have revealed that the difference between male and female extends all the way down to our chromosomes. A person is either XY or XX and this determines whether the individual is male or female.
The claims about transgenderism exist because there are individuals who have feelings and thoughts that lead them to question whether they really are the sex that their anatomy and chromosomes so clearly declare them to be. A man may feel that he is “really” a woman, even though his body is that of a male. When the mind tells the individual something that contradicts the reality of his body to such an extent that the individual decides his body is “wrong,” the mind is profoundly disordered. This is a clear case of mental illness.
When a man tells you that he is really a woman, something is obviously very wrong with the person. In the past this was always the common assessment of society. Formerly, this condition was known as gender identity disorder. Today it is called gender dysphoria. The change in terms removed the word “disorder” and this has been prompted by the new ideology that has arisen in our culture. Rather than saying the person is mentally ill, the world now says that the person is expressing what he really is. A biological man who claims that he is a woman defines reality for himself and all those around him. They must accept and embrace his self-identification.
When considering transgenderism, we need to start with the biblical view about the human body. A basic presupposition of the biblical worldview is the fundamental goodness of God’s material creation. As God makes the material creation in Genesis 1, six times we hear the refrain that it was “good” (1:4, 10, 12,18, 21, 25). This reaches its crescendo on the sixth day when we hear in 1:31, “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good”. God thinks his material creation is “good stuff.”
A second presupposition of the biblical worldview that we meet in Genesis 1-2 is related to this. God’s creation of Adam in Genesis 2:7 prepares us to understand that in the biblical worldview, a human being is comprised of a body and a soul joined together in a unity. We hear in this verse, "then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature” (Genesis 2:7 ESV). We learn that human beings are a dichotomy of body and soul, for as Jesus said, “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28 ESV).
The important thing to note is not simply that we are a dichotomy of a body and soul. It is instead the fact that a living human being as created and intended by God is the unity of a body and a soul. Human existence apart from a material body does not match God’s original creation and divine intention. That is why the ultimate goal of the Christian faith is the return of Jesus Christ on the Last Day when he will raise and transform our bodies to be like his resurrected body (Phil 3:20-21; Rom 8:22-23; 1 Cor 15:51-52).
Human life cannot be lived apart from the body that God has given to each one of us. It is his gift. In the Small Catechism’s explanation of the First Article of the Apostles’ Creed, Martin Luther wrote: “I believe that God has made me and all creatures; that he has given me my body and soul eyes, ears, and all my members….” God has made each one of us as male or female. If he made us male, then our body has chromosomes that are XY and male genitalia. If he made us female, then our body has chromosomes that are XX, female genitalia, breasts, ovaries, fallopian tubes, a uterus and a vagina.
The creature does not get to tell the Creator that he was given the wrong body. To do so is to reject the gift God has given and to try to be one’s own god. The creature does not get to mutilate the body God has given in the attempt to refashion it according to his own thoughts and will. For this reason, transgenderism is a sinful rejection of God and his will for the individual.
This is not to deny that people experience mental illness in which their thoughts and feelings may tell them that they have the wrong body. Sadly, in a small percentage of people the condition of gender dysphoria is all too real. I can say this on the basis of my own pastoral experience. Such an individual knows that he was born as a male and has a male body. However, persistent feelings and thoughts tell him that he is really a woman and that his male body “doesn’t match” what he really is.
As Christians, what are we to make of this condition and how do we minister to these individuals? The first thing to recognize is that gender dysphoria finds it source in the same cause as depression, addiction, homosexuality, Down syndrome, cancer, diabetes, and the flu. They all have been caused by the sin that entered the world in the Fall. Sin brought sickness and death to God’s creation. We are now warped and twisted by sin all the way down to our genes and this fact manifests itself in different ways in our lives (this includes those who experience the different and rare condition where they have a mix of male and female identifying features or a chromosomal abnormality).
We minister to people experiencing gender dysphoria with love and compassion. They are suffering and they need to hear about the God’s love in Christ for them which promises forgiveness and support in the present, and final victory in the resurrection on the Last Day. At the same time, we also speak the truth of God’s Word to them. God has created the man as male, and that body is God’s gift. He cannot ignore or reject this basic fact. It is a reality of his existence before God, and nothing that he may think or feel can change this.
God’s Word about his creation of the individual as a male and the ordering of his creation is more real than the individual’s thoughts about his own body to the contrary. We tell the person that when those thoughts and feelings arise, the Christian needs to reject them as false. They come from the father of lies who told the first lie to Eve, “you will be like God” (Gen 3:5). Their source is sin and what the Fall has done to the individual – something for which Christ by his death and resurrection has already provided the answer, even as the individual awaits the final arrival of God’s kingdom on the Last Day. As we live in the “not yet” and look for Jesus’ return it is necessary to struggle against these feeling and thoughts, and to reject them as false just as we struggle against other ways that sin manifests itself in our experience (see Gal 5:24; Rom 8:12-13).
