In this gospel passage from Luke 9 Jesus heals a mentally disturbed man and returns him to his community to share what has happened to him with others. The man is usually referred to as the demoniac, meaning that he has been possessed with many demons or evil spirits, which is how ancient people described various diseases and mental illnesses. It is interesting that the word used to describe healing is the same word also used for salvation. The man is healed by Jesus but he is also saved from a life that caused him to be rejected by others. As we have been seeing in the healings and resurrections we have been reading about these past few weeks when Jesus restores someone to health he is also restoring them to their community, giving them social and economic justice as well as healing their disease or condition.
I really struggle with this passage because it has been so often used against those of us who are Queer. So called fundamentalist Christian ‘friends’ have told me that I am Queer because I have been possessed by an evil spirit which need to be exorcised from me. Many fundamentalist Christians tell us that we are Queer because we have a mental disorder that needs healing, in other words we aren’t ‘normal’, that is heterosexual. Well, I've got news for folk who believe that way: Medical science says that being Queer is natural and normal within humanity and that I don't have a disease that needs healing. I am 100% okay exactly the way I am, exactly the way God created me. Therefore, there isn't within me an evil spirit of homosexuality that needs to be exorcised. And I am not in need of healing to repair my sexuality. In fact, Jesus is spiritually helping me to live my Queer life abundantly and joyfully!
It is worth noting that when the man is with his community that they chain him to prevent him from hurting himself or them. I, too, felt 'chained' by others about my sexuality and socially restricted by them before I came out about my sexuality. I had to hide in the closet, withholding the truth about myself from them because society told me that if I was Queer I would not be welcomed and that somehow I was a danger to them and a threat to myself because of my different sexuality.
When the man escaped the chains he went to live in a lonely graveyard. What a horrible place to live: alone, amongst putrid, rotting bodies, a place where no one else wanted to go. Throughout history society has forced Queer persons to isolate themselves from others by going into the 'graveyards' of society where no one else wanted to go to be with us. This is how the terms 'living in the closet' came about. Queer people developed their own safe spaces where they could be themselves apart from the rest of society and its condemnation.
When Jesus healed the man he sent the man back into his community and told him to tell everyone exactly what had happened to him. I don't imagine that was very easy for him to do, but he went empowered by Jesus. He no longer had to live a life isolated from others or restricted by them. He could finally be himself, whole, healthy, happy, complete, because of what Jesus did for him.
Do you feel incomplete, less than a whole person, unhealthy, and depressed? Then I've got some good news for you! That's what PRIDE is all about! PRIDE is about how we can live whole, healthy, happy, complete lives as Queer persons who are beloved by God exactly the way God created us!
Take off the chains during this month of PRIDE and be yourself. Come out of the closet and let others know that you are a beloved child of God! It might not be easy to convince everyone, but God has empowered us to proclaim the truth about ourselves to everyone right where we live and work! It's at least something to think about!
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Gender Bending with Jesus, Luke 7:36 to 8:3, Proper 6C
Jesus’ ministry was all about building the New Community of God usually referred to by him as the reign of God or the kingdom of God. A community where everyone was welcome and loved, respected and appreciated, wanted and included. His attempts to bring all of the people living on the edges of society into the Community he was building was one of the major sources of his conflict with the religious authorities of his day, and through them with the Roman officials who ruled over the known world at that time.
Jesus went about bending the accepted religious rules and expectations almost to the breaking point. His demonstration of acceptance of the lame, the widow, the orphans, the rejects of society, those cast out due to illness or injury, and those cast out due to their being perceived as unclean and sinful was more than the religious leaders of his day could stomach. The way that Jesus bent their carefully structured society which had been developed to keep out those who didn’t live up to the expectations of those religious leaders caused them to reject Jesus and eventually demand his death.
Today’s story may sound familiar to you. During Lent we read about how the sister of Lazarus, Mary, did exactly the same thing as the woman in this story does for Jesus. In fact, there are four very different versions in the gospels of women washing Jesus’ feet with their tears, drying his feet with their hair, and anointing him with expensive oil or perfume. Did these kinds of things happen to Jesus all the time, or is there something going on here that we need to think about? I have told you several times that these stories of Jesus are collections of remembrances that were finally written down a very long time after Jesus lived, some of them more than 60 years later, two or three or more generations after Jesus walked the earth. Each author of the gospels wrote his remembrances for a different community and for different reasons and therefore took the collections of stories and wrote them with a creative purpose to explain the meaning of Jesus’ life and teachings. These are not factual blow by blow descriptions of exactly what happened to Jesus as he traveled around the country from Nazareth to Galilee to Capernaum to Jerusalem. Three of the books cover less than a year in the life of Jesus sometimes as short as six months, the fourth gospel talks about three years of his ministry. That’s one of the reasons you can’t read these stories as literally true, even though they are very spiritually true. The stories were written to help us understand the truth about Christ and his teachings without being factually true themselves. That wasn’t a problem for those who first heard these stories, and it shouldn’t be a problem for us today.
