Week 5 - Youth Questions 1 - Spring 2023
What we talked about on Sunday
“Is homosexuality actually a sin?”
As we discussed this question in Youth on Sunday, the overwhelming sense from the students was that this is a difficult topic, but an incredibly relevant and necessary one. This was evident in their answers to the above question, where some responded, saying, “No, homosexuality can’t be a sin because God wouldn’t create someone to be innately sinful.” While others said, “Homosexuality is a sin because God made sex to be between a man and a woman.” Like most discussions of difficult topics, our worldview and understanding of God informs our response. As someone interested in teaching young people to have a biblical worldview that lasts, it is important to understand the challenge of such a task so that it can be taught and approached appropriately.
The hard thing about beliefs and one’s worldview is that they are shaped over time, and that if we want to move someone to believe something different than they presume to be true we have to be prepared for a journey. We do not simply wake up and decide, “This is what I believe about the world now,” because beliefs are shaped by the way we experience the world. As we grow from adolescence to adulthood our beliefs are shaped first by our parents, as we watch and listen to the way they respond to situations in their own life and as they instruct us how to live. It is this watching and listening which starts to form in us the basis of our worldview.
As we increase in age, however, our worldview gets tested by those around us. Suddenly the things we were taught in the home get challenged by a teacher or friend, and we face a moment of crisis: “What am I to do with this new and contradictory information?” Sometimes, when we reach this crisis, our beliefs are so strong, regardless of their truthfulness, that we recoil at this new information, put up our defenses, and refuse to engage it further out of subconscious fear that the rest of our worldview may crumble.
But other times we stop and really consider the possibility that we might be wrong—that something in our core belief system could be broken. And yet, such moments of true openness take time to develop. Often before we ever get to that moment our defenses have to have been slowly chipped away by conversations, observations, and the continuous stream of competing information, until we arrive, for seemingly the first time, at the realization that we were indeed wrong and must now reprogram our core belief system so we can allow space for this new belief.
Sunday’s conversation was the first in this long journey. Some of our students are further along than others; some have a more developed biblical worldview than others. Though few would be able to articulate their own worldview (just as many of us adults would struggle), their answers to hard questions reveal what is beneath the surface. Sunday’s conversation did not rewire anyone’s core belief system, but it certainly offered some a moment of crisis—a sort of fork in the road—and others an opportunity to reinforce defenses.
I saw this moment of crisis for some and reinforcement for others occur as I answered the above question by telling them the Big Story of the Bible as it relates to our sexuality. That story goes like this. In the beginning, God created male and female, both in the image of God. This man and woman were to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth with more people, which pleased God, for all that God created was and is good. In Eden, everything, including sexuality, was exactly the way God intended it to be.
However, this man and woman rebelled against God by disobeying him. Because of this, sin entered the world and corrupted all things. Everything that God had made good became corrupted by sin, including, but certainly not limited to, our sexuality. What was once good and perfect became broken from birth—it became not the way it was meant to be. Just as disease and death entered the world through sin, so too sexual brokenness—things like sex outside of marriage, pornography, and homosexuality—entered the world.
And yet, God does not leave us in our brokenness. Instead, he entered into our brokenness through Jesus. God became like us, lived a perfect life, showed us how we can represent God rightly to the world, became the perfect sin offering, died, and then rose again, Lord over sin, death, and the brokenness in our world. Now we live in the in-between as we wait for Jesus to return and once and for all make all things new. And as we wait we deal with the brokenness that still exists in our world (including in our sexuality) but we get to look ahead to a day when we will be made new.
For some, this story reinforced what they knew to be true; for others, this story caused internal conflict. And yet, despite the differences in our students, what is true for all of them is that they heard that God loves them. Whether they have same sex attraction, find themselves apart of the LGBTQ spectrum, or are unquestionably straight, God loves them and wants them to experience his love in community with like minded followers of Jesus. And as we continue on this journey towards a lasting biblical worldview we will continue to learn of God’s great love for us in the midst of our brokenness.
Continuing the Conversation at Home
Most if not all of the students left Sunday tired. Discussions like this can be draining. If your kid(s) were quiet about what we discussed after they got home—that is okay. Take some time this week to pray for you kid(s). Pray that in their brokenness they would experience God’s love. And then after praying for them, tell them how much you love them and how much God loves them, and how no matter who they are or what they feel that will never change.
If you have questions about anything that was discussed or would just like someone to talk to about how your kid(s) might be feeling, please email, call, or set up a time to come talk with me. You can email me at “tim@redemptionbiblechurch.org”. Please know that Tirza, Bekah, and I are for you and your family and are praying for you regularly. We are all going to mess up at times along this journey, but we can be confident that God loves you and he loves your kids!