When I was a child, we used to eat tomatoes out of the
garden. We ate them like apples, just
biting into them; some of my cousins
might sprinkle salt on them, some folks liked them with sugar, but I liked them
just plain. A tomato sandwich was SUCH a
good treat! Some people put mayo on it,
but I always thought mayo was yukky, and a couple of slices of tomato between a
couple of slices of white bread was, for me, a delicious treat!!
As I got older, I didn’t like tomatoes and strawberries so
much. I never really liked cooked
tomatoes, but fresh ones were always delicious. Then, sometime in the late 70s,
instead of the deep red, thick-skinned beauties I’d grown up with, supermarkets
started introducing these orange-ish, thin-skinned things that had no taste to
them. I learned to eat them in salads,
but my love of the taste of tomatoes waned.
Over time, the payoff just wasn’t worth the hassle of eating tomatoes,
so I stopped. Occasionally I’d try “tree-ripened”
tomatoes, but they still didn’t taste quite right.
Until this week. I got my farm share, which included cherry
tomatoes. I started to put them in the
return bin, but something told me to try them.
I popped one in my mouth, and !There it was!! A real tomato taste!!! All
week long I’ve been popping cherry tomatoes like they were cherries – just one
or two or three or five at a sitting – pop one into your mouth and there’s an
incredible explosion of tomato flavor!! I’m
sure this sounds silly, but to me, the difference between a REAL tomato and that
hothouse stuff they sell is nothing short of amazing. Everyone doesn't feel that way, of course, but I find the difference amazing.
Perhaps it's because we grew up with three houses sharing two gardens. I grew up in a house with grandparents who’d
lived on a farm and were accustomed to growing everything they ate except for
sugar and flour. So this return to
farm-grown foods feels like a return to the food of my childhood, and I’m
ECSTATIC about it!!! I’m not sure that
this farm-grown stuff is the “organic” stuff they sell in Whole Foods – that still
looks too processed to me. This stuff I’m talking about still has dirt on the
veggies, an occasional hoe mark in the root veggies – it’s food right from the
earth, and it’s DELICIOUS!!!
It seems a bit counterintuitive to segue from natural
produce of the earth to sex and sexuality.
But I’m reading a post about a pastor who’s having charges of Crimes
Against Humanity leveled against him.
His offense is that he has worked to criminalize homosexuality in
Uganda, thereby denying gay people of their humanity.
I just have to say this:
Folks, if your reading of the Holy Scriptures leads you to believe that
homosexuality is a sin, then by all means stand up for what you believe
in. But please note that Jesus spent FAR
more time talking about money then He did about sex, sexuality, sexual immorality,
and Hell COMBINED. Yet we have preachers
of “Prosperity Gospel” running around and not only do we not renounce them as
charlatans, we flock to their megachurches, buy their books, and begin to “name
and claim” our wealth and “decree and declare” that the idolized god they speak
of will perform its magic tricks and do whatever we want.
I hate it when my students try to preach a sermon instead of
making a point, but I have to go to Acts 8:9-24 here and refer to Simon the
magician. I can imagine Simon
healing the sick and doing all manner of miracles in front of people, and then
the people hearing the Word and wanting to be baptized, and Simon wanting to have
hands laid on him so he could receive the Holy Ghost and have more power. But his request is rejected because his heart
isn’t right with God, because he thinks the gift of God can be purchased with
money, and because he’s BOUND UP IN BITTERNESS AND INIQUITY.
It’s not my intent here to call out my fellow Christians; we
all sin and fall short. My point is that
there is so much beauty, awe, and wonder in the gifts that God has given us –
the earth and the fullness thereof, the heavens, the mountains and the seas –
we’ve got this wonderful world here, and it seems to me that we’re much better
served – whether different denominations of Christians or different faith
traditions – it seems we’re much better served strengthening each other in our
common areas then we are in tearing one another down in those areas where we don’t
agree.
Tomatoes, strawberries, and sexuality are all gifts from
God. Now, I prefer my tomatoes and
strawberries natural, and choose to enjoy them at their peak of ripeness. But they can be genetically modify it and made
into something that (to me) has very little semblance to its natural form. They may not be exactly what I want, but they're still tomatoes. They can rot and turn into something ugly, which we can then use
to attack one another. Alternatively, we
can choose to share the ripe fruit with one another, or make a feast for anyone who wants to partake.
I think it works similarly for strawberries and for
sexuality. We get choices, and we can
choose to focus on the areas in which we are similar, on the ways in which we
are alike, or we can choose to focus on the forces that would tear us
apart. I suppose I could go off on a rant
about how eating too many strawberries or tomatoes would cause you to break out
in a rash, or I could use some of the wealth clobber-texts: Mark 10:25 (:It is
easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is
rich to enter the kingdom of God.") or Matthew 19:21 (Jesus answered, "If you
want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you
will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.") or Matthew 6:19 ("Do
not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy,
and where thieves break in and steal.) or Luke 12:33 (Sell your possessions and
give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a
treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth
destroys.”). I could do all that, but
what would be the point, other than making people who enjoy a little physical comfort feel
bad?
Would it not be better to focus on the words from Jesus when he said (Matthew 22:36-40): Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[a] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b] 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
I'm sure some will try to say that people who are different are like genetically modified or hothouse-grown fruits and vegetables, that somehow they aren't "quite as good" as the rest of us. But while I happen to prefer my veggies from the ground, the reality is that the hothouse varieties exist, have existed for a while, and supply a variety of needs. I don’t know – it just seems to me that if what we’re doing
in the name of Jesus isn’t based on the two commandments He cited as foundational, then perhaps our focus is
a little off. I think you can have tomatoes and/ or
strawberries. How many of them you consume, whether they're fresh off the farm or out of a hothouse, and whether they impact you positively
or negatively – that’s something you have to figure out. Similarly, I think you can have a sexual orientation that
is other than hetero. How you live that
out, and whether that impacts your spirit positively or negatively – that’s
something you have to work out as you work out your soul’s salvation.
Just like I love tomatoes and strawberries, I am called to
love you the same way I love me. All of them:
you, me, tomatoes, and strawberries, – no matter what we've gone through, we’re ultimately all magnificent creations of
God, to be honored and respected. That means I’m not going to do anything to
hurt you, not going to put you into a situation where you might come in harm’s
way, and not going to create a situation that could harm you.
I wish I could think of some nice way to tie this up, as I’m
afraid I’ve wandered a bit. But that is all.
2 comments:
I think you tied it up nicely :-)
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