In the case of the story of a woman who washes Jesus’ feet with her tears and anoints him with precious oils we have four versions of what may have been only one event, but the event was so significant that it is told four different ways all of them emphasizing some aspect of the story that the other three do not.
Today’s reading is a very special case in point as we are introduced to a woman of the city, a phrase used to often refer to a prostitute, but could have been used to refer to any woman that was being forced by economics and social status into an undesirable kind of work, or work that others believed made her ritually unclean. It could have been being a midwife, especially a midwife that took care of Gentile women. That would have made her unclean because she would have come into contact with blood. It could have been that this woman has a job in a tanning firm handling dead animals or even as simple as dyeing clothing, also a job looked upon as somehow unclean. Whatever her situation, the fact is that she probably had no choice about what she was forced into doing. Perhaps she was a widow raising children who was forced into prostitution because it offered her the only way to economically take care of her children. Being crippled or having a disease or illness could also have been among the reasons for her being thought of as unclean. Whatever her situation the author of today’s passage tells us that the reasons for her being thought of as unclean were very numerous.
Last week we saw how Jesus restored economically and socially a widow whose only son had died. By bringing her son back to life Jesus gave her back her own life, too. Do you remember that the passage said that Jesus saw the woman and had compassion upon her? Throughout the gospel of Luke we observe Jesus often seeing persons that others overlook, and telling others to really look at each other with compassion and love, to really see the other as he or she is and stop looking at just their circumstances or their perceived sinfulness. Behind every circumstance is a reason or a story that needs to be told and understood in order to truthfully give the kind of help and hope that another needs in his or her life.
I’m privy to lots of information about other people that many of you will never know. People tell me about their lives and I have to keep that information private unless they allow me to share it with you in the form of a prayer request. Often you ask me what’s going on in another person’s life usually by asking me why that person hasn’t been in church. I usually respond by telling you to call them or email them and ask them yourself in the hopes that you will begin to build a caring, hopeful relationship with them. But the fact remains that many people aren’t in church today because of problems and circumstances in their own lives that prevent them from coming to church: illness, work, broken relationships, depression, lack of funds for gasoline for their car or a bus ticket, and many more reasons. We often fail to ‘really see’ those who are not in church because we haven’t gone out of our way to relate to them like Jesus wants us to relate to each other within this New Community of God we call Emerald City Metropolitan Community Church.
Don’t misunderstand me. Sometimes you and I do get it right. Sometimes we do see the other person just as God sees him or her and we give them our love and our help, our encouragement and hope and we change their lives for the better and they are thankful to us for that. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that they will come back and worship with us. We don’t give love and care to others so that we will get something out of it. And that’s part of the main understanding we should get from today’s gospel story. We give love and care to others because that is who we are and what we do because of our relationship with God. Loving and caring for others is a natural outcome of our having received love and care from God.
On this particular day Jesus has accepted a dinner invitation to Simon’s home. They are reclining at the table with their feet pointed away from the table as was the custom of that day. Jesus is probably reclining next to Simon. Somehow, it isn’t explained, a woman of street comes into the dinner and stands or sits at Jesus’ feet whereupon she begins to cry profusely, uses her tears to wash his feet, then lets down her hair, something a married woman would never do in public, dries his feet with her hair perhaps because it was the only thing she had to do it with, and then taking the expensive perfume she has brought in an equally expensive bottle and begins to sensuously massage his feet. And all this time she is constantly kissing his feet. This is a very sexually charged picture even though no sex happens.
Simon, and probably all the male religious leaders present, are appalled and shocked at the inappropriateness of this woman’s actions. If Jesus were truly a prophet he would know that this woman is a sinner and he would not let her touch him and make him unclean with her un-cleanliness. Or that’s what they are thinking. Jesus knows this. Jesus is very tuned into his society and how people think. That’s what makes him such a good teacher, because he uses their own thoughts and feelings to teach them new lessons they might not learn any other way except by having their expectations and their rules and regulations called into question.
