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Mystery, Marriage, and Two Dads
By The Rev. Dr. George Naff Gray
I had no idea just how controversial my sermon on the gospel lesson was until, immediately following worship, a children's Sunday school teacher showed me the Episcopal Church's (TEC) study guide for Sunday school leaders. She had the following underlined: "And if two dads adopt children who are hard to place, is it our place to judge them?
Today's gospel moves us into mystery, where familiar mental constructs and labels lose their rigidity. Instead, we can celebrate the marvelous world of love in which we are blessed to live." Both my sermon and the children's Sunday school lesson were based on Mark 10:2-9.
I began my sermon with Jesus' answer to the question: "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?" "For your hardness of heart Mosses wrote for you a certificate of divorce. But from the beginning of creation, God created them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined 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 no man put asunder." (Mark 10:5-9) How TEC comes up with teaching children about two dads from this gospel lesson certainly moves us into mystery!
This Episcopal leaders guide clearly illustrates how TEC has lost its moral compass, historical objectivity, and reasonable place in the Anglican Communion.
I preach about marriage between one man and one woman while our national church encourages teachers to promote something that is completely contrary to Holy Scripture, the Christian Church's tradition, as well as, plain and simple reason.
"God Knows What He's Talking About When It Comes to Marriage," was the title of my sermon. Unfortunately, Episcopal children are not being taught that God knows best nor are they being taught what Jesus said, implied, or accepted.
I quoted Proverbs 29:18: "Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint: but happy is he who keeps the law." Next I said, "We are in a midst of a people that have cast off restraint." I was saddened to learn just how true my statement was for TEC.
Last week we heard: "And if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone tied around his neck." (Mark 9:42) I am afraid the Episcopal Church has a milestone tied around its neck and is about to be cast into the sea. Read a few more verses down and we may have the only recourse left to the Anglican Communion for its wayward TEC.
--The Rev. Dr. Brother George N. Gray Jr. Jr., O.C.P. is Rector of Saint Christopher's Church in Spartanburg, SC. His e-mail is: ggray@stchrisonline.org
