Transcript: Lesson 33 - Theological reflections

Friends, welcome. We are thinking about what it means to be transgender and to function as  the family of God, to walk alongside each other to reflect on how our sexuality is meant to  embody God's story to to reveal the gospel to the world around us. And especially as we think about the family of God, the church and LGBT+ people, one of the key ways that we do that is by being willing to walk alongside each other with grace and truth, that oftentimes, things like gender identity and sexual identity and orientation have been things that have have caused  us to distance ourselves from our brothers and sisters in Christ. And how do we both uphold  what Scripture says and walk well with each other? I think to do that, we have to understand  the gospel and what the gospel is for each of us recognizing that all of us fall short, but all of  us are created in God's image, and all of us are beloved by Jesus Christ. And so we show  God's forgiving grace to one another. But we also call each other to walk in this path of, of  empowering grace, walking by the Spirit to do what we couldn't do on our own strength. And  so in this video, I want to think a little bit about some theological reflections on what it means  to be male and female, and how this applies in walking with transgender people, and really  thinking about an integrated approach to walking well with transgender brothers and sisters,  in the body of Christ. Now, part of what we see in Scripture is this, this sense that as male and female, we bear the image of God, that it is important that there is this diversity in God's  creation, that this male and female differences is important. I said, several, several units back when we were talking about the story of creation, that we need to recognize that male and  female are neighbouring sexes, not not opposite sexes, that when you think about what men  and women what male and female share in common, it's far more than any of the differences  that might divide them. And so there is this unity and diversity, to what it means to be male  and female as God's image bearers. What you do see in Scripture is that gender distinction is  important that there are not a ton of scriptures that speak to this, but it is clear that men  should function as men that women should function as women. But here's what I really want  you to get here. Gender distinction does not mean falling into rigid stereotypes. And this, I  think, is a real danger in the church community that we, we take certain human  characteristics, like, for example, like courage or bravery. And we maybe assign that to one  gender and say, Well, to be, to be courage and to have courage is to be manly. To Be Brave is  to be manly. And so we connect a certain human quality human characteristic human virtue  with one particular gender. And now if you have a woman who is a warrior, somebody who is  showing courage, somebody who's showing bravery, and then we say, well, what will Why are you asking a Why are you acting masculine? I think that's a mistake. And in fact, here's  something I think it's important, I want you to see, you know, the more we have rigid gender  stereotypes, the more it actually I think, feeds into some of the confusion around gender that  we see in our culture today. So that if we do say, Well, only men act this way women have  these human characteristics, men have these human characteristics. I think that's going to  cause a lot of people to scratch their heads and say, Well, I'm a woman, but I also have these  character human characteristics or, or I'm a man and I have these human characteristics. And so it's only actually going to cause more problems, the more that we, the more we try to  reinforce rigid gender stereotypes. And so I think, when we when we think about a gender  distinction, rather than thinking about gender along a spectrum, so there's like really manly  masculinity at this end, where, you know, men are like hunting and watching NASCAR and  doing these very manly things. And very feminine women on the other end who just, you  know, wear dresses and high heels all day or, you know, some some other stereotype. I think  it's much more helpful to think about gender as kind of an overlapping binary. So so it is,  there is a distinction, right? Male and female. But when we think about the characteristics  that male and female share, many of those things overlap. And many of those things are  shared qualities. And so I think that it actually helps us. So that, you know, if I say, Wow, I'm a man, but I have these characteristics like maybe I don't like NASCAR, I don't like hunting. I'm  not gonna like, Wow, am I? Am I feminine? No, because I see examples of men who don't  necessarily do those things, but do others or have other qualities have other characteristics.  And so I think we can emphasize gender distinction, without kind of saying that these rigid  stereotypes are something that we should, we should afford. It's even interesting to think  about the way that in Scripture, you you kind of see this breakdown. When you look at Jesus. 

