I stopped using the PCUSA lectionary about a year ago. In part because the church is apostate: in part because their site was unreliable. For the last year this blogger, who attends a Presbyterian church that teetered on the edge of apostasy, has used the ESV common prayer readings, not the RCL.

Which does not matter that much. What matters is how we influence those around us. To unpack a bit of the passage: it is only by the spirit of God that we can reform ourselves and it is only by the sacrificial blood of Christ that we are able to withstand the guidance of the spirit.

If we try to regulate our lives we can become incredibly disciplined. But that journey, that seeking of spiritual enlightenment, will build our own personal hell as surely as if we enslave, rape, kill and murder. But the criminal has the witness of society and his conscience that may bring him to repentance. While the seeker of enlightenment in the disciplines of religion: yoga, mindfulness, vegetarianism, even the careful observance of the rules within the law of Moses, the magisterium, or Calvin’s principles will assuage his conscience, blinding himself to his real state by recounting the efforts he has made.

But those efforts do not save. It is being saved that should empower us to leave the evil in our lives behind: and to the extent that we can do good, Christ’s spirit works within us.

For the true judgment of us is not our words but our actions: not our lives but the lives around us.

So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

(Romans 8:12-27 ESV)

Now, the PCUSA misses this. In their move to be tolerant, they are becoming intolerant: in their move to allow that which should not be they are losing the gospel and becoming apostate.

The fools within think they can legislate truth, as if “continual reformation” means that the words of God are some living document, that can be voted in and out of existence. They forget they are dealing with a God who made his words living and active, dividing at the joints: in a manner that those of us who classify things for a living struggle to attain in our description of nature.

And there is a time when the believer has to leave, because hearing these teachings corrupts. We all have difficulties with our bodily desires: if not lust, gluttony: if not either, then our training is making us selfish, and we hurt those around us. We need to pray for each other: some of us struggle with all of this.

The Presbyterian Church (USA), the largest body of Presbyterians in the country, approved a change in the wording of its constitution to allow gay and lesbian weddings within the church, a move that threatens to continue to split the mainline Protestant denomination.

The 171 regional presbyteries (local leadership bodies within the PCUSA) have been voting on whether to change the wording to call marriage a contract “between a woman and a man” to being “between two people, traditionally a man and a woman.” On Tuesday, the denomination reached its needed majority of “yes” votes from at least 86 presbyteries to take effect. The change will be included in the church’s “Book of Order,” part of its constitution, taking effect on June 21.

The church, which has more than 1.7 million members, voted last June to allow clergy to perform same-sex weddings. That vote gave clergy the choice of whether to preside over same-sex marriages in states where they are legal, an action which is now allowed in 36 state and the District of Columbia. Clergy will not be compelled to perform same-sex marriage.

Tuesday’s vote carries significance, writes Leslie Scanlon for The Presbyterian Outlook, because it will be much more difficult to reverse.

“Changing the constitutional language regarding the definition of Christian marriage would take the approval both of an assembly and a majority vote by the presbyteries,” Scanlon writes. “It also matters to many Presbyterians that their denomination is willing to put language affirming marriage equality directly in the denomination’s constitution.”

The vote comes amid a larger debate over whether gay marriage conflicts with Scripture and would cause more Presbyterian churches to break relations with the PCUSA. The church has lost 37 percent of its membership since 1992. Most of the congregations that depart opt to affiliate with either the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC) or a newer body called A Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians (ECO for short). The formality of Tuesday’s decision could accelerate more departures.

I have said before that PCANZ (the Kiwi Presbyterians) have not taken this step: even though gay marriage is legal in NZ. I’d add that the state is not the originator of marriage, but is the consequence of the organization of families into clans, clans into tribes, and tribes into nations. Their attempts to reform what is a fundamental part of humanity is hubristic at best.

It is attempting, by human law, to make humans better. Which is not our place. It is the place of God.

At times people struggle with these teachings. I’m divorced. I struggle with the issues around remarriage. I have sympathy to those who are attracted to the same sex who remain faithful to the teaching of the church. Pretending that these issues do not exist is infantilizing. We are grown men (and women) and we have to discipline ourselves to remain functional in our society. We each have our cross: we each have our daily sacrifice which we make for the sake of Christ. (And within marriage, in my experience, these things become more obvious, not less so).

The law of Moses and the gospel do not contract themselves. You cannot legislate human nature away.

And the law does have a penalty for our wrongdoing: it is our life. Our deeds can not pay the weregeld on what we have done. If that was not the case, there would be no need for Christ.

And if we could do it alone, there would be no need for the spirit.

The apostate thinks they can make us all better: the believer should not have that illusion. So do not share a meal with them: they are convinced of their righteousness. Far better to break bread with the local taxmen, strippers and bartenders.