What Tree?

"The nature of the crisis in the Anglican Communion has often been identified as the issue over homosexuality, but Archbishop Henry Orombi of the Church of Uganda stressed that the heart of the crisis is the 'risk of losing our biblical foundation.'"

Well, here it is again. We need to stand on our foundation. As Martin Luther said, "Here I stand." For the Anglicans, it isn't really an issue of homosexuality. Human sexuality, and its boundaries, are defined in the bible. As people take their eyes off God, and focus on themselves, their wants and desires, they necessarily have to throw out the bible.

Brother McRoberts, one of my teachers at college, had a nice visual turn of phrase for this. Picture Adam and Eve, standing in the Garden of Eden. God asks if they have eaten from the tree. Standing there, axe in hand, juice dribbling down their chins, they ask him, "What tree?"

What tree, indeed. I'm reminded of a poem, "The Second Coming" I think. As a beast slouches towards Bethlehem to be born, the falcon is circling further and further away from the falconer. This world is too much with us. As we draw closer to the world, we draw away from God. Spinning out, our gyre takes us to a distance to where we can't see the center of our existence anymore.

Eventually, to justify our actions, we have to dismiss the bible as valid. What did God say? Did he say it us? Or to the Jews and Christians millenia ago? No, they decide. It was cultural. Or for health and dietary reasons.

The issue is holiness, not homosexuality.