11-22-2015 Bioethics 33

The speaker begins with a prayer, asking for guidance in studying about the world and the kind of people we should be. They discuss the concept of suffering in both marriage and celibacy, highlighting that all relationships involve suffering. They debunk the notion that celibacy is solely about not having sex, emphasizing that the goal of celibacy is to develop a relationship with God and serve in unique ways. They explore how celibates demonstrate mercy and loyalty, and then move on to discuss how celibates glorify God through community. They emphasize that in the church, there are no alone people, and that celibates have a vast spiritual family. The speaker encourages those with physical families to include those without families into their own, and suggests reaching out to college students by providing them with home-cooked meals. They assert that the church should not only be family-friendly, but also a place that welcomes celibates. Alright, well, let's, um, pray, get started. We pray that you would give a light to our eyes and knowledge to our minds and hearts as we think and study about the world we live in and the kinds of people that we ought to be. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Last week we began, and this week we will end, uh, looking at the topic of celibacy and marriage when it comes to the topic of homosexuality. We saw that the call to both marriage and celibacy are equally what? They're a call to do something. What is it? Do you remember? That's right, it's a call to suffer. Whether we are married or whether we are celibate, we both, we all know, like everybody in this room in whatever condition they are currently living, is living in a position of suffering. Why? Why would that be the case? Great. Yeah, right, so no matter what kind of relationship we're in, we're in a relationship of suffering. Yeah. This is the fun thing, right? You got to, like, say it with, like, not me, but everybody all, like, I have some friends, right? Yeah. I just feel bad for all those other suckers. Yeah. But every relationship is hard because every relationship is dealing with human beings. So there's conflict and all that kind of stuff, and celibate people have just as many relationships as non-celibates. Are there any other reasons why it would be a call to suffering? I guess it's a call to suffering in one sense because it's not the, it's not your way. I mean, you know, that's, okay, speaking about marriage, I mean, it's not your way. It doesn't seem to be, you know, there's another whole person that had something or not something or whatever that you just, you just don't know how to adjust to. All right, so yes, you have to adjust. Right. Yeah. Yeah, the call to love your neighbor is a call to suffer, no matter what that neighbor or who that neighbor is or what kind of relationship they have to you. So then stemming off from that, we took a closer look at celibacy. We're going to end that today and then also talk about marriage today, but when we talk about celibacy, we talked about a few different ways in which, in which celibacy is important. But first of all, what is not the goal of celibacy or the sole goal of celibacy? Not to have sex. Right. That is not the goal of celibacy. So we need to stop telling teenagers that that is the point of celibacy and also older people. What is the goal of celibacy? Both. Yeah. So either temporary celibacy, right, or full-time rest of your life. Yes. So that would be one goal. That would be like a short-term goal, but if that's the only goal, right, and you never get married, then you're just waiting around for something that's perpetually never going to happen. Especially if you are, for example, same-sex attracted and celibacy is your only option, then waiting around until you get married ain't going to happen. Yes. Good, yeah, so develop your relationship with God and then be able to serve in ways that are unique. Yeah, so I mean, at the end of the day, the goal of the person who is celibate is the goal of every human being, which is to glorify God, right, and enjoy Him forever, in particular ways for somebody who is celibate than maybe who is not. So we looked at two different ways that celibates, for the kingdom of God, glorify God. Again, celibates not for the sake of celibacy in and of itself, but for the kingdom of God, which is the only real legitimate reason to be celibate. We looked at both mercy and loyalty. So in the area of mercy, these are particularly, they highlight the character of mercy in God, as celibates do. How would that happen? And this all stems from, we're looking at how, in the Old Testament, it's such a curse to be barren, which, technically, celibates are too, by choice, maybe by birth, but how would they be showing forth the mercy of God in a particular way? We all do. Right, okay, good, so they're in God's family. Yeah, so they're swept up in this thing that's bigger than themselves, they're bigger than anything they could genetically produce. So they are fully members of God's family, and that the church grows, as we saw last week, by conversion, not by conception. Also we saw that they have, they highlight loyalty, that virtue, amongst, or in the midst of the world. What ways would celibates be particularly highlighting the concept of loyalty? Yep, so their loyalty is straight up to God, again we're talking about people who are celibates for the Kingdom of God, they do not have divided loyalties. They don't have to wrestle as much with loyalties, at least to other human beings, that they are in a covenant relationship with in marriage. They can instead focus on the church, and then in the broader world. They will still be struggling, like all of us, with divided loyalties amongst the world and God, but their calling will especially highlight the loyalty to God. This week I want to look at three other ways that celibates glorify God and then go on to address what marriage is. The first one is