After spending much of yesterday gathered with my church family, I was surprised to find myself in another church when I came home and turned on the Grammy awards. And this time, it was for the wedding ceremony of thirty-three couples, some straight and some gay. (You can watch it here.)I know it was a church because there were stained-glass windows, a choir singing and swaying in the background, and multiple individuals leading the service. The rapper Macklemore performed his hit "Same Love" during the ceremony, Queen Latifah served as the spirited officiating minister, and Madonna (bearing a striking resemblance to KFC's Colonel Sanders) serenaded the guests during the reception. It was a touching ceremony for many. The cameras cut to Keith Urban wiping away tears as the newly-married couples happily danced to "Open Your Heart" before the in-house audience and nearly 30 million viewers at home.
There was something different about this church, though. I knew it from some of the first few lines of Macklemore's song, which seeks to debunk the long-held Christian conviction that homosexuality is a sin. Speaking about the source of this conviction, Macklemore says, "We paraphrase a book written 3500 years ago." Carmen Fowler Laberge sums up the importance of his lyric: "In this one simple line, he dismisses the entire corpus of Christian teaching on sexuality."
The book Macklemore references is, of course, the Bible. And he quickly and haphazardly shoves it aside. But there are a few problems here. First, not all of the Bible is as old as he believes. The New Testament is around 2,000 years old, and it also speaks strongly against homosexuality. Second, Macklemore is the latest culprit of believing that just because something is old means it's outdated and irrelevant. He regards himself to be a more reliable source for knowledge than the Bible because he exists in the present day. And third, for many Christians, including me, the Bible is not just an old book. It is the access-point for God's revelation in many times and places throughout human history. It shows us who God is, how He interacts with humanity, and what His will is. And specifically, it shows us what His will is regarding sexuality: He designed sex to be enjoyed within the bonds of monogamous heterosexual marriage. This is the decision of a Holy God, and it is not my place (or Queen Latifah's or Madonna's or Macklemore's) to challenge it. But in their "church," the authority of the Bible is obviously not a foundational belief.
Macklemore's rejection of the God of Scripture continues later in his song: "Whatever god you believe in, We come from the same one, Strip away the fear, Underneath it's all the same love." The concept of "love" to Macklemore seems to mean accepting and surrendering to any desires I have. But once again, this doesn't jive with the God I've come to know through the Bible. My God tells me I am more than what I feel, I am more than what I desire, and what I feel and desire is not always good for me.
Scripture reveals a love that is infinitely better than Macklemore's version. The Bible tells me that I am "God's chosen one, holy and beloved" (Colossians 3:12). Because of God's love for me, He felt compelled to send His Son to the earth to die, bearing my sins in his body on a tree (1 Peter 2:24), so that I don't have to be controlled by my feelings and desires any longer. Now that's love. Because of this love, I can embrace the guidance of God's Spirit which dwells within me and leads me out of unhealthy ways of living and into wholeness and peace and joy.
I'm thankful I don't regularly attend the church of Macklemore and Madonna and Queen Latifah. Because I believe the Bible is more than an old book. Because I believe "God loves all his children" so much that he refuses to leave us stuck in our sinful state. I like what the Bible tells me I am a whole lot more than what Macklemore tells me I am. I may not be able to change on my own, "even if I tried, even if I wanted to," but nothing is impossible for God and his Spirit, who is the great Transformer. The gospel of Macklemore tells me I'm stuck where I am. "Even if I tried," I'm stuck in homosexuality or porn-addiction or adultery or lust or sex before marriage. But the Gospel of Jesus tells me that despite my own inability to change, the Spirit can change me into who I am meant to be.
That's a love worth celebrating.
