Jesus, King of My Sexuality

What does it mean to be a eunuch? Dan (pseudonym) and I had already done the Who is Jesus? Study together and it had been a while sense we had continued learning about Jesus, following Him together as the text unfolded before us. It was one day where he asked me the question about being a eunuch. After unpacking this a bit with my friend Dan, I mentioned the Ethiopian Eunuch that Phillip was Spirit-led to reap (Acts 8:26-40) and how we need help along the way to understand Scripture. Then he asked me about a passage he heard someone used in his past as they discussed homosexuality and the life of a eunuch during a sermon. So, we began to read in Matthew 19:1-12 where Jesus shares about eunuchs. We saw that he had mentioned that not only were some born eunuchs, but some actually chose to be “eunuchs for the kingdom of God”. I didn’t press hard on the issue then, as I had felt the Lord challenge me to be a bit cautious with my friend, a guy who had once contemplated suicide and battled severe depression. I was concerned for his mental well being and we continued meeting up, but it came to a point months later where I invited him to deeper relationship with God, but first there was a moment of honesty about homosexuality as sin.

I had never told Dan that I believed that homosexuality was sin and he had never confessed to me previously that he was unwilling to give up having sex with men. But there was a day where we became more honest with one another. We shared, and after a moment of pending rejection during our sharing, but instead of rejection, we sighed after realizing that we still wanted to be friends. I remember our exchange where we asked if we would still be one another’s friend? We both said of course and thus were relieved. Life went on together, until one monumental call was put on Dan in desperation that he needed more of God in his mental health and needed to know unconditional love as demonstrated on the Cross. It was a day where I preached the Gospel to him, the same day where he would make Jesus the King of his sexuality.

On this day Dan was at another low in his life, limping along in positive mindedness (he has grown through therapy and such), but still not living a vibrant life. We met to continue our study in Mark’s Gospel and it was that day where I shared the Gospel and challenged him to receive God’s love as a rebel sinner, the true mark of just how unconditional loving God is. I invited him to surrender his life to Jesus and he started to. We prayed and he felt God’s presence come upon him, he enjoyed the beauty of God’s touch, something he had felt before. I sensed God whisper to me that I should challenge him to surrender his sexuality and so, I did. I asked him, “do you want to make Jesus the King of your sexuality?” He pondered, he probed what that meant, and he pondered some more as we sat at a bench in Balboa Park. He looked and saw a bunch of balloons stuck in the tree. He told me he felt stuck and I assume that God was showing him something about his life in that moment. He sat, he pondered and he eventually said yes to surrendering to his sexuality to Jesus’ lordship.

What an amazing call to follow Jesus, this guy heard and chose. I don’t think that most people would realize the call and difficulty of this attempt at following Jesus. Culture, largely doesn’t support honest recognition of one’s sexuality, while choosing it’s denial. Heterosexual followers of Jesus, longing to get married, would struggle to make Jesus King of their sexuality. It is such a tough thing, but the ways of Jesus are better. Life with Jesus is better. On May 10^th, 2016 my friend chose to walk out this difficult path, with hope, headed for a better life with Jesus.

Finding Overlap with LGBTQIA Activists: LGBTQIA Homeless Youth Project

Where can a person who believes homosexuality is an aspect of the sin nature’s color wheel find ways to align with the Human Rights Campaign? You know the ones who staunchly fight for marriage equality or in other words, same sex and transgender marriages? The cool thing is they do a lot more than just fight for the right to have unions before the state on par with heterosexual couples. We found just one small way to align with the more activist leaning members of the Community.  One steering committee member of HRC stated with force at one earlier meeting that there really is no overlap to what her crew (liberal secularists, I assume) and mine (conservative religious people, I think she assumes me to be a member of) believed and lived.

Every year, the San Diego chapter of the Human Rights Campaign partners with local youth service organizations that serve homeless LGBTQIA youth in San Diego. Many of these kids by the way, likely come from homes where their parents reject them and they are seeking value and acceptance and ability to live the life they feel they are meant to live-by being themselves. It wouldn’t be very unlikely that perhaps a majority of these kids are from religious homes, their rejection which pushed them to abandon the benefits of their family at the hope for the benefits of finding where they really belong. In the intersection of social rejection and placelessness, HRC seeks to help their own. They want to bring the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people of the next generation up. But, before they bring them up, they meet them where they are, even if that be wandering the streets.  This is where we can and did seek to find common ground with the Community.

