Tough Questions

On Saturday, June 30, the 220th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) will convene in Pittsburgh.  As a democratic religious institution, we meet biennially to deliberate and decide on issues facing our denomination.  The General Assembly speaks to the church (not for the church) and advises local judicatories (what we call presbyteries) and congregations throughout the United States how to move in the direction we feel that God is trying to send us. Discerning the seemingly elusive will of God in a democratic environment isn’t easy; it’s just as problematic as discerning the will of the people in a democratic system.

Many feel that our General Assembly will be the most significant since the American Civil War, when we experienced a schism over the question of slavery, thus forming two separate Presbyterian denominations, which eventually merged in 1983.  Now we’re on the verge of splitting again.   This upcoming week of “historic proportions,” as one observer has said, will include: living into new ordination standards approved at the last Assembly, which allow for the ordination of gay and lesbian Christians; considering controversial reports on the nature of the Church in the 21st century; deciding whether or not to withdraw church investment in three companies – Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard, and Motorola Solutions – whose products and services are used by the Israeli government in the development of the West Bank and used against Palestinians; and, finally – perhaps the most controversial – making some kind of statement regarding same-gender marriage. 

Should the definition of marriage be changed? How the PC (USA) answers this question will have a direct bearing upon Presbyterian ministers and congregations in Maryland and the District of Columbia.  Right now, Presbyterian pastors are not allowed to officiate at same-gender marriages (whether they take place in a church or not).  Officiating at a civil union is okay, but the ceremony or service cannot be deemed a marriage.  To do so leaves a minister open for disciplinary charges by the denomination.

Given the referendum on same-gender marriage coming before the people of Maryland in November, what the Presbyterian Church decides will have an enormous impact on ministers and congregations, but most especially on same-gender couples who want their relationships blessed in the eyes of God by their pastors and recognized in the eyes of the wider community, with all the rights and privileges granted to other married couples under the law. 

The Presbyterian Church (USA) will be trying to discern: What’s the will of God in all of this?  Can we change the definition of marriage?  The simple answer is, yes.  We’ve done it before; the Church has done it before.  Although we might use the same word, our understanding of marriage has little if anything to do with the understanding and actual practice of marriage found in the Bible.  So what will the people decide?

The will of God and the will of the people.  Sometimes they’re the same; often they’re not.  Sometimes the majority is right; sometimes the majority is just, plain wrong, if not evil.  Sometimes we act on the side of God; sometimes we don’t.  Sometimes we’re helping to bend the arc of the moral universe toward justice (Martin Luther King, Jr.); sometimes we oppose it, hell-bent on bending it the other way.

So what is God’s will? What’s the will of the people?  The former says nothing to the latter (and shouldn’t) if the people in question do not believe in God.  For people of faith, it’s the twenty billion dollar question.  My sense is that, for most, this question is more of a burden than an occasion for joy.  Maybe we’re afraid of getting it wrong, of getting judged for not getting it right.  Perhaps we carry around within us a judging image of God who is waiting to pounce if we answer incorrectly.  Maybe we’re afraid of knowing the answer because then we’ll have to do something about it (or not). 

The will of God is really very simple.  We’ve complicated it, however, because a fearful ego loves to complicate things.

What does God want from us?  With all humility, I think God’s will looks something like this:  That we glorify and enjoy God with our lives.  Live the good news of God’s grace.  Embrace faith, offer hope, extend love.  Liberate the oppressed.  Forgive.  Share.  Open your heart.  Grow.  Create.  Be merciful.  Be compassionate.  Be generous.  Do justice.  Be a peacemaker.  Be a healer.  Love your neighbor.  Love yourself.  Love God.  Enlarge your heart.  Embrace the stranger in yourself and in your neighbor.  Serve.  Suffer with those who suffer.  Rejoice with those who rejoice.  Set fear aside.  Come alive.

All this, I believe, is the will of God.  This is what humans were created for.  And if we’re honest and courageous enough to plumb the depths of our soul and listen to its desires, we will discover that most of this is what every human being hungers for, whether they trust in God or not.  The difficult part is figuring out what all of this looks like locally, where we live and work and play and even vote.