I recently took a class through Denver Seminary on sexuality in a broken world. My eyes were opened to the increase of incest and abuse throughout the pandemic because many kids were left unattended at home. My heart was broken at the levels of pornography, fantasy within marriage, and atypical sexual disorders that are steadily growing.
But the main crisis in all that I ingested during my week of class was not sexual brokenness. Instead, it was that we humans do not know or embrace who we are. We do not know the depths of our belovedness. At the core of who we are, we are deeply loved: but we do not know that truth. Our wrestling with sexual brokenness reveals that lack of belief, because we are often scared to bring it into the light for fear of…well, all kinds of things.
As I sat in my zoom class for 40 hours that week, I began to ask, “what does it mean to be sexually healthy, whole and holy?” A necessary starting place is knowing that we are “good”. In Genesis 2, God uses the word “tov” to describe creation. He says, “It is GOOD.” We all know the story of how we botched things up and sin entered the world. So why did the Lord offer us abundant grace and restoration through Jesus’ death and resurrection? Because we matter. Jesus came to redeem humanity because we have worth. We are beloved. We are his children.
The church IS THE PLACE to talk about all the ways our sexuality is not as it should be — whatever that struggle or brokenness is for you. The Church (not the building, but the people!) should be a place of safety and security. It’s a place where we can be honest and vulnerable. It’s a place where we can sit with each other and cry together. It’s a place where we can ask the harder questions and be compassionately curious. It’s a place where we remind each other of the Truth. And the TRUTH IS…
We are sinners and we are loved.
We are broken people and we are welcomed.
We feel as though we are bleeding out and we are celebrated.
We are wounded and we are cherished.
We are addicts and we are beloved.
We are fragile and we are adored.
We are impure and we are touchable.
We are human and we are friends of Jesus.
We are loved!
If you resonate with anything that was said above, you are not alone. Pulpit Rock wants to journey with you so please don’t hesitate to reach out. You don’t have to have it all figured out or even partly figured out. We would love to have coffee and sit and hear from you.
