Sermon Tone Analysis

As we start this afternoon I’d like to do a little poll.

Our topic is ‘LGBTQ+ or Jesus’ and I want to do a little show of hands.

This poll is not to find out where you stand on these issues.

I am just trying to get a sense of our familiarity with this topic.

Here is the first question.

I have about 8. We will fly through these really fast.

How many of you think you could define lesbian (the L in LGBTQ)?

How many could define what it is to be gay (or homosexual)?

How about bisexuality?

Okay, transgender?

How many could define what it is to be Queer?

Now some of you are aware that the term LGBTQ has expanded to include Intersex and Ally (Intersex and Asexual)?

Could you define those?

Now let me ask a little different question.

How many of us could define ‘Expressive Individualism’?

That’s a lot harder.

Now I will tell you right now that one of the goals of this talk is to convince you that this unfamiliar term is very important.

You see underneath the flourishing of the LGBTQ movement is a worldview that is shared by almost everyone in our culture.

This way of looking at life is often called, “Expressive Individualism.”

You may not have heard of it before, but as Trevin Wax points out, you have heard it in comments like, “you do you,” “be true to yourself,” “follow your heart,” “find yourself,” “be yourself.”

That is what expressive individualism sounds like in daily life.

Because ‘expressive individualism’ is the air we breathe, if someone says to you ‘be true to yourself that’s just common sense today.

Can you imagine saying to you, “now it’s really importnat that don’t be yourself!”

The reason that feels wrong about is because ‘expressive individualism’ is the water we swim in every day.

Now let’s stop for a minute and think about what is behind the “you do you” philosophy of expressive individualism.

There are several features.

We will mention three.

First, your true self is located in your feelings.

I’ll give a transgender example.

Do you feel like a female (even though your birth certificate & biology says you are a male) then you are one?

Do you feel attracted to people of the same sex?

Then that is what you are.

It’s your identity.

We are defined by our desires.

We are what we feel ourselves to be.

Second feature, the highest goal of expressive individualism is to express ourselves.

In fact, freedom is getting to express yourself, and be yourself.

Third point, the ultimate authority in who you ought to be is you, not tradition, or religion, or custom, or government, not biology, just the inner you.

If any outside authority gets in the way of our self expression like a Church, a Synagogue, a Mosque, a Government, a family member, a kid at school that’s oppression.

If anyone says you should be ashamed of who you are, or says “you can’t be who you feel you are” that’s abusive.

So expressive individualism says you are what you feel, freedom is expressing what’s inside of you and not letting anything outside of you get in the way.

And the ultimate authority in the world is me and what I feel is true about me.

That’s expressive individualism in a nutshell.

Wasn’t this talk supposed to be about LGBTQ issues?

Yes, and what I am trying to say is that if you are going to understand the LGBTQ movement then you need to understand ‘expressive individualism.’

You see L/G/B/T/Q movement are just like floors of a house, ‘expressive individualism is the foundation.

Let me illustrate.

Have you ever noticed that the LGBTQ list is getting longer?

When I was younger it was just LGBT, then Questioning or Queer was added later, now Intersex and Ally have been added, and a plus sign has been added because more will surely come.

You might be tempted to see the letters of LGBTQ as individual flowers in a bouquet (one is a rose, another is a daffodil - each letter in LGBTQ is different and all they have in common is that they are not traditional straight sexuality).

But if you think like that, you might miss that these different sexual identities are actually linked together, not like different flowers in a bouquet, but like the honey mushroom in Malheur (MAL-HERE) National Forest in Oregon.

What’s the honey mushroom?

Well, this mushroom is quite possibly the largest living organism on our planet, it covers over 3 square miles.

Now when you see it ,you would just see a few little classic mushrooms here and there, but these mushrooms are all interconnected underground.

What looks like many mushrooms is actually one.

The constantly growing letters of the LGBTQ+ movement are actually united by something deeper, something underground, they are united by ‘expressive individualism.

The idea that the highest goal in life is me expressing myself.

The idea is that what I desire defines me so I am gay, or I feel like a man trapped in woman’s body so I am a man.

This ‘expressive individualism’ unites our whole culture, it’s why even though a small minority of our culture is L, G, B, T, or Q, the majority of our culture are allies.

Most people affirm that a person ought to be who they feel they are with no shame and no one calling them to be something else.

Now the title I was given for this talk is ‘LGBTQ or Jesus?’

And the reason the title is an either-or question is because the claims of the LGBTQ movement and the claims of Jesus are diametrically opposed.

Or to put it another way, the claims of expressive individualism which are underneath the claims of the LGBTQ movement are diametrically opposed to the claims of Jesus.

They are set for a head-on collision.

Just listen to these words from Jesus to see if you can’t feel collision coming.

“And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

35 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.

36 For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?

37 For what can a man give in return for his soul?

38 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

(Mk 8:34–38).

Notice that Jesus sums up what it means to come after him in three ways, self denial, cross bearing, and following Him.

“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”

These words are not the air we breathe.

These words are not the water we swim in.

These words are counter cultural words from the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Notice what they call us to.

These words are a life-giving antidote to the poison of expressive individualism.

Lord, let your Word ring out.

Lord, let your truth ring out.

Father, let the most powerful thing I say be the reading of your Word.

Lord, create in every heart a sense of being ‘sold’ on everything your Word says.

First we are called to deny ourselves - or to put it another way - to flee sin.

When Jesus says,”deny yourself” he is not saying deny your own existence.

Pretend you don’t exist, commit mental suicide.

No, denying yourself does not lead to non-existence it leads to following, denying yourself goes hand in hand with a new way of living (not dying) which Jesus sums up as following him.

Denying yourself also does not mean deny all your desires for goodness and happiness.

Jesus is not calling us to be stoics who turn off our emotions and block out our desires.

No, this whole passage speaks to those who don’t want to lose their lives, to people who want to keep their souls, and who do not want to feel the shame of Jesus being ashamed of them.

Jesus never tells us to kill our desires for joy and pleasure, actually, he is always trying to get us to fix those desires on him, the bread of life, the water of life, the joyful wine of the soul.

So what is the self-denial Jesus is talking about?

It is denying our deep personal desires for sin.

He says to deny yourself because we identify so closely with our sins.

He wants us to put away all sinful ways of finding joy in life, all earthly hopes of enjoying the good life.

He wants us to deny all sinful impulses, temptations, and desires and instead to follow Jesus.

To deny yourself is to flee your own desires for sin so you can follow the Savior.

Second, we are called to our take up our Cross - or to put it another way - to embrace the shame that comes with following Jesus.

Many people talk about Cross bearing in ways that have very little to do with Jesus and his actual Cross.

They get a sore back and they say, “this is my Cross to bear.”

That is not the central idea here.