Does Sexuality Exist?

It is a question that has been brewing in my mind for some time now.  It is a question that, I believe, goes to the heart of many issues facing the church.

Does sexuality exist?  Is sexuality a natural (read: biological, genetic) aspect of human experience?

This question is crucial because it also leads us to ask one other question:  Is sexuality a cultural construction?

You see, sexuality can be only one; it can only be genetic or cultural.  If sexuality is genetic than the nature of that sexuality will raise questions about how we are created, the depths of depravity, etc.  If sexuality is a cultural construction than it poses questions about how we identify ourselves, understand ourselves as humans, and how we have interpreted what it means to be human.

I do not have nearly enough knowledge to give a comprehensive answer to the question today, but today I would like to start a conversation about the nature of sexuality.  I hope you will join me in considering some of this information, and perhaps we can grow through it.

Out and In: the Faithful Promise

Abraham is more talked about in the New Testament than Adam.  Abraham is more talked about than David, Solomon, or any of the prophets.

Abraham, we could say, is important.

This wanderer, this nomad, is crucial to the faith we inherit.

And I noticed something amazing as I read the story of this man's calling:

"Come out of your land, out of your people, our of your father's household, and come into a land I will show you."

Out of and into...

Out of and into...

Out of and into...

Our English translations rarely do justice to this simple comparison.  This was more than just a simple call to leave a geographical position.  This was more than a statement of relocation.

This was a call to leave an identity and come into another.

Abraham's identity was changing.  He was no longer a person among his genetic heritage.  He was no longer constrained by his past geopolitical environment.  He was new.  He was in a new land.  God was creating a people and a nation that didn't exist yet.

-------

And in Christ there is no Jew or Greek, slave nor free, male nor female.  For out of many nations and peoples and identities we are now brought into one person:  Christ.