that they would highlight, celibates for the Kingdom of God would highlight community. So in Ephesians chapter 2, these very well-known verses, I'll just read verses 18 and 19, say, For through him we both have access in one spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. The both that he's talking about are Jews and Gentiles. All people in Jesus, as Paul lays out here in Ephesians 2, as Bray will be preaching on in a few months, all people are made into one new people. In the church we use the terms brother and sister with good reason. It's because that is, in fact, what we are in Christ. This means that in reality there are no alone people in church. Now it is true, right, that some people are more private than others. Some people enjoy what they would call their space or just private time. They require less from other human beings than other people. You probably struggle with other people in the church or in the world who have a different conception of personal interaction than you do. So, for example, in the church sometimes you might be tempted to think why don't they ever hang out with anybody and I can almost guarantee you that that person is looking at you going like, I don't know if it's wise to always be with other people in the church. We have different conceptions of that. But the reality is that the base core of everything, there is no alone people in church. We are all part of the same family. A bond that is tighter than any biological bond that exists on earth or familial bond, which is a heresy according to American Protestant evangelical religion, I know, but in the red letters of Mark, as we saw, Jesus does say, and there's no way of really getting around this in verses 33-35, and he answered them, who are my mother and my brothers? Just to refresh your memory, his mother and his brother are standing currently outside wanting to take him away and looking about at those who sat around him, he said, here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother. His mom and his brothers are standing outside, and he goes, not them, these people. Our bonds around Jesus are more important than anything else. Celibates do not have a physical family, I mean, they come from somewhere, but they don't have any family that comes after them, they will not have children or a spouse, yet their spiritual family is incredibly vast. And unlike some of those of us who have physical families, those who do not have a greater ability to be with their spiritual family. Now, let me be clear, this is something that we can kind of go off the rails on, potentially, which is, if we have single people in the church, those are the people who get ministry done around here. Right? So we'll be thanking God for all the single people, because they can do all the problem stuff in the world, and we will just sit back and focus on our families. That would be wrong, right? Let's just get that out there. It's not like, oh, you're single? You should help at a food kitchen, because you have all the free time in the world. It's like, well, maybe they should, and maybe you should too, with your kids, and all that jazz. So they don't get all the ministry done, but they do have, they are freed up in order to serve this wider community in a way that some of us who have families are not always so free to do. Those of us who do have physical families ought to be going out of our way to have those who do not have families in our families. This is something we're going to talk about more next week, but this is the thing, it's like, if you have a family, incorporate the people who don't have families into your family. It's one of the great things that we can do as a family. I don't know, there's sometimes the question of like, how do we, you know, by God's grace we have college students here and others, and it's like, how do we reach out to them? I will tell you the most profound way that I know to reach to college kids, and you can ask the college kids this, just have them over for a meal that's not cafeteria food. They will love you, I don't care how terrible it is. It could be the most plain and simple, like, I'm sorry, it's leftovers, and they will love you to death for it. There's no better way to reach out to college kids than to feed them food that is not cafeteria food, because that cafeteria food is nasty, I don't care what anybody says. The church will never be, never ought to be, quote unquote, family friendly, if what that means is, the church is just a place for families. I love families. I have one of my own. But the church is not just a place, just only a place for moms and dads and kids. It must be a place for celibates as well. I'd hate to have a church where Jesus wouldn't feel comfortable being a member, right? Like, that's just a good, broad, general rule, right? We should strive to be a church where Jesus would want to be a member here, which means that we will embrace wholeheartedly those who are called and given to celibacy. So, not only do they have this ability to highlight the community of faith, but also simplicity. In case you had not figured this out yet, it is beyond easy to fill your life with stuff, and then some more stuff, and then some more stuff. If you don't know that that's true, just try to move, right? And you will see just, like, how much stuff you have that you had no idea that you actually had. Wants seem to morph into needs with shocking simplicity. And Paul brings this out when it comes to celibates and those who are married. In 1 Corinthians chapter 7, he says this, not exactly speaking about materialism in particular, but it would apply to that. In 1 Corinthians 7, beginning in verse 32, he says, I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord. But the married man is anxious about worldly things, how to please his wife. And his interests are divided. And the unmarried, or betrothed woman, is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit. But the married woman is anxious