The issue with a person experiencing gender dysphoria is not whether he has these thoughts and feelings. All people experience thoughts and feelings that find their source in sin and our fallenness. What matters is how a person chooses to view those thoughts/feelings and to deal with them.
A man suffering from gender dysphoria experiences thoughts and feeling that he is really a woman and that he has the wrong body. A Christian will struggle against these thoughts/feelings and reject them as false because they contradict God’s Word and the body which God has given to him. He will recognize that he experiences such thoughts because he is a fallen sinner and will confess his sinful condition. He will pray for God’s help against these thoughts/feelings, and receive the Means of Grace for forgiveness and strength for the struggle. He will seek encouragement and support from fellow believers who are part of the Body of Christ – the Church.
What he will not do is to embrace and accept these thoughts/feelings because he considers them to be true. He will not listen to the world which tells him that these thoughts/feelings are true, and that in fact they determine what he really is. He will not decide that he really does have the “wrong body.” He will not seek to act on these thoughts/feelings by declaring publicly that this is his reality – that he is a woman – as he changes his name to that of a woman and dresses as a woman. And finally, he won’t take medical actions to transform his body into the partial imitation of a woman (for he never can actually be a woman).
Jesus said, “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:32 ESV). Christians are sinners who repent and receive forgiveness in Jesus Christ. Those who do not repent and confess sin, cannot be received into Christ’s Church or remain in her. This description includes the individual who accepts the thoughts/feelings of gender dysphoria as being true and chooses to act upon them while persistently ignoring God’s truth that is spoken to him. Instead, all who listen to God’s Word and allow it to determine what is true find forgiveness and fellowship in the Church as they live in repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.
Trinity 17
Eph 4:1-6
9/18/16
The American Civil War is an enduring source of interest to the public. No doubt there are many reasons for this. The role of slavery in the war continues to resonate today as people consider the subject of race relations. The war and its aftermath played a formative role for the culture in many parts of the American south.
One of the most compelling and fascinating aspects of the Civil War is how it pitted combatants against each other who had been trained together as officers. Not surprisingly many military leaders on both sides had been trained at the United States Military Academy at West Point and had been classmates. For the North this included people like Ulysses S. Grant, George Meade, George McClellan, Ambrose Burnside, Joseph Hooker and Winfield Hancock. For the South this included men like Robert E. Lee, James Longstreet, George Picket, P.G.T. Beauregard and Jefferson Davis. Having trained together, they now tried to defeat each other.
But the ties between combatants went even deeper than this. Many of the leaders who faced each other as opponents in the Civil War had fought side by side in the Mexican American War some fifteen years earlier. Grant, McClellan and Meade from the North were there and so were Lee, Longstreet, Picket, Beauregard, Davis and Stonewall Jackson. Deep bonds are formed between men who have fought together and experienced combat. Yet now those same men found themselves fighting against each other.
Keeping the United States united was costly and took great effort. In the epistle lesson this morning the apostle Paul addresses the fact that maintaining the unity of the Church is something that must be a priority and also requires real effort. However this goal is essential because Christians share in a common calling and salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul begins our text this morning by writing, “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.” Paul exhorts the Ephesian Christians to live and conduct themselves in a manner that is worthy of the calling that they have received. Now obviously, Paul thinks that Christians have received something very special. They have received a calling. And Paul says that this calling draws us to live in a way that is worthy of it – a way that is consistent with the tremendous gift we have received.
In our text this morning we see the Gospel, and what the Gospel means for how we live. Paul certainly talks in our text about what the Christian life looks like – about what we do. But his starting point is what God has done for us. He begins with God’s grace. In fact Paul began this letter by talking about God’s grace in a way that leaves absolutely no room for our works and merit.
The apostle started the letter in chapter one by writing, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.” Paul says that God chose us in Christ before the world was even made. He is talking about predestination, as he goes on to say, “In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.”
Before you even existed God chose you in Christ! There is no purer way to express the grace of the Gospel. And while sometimes it feels like thinking about predestination can twist our minds into knots, we always need to focus on two basic truths. First, whenever the Bible talks about predestination it always does so in order to provide comfort to Christians. And second, it always does so in order stress God’s grace in saving you. You didn’t do anything. You couldn’t do anything to be saved. Instead, God has done it purely as a gift.
In carrying out his will for you to be saved, God has called you to faith through the work of the Holy Spirit. Again, you could not do it by your own reason or strength. It was a gift. Through his Word and baptism he called you to faith in Jesus Christ who died on the cross and rose from the dead. And so Paul goes on to says about Christ, “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace.”