Jesus turns to Simon and tells him a parable about two debtors. One man owes almost two years worth of salary to the moneylender. The other owes about two months of his salary to the moneylender. Neither can pay the debt. The money lender has a choice. He can send the men to prison until their families pay off the debt for them or he can forgive them their debt. Unbelievably the money lender in the parable forgives their debts completely. They owe him nothing. They are no longer indebted to him. Then Jesus asks his host Simon which of the men would love the moneylender the most?
I was struck by the question when I first read it. What’s love got to do with it? I had to think about that for awhile. What is love? Appreciation of another that makes my life better than it would be without them. Thanksgiving for what the blessings the other brings to the relationship. Joy at how the other person relates to you and you to them. Appreciation, thanksgiving, and joy. Yeah, which of the two men loves the moneylender the most?
Can’t you just hear Simon reluctantly answering the question, sort of knowing where Jesus is going with this parable but not wanting to admit it, “Well, I suppose the one who was forgiven the most.”
Right you are, Simon! But tell me Simon, do you really see this woman, do you know and understand who she is, what her life is like, why she has been forced into the life she has accepted which you find so objectionable?
Listen, dear friends, it makes all the difference in the world when you understand another person’s situation, how they got there, why they are still there, what they are trying to do to change that situation for the better. We’re too quick to condemn other people. We blame the victim instead of asking why society can’t change so that there are fewer victims. Jesus calls into question his society and how it treats such persons as this woman. Jesus is asking Simon to truly see this woman and her situation; especially why she is extravagantly pouring out an expression of love toward Jesus. Why is she doing what she is doing? Think about it Simon.
I’d like to think, that Jesus, lovingly and tenderly, begins to explain things to Simon. When he came into Simon’s home Simon refused to take upon himself the expected role of the male host and have Jesus’ feet washed, a customary gift of host to guest in their society. Simon could have had a servant do this, but he didn’t. Why? For the same reason we often refuse to shake another person’s hand when because we want them to know we don’t accept them. Have you ever avoided someone during our passing of the peace? You know, run around the other way so you didn’t have to shake their hand or heaven forbid hug them.
But that’s not all that Simon refused to do. Simon also refused to give Jesus the customary kiss of greeting that men in that society gave to each other. Much like you or I would refuse to give a kiss of greeting to someone at a family reunion because of a long held hostility toward them.
Not only that, but if an honored guest came to your home in that day you might have had a prayer said for them while their head was anointed with oil, much like we do for those who want anointing and a prayer for healing in our communion. Such was an extreme honor and told how very much you honored the other person.
But Simon refused to do all of those things for Jesus. Simon refused to take the role of a male host and give to Jesus what was due Jesus. Simon failed to live up to his gender role expectations.
But, there was someone who did do for Jesus that day what Simon refused to do. It was the woman from the city, the street lady, who did for Jesus what Simon refused to do, she washed his feet with her copious tears, dried them with her long hair thus transforming a sign of public inappropriateness into a sign of respect and love and care. But she didn’t stop there. She kissed his feet and according to the scripture didn’t stop kissing them. Simon refused to give Jesus an ordinary kiss of greeting, but this woman is profusely kissing him, greeting him, welcoming him into her life.
Simon refused to bless Jesus by anointing him with oil on his head, but this woman pours out an outrageously expensive bottle of perfume and deep massages it into Jesus’ feet, caring for him, blessing him, loving him, sacrificing for him.
This woman takes upon herself the role of a male host and transforms the evening for everyone into something unexpected and glorious if they would only just see it, really see her and what she was doing. Jesus sees it. The author of this gospel sees it. The people who first heard this story read to them saw it. The question is do we see it. More importantly do we understand it. Do we get the lesson that is being taught?
Jesus’ parable and his statements tell us that this woman’s outpouring of love toward Jesus is the result of her having already been forgiven of her many sins. Whatever those sins where, they no longer exist. Her life has been changed by God. She is not the same person that Simon thinks she still is. She is beloved by God and because of God’s love for her she is now abundantly pouring out love for Jesus.
We are often faced with situations in which we are called upon to demonstrate the kind of person we are, the kind of disciple to Christ that we are, the kind of lover of God that we are. What should we do in situations where there is a need, especially when there is something that we can do to help the other person.
