Ways to Engage in May

When our family orders pizza there are at least 4 different opinions about what toppings cut the mustard; mustard not being one of them. Pizza shops don’t always like to divide up the pie to suit the preferences of each of the eaters, but occasionally they will construct a masterpiece in variety and personal choice. Inevitably, green peppers creep into the ‘cheese only’ pieces, and the purity of preference is threatened. Alternatively, 4 pizzas mean everyone’s happy and there are no leftovers.

A helpful exercise in keeping issues related to sexuality in perspective is to imagine the diversity of pieces of a pie graph that make up who each of us is; created uniquely in the image of God. When issues related to sexuality are overemphasized they have a way of muddying many other considerations that are important in our understanding of who we are and how we’re made.

That said, we’d be cowardly to not address issues related to sexuality as a church. Despite a spectrum of strong feelings that stretch into topics related to gender, orientation, behavior, and beliefs, we approach the topic as one piece of our identity pie that is neither removed from God’s grace nor God’s design. The apostle Paul helps us with a bottom line that can be convicting for each of us in every piece of our respective pies. “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” (Galatians 5)

We press in together this month to graciously open this topic in a way that builds up, listens, and seeks to re:assemble a Jesus’ shaped understanding around sexuality. – Greg