Bulletin 5.18.25
"The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship." Psalm 19:1
A Reflection Before the Service
A Reflection Before the Service
People say there are no atheists in foxholes. A lot of people think this is a good argument against atheism. Personally, I think it's a much better argument against foxholes.
― Kurt Vonnegut
Atheism is an abnormality. It is not merely the denial of a dogma. It is the reversal of a subconscious assumption in the soul; the sense that there is a meaning and a direction in the world it sees.
― G.K. Chesterton, The Everlasting Man (1925; p.164)
When I showed up at Cambridge for my undergrad degree, I had a secret. I’d been a follower of Jesus for as long as I could remember. But as soon as I was old enough to have romantic feelings, they’d homed in on other girls. I’d hoped it was just a phase. After all, I was in single-sex education. Maybe I just hadn’t met enough guys. I told myself that when I went to university, I’d start to fall for men. But my feet had barely touched the ground at Cambridge when I started having feelings for a female friend…
Given my own lifelong history of same-sex attraction, you might think my conclusion—that the Bible leaves no room for followers of Jesus to pursue same-sex sexual relationships—makes this short book a tragedy. You might even think this book is an attempt to foster hatefulness toward those who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or queer. But it is not. Instead of urging anybody toward hatred (of themselves or others), I hope instead to point us all to Jesus’ love. And with Jesus’ death-defying, life-creating, neverending love at the center of the picture, I want to sketch a vision from the Bible of deep, joyful, Christ-exalting love between believers of the same sex: not a love that mimics marriage but a no less precious, different kind of love.
― Rebecca McLaughlin, Does the Bible Affirm Same-Sex Relationships? Examining 10 Claims about Scripture and Sexuality (2024)
…we must present “the whole Christ” when we both pastor individuals and speak to the world about sexuality and gender today. Jesus is full of grace and truth. In pastoral care we must not apply the truth so harshly as to be callously alienating or so indirectly that the truth is never clearly grasped.
The “grace and truth” path to which we point the church in this Report is not an easy one.
― Forty-Seventh General Assembly Of The Presbyterian Church In America Ad Interim Committee On Human Sexuality (May 2020)
The Call To Worship
The Call To Worship
The Nineteenth Psalm (1-6; NLT)
The heavens proclaim the glory of God.
The skies display his craftsmanship.
Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known.
They speak without a sound or word; their voice is never heard.
Yet their message has gone throughout the earth, and their words to all the world.
God has made a home in the heavens for the sun.
It bursts forth like a radiant bridegroom after his wedding.
It rejoices like a great athlete eager to run the race.
The sun rises at one end of the heavens and follows its course to the other end.
Nothing can hide from its heat.
(Prayer)
A Reflection Before the Service
People say there are no atheists in foxholes. A lot of people think this is a good argument against atheism. Personally, I think it's a much better argument against foxholes.
― Kurt Vonnegut
Atheism is an abnormality. It is not merely the denial of a dogma. It is the reversal of a subconscious assumption in the soul; the sense that there is a meaning and a direction in the world it sees.
― G.K. Chesterton, The Everlasting Man (1925; p.164)
When I showed up at Cambridge for my undergrad degree, I had a secret. I’d been a follower of Jesus for as long as I could remember. But as soon as I was old enough to have romantic feelings, they’d homed in on other girls. I’d hoped it was just a phase. After all, I was in single-sex education. Maybe I just hadn’t met enough guys. I told myself that when I went to university, I’d start to fall for men. But my feet had barely touched the ground at Cambridge when I started having feelings for a female friend…
Given my own lifelong history of same-sex attraction, you might think my conclusion—that the Bible leaves no room for followers of Jesus to pursue same-sex sexual relationships—makes this short book a tragedy. You might even think this book is an attempt to foster hatefulness toward those who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or queer. But it is not. Instead of urging anybody toward hatred (of themselves or others), I hope instead to point us all to Jesus’ love. And with Jesus’ death-defying, life-creating, neverending love at the center of the picture, I want to sketch a vision from the Bible of deep, joyful, Christ-exalting love between believers of the same sex: not a love that mimics marriage but a no less precious, different kind of love.
― Rebecca McLaughlin, Does the Bible Affirm Same-Sex Relationships? Examining 10 Claims about Scripture and Sexuality (2024)
…we must present “the whole Christ” when we both pastor individuals and speak to the world about sexuality and gender today. Jesus is full of grace and truth. In pastoral care we must not apply the truth so harshly as to be callously alienating or so indirectly that the truth is never clearly grasped.
The “grace and truth” path to which we point the church in this Report is not an easy one.
― Forty-Seventh General Assembly Of The Presbyterian Church In America Ad Interim Committee On Human Sexuality (May 2020)
The Call To Worship
The Nineteenth Psalm (1-6; NLT)
The heavens proclaim the glory of God.
The skies display his craftsmanship.
Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known.
They speak without a sound or word; their voice is never heard.
Yet their message has gone throughout the earth, and their words to all the world.
God has made a home in the heavens for the sun.
It bursts forth like a radiant bridegroom after his wedding.
It rejoices like a great athlete eager to run the race.
The sun rises at one end of the heavens and follows its course to the other end.
Nothing can hide from its heat.
(Prayer)
18/05/25