Someone gave me a bag of muffins a couple of weeks ago. As I drove home thinking about the muffins and how good they would taste with a cup of coffee I stopped at a corner and there was a man who said, “Can you help me. Anything would help. Whatever you can do. I’m homeless. I have no money. I can’t find work even though I’m looking.” Suddenly I didn’t want the muffins anymore and I gave the man the muffins and the half of a sub sandwich I had just bought. I’ll never forget the smile on that man’s face as he walked away.
I never understood it as a youngster, but my father had a favorite saying in such situations, “If you have to stop and think about what you are going to do, then perhaps you aren’t really a Christian.” I now understand. God’s love and forgiveness to me, should overflow from my life with love and forgiveness, acceptance and welcome, inclusion and hope for others.
Jesus’ followers bent the gender rules of their day almost to the breaking point. Women left their expected gender roles in the home, caring for children, taking care of the family and went on the road with Jesus and the boys. Women were disciples of Christ. Women ministered to others in his name just like the boys did. Women supported the ministry of Jesus out of their own wealth. Women were often the only ones present at critical moments in Christ’s life: at the foot of the cross when the men ran away in fear for their own lives, and in lonely graveyard on a cold dark Easter morning. Jesus made a special resurrection appearance to a woman named Mary. Women were in the upper room when Christ appeared to all of them after his resurrection. Women were at Pentecost when thousands came to faith in a single day and believe me when I tell you that they also preached about their experience with Jesus just like the men did. They couldn’t have done anything else because the spirit of God had filled them to overflowing. Women preached and taught and cared and shared the love of Jesus with the world around them in amazing ways then and now. No matter what our fundamentalist religious friends tell us, women can do it all. In Christ there is no male nor female.
But, the boys bent the gender rules, too. Don’t forget that Christ washed the feet of his own disciples, often cooked for them and may have performed other so-called feminine role expectations in his relationship with them. Jesus and the boys didn’t live up to the gender expectations of their day. They didn’t marry, they didn’t have regular jobs, they took off on a journey of faith following an itinerant preacher around from village to village. Jesus and his followers were gender benders to the extreme in order to achieve the dream of a creating a New Community of Love and Hope of Welcome and Inclusion, of healing and recovery, of social and economic justice for all. In more ways than had ever occurred previously their little band was a society of equals and a place where gender didn’t matter so much as loving others because God first loved them.
The unnamed woman in today’s story demonstrated by her extravagant actions, by her sacrificial love, by her pouring out of an expensive perfume, the very same things that Jesus would do when he faced the threat of violence and refused to return violence but instead demonstrated by his peaceful, extravagant actions a sacrificial love by pouring out of his own life and love for all of us so that you and I might know that God loves us supremely and wants to fill us with God’s kind of love that freely overflows from our lives outward into the lives of everyone else we are in relationship with, no matter who they are. And to achieve that might mean that you and I have to bend the gender rules of our society, too, just like Jesus and his followers did so very long ago.
Jesus went about bending the accepted religious rules and expectations almost to the breaking point. His demonstration of acceptance of the lame, the widow, the orphans, the rejects of society, those cast out due to illness or injury, and those cast out due to their being perceived as unclean and sinful was more than the religious leaders of his day could stomach. The way that Jesus bent their carefully structured society which had been developed to keep out those who didn’t live up to the expectations of those religious leaders caused them to reject Jesus and eventually demand his death.
Today’s story may sound familiar to you. During Lent we read about how the sister of Lazarus, Mary, did exactly the same thing as the woman in this story does for Jesus. In fact, there are four very different versions in the gospels of women washing Jesus’ feet with their tears, drying his feet with their hair, and anointing him with expensive oil or perfume. Did these kinds of things happen to Jesus all the time, or is there something going on here that we need to think about? I have told you several times that these stories of Jesus are collections of remembrances that were finally written down a very long time after Jesus lived, some of them more than 60 years later, two or three or more generations after Jesus walked the earth. Each author of the gospels wrote his remembrances for a different community and for different reasons and therefore took the collections of stories and wrote them with a creative purpose to explain the meaning of Jesus’ life and teachings. These are not factual blow by blow descriptions of exactly what happened to Jesus as he traveled around the country from Nazareth to Galilee to Capernaum to Jerusalem. Three of the books cover less than a year in the life of Jesus sometimes as short as six months, the fourth gospel talks about three years of his ministry. That’s one of the reasons you can’t read these stories as literally true, even though they are very spiritually true. The stories were written to help us understand the truth about Christ and his teachings without being factually true themselves. That wasn’t a problem for those who first heard these stories, and it shouldn’t be a problem for us today.