about, oh, sorry, the married woman is anxious about worldly things, how to please her husband. I say this for your own benefit, not to lay any restraint upon you, but to promote good order and to secure your undivided devotion to the Lord. Paul is not saying that single people have no temptation towards selfishness or consumerism. Rather that they can focus on their anxiety that they do have, they have a greater ability to focus that on how to serve the Lord instead of having to, and this gets back to the loyalty thing kind of, you have to think about what is pleasing to your spouse. If I am called to go to your house, or if we are in pastoral oversight, and one of you brings up the fact that the other one is not caring, and you bring up 1 Corinthians 7, and say, I'm just anxious about the things of the Lord, so I don't care about you, that is going to go poorly for you, because it's not true, this isn't the thing. Paul is saying you have to be anxious about that, and it's difficult because you have to balance loyalties, and you will always find yourself in tension. Usually the tension isn't between serving God and serving your partner, it's usually serving yourself and serving your partner, with sometimes like yourself turning into God because that's the way you're actually seeing yourself. The great thing about those who are celibate, though, is that their lives are intrinsically more simple. Not simple, but just more simple. Married people are not lesser Christians, they just have a more complicated life. I can only imagine how wonderful it would be if the church was full of people who were called to celibacy, if it was something we promoted. Can you imagine the amount of work we would get done in the world if those who were called to celibacy actually lived it out and didn't feel the pressure to get married? How many missionaries we could send. That doesn't mean that married people are not called to be missionaries, but the simplistic or simple style of life where they can just pick up and go wherever, whenever, which is not true, having been a missionary, I know that there is much more things that you have to think about when you have to think about, I wonder if I'm going to get my head cut off, I should probably think about my wife, where if you're single, that doesn't really become nearly as much of a concern for you. We could get a lot of work done. When I say missions work, I don't mean like overseas, the people who speak a different language or a different color than I am. Even right here, there's a lot more that we could do if we had people who were truly called to celibacy, living that out. John Stott, at the very end of his life, he passed away a couple years ago, celibate his entire life, he was actually thinking he was going to get married, he was close to being married when he was in his 20s and his 30s and it just didn't happen, and he figured after a couple tries, like, maybe I'm just called to be single, and this man spent his entire life, until he died, literally going everywhere in the world at the drop of a hat whenever anybody called him, in order to go and promote the gospel of Jesus Christ. And in the last couple months of his life, somebody who was writing a book on celibacy came and talked to him and he was very candid about the fact that he was like, looking back on it, I can now see that I could have never done one-tenth of the stuff that I did. If I had had a wife and kids and had to think about all that stuff, but since I didn't, I was able to go do all this. Again, you can look at it and you can go, oh, man, that's, man, I wish I was single. As Paul's writing here in 1 Corinthians, he's like, don't wish you were single, just don't wish to be different than you are, just be what you are, but realize that there is incredible giftings in all areas of life. In the case of those who are celibate, they have a simpler life. Last one, short one, is sufficiency. It's no secret that today we have a rather vessed-up view about marriage. I'm about to address that, but one of the most destructive ways we lie to each other is promoting the idea that marriage fulfills us. That is only something that people who are engaged or single and long to be married believe. Anybody who's been married for, what, seven days or more knows that marriage does not fulfill you. Marriage is wonderful, I like being married, but it is not fulfilling. And for some, marriage is a true tragedy, something they long to escape from. Even in the best of conditions, if we promote the lie that marriage fulfills us, then what happens is your marriage will never be good enough, because you will never be fulfilled, therefore your marriage will always be terrible. And then you'll be convinced because you've been trained that marriage fulfills you that other people are fulfilled by marriage, but you're not. So man, I'm just so sad because I'm sure all those people are fulfilled and I'm not fulfilled. We can kill that really easy by saying, you know what, marriage don't fulfill you. Never can, never will. Doesn't make marriage any easier, but it is truthful, and we need to be saying it. Those who are single for the kingdom of God are like signposts of the sufficiency that is to be had in Jesus Christ. The only sufficiency that any of us have is in Jesus, correct? Like, that's it. So even married people, right, that's you too. However, it's the celibate who will have more opportunity to proclaim this to others, and who will be a bolder testimony of that reality, because people will be able to come along and be like, well, you're married, right? But to the single person, they'll be like, how do you live life? Like, how do you even go through your day? How do you get out of bed in the morning? How are you not totally depressed not being married? There's not a lot of people asking married people that, at least in our culture today. But the single person can go ahead and proclaim the goodness of God. Two authors write this and