blessable and unblessable

Often, the Enemy tries to push through error by totalizing things which are only partial.

So, for example, since some who call themselves Christian are angry, unthinking Neanderthals, it therefore follows that Christianity is a religion of wrath and reactionary irrationality. Since a glass or two with dinner is a delightful thing, there can be nothing wrong with tossing back seven or eight.

As shoddy as the logic is, you see it all over the place. It often crops up in the attempt to sanction what God has revealed to be sinful. A kind of pernicious end-run.

The hottest hot example would be, of course, same-sex sexual relationships. The line goes like this: "My relationship with Fred is a grace-filled source of blessing to me and to all who know us. It therefore follows that our sexual relationship cannot be sinful."

Well, yes, actually, it can be sinful. And is, which we know because it has been revealed to be sinful.

It may be true that you and Fred have a bond of friendship which is a vehicle of grace. You may indeed care for one another with true agape love as brothers in Christ. And your friendship and your example of lived charity may indeed be a blessing to those around you.

It does not follow, however, that your misuse of the gift of sexual intimacy can also be somehow considered either capable of being blessed or capable of being an instrument of blessing.

God is quite able to distinguish between obedience and disobedience even within the same human heart. Sex outside the bounds which He has established for our good, i.e. in any context other than a lifelong union of man and woman, is disobedience. And God never uses disobedience to bless His creatures.

In this way, the Enemy tries to totalize partial things in a way that overturns the revelation of God.

God, on the other hand, delights to bless whenever and wherever He can. If even the worst sinner brings even the smallest area of his life into alignment with God's good will, God will rush to deliver grace through the opening thus provided.

God never writes us off. The greedy man who drops a wad of bills into the Salvation Army box: An opening for God's grace. The atheist who finds herself whispering a word of thanks when the baby's fever subsides: An opening for God's grace. The sexually broken man who stops before that final click online, the alcohol abuser who decides "just not today," the abusive husband who agrees to counseling, the glutton who says no to seconds--God waits for these little openings to come in with His blessing, to establish even a small foothold of grace in the human heart.

God always uses even the smallest obedience to bless His creatures.  

Jesus, give my gay friends the grace to bring their friendships and their whole lives fully into line with your good will for them. Give all of us sinners the grace to submit more and more areas of our lives to your lordship.