In the case of the story of a woman who washes Jesus’ feet with her tears and anoints him with precious oils we have four versions of what may have been only one event, but the event was so significant that it is told four different ways all of them emphasizing some aspect of the story that the other three do not.
Today’s reading is a very special case in point as we are introduced to a woman of the city, a phrase used to often refer to a prostitute, but could have been used to refer to any woman that was being forced by economics and social status into an undesirable kind of work, or work that others believed made her ritually unclean. It could have been being a midwife, especially a midwife that took care of Gentile women. That would have made her unclean because she would have come into contact with blood. It could have been that this woman has a job in a tanning firm handling dead animals or even as simple as dyeing clothing, also a job looked upon as somehow unclean. Whatever her situation, the fact is that she probably had no choice about what she was forced into doing. Perhaps she was a widow raising children who was forced into prostitution because it offered her the only way to economically take care of her children. Being crippled or having a disease or illness could also have been among the reasons for her being thought of as unclean. Whatever her situation the author of today’s passage tells us that the reasons for her being thought of as unclean were very numerous.
Last week we saw how Jesus restored economically and socially a widow whose only son had died. By bringing her son back to life Jesus gave her back her own life, too. Do you remember that the passage said that Jesus saw the woman and had compassion upon her? Throughout the gospel of Luke we observe Jesus often seeing persons that others overlook, and telling others to really look at each other with compassion and love, to really see the other as he or she is and stop looking at just their circumstances or their perceived sinfulness. Behind every circumstance is a reason or a story that needs to be told and understood in order to truthfully give the kind of help and hope that another needs in his or her life.
I’m privy to lots of information about other people that many of you will never know. People tell me about their lives and I have to keep that information private unless they allow me to share it with you in the form of a prayer request. Often you ask me what’s going on in another person’s life usually by asking me why that person hasn’t been in church. I usually respond by telling you to call them or email them and ask them yourself in the hopes that you will begin to build a caring, hopeful relationship with them. But the fact remains that many people aren’t in church today because of problems and circumstances in their own lives that prevent them from coming to church: illness, work, broken relationships, depression, lack of funds for gasoline for their car or a bus ticket, and many more reasons. We often fail to ‘really see’ those who are not in church because we haven’t gone out of our way to relate to them like Jesus wants us to relate to each other within this New Community of God we call Emerald City Metropolitan Community Church.
Don’t misunderstand me. Sometimes you and I do get it right. Sometimes we do see the other person just as God sees him or her and we give them our love and our help, our encouragement and hope and we change their lives for the better and they are thankful to us for that. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that they will come back and worship with us. We don’t give love and care to others so that we will get something out of it. And that’s part of the main understanding we should get from today’s gospel story. We give love and care to others because that is who we are and what we do because of our relationship with God. Loving and caring for others is a natural outcome of our having received love and care from God.
On this particular day Jesus has accepted a dinner invitation to Simon’s home. They are reclining at the table with their feet pointed away from the table as was the custom of that day. Jesus is probably reclining next to Simon. Somehow, it isn’t explained, a woman of street comes into the dinner and stands or sits at Jesus’ feet whereupon she begins to cry profusely, uses her tears to wash his feet, then lets down her hair, something a married woman would never do in public, dries his feet with her hair perhaps because it was the only thing she had to do it with, and then taking the expensive perfume she has brought in an equally expensive bottle and begins to sensuously massage his feet. And all this time she is constantly kissing his feet. This is a very sexually charged picture even though no sex happens.
Simon, and probably all the male religious leaders present, are appalled and shocked at the inappropriateness of this woman’s actions. If Jesus were truly a prophet he would know that this woman is a sinner and he would not let her touch him and make him unclean with her un-cleanliness. Or that’s what they are thinking. Jesus knows this. Jesus is very tuned into his society and how people think. That’s what makes him such a good teacher, because he uses their own thoughts and feelings to teach them new lessons they might not learn any other way except by having their expectations and their rules and regulations called into question.
Jesus turns to Simon and tells him a parable about two debtors. One man owes almost two years worth of salary to the moneylender. The other owes about two months of his salary to the moneylender. Neither can pay the debt. The money lender has a choice. He can send the men to prison until their families pay off the debt for them or he can forgive them their debt. Unbelievably the money lender in the parable forgives their debts completely. They owe him nothing. They are no longer indebted to him. Then Jesus asks his host Simon which of the men would love the moneylender the most?