say, as long as we live within a church that emphasizes marriage and happiness as the ultimate desires of our heart, rather than reminding us that our ultimate desire should be for God, we risk not only alienating traditional singles, those dealing with divorce and those struggling with homosexuality, but also, and perhaps more importantly, reducing the truth of the gospel to a simple vending machine that readily supplies all of the good things we desire as soon as we demand them. It doesn't. The sufficiency is to be found in Jesus alone, not in marriage. And singles will be able to promote that idea more. So all of those are blessings of celibacy. I'm sure we could add to that list, but those are five big ones. We saw that celibacy is not just a call to sexual purity. It's a call to glorify God. So lastly, this third point that we'll consider, is the call to marriage is much more than living with a soulmate. To say that the state of marriage in America today is in trouble is a bit like saying, it is highly likely that I will never dunk in the NBA all-star game. It's a no-brainer. This is both outside of the church and inside of the church. We hardly know what marriage is, as a society and as a church, and thus we find it easy to question whether the institution should even exist. We can spend a lot of weeks on marriage, which we're not going to do, at least right now, but this much is clear. If marriage at the foundation is an emotional bond between two people, based on emotional love that ties two humans together because of the way they feel about each other, then number one, people should be able to marry whoever they want, or as many persons as they want. And number two, marriage is useless because the bond is dissolved, and one party or both, or however many are involved, no longer have that same emotional attachment they once did. There's no purpose for marriage. Which, thankfully, the world is finally coming around to see. And I say thankfully, because now there's a lot of questions about whether marriage should even exist, but people still feel that it should, but they can't figure out why. But they kind of feel that just, like, hooking up and just being with other humans for kind of as long as they want to isn't satisfying. So there's a real question about, like, why should people get married? Because we still feel like people should get married, but is that just because we think people should get married? Is that just the culture we live in? Because just hanging out with people, that's not working. Just being into people that we kind of like doesn't work. So while it's leading to all kinds of craziness in our society, it's also leading people to sincerely think about just what the heck we're supposed to be doing, which is something we should be thankful for. We were helped to define Christian marriage this way a few months ago when we just briefly touched the topic of marriage and singleness. By J. Budziszewski, he gives this definition, and we're not going to... I'm just going to put it out there and continue on. But he says, a mutual, this is what marriage is, a mutual and binding promise between one man and one woman before God to enter into a procreative and unitive bond with each other alone for life. Now that's not American law definition, clearly, nor is it very intelligible to those who are outside the Christian community, mainly because of this whole thing of it's before God. But our definition of what marriage is should never be drawn from anthropology or just current sociological trends or gender studies or something like that. It should be drawn from God's Word. And if that definition were not enough, there are a few things that will help us understand why marriage is only applicable, in every sense of the term, to a man and a woman. Number one, it comes on the basis of the Trinity. What is the Trinity? I'm just talking like, you know, base Children's Sunday School answer. There we go, okay, good start. Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Good, what else can we say about it for sure? There we go, three persons in one. That's about as far as we need to get, right? So we have the names of those three persons and there's three and one. Now, I just finished a math class, I'm still not very good at math, but that does not sound logical, right? You have three and one. It's either three or it's one, you pick. And we go, no, it's actually three and one, because the best way I know how to put this is you have distinction within unity, which still is like, that doesn't sound like really, it doesn't make a lot of sense. Yeah, I know, but that's as good as we've got. There is distinction within unity. We know that in Genesis chapter one, as we've seen multiple times, that male and female are created in the image of God. You have both unity and diversity within humanity itself. What is the unity? Human, exactly. And what's the diversity? Gender. That's right. There you go. Which should help us to understand, to some degree, God, right? Now, God isn't gendered or anything like this, where it has like, oh, there's male and there's female and there's like the other. You know, it's not like that, but it is... Well, they're both human, but they are distinct. Right. We've drawn it before. The best way to put it is you put God at the middle, right? And then you write in a circle around the concept of God, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, and you draw lines that, like, the Father and the Spirit, and this Holy Spirit and Jesus, and Jesus and the Father, and you say, okay, these are not each other. Then you draw lines to the middle towards God, and you go, but they are all God. That's the best way to explain it. It's the only, like, non-heretical way I've ever seen of explaining the Trinity. But humanity is similar. It is absolutely true that homosexuals have incredible levels of emotional attachment, and even extraordinary commitment at times. Divorce is just as prevalent