From the garden of common purpose and concern, we hoped a crop would form in the Community via a small partnership between our outreach and HRC. A partnership where we also care for the poor, the rejected, and the needy-people who happen to be members of the LGBTQIA tribe.

So, we gathered our resources and we asked others to gather them with us. Together, we helped form over 700 bags filled with toiletries, particular articles of clothing to keep them warm, hygiene products to help them in practical ways that shape their worth, and other stuff that each hopefully showed them that someone cares. Here was our biggest contribution (see below for the images of the lip balms we procured). They let us acknowledge that we too love them and believe God does.

a full label for the lip balms we donated

lip balm sample, one of 750

Paul exploited the intersections of culture for the furthering of the message of a sacrificial King, with the desire for all people and creation to live under the care of His reign (Acts 17:16-34). Since Jesus and disciples who wrote the sacred text we adore as Scripture advocated for the poor, we too can hopefully bring the light of the good news to the poor in the LGBTQIA community. As Christ loved us, so do we love others—IN ACTION (Rom. 5:8).

The work of over 100 volunteers that served with HRC

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me’” (Matt. 25:40).

Seeing more of the bridge: An Integrated Life….

How does the Church reach the LGBT community when the gap between us seems so wide? The culture roots for them to be authentically themselves, the Church is confused at best as to what life could be for them in Christ. And at worst, sections of the Church can be completely uninterested in them being in Christ. I have thought for a while that there are 2 camps with a large gap between them. Namely, the 2 camps are the Community and the Church. The task of this outreach is to help the LGBTQ people connect to God, but what does that really mean? Recently, I think I have seen the firm landing of an individual from the community into Christ and it wasn’t because of a recent conversion. We haven’t had one since David and Tim, the latter is the one who recommitted his life but seems shaky in his connection to Jesus still. I am starting to see more of the entire bridge and this is because I just saw someone live honestly in the Christian community, in light of their past and current needs.

Bob (a pseudonym) was once doing the Who is Jesus? Study with me, but stopped after I challenged him to share with one person he trusted at his current church. After I left him one day after our time together, our entire relationship seemed to come to a screeching halt. To understand the challenge faced by Bob, you have to understand the background story behind is journey with church.

Years prior, Bob had attended a church that completely embarrassed him and I believe, wronged him, in a very public way. One day his pastor stood up to publicly discipline Bob for some deep struggles in Bob’s life. While I don’t know the full extent of this, his sharing dealt with a drug addiction and a homosexual life. Needless to say, Bob’s relationship with this pastor and church eroded quickly. Since that time he was burned while living an integrated life, he had been unable to share his story in the new church where he had already been for 2 years. He was, in fact, not only part of the church but he was running a ministry, taking in destitute people he met on the streets, and a number of other radical things for God. He was vibrantly (and is) in love with God and thankful for the forgiveness he had received in the sacrifice of the Son. Yet, no one really knew him. He wasn’t living an integrated life where people knew his story and loved him along his journey.

It was only recently that I ran into Bob on the streets in Hillcrest, he mentioned that he had finally shared his story with his church and that he was going through great trials in his life. He mentioned that he had been recently diagnosed with cancer and lost a lot of weight after having surgery that hindered his ability to eat. He confessed he left the church for a while, but when he came back he shared his story with a trusted friend. After he shared, he told me that the pastors of the church came around him and expressed their love for him. As I saw the beauty of a reconciled community member, I knew more of what we were meant to do here in Hillcrest and with the LGBTQ.

It is not easy and not all the way clear, but we want people to have an authentic walk with Christ. That means to really be a renewed and regenerated person, with a new connection to God. But it still means, being a person. A person has a history and they have a present, both of which are often not so pretty. People live an integrated life in Christ, when in spite and in the midst of their humanity, they are surrendered to Jesus and nestled deeply in a loving community of Believers. This is the destiny for an LGBT person who accepts the call of Jesus.