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The service is conducted by the Reverend Godfrey Wilson, and the organist choir master is Anthony Jennings. ST Peter's. Tonight, people from all over the city are gathered to worship God in a service which is built around a particular theme. Our concern is with the homosexuals in our society, and we try to present a Christian approach to their problems. After the opening act of worship and Thanksgiving, you'll hear several readings from the New Testament, followed by a short story and a dialogue. Then, [00:00:30] when we've got our imaginations and our minds to bear on the problem in these ways, we shall end on our knees in intercession. The service begins now with the hymn Come Our Holy Spirit, Come number 156 and Hymns Ancient and Modern. Revised in it, we call on the Holy Spirit to guide us to open our hearts to love and our minds to truth. [00:01:00] 12 for the Romans, from chapters one and 14. They exchange the truth about God for a lie and worships and serves the creature rather than the creator who is there forever. For this reason, God gave them up to this honourable passion. Their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural. And the men [00:01:30] likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another. Men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in their own person the due penalty for their error. Why have you passed judgement on your brother? Are you? Why do you despise your brother? But we shall all stand before the judgement seat of God. [00:02:00] Matthew's gospel from chapter 25. When the son of man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Then the king will say to those of his right hand Come Oh, blessed of my father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. And he would say to those of his left hand [00:02:30] depart from me. You cut it into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. But I was hungry and you gave me no food. I was thirsty and you gave me no drink. I was a stranger and you did not welcome me naked. And you did not clothe me sick and in prison. And you did not visit me. Then they also will answer. [00:03:00] When did we see the hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to them? Then he will answer them truly. I say to you as you did it, not to one of the least of these. You did it. Not to me. The first of Saint John from Chapter three and four little Children [00:03:30] let us love not in word or in speech, but indeed. And in truth, if anyone says I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar for he who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, you cannot love God whom he has not been. And this commandment we have from him that he who loves God should love his brother himself, [00:04:00] love times without number. He pondered the use and abuse of that familiar and ambiguous word, and now the prison chaplain had used it, sitting there in his office, listening to John's story. John had been three weeks in prison, perhaps the three blackest weeks of a life already overburdened [00:04:30] with shadow put him in a group of other young men of 30 you'd see nothing to mark him as different. He's able, intelligent, well thought of in the bank where he worked, that he is different. John is a homosexual. It's his own sex that he's attracted to. And it's with men that he seeks to make those loving relationships on which any full life [00:05:00] as a person depends. I don't know. When John first realised he was different, his mother, to whom he was very close, had sometimes commented on his lack of interest in girls. But that was earlier. He was a born bachelor, he said, not wanting to hurt, and in time she recognised and [00:05:30] accept. When he left home to work in Wellington, he was trying very hard to come to terms with his conditions. He led quite a full social life and made friends, particularly in the amateur drama group, which he joined. But he kept telling himself, This is as far as it can go. Just he knew only too well what society thinks of homosexuals. [00:06:00] After all, didn't he read the newspapers and hadn't he overheard his land lady telling her friends with some disgust that she thought she had a clear among her bodies. It was like background, radiation, the attitudes, the things you read and heard John Clyde that he only seemed to become more and more more aware of something vital lacking of a growing emptiness [00:06:30] at the centre of his life. He wanted the warmth and tenderness of marriage. Really, he wanted to give himself to love and to be loved. But how could he? The way he was? Well, John did fall in love with a young man. He met one night in a coffee bar and got talking to Colin. His name was They clicked, [00:07:00] as we say, of men and women who fall in love, and after some months of torture, they moved into a flat together. John took the step in fear and trembling. It wasn't altogether satisfactory. There were tensions, quarrels, sometimes jealousy over friends, as in other human relationships. But there was also love, genuine care for each other [00:07:30] and the fulfilling experience of facing life in partnership. John couldn't imagine a return to his solitary. They'd been together for nearly a year when the landlord gave them notice. Apparently another tenant had complained to him about having queers for neighbours and about the pack of pansies who came around visiting. He was sorry, but he didn't want his tenant upset [00:08:00] If the N is making a fuss after all, as far as they were concerned, he had the whip hand. John and Colin foil over this upheaval, and the relationship ended on a sour note. To cut a long story short, John went back to his solitary boarding house existence, but now he was getting bitter. He felt much more deprived and [00:08:30] frustrated than before, and it was if coupled with the desperate desire to regain something of what he'd lost that drove him from one casual relationship to another and finally into the arms of the lock. He got probation for the first offence, but the second time it was 12 months imprisonment. What's the use? [00:09:00] Hey, John, to the prison chain, I've tried to fit in to live my life and find happiness. Like everyone else, I didn't ask to be a homosexual. I didn't choose to be different. And yet you've made me an outsider, a criminal, a greater threat to society, apparently, than