Binding and Loosing this side of Heaven: Loosing isn't losing
Pastor Connie Bonner, RN, MSN, MDiv, BCC
Clinical Pastoral Education Supervisor, Toledo, OH
Email: Connie_Bonner@mhsnr.org

Rabbinic Task of the Church

• Matthew 18:15-20 "A restoration clause" binding: determining what is prohibited; loosing: determining what is permitted
  
  
• Jesus bound more tightly (e.g., Matthew 5:21-22a; see the Sermon on the Mount)
  Jesus loosed traditional interpretations (e.g., Matthew 5:43-44; Matthew 12:9-13; Mark 2:23-38)
  Jesus embodied loosing (e.g., John 4: woman at well – disciples scandalized)

Luther: Saying no to celibacy in the priesthood and affirming marriage for Christians

• Luther inherited: two-tier view of Christianity (elite vs. ordinary people), marriage as a sacrament
  
  
• Luther made changes based on
  • 1- his experience/his pastoral heart,
  • 2- his mining the Scripture for new insights,
  • 3- his application of theology with reason to context at hand according to love of neighbor (neighborly heart)
    
    
• Pastoral heart: one example, saw anguish of 'unmarried' priests in relationships
  
  
• Searched Scriptures: love of neighbor (in Gospels and throughout New Testament); people created to be in community (Genesis 1-3); other significant texts e.g., (Galatians 5:1; 1 Corinthians 10:23; 1 Corinthians 7; 1 Timothy 3:2; 4; Titus 1:6-7, Ten Commandments…) (see Scharen ch. 2 & 5)
  
  
• Christian bound to serve neighbor in love; God's will is to be whatever the needs of the neighbor are; respond with creativity, replacing rigidity with flexibility
  
  
• Bold, new theological shift: affirmed sexual drive and sexual relations as fundamentals of God's good creation; affected by sin
  
  
• Marriage: civil estate; brought order; companionship; relationship to share intimacy and commitment; one's lust could be guided away from sinful behavior;
  KEY: promise making and fidelity between people, in relationship with God

Today: Saying no to celibacy in the priesthood and affirming blessing of 'partnerships'

• Binding and Loosing: Luther's positions don't translate exactly, work with some common ground: present system sets up two-tier Christian hierarchy – return to focus on horizontal priesthood of all believers; have compassion for neighbor; recognize person created as relational; marriage and "blessing" relationships are characterized by promise making and fidelity, between each other and in relationship with God (appropriating new way of faithful relational expression which includes sexual expression, based on witness of being 'married in the sight of God'); church as witness to voluntary commitment
  
  
• Caring for closest neighbor
  
  
• Application today of Leviticus 18:22 & 20:13; Romans 1:26-27. Three comments: 1-texts imply same sex relationships "against nature" (heterosexual engaging in same sex behavior); 2-same sex relations in context of non-Jewish/non-Christian worship, respectively; 3-texts written as part of larger group of material to identify who is "in" and who is "out.”
  
  
• Jesus calls us to new community "where water is thicker than blood, family is redefined, lepers are touched, outcasts sit at table"(Lundblad, p. 53)(in Jesus ‘order of creation’ transcended Galatians 3:28); a community that holds a diversity of opinions even as it serves Christ (Early Church struggled with circumcision of non-Jewish Christians over a period of years, see the Book of Acts, e.g., Acts 15:1-29)
  
  
• In our day: who is "in" and who is "out"? What are we called to bind, to loose?
  
  
• Loosing the "traditional" understanding does not mean losing all ethics ("anything goes"); it means binding homosexual relationships to the ethics of promise keeping and fidelity between people in relationship with God; loosing does not mean losing the heart of the faith or the Word of God; it can be the faithful thing to do (Micah 6:8)
  
  
• Our calling as a Christian community is to struggle with biblical texts; we stand in a long line of believers who have struggled to bind and loose texts; (e.g., loosed traditional views re: Copernicus/Galileo, women in ministry, slavery, women and anesthesia with childbirth) (perhaps we loosed some we shouldn't have: Acts 2:43ff all had everything in common, no one had a need); we stand in that line to discern ways to accomplish mission and ministry in various contexts
  
  
• A suggestion: (model some of our work in this area on work in the early church) for us to live with our diversity of opinion across the ELCA – we do it on issues like the presence of bishops at ordinations, views of war and peace, utilization of materials in different languages, different types of liturgical expression– we have made room for minority opinions, let us make room to live with a diversity of views and practices on blessing of same-sex unions and ordaining gay and lesbian pastors (rostering others) that are in committed partnerships; making room amidst the majority opinion for the minority opinion within the church – loosing the "traditional" view where it would serve the mission and ministry in specific locations; witness the fruit of the Spirit among them (Acts l-15; Acts 10:44-47)
  
  
• We do not do this work alone; we have Jesus, the One who calls us into community, the One who promised "For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them" (Matthew 18:20)
  
  
• Jesus is assuring us, ‘do not be afraid for I am with you,’ assuring us that loosing is not losing.

Selected Bibliography:

Kader, S. (1999). Openly gay. openly Christian: How the bible really is gay friendly. San Francisco: Leyland Publications

Lundblad, B. (2001). Transforming the stone: Preaching through resistance to change. Nashville: Abingdon.

Nessan, C. (2004). Many members, vet one body. Minneapolis: AugsburgFortress.

Scharen, C. B. (2000) Married in the sight of God: Theology, ethics, and church

From Visions and Expectations: Sexual conduct. The expectations of this church regarding the sexual conduct of its ordained ministers are grounded in the understanding that human sexuality is a gift from God and that ordained ministers are to live in such a way as to honor this gift. Ordained ministers are expected to reject sexual promiscuity, the manipulation of others for purposes of sexual gratification, and all attempts of sexual seduction and sexual harassment, including taking physical or emotional advantage of others. Single ordained ministers are expected to live a chaste life. Married ordained ministers are expected to live in fidelity to their spouses, giving expression to sexual intimacy within a marriage relationship that is mutual, chaste, and faithful. Ordained ministers who are homosexual in their self-understanding are expected to abstain from homosexual sexual relationships.