Jesus clearly is a biological man. But when you look at his qualities, His characteristics, you  know, he's he's, he's willing to weep and mourn in situations in ways that many men in North  American culture, won't he he's willing to be very tender, he comes alongside and welcomes  children in a way that his other male disciples didn't. Or you look at the writings of the apostle Paul, I mentioned in an earlier video I Thessalonians 2 where Paul interestingly says, he says, I was like a nursing mother, among you. I was gentle. And so and then he also goes on saying,  and I was like a father to you comforting and encouraging you. And so you see them sort of  being willing to say, look, being being a man means that you have these broadly human  characteristics, some of which we might associate more with women or men. But but me  having those characteristics doesn't mean that I'm a woman, it means I'm a man who's living  out this, living out this quality or this characteristic in my life. When we think about human  identity, I think it is important to recognize that it's both sex and embodies, in other words,  that scripture actually takes our bodies very seriously. It doesn't see our bodies as just matter, but the we are a body soul unity, and that embodiment includes being male or female. And I  think you also see in Scripture as well, that part of how God reveals to us who we are, is  through our bodies, again scripture takes our bodies really seriously in a way that even in the  modern world, we don't, because we see bodies as just matter. And so when you look at  Scripture, the way to understand, you know, Are you a woman? Or are you a man, it's actually not by looking at rigid gender stereotypes. It's, it's actually by saying, Well, what is my body  say, and understanding who we are there is, is very crucial for our identity. And so I think, this is where I think we have to be careful as Christians, how I understand myself as a man or a  woman is in and through my body. But sometimes again, there's this danger of that I see  sometimes in different Christian, Christian books, or speakers who talk about biblical  manhood or biblical womanhood and talk. So the most important thing you can do, if you're a  woman is to be a truly womanly woman, or a biblical one, whatever that means, or biblical  men. And the danger of as we also then kind of read our own culture, our own cultural  stereotypes back onto the Bible, when if you if you actually read through scripture, there's  fairly little in there about how to be a man or how to be a woman. There's a lot in there about  how to be a follower of Jesus, how to be part of the people of God. But actually, the vast  majority of what it says applies to both men and women. Right, that there's not a sense in  which we would say, Well, you know, this, this chapter, I Corinthians is just for men, and this  chapter is just for women, the vast majority of what's in there. So here's what it means to be  a follower of Jesus. And so I think, you know, the goal here is not to embody a cultural  stereotype of a man or a woman, but to think about how God is calling me with all the things  that make me uniquely me to follow him, and that part of that includes being a man or being  a woman. And so, I've touched on this a number of times, so maybe you can tell I care about  this topic quite a bit. Part of what I think Christians have done is actually deconstruct and, and maybe reconstruct, to some degree, not not a bad stereotype, but really deconstruct how our  culture oftentimes warps what it means to be a man so that, you know, in North American  culture, personally like to be a man means you never cry, you're always tough. And so we  teach our boys you know, from the beginning, you don't cry about something, you don't  express hurt you don't express pain. Is that really helpful? I think that's maybe not a good  human characteristic to have to kind of shut down your emotions and maybe be out of touch  or out of tune with those emotions. Obviously, there are times when we do have to In some  sense, suck it up and move forward. But that's something that all human beings have to learn to do in different ways, men or women. And that doesn't mean that we want to just repress  our emotions or ignore our emotions. And so Christians, I think of all people should be, should  be willing to say, the Gospel does not bring with it, of cultural, unhelpful, cultural stereotypes,  that we need to be careful here that we're calling people to follow Jesus, not just to embody a  cultural stereotype. So how do we think about an integrated approach to transgender people? How what should our posture be? What should our focus be? I think one thing that we do need to emphasize because scripture emphasizes is that there is this important integrity to sex  difference that there is a difference between men and women, and that we want to affirm that that the point here is not to blur or to ignore the difference. Because again, that diversity or  that difference, has a unity has a purpose as image bearers of God. And so we want to 

emphasize the integrity of sex differences. We also want to think about compassionate  management of gender dysphoria that you even when you think about scripture, for example, some might reflect on the verse in Leviticus that talks about, essentially how a man shouldn't  dress as a woman or vice versa. And part of what's going on there, I think there is a  prohibition against just completely blurring those lines. But that is, I think, different from  compassionate management of gender dysphoria that if, you know, for example, there is  somebody who says, it helps me if you know, on the weekend in the privacy of my own home, if I if I wear clothes that are more aligned with my gender identity instead of my biological  sex, then I would there's part of me that I think does recognize that that's different from this  idea of just constantly presenting as a different gender. And so we need to think about what  actually helps people to manage gender dysphoria. And again, this is where I think as  Yarhouse points out, the disability framework is important that this is not just somebody is  just willfully choosing to do this for whatever reason, but that they're actually wrestling with  this, this distress that is produced by this, this misalignment, and so to be able to alleviate  that can be helpful. And finally, I think it's important for us to reflect on meaning making  identity and community that I think the thing that I would most want people to take away  from this is that the church family should be a place where it's safe to wrestle with these  questions, that is safe to say, hey, you know, I was I was biologically I'm a man, but I just  don't, internally, I don't feel that and I feel this deep sense of distress, like, I feel like I actually am a woman, I need somebody to walk with me through this. You know, this is where  oftentimes, the danger is that we we tell people just to get over it or, or just to try to get get,  you know, a sense of gender identity that does align with their biological sex. And then once  they've reached that place, then they can be welcomed in our church, then they can find a  place as part of the family of God. And I wonder how would change if we said, you have a  place here? You are part of us, we all male and female, transgender cisgender we're all  wrestling with to some degree, what does it mean, to follow Jesus as a man as a woman? How do I do that well? How do I understand God's intentions for me and that, that rather than  saying, Go get your act together, get a sense of identity that fits with what I want you to  have? And then come back, we're willing to actually walk with people through this and say,  you know, what, maybe if, if you are a biological female, and what it means what what was  helpful for you is for you to cut your hair short, and you never wear a dress and whatever,  that's okay. That's okay. That we will walk together through this process of, of journeying well,  of walking with Jesus. And I'm convinced that if we do that, if we're able to actually function  as the family of God in that way, treat one another as as family, then it's going to be of  benefit to all of us. And it's going to put the gospel on display for people around us to see that the church that the gospel is not just for people who have their act together, not just for  people who have figured everything out, but for all of us as we we struggle with our identity  as we struggle with our sin. And as we begin to experience the deep love of Jesus that comes  from him. But that also comes through one another, as we show love to each other. And so  that's, that's, I guess my prayer. My call for you as you reflect on these things is that it leads  you to this deeper place of asking how am I called to love those around me well with the love  of Jesus and to put that on display for the world to see. Well, in the next unit, we're going to  think about gay and lesbian people what it means for gay lesbian people to be part of the  family of God, again, to think about some practical considerations, some theological and  biblical considerations. And so I look forward to joining you again then. So until next time,  blessings