St Michael Report II; or "this is the way God made me"

As our diocese is gathering today to discuss the contents of the St Michael Report, I thought I would offer some tangential considerations into the mix.

"This is the way God made me"

I have heard this phrase a number of times in course of our denominational discussions.   I appreciate the sincerity and confidence of those who make this claim in the dialogue around the issue of same sex blessings.   

The phrase, however, does raise a few important thoughts that I need to consider.   First is the confidence that what I am is what God intended to me to be.   Now there are of course some obvious areas where I am what God intended me to be, and I suppose that even those who don't know me well can be assured that there are areas where I am not what God intended me to be.  Those who know me well can expand on this latter point at great length.  How do I distinguish between that in me which is what God intended, and that in me which is not what God intended?  This needs to be worked out a bit more.

I think there is an assumption that if something is or feels "natural", then it is from God and reflects God's intentions for me.   That's a tough one to think about.   I need to ask what I mean by that term "natural".   Is nature as I experience it the same thing as "creation" as God intended it?   Do the two perfectly coincide, do they overlap, are they exclusive of one another?  We need to do a better job of looking at the relationship between nature (as we experience it) and creation (as God intended it).

In terms of mere physical selves, I cannot universally  affirm that "this is the way God made me".  We are "born again" or "born from above"  because the first birth - the natural birth - is, well, not enough.   It is marred by the Fall - in which creation and "nature" start to go their separate ways.   The two are still woven together, but there are tears in the seams.   Our mistake is that we think they are one and the same.

Comments

[Matt]

The best comment on 'naturalism' I heard came from a reformed pastor who stood up to preach and said, "I am a non-practicing adulterer" resulting in much shock and awe in his congregation.