amongst homosexuals as non-homosexuals. Still a new thing, so we'll see how this goes going forward. It's something that you and I should recognize. Like, if you see a dedicated homosexual relationship, the first thing you ought not to point out is the fact that they're gay, right? Oh, but you're all gay, so it doesn't matter. The fact that they are dedicated to each other is something that you can appreciate as a human being and as a Christian. Wow, that's impressive. Dedication from one human being to another human being is a good thing. It's actually an argument that some people use for the validity of homosexual relationships, even though that homosexual acts are wrong, what they would say, I was reading this last night from a very prominent ethicist, that while homosexual acts are wrong, acts are not as important as intentions, and the intention of being dedicated to one another is something that Jesus does affirm, therefore, as long as people are dedicated to each other, the acts don't matter. Talk about split hairs, that's what ethics is, right? So, it is an interesting argument, and I'll buy it for a second, because you can't actually move that way for all kinds of reasons we're not going to get into today, but you don't have to downplay the fact that they are committed to each other, that there is real... you go, yeah, sure, you're going to say, oh, gay people can't have legitimate relationships? Of course they can, they're human beings, and it makes for a world that is not completely not worth living in. However, it should challenge us, and it should lead us to repentance, because we ought to be the most committed, yet we are not. As Christians, we can't stand behind the idea of homosexual marriage, not because they're not committed to each other, or not because there's no emotional bond, but because it doesn't mirror, and this is just one argument, it doesn't mirror the Trinity. There's no distinction within unity, there's unity, they're both humans, but there's no distinction between them, in the fact that they are of the same gender. Now, you could say, well, genders don't matter. You go, well, that is one thing. Or they could say, I don't believe in the Trinity. This is not a natural law argument, this isn't going to win you any points, it's a Christian argument, I understand that. However, it is an important one. And it's also not the only thing. The second thing is that a marriage doesn't only mirror the Trinity, but is life-giving love. Similar to Budziszewski, a team of scholars writing on marriage from a non-religious perspective come up with this definition, a very good one, a very prominent one. It says this, it's a comprehensive union, a union by will, which is consent, and body, that is sexual union, inherently ordered to procreation, and thus the broad sharing of family life. Sex between a man and a woman often produces offspring. It is the ordinary way in the world we go about fulfilling the command to do what? Be fruitful and multiply. There you go. How is it that you can be fruitful and multiply? There's all kinds of ways, you hear me? We've got IVF, we've got all that kind of stuff you talked about before. Yeah, no, those ways exist, but the most base way, the most ordinary way, take away technology, and what you've got is, dude getting with a woman, having a baby. Right? That's what it is. Homosexual sex ends in itself. There is no way the act is going to produce life, ever, no matter what. What do you mean by giving and life producing? Yeah, well, that too, so it's both. It's both life giving and life producing. Some have countered this by pointing out that all heterosexual sex unions do not produce offspring either. So you have two different ways that this goes about. Some people only rarely have children as a result of a heterosexual union, and for some couples, it's never going to happen. Either one partner's biological function for reproduction does not work, or both of them don't work. And while that is true, I would like to provide you a very brief illustration from hot chicken, since that's what I do. While that's true, it's also true that the deep fryers at Bolton's remain deep fryers, even at 7 o'clock in the morning when they are not doing anything. Though if we could get hot fish at 7 o'clock in the morning, that would be a world even more worth living in. Those deep fryers remain deep fryers not because they are working, but because they possess both design and direction of deep fryerness. They will not clean your carpets, nor will they do your dishes. They remain what they are regardless of what they are doing at the time. Exactly. The same goes with heterosexual sex, thus the argument from hot fish. It has both design and direction, even if the end result does not always or ever produce what it would ordinarily produce, and what it does often in other cases. Homosexual sex cannot say this about itself. It may well produce fulfillment, which it does. It well may strengthen a relationship, it well may generate love, and it well might feel right. But all of this argues for the fact that sex is an act that ends in itself, which, while it does sometimes, or in some couples, always, because it's inherently designed to do something else. So while we might have all the technology in the world that can get around that, and as we saw, all that technology is not always wrong, what is true is that the act in itself has an end in and of itself that is not just between two human beings. It should come as no surprise to anyone that time after time, research has shown that heterosexual marriage is an ideal place not only to have children, but also to raise children. Why? Why would that be true? Why would a heterosexual relationship be the most ideal place to raise children? Yeah? That's right. Yes. It is simply because, while a lot of loud voices in our culture decry it from an emotional point of view, secular and religious researchers have found time after time after time after time