LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2001, Page 436

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

436 ADDITIONAL THEOLOGICAL DOCUMENTS AND REPORTS—OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT

sexual, celibate and troubled, practicing and untroubled, practicing
and troubled. Are there psychological problems present?

4. What is the goal of pastoral care? The goal is to affirm the
person's identity in Christ and to strengthen his or her relationship
with Him. The love of Christ is sinless, sacrificial, giving, redemp-
tive, selfless. This is a faith-inspiring love that replaces a search for
love through sexual activity.

To many pastors and counselors who are heterosexual, it would
seem that the most obvious goal of working with a homosexual
parishioner or counselee would be to help that person change his or
her sexual orientation. Accordingly, change is what they work for
and what they pray for. Unfortunately, that strategy can often result
in frustration and hurt. In some instances, a homosexual will be
able to attain that goal. But not all homosexuals can reach the goal
of becoming heterosexual. In fact, God may allow them to continue
to face this temptation for a reason (which, it must be said, may re-
main hidden in God's good and gracious wisdom). Like St. Paul’s
“thorn in the flesh,” it may be God’s will that the person go on
struggling against homosexual temptation, in the process learning
that when he or she is weak, God is strong.

Goals for Ministry
to Homosexuals and Their Families

Goal One

To confront the individual with his/her sinfulness and call
him/her to repentance.

Of all the goals discussed in this document, Goal One is the
most Law-oriented.'' In working toward this goal what was men-
tioned above in the section, “Law and Gospel Application,” must
be remembered. Care must be taken to distinguish between those
who necd to hear the Law and those who have already heard the
Law and now need to hear the Gospel. In other words, confronting
the individual with the Law may not always be necessary. In fact, it
may have been the Law that compelled the person to come for help
in the first place. Further application of the Law may only drive the
person deeper into either despair or the hardening of his or her
heart.

The pastor should remember that in the Lutheran Church, the
practice of private Confession and Absolution has been the primary
means of individual pastoral care. It is salutary for the penitent to
make confession of his or her sin using the Order for Individual
Confession and Absolution (Lutheran Worship, pp. 310-311). Ex-
tending the penitent’s confession of sin, the pastor may say:
“Which sins do you repent of that are sins against the Sixth Com-
mandment? the Fourth Commandment? the Tenth Command-
ment?” (Offer a brief content statement of each commandment and
pause to hear the confession.) The rite then continues.

Full and specific confession in the presence of the confessor
will reassure the penitent that the forgiveness spoken in the name
and on the behalf of Christ is forgiveness of the penitent’s specific
sins. To be most effective, the penitent must have full trust in the
confidentiality of personal Confession and Absolution and receive
the pastor’s forgiveness as the forgiveness of Christ Himself. The
pastor may wish to remind the person making confession of the
teaching of the Small Catechism concerning the Office of the Keys
and then declare, “Receive the forgiveness Christ won for you by
His passion, death and resurrection. By the command of our Lord
Jesus Christ I, a called and ordained servant of the Word, forgive
you your sins in the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit. Amen.” (Lutheran Worship, p. 311).

Thus, there is a need to distinguish between those who must
hear the Law and those who already feel its burden. In many cases,
the homosexual person who comes to the pastor for help probably
has already heard the Law—ever since he or she began to have ho-
mosexual feelings. He or she may already know what the Bible
says about homosexuality. Care must be taken so that the preaching

2001 Convention Workbook

of the Law does not push the person into despair. In other cases,
however, the person will need to be confronted and called to re-
pentance. Ordinarily, such persons will fall into one of two groups:

I. Active church members who are not troubled by their homo-
sexual behavior: They justify or rationalize their behavior by ig-
noring or distorting what the Bible says. This is a problem of ac-
cepting the authority of Scripture. It is particularly a problem in our
present age described as “postmodern,” when interpretation of the
Bible has been relativized, and people can interpret Scripture ac-
cording to what they think it should say, or what they think it says
to them. The pastor needs to deal with the authority issue and reit-
erate what the Bible says about homosexuality.

2. Inactive church members who are not troubled by their ho-
mosexual behavior: The question here is: Why are they inactive?
The probable answer is that they do not see the church as relevant,
or that they believe that the church does not care about them or
even want them. Most likely, however, the real problem is that they
do not want to hear what the Law says. The pastor needs to reaf-
firm that the church does care; that is why it is reaching out to the
person. And even if the person does not want to hear what the Law
says, it must be proclaimed. The homosexual will see this as a para-
dox: the Law condemns his behavior, but the church cares about
him. This will probably be a difficult concept to get across, since
most homosexuals have grown up believing that no one cares about
them. The church will have to show by its actions, not just its
words, without compromising its confession, that there is genuine
concern and Jove for the person.

Now to confronting the homosexual in preaching and teaching:
Even known or suspected homosexual orientation generates strong
negative feelings. As a result of today’s more open homosexual
presence and an aggressive “gay rights” agenda, the homosexual
person encounters rejection, rejection by the family, the church, the
community. He or she stands apart and alone in the world. If ho-
mosexual orientation and behavior are not differentiated in public
preaching and teaching, the person with a homosexual orientation
will perceive himself or herself as condemned before God without
redemption.

Teens (even pre-teens according to some reports) present an es-
pecially sensitive case for the pastor’s preaching and teaching about
homosexuality. This stage of the life cycle is fraught with struggle
for differentiation from the person’s nuclear family and the dis-
covery of the self. The goal of the pastor (together with the par-
ents) is to nurture a sense of the “Christian self,” sexuality being a
major dimension of that self. The temptation Jaid before Christian
teenagers by our culture is to strike out for total independence from
one’s family ways and values, especially with regard to the issues
of faith and morality. The church faces a very real challenge in nur-
turing teens toward maturity in Christ.

The challenge becomes more difficult when a teenage member
is struggling with homosexual feelings. Our culture, combined with
the strident messages of the gay activist community, sends the mes-
sage to the teenager that his or her feelings are an infallible sign of
an indelible sexual orientation and that he or she will find internal
peace only by openly coming to terms with his or her homosexual-
ity and living the lifestyle. To the contrary, experience shows that
coming to such a conclusion often brings despair rather than the
promised internal peace, as evidenced by the tragic level of
teenaged suicides associated with those who have come to this con-
clusion regarding themselves.

Pastors need to be aware of the impact on teenagers of ‘his ap-
plication of Law and Gospel. It is true that human nature through-
out the life cycle, because of original sin, fights against the Law
and therefore also resists the Gospel. It is not surprising that these
effects are seen in the lives of teenagers in the congregation. How-
ever, we cannot ignore the fact that despair is a common feeling
among teenagers, and that this despair leads to decisions that pro-