i realize i haven't written that much of substance here lately (besides the patriots winning the afc east title), but it's at least partly because i've been engaged in some really good discussions on some other blogs. i want to share part of one with you here and get your response. i have copied a post by one leader within the emergent church movement about the importance of focussing on being homo sapien. following that post is my response to him. what do you think? is his reasoning is valid? do you think i was i off-base in my response?

Sin swallows us all—even those who look (from outward appearances) like spiritual superheroes. I know, I spoke today with one whose life is falling apart, whose apparently full life is shown for what it is, “smoke and mirrors,” empty. And no one else in the world knows the depth of the descent.

Sobered by this news, I hid myself for awhile in sound and prose. Last night I listened to Handel’s “Messiah” and read T.S. Eliot’s “Hollow Men” . . . at the same time. Poetry in song and on paper renewed my imagination for a vocation that can so quickly turn such frightful and astonishing corners. Beside my friend’s drained life Eliot’s verse (that gets right the human condition) and Handel’s phrasing (that bespeaks our brokenness toward the great Isaianic vision), I heard the glad tidings of my friend’s woundedness being swallowed up by that grand and lyrical vocational charge: “Comfort ye, Comfort ye my people.”

All this makes me wonder if this is why I don’t find homosexuality terribly troubling for the church. These lyrical texts remind me that . . .

We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpieces filled with straw. Alas! . . . .

We grope together
And avoid speech
Gathered on this beach of the tumid river

Sightless, unless . . .
(Eliot)

The glory of the Lord shall be revealed . . .
And he shall purify . . .
O thou who tellest good tidings to Zion . . .
For unto us a child is born . . .
(Handel/Isaiah)

The hope only
Of empty men.
(Eliot)

Hallelujah!
(Handel)

Though the issues are not small and unimportant it seems to me, that in the grand sweep of God’s creation and redemption in Jesus Christ, it matters less that we are heterosexuals or homosexuals than it does that we are all Homo sapiens. And by virtual of that, we are all “hollow,” and “grope together,” “sightless unless,” until the “good tidings” come to us and “the glory of the Lord” shines upon us and we are saved. Then all Homo sapiens, no longer “empty,” are filled with God’s glad song: “Hallelujah!”

I could be wrong about this. But I pray I'm not. To be wrong might well empty us of the hope of these “good tidings” and we may be forever be hollow and without sight.

Comments

David said:
I agree with you that Homo Sapiens does describe us all, regardless of what flavor we are. However, if that is your basis for affirming homosexuality (since this blog has been on that subject lately), does it not seem that every other condition, aspect, etc. that makes up homo sapiens must also be affirmed? Those who believe in and practice bestiality and polygamy and incest must also be affirmed according to your standard. Do not these also embody homo sapiens? I understand your concession that there are limits related to sexual behavior and that you believe somewhere along the way that sexual sin is wrong (based on your response to Ted), but I don't at all see where you could possibly draw the line without being arbitrary. It appears that you must, and perhaps do, make that judgement based upon what is socially acceptable. Unless that is the criterion, If you hold to your original logic, it seems you must accept all other lifestyles of all other homo sapiens as legitimate and among those things which prevent us from being hollow. With, therefore, your declaration that "in the grand sweep of God’s creation and redemption in Jesus Christ, it matters less that we are heterosexuals or homosexuals than it does that we are all Homo sapiens," you must include everything else. Perhaps then we see that in that quest within our hearts, we may determine that it matters at least a little more than we originally believed. I agree with Paul that there is much missing and unfinished and we are still becoming, but what a tragedy if we as Believers in the redemptive work of God settle for anything short of holiness before Him. I think that in reaching for that goal of wholeness before God will we truly find real fulfillment and sight.

Labels: David C. Price