that boys are different than girls. Now, that is true on a number of levels, all the way down to the simplistic kindergarten cop level, where boys have penises and girls have vaginas, all the way up to the fact that there are these inherent things in males and females, not masculinity like males like to chop down trees and women don't, right? They just like doing dishes, but those would be the wrongly assumed gender roles, because you have women who like to chop down trees and men who just want to sew, right? And there's nothing wrong with that whatsoever, but there are other things that researchers themselves are like, we can't even really put a finger on it, there just seems to be these different kinds of things that are going on. God highly praises both genders for what they bring to the table. Research happens to be in agreement, we don't go with this because of research, but because God's word tells us, but it is interesting. Lastly, this is what we'll close with, marriage pictures the relationship between Jesus and the Church. In Ephesians chapter 5 we see this beginning in verse 22, these very well-known, if controversial, verses. Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the Church. His body and is himself its Savior. Now, as the Church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water by the word, so that he might present the Church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In all the same way, or in the same way, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself, for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the Church, because we are all members of his body. Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is profound, and I am saying it that it refers to Christ and the Church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband. It's pretty clear. One Christian theologian has very good things to say about this passage in reference to homosexuality. He says in Ephesians 5, 22-33, the difference between men and women is crucial to the meaning of marriage. The man, so very inadequately, represents Christ, and the woman represents the Church. The Church must never be confused with Christ, but in homosexuality there is no such distinction between partners. Although one partner may be more passive than the other, there is no distinction between husband and wife, between bridegroom and bride. Ultimately the roles are interchangeable, but symbolically this suggests that God and man are interchangeable. And that notion is not only wrong, but at the root of it all, it is the primal heresy, confusing us with God. Now, if you and I hold to this ideal of marriage, that it mirrors the Trinity, that it is life-giving and producing love, that it is a picture of Christ and his Church, then every single one of us, married, single, same-sex, attractive, and celibate, can rightly uphold what marriage is. Why? Because it is not the only way, but it is one way that human beings glorify God. And ideally we end up feeling this way, regardless of whether we're married or not. I want to read this one thing that a former man, or a man who was formerly married, but he's experiencing divorce in the Church, he said this, Perhaps the greatest battle of all, or all of us face in looking at marriage, is in worshiping the picture more than the reality. That's what God has saved me from. When singles worship the picture instead of Christ himself, they feel incomplete and begin to despair, because the picture becomes more important than the reality it represents. When divorcees worship the picture instead of God and all his sufficiencies, they become cynical, empty, and needy when they lose what was never intended to satisfy them. When married people worship the picture instead of Jesus, they either repaint it with their own ideas, or are plunged into hopelessness when the picture loses its original luster. It is only as I view marriage, or it is only as I view the awesome gift of marriage, as a means to worship God himself that everything changes. Maybe, someday, God will give me the gift of worshiping again through a new marriage picture. Maybe not. But one thing is certain, I have the right and privilege of always enjoying the reality behind the picture, fellowship with God through Christ. And as I look at my community of believers, I can speak highly of marriage as a gift from God, and still worship and still rejoice in the astounding reality of the gospel presented by the pictures around me. That is the way we should view marriage. As a non-perfect picture of a staggering reality, and seeing that that paints one picture of the reality of Jesus and his church, and that those who are celibate do it in a very different kind of way, but it is equally a picture of Christ and his church. So that as we look to all the forms of relationships that exist in the church, we can say what those things point to are the things that we're going to worship, and we're not going to worship the thing itself. Knowing that if we do, then we will always be dissatisfied, because it will never be what it was intended to be. Which is a picture of Christ and his church. Let's pray. God, we do thank you for your word. We thank you that the church is made up of both those who are celibate and married. We thank you that you have assigned us, as we saw last week, the roles that we play in this world. And though we do not understand those things all the time, we thank you that there is equal legitimacy to our callings, no matter what it is we do in the world, or what our status is as far as being married or single. We do pray that you would help us to understand what celibacy really is, and that you would help us to understand what marriage is, in order that we might promote those amongst each other and amongst the world that we live in. We pray that we, ourselves, would be those who are given to the worship of God, and not just the worship of the picture. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.