It is an astounding gift! And just to be sure we don’t miss this point, Paul goes on to say in chapter two, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” It is a gift. But that doesn’t mean it was free. Instead it is the costliest gift in history. It cost the holy precious blood and innocent suffering and death of God’s Son on the cross.
This is the calling you have received in Christ. And this calling matters – it makes a difference in how we live. That is why Paul says, “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.”
The apostle then goes on to explain what this looks like. He says that we are to walk “with all humility and gentleness.” This isn’t how the first century world thought about things. Writers of that period considered humility to be a negative characteristic. Things haven’t really changed that much, because fallen humanity hasn’t changed. Humility means that you don’t put yourself first; you don’t seek to focus attention on yourself. And gentleness is also not prized. It may be great for helping others, but it’s not the kind of thing that gets you ahead – that gets you what you want for you.
Paul is sharing the same thing that our Lord Jesus teaches in the Gospel lesson this morning when he says, “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” The One who saved you humbled himself as he willingly submitted to the suffering and death of the cross. Yet the cross was not the end. On the third day God raised Jesus from the dead. And even that was not all, for God the Father exalted the ascended Lord to his right hand. Because we have seen God do this in Christ, we now are called to humility – to the service others. Yet we do so knowing that this is also the way of Christ that leads to resurrection and eternal life.
In our text Paul goes on to say that walking in a manner worthy of the calling we have received means that we live “with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” The thing about the church is that it is made up of a bunch of sinners. Certainly, the work of the Holy Spirit makes a difference in how we live. But we are also still sinners … and sometimes sinners are a real pain. It can be difficult to get along with them.
Paul says that to walk in a manner worthy of the calling we have received in Christ means that we need to be patient and steadfast in dealing with one another. We need to put up with and endure one another. We need to seek actively seek to maintain the unity that the Holy Spirit has created in the bond of peace. These are all words that describe effort and persistence. They describe the need to overlook the shortcomings of others and the irritation they provide. This means that we put the unity of the Church ahead of our own ruffled feelings.
We do this because of the calling we have received. We do this because of the unity the Holy Spirit has created in Christ. Paul describes the source of this unity as he says in our text, “There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”
In 1 Corinthians Paul says, “For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body.” Through the work of the Spirit we have been joined together as the Church – the Body of Christ. We have been called together in Christ and so we have one hope of our calling – the hope of resurrection on the Last Day. We share in one Lord – one common faith – as we have been joined together by the Sacrament of Holy Baptism.
Because God has done this for you in Christ through the work of the Spirit, your goal is to live in ways that recognize this unity and seek to preserve it visibly in your life. This means choosing to overlook those things that you could use as a reason to be upset. It means acting in humility and service in order to attend to the needs of others. Ultimately, it means that because of the calling we have received in Christ and the unity he has created in his Body the Church, we seek to carry out Paul’s instruction when he writes at the end of this chapter: “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”
Trinity 16
1 Kg 17:17-24
9/11/16
People are always interested in lists – in rankings. We are often curious to see what has been listed as the “ten best” or the “ten worst.” These kinds of rankings are often applied to colleges. You see it done for places to live in Illinois. And of course, this is done all the time for various sports.
Now part of the fun in these kinds of lists is that in many cases there is no one correct answer or ranking. It depends on what criteria you use and how you weight them, and people can arrive at different conclusions. We enjoy debating about lists for this very reason – because there can be and are differences of opinion.
If you decided to draw up a list of the top five prophets in the Old Testament, there is absolutely no doubt about who would be number one. There is only one clear answer – and that answer may surprise you. Number one on the list … the greatest prophet in the Old Testament … is Moses. Now “prophet” is probably not the first word that comes to mind when we think about Moses. Instead, we probably think of Moses as the law giver. We tend to associate Moses with his role at Mt Sinai as God gave the Torah – the Law - to Israel that described how they were to live as his people in the covenant.
Nevertheless, the Bible leaves absolutely no doubt that Moses should be considered a prophet and that he was number one. We read at the end of the book of Deuteronomy, “And there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face, none like him for all the signs and the wonders that the LORD sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, and for all the mighty power and all the great deeds of terror that Moses did in the sight of all Israel.”
Now if Moses is number one, I would argue that Elijah is number two. God worked mighty miracles through Elijah, especially the fire from heaven that burned up the offering and altar itself in the confrontation with the prophets of Baal at Mt. Carmel. Like Moses, Elijah went to Mt Sinai and had a memorable encounter with Yahweh. Elijah did not die, but instead was taken up by a whirlwind into heaven. And the Bible itself points to Elijah as a prophet of unique status since in Malachi, the last of the prophets, Yahweh says, “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes.” And in fact the New Testament tells us that John the Baptist’s ministry must be understood in relation to Elijah.
