Deuteronomy 33 – Moses addresses all the tribes and grants them each a special thought or blessing along with a portion of the land into which they will be going.  For some reason Simeon is not mentioned and the sons (tribes) of Joseph are given shares.  The Levites, the ones who helped execute the Lord’s vengeance over the golden calf incident, receive praise for putting God ahead of family (33: 9). The Schocken version points out that this blessing differs somewhat from what is found in Genesis and says the slant here is a more “Northern tribal” account, perhaps from the days of Jeroboam II in the early 8^th C. BC.

Deuteronomy 34 – They go up through the plains of Moab to Mt. Nebo, opposite Jericho.  Here Moses dies and is buried—the place unknown.  Joshua takes over leadership of the people.  He is filled with “the spirit of wisdom, since Moses had laid his hands on him . . .” (34:9).  But “no prophet has arisen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face” (34:10).

1 Corinthians 6 - It is wrong to resort to the law courts when dealing with a “brother” (a fellow-Christian). The saints should work things out in their community. Paul clearly alludes to the promises made in Daniel’s eschatological passages (7:22-23) that the “holy ones” will someday be the ones who will possess the kingdom and be judges over others, even over the angels, though when I turn to Daniel, that seems far from clear in the cited passages. Paul seems to think it is better to put up with injustices than to go to “outside” courts for judgments in cases between believers. Paul lists those who will not inherit the kingdom: the unjust, fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, boy prostitutes (catamites), practicing homosexuals (sodomites), thieves, greedy, drunkards, slanderers, robbers.  Beyond this, the saying, which perhaps Paul himself had said at some point and others in Corinth had taken too literally that “everything is lawful for me” (6:12) does not mean that immoderation or other departures from “moral” behavior is now okay.  The standard of the kingdom is high, not slack: “[W]hoever is joined to the Lord [and all the baptized are joined to him] becomes one spirit with him. Avoid immorality.  Every other sin a person commits is outside he body, but the immoral person sins against his own body” (6:17-18). Our bodies are temples “of the holy Spirit within [us] whom [we] have from God. . .” (6:19).

How to deal with the passages here and elsewhere on homosexuality?? It is challenging for Christians today. And one part of the challenge is that it has become harder and harder to discuss the issue. My own view is complicated. I am not a biblical literalist, so the fact that Paul condemns homosexual sex acts as immoral along with idolatry and injustice and greed and all the other things many of us are guilty of, is not per se an answer to the question of whether there is room for fundamental change in our understanding of what is acceptable in that "perfect" living-out of the kingdom of God we hope to establish. I think it may take us time to sort out. Many gay men and women are believers and do, like heterosexual believers, try to establish their relationships on a commitment to lifelong faithfulness both to Christ and to their partner. But I do not know if this is enough. There is a very deep part of me that wonders if it is enough. I would be interested to hear how others have “settled” the issue in their own thinking.