the adulterer who breaks up a home or the man who gets a girl pregnant and leaves her holding the baby and Dr [00:09:30] If you fall in love and marry, that's fine. But if I fall in love and want to show it, that's perversion and must be persecuted and punished. Do you wonder that I thought of suicide? What is that for me? Who cares about me? Yeah, who can? [00:10:00] We shall think about this for a moment while the choir sings an anthem based on a passage in the 14th chapter of ST John's Gospel, which speaks of God's gift to the spirit of truth. If you love me, keep my commandments, said Thomas. Tell us, [00:10:30] I'm glad I'm not that chaplain. I wouldn't know what to say to someone in John's position. I mean, hearing about John, I suddenly realised how easy it is to take for granted the love and affection, the care and friendship I enjoy. [00:11:00] I was just trying to imagine how I would feel if people had whispered behind my back every time I took a girlfriend home, or even worse, if I'd been evicted because of what other tenants said when I tried to settle down with my wife. All the more reason then, for helping men like John to see what they lack to see that God intended human nature to find fulfilment in marriage and the rising of a family. But not everyone gets married, and even those who do aren't always fortunate enough to have Children. True, but some choose not to, for various good reasons and sheer force of circumstances prevents [00:11:30] others. And wasn't it force of circumstances that prevented John getting married? He simply wasn't born that way. A born bachelor? Is that what you mean? That's what he told his mother, you remember. But they both knew it wasn't true, even if that's what they would have liked to think. All the same, it wasn't exactly his fault. You know as well as I do that our sexual tendencies become fairly set at a stage. Some are too young to have much influence on what happens. John could no more have prevented his sexual outlook than you could yours, however much richer, [00:12:00] objectively speaking, yours might be. So you do agree that that it's better not to be a homosexual, of course, but you're missing the point. You're still assuming that John had some choice about his sexual outlook when in fact he didn't. But surely he must have had some say on the matter. Well, you ask yourself, Did you choose your sexual outlook? Did you? Well, you put it like that. I suppose I didn't. No more did. John. No. A person can't help being born left handed or with a black, brown, yellow or white skin. [00:12:30] Nor can he help it if he grows up with a different kind of sexual personality. It's not a sin to be left handed or to have a different coloured skin. So why should homosexuality be a sin? I must admit, I've never thought of it quite like that before. I suppose what you mean is that it's not sinful to feel affection for one's own sex. Everyone does that up to a point. I suppose it's the sexual behaviour which results from letting these impulses run away with you. That's the really simple thing. Exactly. Isn't the case of heterosexual [00:13:00] It's those who abuse the gift of sexuality? Who sin? Yes, I see that clearly enough. And don't you see also why John found himself growing bitter. He started off by accepting himself for what he was knowing the limitations. But that wasn't enough. The one time he achieved happiness within these limitations. It went wrong because other people fought the worst of them and wouldn't leave them alone. But there is another side to the picture. Surely the rest of the community has the right to ensure that this sort of behaviour doesn't get out of hand. Isn't [00:13:30] it just as much for their own good that some restraints put on them? But can the community restrain them? Well, there's the law, and if you break that, you must expect to be put in prison. What good is John's prison sentence going to do? As far as I can see, it will only make him more better and even more of an outsider. It's common knowledge that prison is the last place to put a man like him. He will inevitably mix with the hard core the homosexual world, and either give up or hope for else become hopelessly em and cynical. He'll come out of prison branded as an outsider, [00:14:00] and this will probably force him to adopt a way of life he'd never have done before going into prison. And so, by condemning him, the community hasn't solved this problem. It's made it worse. In the end, the community's worst fears will be confirmed that this will be taken as conclusive proof that prison is the only place for it. And that's all very well that people aren't sent to prison just because they're homosexual. They're punished for committing a crime. I'd rather say it's yet another excuse for ignoring the problem. How do you mean? Just as John said, it's a strange law [00:14:30] that allows sexual freedom to the adult Delta and the fornicator and the female homosexual that withholds that freedom from the male homosexual. Don't you think that we've got to keep coming back to the same fundamental problem the homosexual? Whatever the sex is a sinner? ST. Paul, as you heard in that first reading tonight, vehemently denounces homosexual sins. But haven't we learned a great deal about sex since those days? Paul and the Old Testament writer had the mistaken idea, which we've already been to, that the homosexual chose to be what he is. Look, I've already accepted [00:15:00] that he can't help what he is, but he can help what he does. That's what makes him a sinner, not what he is, but what he does. I wouldn't want to deny that. And yet it doesn't help me to see what John's sin is now. You're making unnecessary difficulties. I thought we'd already agreed that his sin was his abuse of God's gift and sexuality. Not at all. I agree that sexual sin is the abuse of his gift. I agree that Saint Paul was right in denouncing homosexual sin. Now John is a homosexual, but take his relationship with Colin [00:15:30] whilst he abusing his gift of sexuality and therefore sinning. I'm sorry I don't quite follow you. Well, isn't it like this? Christianity condemns homosexuality, but it represents a denial of what is good in life. For instance, talks about deeds prompted by love and without it's an old fashioned word. It does at least tell us what he thought. Sexual sin is. It's a lack of respect for yourself or for other people and sexual