By any definition Elijah must be considered one of the all time great prophets in the Old Testament. And yet in the Old Testament lesson today this status is turned against him. He is accused of being the bearer of death and the remembrance of sin.
In our text this morning we hear about events that are at the beginning of Elijah’s career. Elijah lived in the ninth century B.C. After the death of King Solomon Israel had divided into two nations. The northern tribes broke away from Judah and formed a more powerful nation. This nation was led by her kings into great idolatry as they worshipped false gods. King Ahab married Jezebel, the daughter of the king of Sidon. She worshipped Baal and zealously sought to promote the worship of Baal in Israel.
While the religious situation was terrible, the economic outlook was outstanding. The traditional near eastern powers were divided and distracted, leaving a power vacuum around Palestine. Sidon was a great seaport on the Mediterranean, and the marriage between Ahab and Jezebel was part of an alliance to foster trade. Judah, Israel and Sidon were doing business together, and business was good.
However, Yahweh confronted King Ahab and Israel’s idolatry through the ministry of Elijah. Elijah said to Ahab, “As the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.” And indeed, there was no rain and a drought ensued.
At first God sent Elijah to the east of the Jordan where he lived along a brook as God sent ravens to bring him bread and meat. But eventually the drought caused the brook to dry up. And then Yahweh did something surprising. As we heard in last week’s Old Testament reading, he sent Elijah to the village of Zarephath which belonged to the king of Sidon. He sent Elijah to live in Jezebel’s backyard!
Yahweh sent Elijah to a widow in Zarephath who had a young son. They were at the point of starvation. Yet Elijah told her to make him a little cake of bread for him. And he told her, “For thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, ‘The jar of flour shall not be spent, and the jug of oil shall not be empty, until the day that the LORD sends rain upon the earth.’” True to God’s Word, the jar of flour and the jug of oil continued to provide for the three of them day after day.
This holy man from Israel had come to the widow in Zarapheth. He had brought the blessing of food. But we hear in our text today that then, tragedy struck. We learn that the widow’s son became severely ill and died. The woman’s husband had already died, and now her son had died. Presumably, she was now all alone.
In our text, the widow speaks to Elijah. But what she says may surprise us. She says to Elijah, “What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to cause the death of my son!” The widow knows that Elijah is the prophet of Yahweh. He had worked a miracle in her midst. And now she believes that Elijah has brought the judgment of Yahweh against her sin.
In the widow’s words we find a perspective that we often lack. She knows that Elijah is the representative of a holy and frightening power – a holy power that makes her keenly aware of her sins. We are prone to lose sight of this fact – that God is the holy God who is completely other. He is the One who determines what sin is - for sin is any thought, word or deed that violates his will for life. And this God is no doting grandpa handing out candy. Instead, Scripture tells us that he is a consuming fire. He brings death; he brings destruction to all who sin, because sin is always committed against him.
Yet in our text we learn that there is more to it than this bare and frightening fact. For God is also the gracious and compassionate One. In our text we learn that Elijah took the boy’s body up to the room where he was staying. He laid the boy on his bed and cried to the LORD, “O LORD my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by killing her son?” Then he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried to the LORD, “O LORD my God, let this child's life come into him again.”
The prophet called out for help and Yahweh listened. Life returned to the boy and he revived. Elijah brought the boy back to his mother and when she saw her child alive again she said, “Now I know that you are a man of God, and the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.”
In our text today we see Elijah work a miracle by raising the widow’s son. Yet this miracle is about more than Elijah. We see in our Gospel lesson this morning that the miracles of Elijah point forward to Jesus Christ. They are previews of the powerful ministry that the incarnate Son of God will undertake. This is obvious as Jesus raises from the dead the only son of yet another widow.
But when Jesus raises the dead in the Gospels it is just the start. It is a mighty action of God’s reign that focuses our attention on the ultimate goal of Jesus’ ministry – on Good Friday and Easter. The Son of God entered into the world because God is the holy One who brings judgment and death to all who sin against him. Yet he is also the one who again and again describes himself in the Old Testament as the God is who “gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness.”
God acted graciously when he sent Jesus to be numbered with the transgressors. In Christ God called to remembrance every one of your sins on cross and he caused the death of his Son in order to give you forgiveness. And then on the third day God raised Jesus from the dead. This means that the death which sin brings no longer has the final word. Instead Jesus gets the last word on the Last Day when he will return in glory and give you a share in his resurrection.
Like the woman in our text, we need to understand that our every sin is an affront to the holy God. As we fear, love and trust in God this recognition guides us as we seek to lead God pleasing lives. And at those times when we fail, it also drives us to repent and confess our sin. Yet we do so in the confidence that because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, God remembers our sins no more and that resurrection and eternal life will overcome death.
