A Sermon by the Rev. Dr. Arthur M. Suggs
on the Fourth Sunday of Lent, March 11, 2018
This is the fourth in the series of sermons on The Good Book. Here is the Rev. Dr. Art Suggs’ Invincible Ignorance sermon. Rev. Suggs shared:
Snails with Snorkels Will Clean Your Tank, but Look Out for the Hermaphrodites
In the same way that we are now in the middle of the season of Lent, so also I am just past the middle of this series of sermons.
First, we looked at an overview of Bible 101 in “Part I: Enlightening the Eyes” on the first Sunday of Lent.
Next, we examined the Use and Abuse of the Bible in “Part II: A Hard Conversation.” Last Sunday was the Bible and Women in “Part III: Pink Smoke.” (Coming to the UCC-FCC web site soon.)
Today is the Bible and Homosexuality in “Part IV: Invincible Ignorance.” Next Sunday is “Part V: The Bible and Money.”
I’m having a blast with this series; it’s been a lot of fun, even though the subjects have been rather serious.
Let me start off with “Part IV: Invincible Ignorance,” otherwise known as the Bible and Homosexuality.
Back in the days when I was entering adolescence, junior high going toward high school, I had thirteen fish tanks that I took care of in a mini business. I raised all sorts of different kinds of fish and then sold them to local pet stores. They wouldn’t give me any money, but they would give me lots of fish food for my enterprise.
One of the ways to keep fish tanks clean is with snails that eat the algae. There are lots of different versions of aquatic snails, but my favorite is one that’s called an apple snail. It’s a bit of a misnomer because they’re not that big. They are more the size of a walnut, and they come in either dark brown or albino. They are air-breathers, even though they live their lives underwater. From time to time, they make it toward the surface with their long two-inch snorkel.
Hovering below the surface of the water, they send up their snorkel, breathe air for a while, and then tuck it in and go back down for more algae.
The apple snails are very prolific. They lay lots of eggs with hard little shells like an egg shell, but they’re more the size of a mustard seed. They lay 50 to 70 of them very often, so pretty soon the tank is crawling with all these little guys running around.
I subscribed to Aquarium Magazine, and sure enough there’s an article about these snails, with advice for people who want to breed them.
The article said just buy two. Don’t worry about whether they’re two boys or two girls. Being pre-adolescent, I perked up at this.
It turns out as I read further that, if you have two males, one of them switches. I don’t know how they make that decision, but if you have two females, one of them will switch. The article used a new word for me — hermaphrodites, meaning that they have the ability to be both, and they somehow make that decision. Well, I was intrigued by that. I didn’t know that could happen in some species.
High-school biology rolls around, and we learn about rabbits. They too have the ability to solve that problem. If you have just female rabbits, they can fertilize an egg with a blood cell. It’s called parthenogenesis, another new word for my growing vocabulary. If you have a bunch of girl rabbits and no males, all is not lost. The next thing you know, you still have baby rabbits coming around.
Later on in seminary, I read in the Greek text that a parthenos shall conceive and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. Parthenos is a virgin in Greek, and so parthenogenesis is when you are able to have babies and still be a virgin.
Open and Affirming Is
a High and Holy Goal; Look
Out for Half-Heartedness.
Once again, as the hormones began to flow, I was intrigued by these different options that are available in the animal kingdom. So now, a sermon on the Bible and Homosexuality.
In 2009, our congregation, First Congregational Church, became “Open and Affirming.” Almost nine years ago, we adopted this pledge unanimously, and it’s framed and out there in the hallway. (You’ll find that on our web site here.)
The Last Prejudice Is Homophobia; the Big Three Are Rooted in the Bible.
However, the prejudice against homosexuality is pervasive. It has been called “The Last Prejudice,” which, of course, nobody believes, but it is the third of “The Big Three,” racism, sexism, and homophobia.
Like racism and sexism, homophobia has its roots in the Bible. It’s easy to find, and there are five specific places.
Before your eyes blink over, I’m not going to deal with all five. However, I do want to list them so you know what they are:
Featured Image Credit: The Gutenberg Bible, 1455, Johann Gutenberg; Rare Books Division, the Lenox Library. Image by Kevin Eng, CC-PD Wikimedia.