Grand and glorious sex

     I have to confess, one of the joys of being gay is the sex. Grand and glorious sex. Expressive, raw and immensely intimate. Let's not let our minds wander too much however. Just like it's supposed to make your brain explode into gray dust if you think about your own parents having sex, I really don't think it's advisable to put your imaginations to work on what any given couple, gay or otherwise, might or might not be doing in the privacy of their own bedroom.

    As much as we are called to realize that we are binary beings, that is, both physical and spiritual, we are not to omit from that binary created by God , our sexuality.  Our sex, wherever on the spectrum of God's creative genius, it is a real and magnificent gift. It is link between our physical and spiritual natures that brings visions of joy and love that is all about God. God is all about love and relationship. Think of the Trinity. Think of God creating the entire universe with it's depth, mystery, ever growing, ever changing and loving wonder. 

     If you can catch a glimpse of that in sex, it truly is mind blowing, eh?  I think that is the idea of sex. It is not just procreative, it is humbling, intimate, insightful, loving, life giving, life accepting, life affirming.  All of the above and more.

     And yet it would seem this passage relates that perhaps it is better if you do not marry 'if you can accept this'. I do know that at the same time that I elevate and celebrate our sexuality, I am not willing to, nor do I wish to, make sex the pinnacle of our existence.  Making our sexuality the sole identity of our beings and actions is as lopsided as denying our sexuality.  I have been in enough relationships to know that love can be being just as loving and have all the adjectives attached to it without necessarily being physical. That might seem contradictory or even like a sexless marriage but the truth is that we need to find balance in ourselves and balance in any relationship.  All that I would argue is to not dismiss one aspect of being over any other.  I still recall the book by Henri Nouwen called The Sexual Celibate.  Our sexuality is not defined by any one kind of physical act. The art of loving is not limited either. Those that limit our sexuality in defined boxes, black and white, strict binaries only serve to deny God's magnificent creation. It is actually a blasphemy.

        I am all for celebrating our glorious and Godly nature, physical, sexual and all about love and relationships in all it's myriad forms. I say, celebrate sex to the full in respect and love and dignity.

Matthew 19:1-12

When Jesus had finished saying these things, he left Galilee and went to the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. Large crowds followed him, and he cured them there.

Some Pharisees came to him, and to test him they asked, ‘Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause?’ He answered, ‘Have you not read that the one who made them at the beginning “made them male and female”, and said, “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh”? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.’ They said to him, ‘Why then did Moses command us to give a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her?’ He said to them, ‘It was because you were so hard-hearted that Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but at the beginning it was not so.And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for unchastity, and marries another commits adultery.’

His disciples said to him, ‘If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry.’ But he said to them, ‘Not everyone can accept this teaching, but only those to whom it is given. For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let anyone accept this who can.’