Can’t quite stop to think about the Presiding Bishop, Reverend Michael Bruce Curry of the Episcopal Church, the presiding bishop of the American Episcopal Church sermon this weekend. In fact, it was a beautiful sermon, where love, redemption, and fire were the keywords. A sermon that caught attention from all the globe, that provoked hearts to think in love as a weapon of redemption in this war of attrition and disputes we live today.
But it raises me a couple of questions, and I don’t know how deepened that Theological sermon got into peoples hearts, but even worse, how well understood could it be by those who are not Christians.
My problem with Revered Curry starts with him actually. A Reverend is someone committed to preaching the Gospel and to maintain himself faithful to the faithfulness of God and the Scriptures. One cannot preach whatever it makes the congregation goes cheerful and deny to preach what God demands to do so. And that failed to happen… The Revered positions about marriage are contrary to the Scripture. Proving that, there’s only one way to proceed: repent and restart. Curry starts by stating that:
“Many believed that marriage is part of core doctrine. No individual church can change core doctrine. Many felt that the expansion of who may be married on our part was a change in church doctrine. Therefore it was in part on that basis that many felt that we had overstepped our authority as a province. I didn’t agree with that but I respect that that was the understanding of many. For me, marriage is not part of core doctrine.”
One of the fundamental doctrines of Christianity is about marriage. Paul talks about that in Ephesians 5:22-33, when he matches the union of husband and wife to that of Christ and the church. That union has a name. It’s marriage, a direct ordinance from God to Adam and Eve (Genesis 1:27,28), repeated by Jesus (Mark 10:1-12) and Paul (1st Corinthians 7:2-4). So, if something is defined by God, repeated again by Him and then through one of His Apostles, it’s definitely a core doctrine. It is not a cherry picking thing. Curry failure to acknowledge that is harmful, even more, if he is preaching in a marriage.
In the words of St. John Chrysostom (Homily 20, Homilies on Ephesians):
“The love of husband and wife is the force that welds society together. Men will take up arms and even sacrifice their lives for the sake of this love. St. Paul would not speak so earnestly about this subject without serious reason; why else would he say, “Wives, be subject to your husbands, as to the Lord?” Because when harmony prevails, the children are raised well, the household is kept in order, and neighbors, friends, and relatives praise the result. Great benefits, both of families and states, are thus produced. When it is otherwise, however, everything is thrown into confusion and turned upside-down.”
This force can only be obtained in and through marriage with the grace of God. Because it is Him that solidifies the union, that takes two different persons into one, without making them lose their traits and personalities, rather shaping them and helping them shape themselves in love for each other.
But unfortunately, Reverend Curry continues by saying:
“Marriage is a sacramental right, it is a solemn and sacred matter of faith and practice. But it is not core doctrine.”
Quoting Lea Baugh :
“Sacraments are not practices the church made up or that evolved over time. The sacraments are specific practices Christ himself gives to Christians for their sake. Thus, these things are vitally important for the church and Christians to practice and should always be done with the Word of God and in the way the Word of God commands them to be done.”
If it is given by Christ, it’s a commandment, not an option. Of course one might opt not to follow it, but then one will be deliberately not following the Lord’s commandment to receive His grace and to take part has a body in full union with Him. Regarding Church, unity is a very serious issue. The Church is the body of Christ, it’s head (Colossians 1:18), or so to say, it is His visible expression in the world. One body separated from its head dies. In a manner of seconds, minutes, days, years… It dies and does not grow back to live. It becomes like “autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted and lifeless” (Jude 1:12, AMP).
It is because of these kinds of teachings, like the ones subscribe to, that heresy comes to appear and wolfs attack the flock from the inside of the barn. In a note from 2016, current Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Albany in the United States, Reverend William H. Love declared: “The traditional doctrine of the church in view of the teaching of Scripture, upholds marriage as between a man and a woman in faithful, lifelong union. The majority of those gathered reaffirm this teaching.”
Concluding this first part, we can see that Revered Curry fails to comply with the sound doctrine of God, relegating marriage to a position where it should not be, perhaps explaining why some many marriages end in divorce. Because of the lack of pastoral care, the absence of doctrinal teaching and the example set by themselves as leaders.
Freecoded 