Two weeks ago, I spoke about sin as an illness. I talked about how sin in general, or any particular sin, cannot be our true identity. Of course, we refer to ourselves as sinners, and we can refer to a particular kind of sin as something we struggle with. But that doesn’t define who we are. God created us to be free from any sin; free to love Him and each other totally with no sin getting in the way of that.

We talked about the need, therefore, for all of us to find healing. We don’t distinguish and say these people are sinners and need healing, and we aren’t in that category. No, we put ourselves in the same category of those who are in need of the Hospital - the Church - and of the treatment, the cure, that comes from Christ.

There are different manifestations of the illness of sin, but it’s all the same basic illness. So we don’t see ourselves as better than someone who struggles with something different from ourselves. And we don’t say, for example, a same-sex attraction is more sinful than any other form of sexual temptation, or, for that matter, more sinful than the temptation to be greedy, or to envy, or any other temptation.

The world likes to put everyone into categories. It sees good guys and bad guys. We can fall into this trap. We’re the good guys. The other people out there are the bad guys. People say “don’t be on the wrong side of history.” That’s just another way of saying, “don’t be one of the bad guys. We’re on the right side; be with us and don’t be on the wrong side.”

There are two things I’d say about this: first of all, the authentic Orthodox approach doesn’t put everyone into categories (the good side, the bad side). Rather, it puts everyone into the same category of being created good, being intended by God for His Kingdom, but needing to be saved and healed and transformed by Christ.

The second thing to mention here is that only God knows what is the right side of history. The right side of history from the world’s perspective shouldn’t concern us at all as Christians. We’re participating in a larger project. History comes and goes. All people mean when they say the right side of history is who seems to be winning at this present moment. But we know the end of the whole story. We know Christ wins in the end, when He defeats Satan and establishes His kingdom. So we don’t have to worry or be anxious. Instead, we just have to stay focused on Christ.

And as we do so, He gives us the strength and the courage to stand on the so-called wrong side of history to affirm the truth.

Lies hurt people. For example, there are faithful strugglers who by God’s grace are doing battle with their temptations to act on same-sex attractions, just as there are countless faithful strugglers in the Orthodox Church, battling with every kind of temptation imaginable.

What if someone were to come and confess to me that they were being tempted by thoughts of resentment and hatred? Perhaps they were being tempted to retaliate against someone and do something cruel, out of spite or envy or for revenge? If I, as a priest, were to say, “Oh, that’s no big deal. Go ahead and hate that person and do whatever you want to them,” what kind of priest would I be? That would be a massive betrayal of the person struggling with the temptation.

The same thing applies to those struggling with same-sex attractions, or any other temptation that would lead us outside the boundaries that God has established by blessing monogamous, chaste, fruitful marriage between a man and a woman. It would be a massive betrayal to suddenly change our teaching and tell people that it’s perfectly fine and healthy to accept their temptation and embrace it as a lifestyle. It would be a betrayal of the truth, and it would be a betrayal of those who struggle with that temptation.

The Church can never bless what’s not bless-able. She blesses food, but She doesn’t bless gluttony. She blesses working to support one’s family, but She doesn’t bless greed. She blesses caring for our legitimate needs but not self-centeredness. And so on.

All things in the God-given order of things are blessed to be used in the right way, for the right purpose, at the right time. Nothing is blessed for a contrary and ultimately harmful purpose. This includes the gift of sexuality.

We see this reality as part of the larger picture of God’s desire for our salvation, which means our communion with Him. In the first talk I gave I emphasized marriage as an icon of the union between Christ the Bridegroom, and the Church as the Bride. In my second reflection I focused on marriage as a sacrament, a mystery of the Church. From the Orthodox perspective, marriage and sexuality are ultimately for the sake of man’s salvation and communion with God. Holding fast to that truth and being careful not to deviate it is a matter of our own well-being on every level.

That’s because the truth is not just something objective and outside of ourselves that doesn’t connect with who we are and what fulfills us and brings us joy. What is true, what is real, is precisely what perfects and fulfills and completes us, and brings peace to our lives. This is true about marriage, and it’s true about all truth.

The more we embrace the truth that God reveals to us; the more we embrace Jesus Christ who is the Truth, the more we discover the truth about ourselves and we are set free. We become who we are. We find joy and peace. We find healing and salvation.

This is what we want for ourselves, and for everyone, and this is why we, as the Church, will not stop speaking the truth in love.

There are some practical implications of the recent Supreme Court decision for us, but I won’t say a lot more about that right now. I’ve already shared the possibilities that eventually we as Orthodox clergy won’t sign marriage licenses. We’ll see if that ends up being required; it’s not the direction we’re getting from our bishops right now. It also remains to be seen whether we’ll end up getting our tax status revoked. If we did, it wouldn’t be the end of the world. In the early centuries of the Church’s history, the government authorities were not at all supportive of the Church’s ministry and life, and often they were blatantly hostile to the Church. Okay…that’s nothing new.

Once again, we have to keep our focus on Christ and keep bearing witness to His love. The gates of Hades will not prevail against the Church, either when it suffers violent persecutions as it does now in Syria, or when it is supposedly on the wrong side of history, as here in our country at this moment. God is with us, and we have nothing to fear. We belong to Him. And we know the end of the story.

In the meantime, we’re called to continue witnessing to God’s love for all people, and to the truth by which God desires to set people free. So we speak the truth in love, and we love in truth. May the Lord enable us to do so. Amen.