What God has Joined Together?
Today was an historic day for the citizens of Washington, D.C. For the first time ever in the District, ceremonies for the lawful union of same sex couples were held. It is a day for both celebration and protest, depending on which side of the issue you fall. Personally I am against the idea on moral grounds. Politically, I would certainly fight adoption in any area that I lived. From a Constitutional perspective, I believe it is definitely a matter for state, not federal, governments to decide based on the will of the people through elected representatives. All of these matters have been, and will continue to be, discussed, debated, and argued for some time. None of these issues, however, is really at the heart of this post.
As I was working at my office desk today, busily doing things engineers do, I was listening to a news station on the radio. They gave a short review of the change to D.C. law and then they played a sound clip which I assume was recorded at one of the ceremonies. It was the type of voice that you hear in the old western movies, or perhaps in movies about Southern churches in the Klan era. It was the sound of an aged, fire-and-brimstone minister. He was speaking very slowly, heartbeats between each word:
“What…God…has…joined…together.”
I stopped typing. Not long, just a few seconds, and it occurred to me that I wanted very much to weep.
I know the days are long past when most of the people in the country considered marriage a sacrament. I’m not sure there even was such a day frankly. A great many people have civil ceremonies. That’s fine. I’m sure that even many people who have church weddings do it as much for the scenery as for the idea of coming to God’s house to ask a blessing on the union. Practically, marriage functions as a three way contract between a couple and society. They promise x, we grant legal benefits y. All subject to renegotiation. And while I am saddened by the lowering of marriage to this kind of legal formality, I am not crushed, because for those who seek the real meaning of marriage the blessing is still available.
But it is not man’s blessing.
There was a time when Christ was speaking of the Pharisees. He said that they had put themselves in “the seat of Moses.” The reference was to the way they were making decrees in the name of God. These were the loads they burdened men with, loads that they would “not lift a finger to help them bear.” They were the leading proclamations of the blind guides. They were the ones who “honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far away from me.”
There are some who say that Christ never spoke about gay marriage, and claim that must mean it is okay. One error based on another.
Mat 19:4 He answered them, “Haven’t you read that the one who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female’
Mat 19:5 and said, ‘That is why a man will leave his father and mother and be united with his wife, and the two will become one flesh’?
Mat 19:6 So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, man must never separate.”
One reason. One form. One blessing, and that of God. No man can give that.
There are many reasons that I find myself wanting to cry for my nation. This is more of a case where I want to cry for the couples. If they wish to join, they will. Though I will fight and law in my area to recognize the union, I would not try to criminalize their being together. That hardly seems to be a fitting course for government. But I cry for those who think they are receiving a blessing where there is none to be had, who stand in front of a minister and receive a lie. A lie can sometimes make us feel better about ourselves for a time, but eventually the truth comes down on us and we find ourselves worse off than if we had never believed.
And I weep for the ministers who pronounce this lie. They sit in the seat of Moses. They guide the flock over a cliff. They cry “peace, peace,” and there is no peace. I weep for them because the God who will not hold blameless those who use His Name in vain will not forget, and their responsibility will be great.