relations. It's a sort of disrespect or abuse that leads to deliberately establishing a sexual [00:16:00] relationship that people watch it and get out of it. You know what? As I do that if you have that sort of attitude to sex, then it's not long before the whole meaning gets destroyed. But surely the really basic purpose of sex is procreation. Having Children, and surely this can only rightly be undertaken when two people are totally committed to one another in marriage there. It's part of a creative relationship in which two people exchange love and affection in which they share a common life and common interests and responsibilities. Outside [00:16:30] of this commitment, sex becomes a destructive force. You get tension and jealousy, instability and decay. Yes, but isn't this a different situation with the normal kind of marriage and having Children even the possibilities? Simply because the a couple are homosexual and yet their love is genuine. They're committed to each other and want to make a life together. Is it necessarily sinful for sex to come into this? Well, if you put it that way, I'm not so sure. But go on. I feel John has been made a victim of his sexuality. [00:17:00] He's aware of his outlook, but he's told that it's not a gift but a curse. He's aware of its potentialities for good and for bad, perhaps more aware in a way than we who take our sexual gifts for granted. But he's told that however he expresses them, he's sinning. He wants to use his gifts in a creative way, but he's warned that he must inevitably destroy. He wants to have a share on the ordinary give and take of love and affection. He wants to have this sort of relationship with another person, without which all but the exceptional few fight [00:17:30] lights down and empty. But he's told to repress his evil urges just like you and me. He He finds it perfectly natural to want to fulfil the physical side of his nature, not for what he can get out of it, but what he can put into it. But he's told that this is condemned now. I don't find any destructive force at work. In his particular case, I see no exploitation, no denial of personal work, only the needs and limitations of a human being trying to find fulfilment in ways that will be [00:18:00] rewarding and enriching. But if you believe this, then it's impossible for us to say whether John is sinning or not. You'd need to know so many things about his his personal, his inner life to be at all certain I know, but why should we want to decide that question. ST. Paul's lurid condemnation of homosexual sin is followed up, and as Christians we often forget this by an extremely for reminder that only God sees the heart and is in a position to we up an ends with. I think I'm beginning to see what you mean. You [00:18:30] mean we've all sinned in some way or another, haven't we? And if we don't constantly remind ourselves of this basic fact about human nature, we're in grave danger of, well, almost putting ourselves in God's place. I suppose what it amounts to is this, but it's not our place to judge and to condemn, yes, but I need something so much more positive than that. For me, the the whole meaning of Christianity boils down to God's concern for all men, no matter who they are or what they've done. He accepts us all, [00:19:00] not just in word and speeches or reading, but in but in deed and truth. He got so deeply involved with us that he even became one of us and died for us and all this so that we could really stop merely existing and begin living life to the full acceptance seems to be the key word. And, of course, you can't accept unless you love, love, Christian love the sort of love God has for us. An offer to us isn't a transient feeling. We enjoy what it lasts. It's a demand. [00:19:30] It's a demand to accept all men, as God accepts them with no reservation. Yes, I agree with you. But wouldn't you also want to make it plain that the Christians acceptance of all men must be a critical acceptance? It's no part of Christian teaching to say that we should live as though sin didn't exist. And there can be little doubt that a great deal of homosexual activity is sinful. Don't forget, young boys are molested. Public decencies affronted Young men and women are subjected to mental and emotional pressures just when they're least able [00:20:00] to cope with them. The colour of promiscuity of some homosexual circles isn't a myth, you know, any more than the scourge of blackmail is. All these things must be recognised for what they are, since it was no concern of mine to suggest anything else. It's the idea that homosexual activity is sinful simply and solely because it's homosexual. The idea that rigid black and white distinctions are possible here that I want to reject. Isn't this the lesson we learned from John's story? [00:20:30] Let us pray, Lord, there are so many sides to this. We hardly know where to begin, but there are some things we can see clearly. Lord, hear us when we pray for all who are involved in sexual sins, [00:21:00] who degrade your gift and corrupt others who are ruled by left and use others for their own satisfaction. For all who are weak willed and take the easy way. We pray, especially for homosexuals, for a deeper understanding of their problems [00:21:30] and an awareness of the burden of being different for all who have closed minds on this matter. For all who project their own hidden guilt and fear in harsh condemnation for tongues that wag and woo and words that wound. For those who can find no one to turn to [00:22:00] who are driven to bitterness and despair to contemplate suicide because of what people think or say and we pray Lord, those who are studying homosexuality for new knowledge, new ways of helping for doctors and psychiatrists, clergy and counsellors and all whose help is asked by those [00:22:30] who suffer in this way for just laws concerning our sexual behaviour for those who make laws and those who administer them. But above all, Lord, we pray that your spirit may move in our hearts and minds bringing us gifts of understanding and sympathy Restraining [00:23:00] harsh judgement, teaching us to love our fellow men and women with a love like yours reminding us that we are all sinners in need of your mercy and forgiveness And the may we never hear you say depart from me because we failed to recognise you in our neighbour.
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