I was struck by the question when I first read it. What’s love got to do with it? I had to think about that for awhile. What is love? Appreciation of another that makes my life better than it would be without them. Thanksgiving for what the blessings the other brings to the relationship. Joy at how the other person relates to you and you to them. Appreciation, thanksgiving, and joy. Yeah, which of the two men loves the moneylender the most?
Can’t you just hear Simon reluctantly answering the question, sort of knowing where Jesus is going with this parable but not wanting to admit it, “Well, I suppose the one who was forgiven the most.”
Right you are, Simon! But tell me Simon, do you really see this woman, do you know and understand who she is, what her life is like, why she has been forced into the life she has accepted which you find so objectionable?
Listen, dear friends, it makes all the difference in the world when you understand another person’s situation, how they got there, why they are still there, what they are trying to do to change that situation for the better. We’re too quick to condemn other people. We blame the victim instead of asking why society can’t change so that there are fewer victims. Jesus calls into question his society and how it treats such persons as this woman. Jesus is asking Simon to truly see this woman and her situation; especially why she is extravagantly pouring out an expression of love toward Jesus. Why is she doing what she is doing? Think about it Simon.
I’d like to think, that Jesus, lovingly and tenderly, begins to explain things to Simon. When he came into Simon’s home Simon refused to take upon himself the expected role of the male host and have Jesus’ feet washed, a customary gift of host to guest in their society. Simon could have had a servant do this, but he didn’t. Why? For the same reason we often refuse to shake another person’s hand when because we want them to know we don’t accept them. Have you ever avoided someone during our passing of the peace? You know, run around the other way so you didn’t have to shake their hand or heaven forbid hug them.
But that’s not all that Simon refused to do. Simon also refused to give Jesus the customary kiss of greeting that men in that society gave to each other. Much like you or I would refuse to give a kiss of greeting to someone at a family reunion because of a long held hostility toward them.
Not only that, but if an honored guest came to your home in that day you might have had a prayer said for them while their head was anointed with oil, much like we do for those who want anointing and a prayer for healing in our communion. Such was an extreme honor and told how very much you honored the other person.
But Simon refused to do all of those things for Jesus. Simon refused to take the role of a male host and give to Jesus what was due Jesus. Simon failed to live up to his gender role expectations.
But, there was someone who did do for Jesus that day what Simon refused to do. It was the woman from the city, the street lady, who did for Jesus what Simon refused to do, she washed his feet with her copious tears, dried them with her long hair thus transforming a sign of public inappropriateness into a sign of respect and love and care. But she didn’t stop there. She kissed his feet and according to the scripture didn’t stop kissing them. Simon refused to give Jesus an ordinary kiss of greeting, but this woman is profusely kissing him, greeting him, welcoming him into her life.
Simon refused to bless Jesus by anointing him with oil on his head, but this woman pours out an outrageously expensive bottle of perfume and deep massages it into Jesus’ feet, caring for him, blessing him, loving him, sacrificing for him.
This woman takes upon herself the role of a male host and transforms the evening for everyone into something unexpected and glorious if they would only just see it, really see her and what she was doing. Jesus sees it. The author of this gospel sees it. The people who first heard this story read to them saw it. The question is do we see it. More importantly do we understand it. Do we get the lesson that is being taught?
Jesus’ parable and his statements tell us that this woman’s outpouring of love toward Jesus is the result of her having already been forgiven of her many sins. Whatever those sins where, they no longer exist. Her life has been changed by God. She is not the same person that Simon thinks she still is. She is beloved by God and because of God’s love for her she is now abundantly pouring out love for Jesus.
We are often faced with situations in which we are called upon to demonstrate the kind of person we are, the kind of disciple to Christ that we are, the kind of lover of God that we are. What should we do in situations where there is a need, especially when there is something that we can do to help the other person.
Someone gave me a bag of muffins a couple of weeks ago. As I drove home thinking about the muffins and how good they would taste with a cup of coffee I stopped at a corner and there was a man who said, “Can you help me. Anything would help. Whatever you can do. I’m homeless. I have no money. I can’t find work even though I’m looking.” Suddenly I didn’t want the muffins anymore and I gave the man the muffins and the half of a sub sandwich I had just bought. I’ll never forget the smile on that man’s face as he walked away.
I never understood it as a youngster, but my father had a favorite saying in such situations, “If you have to stop and think about what you are going to do, then perhaps you aren’t really a Christian.” I now understand. God’s love and forgiveness to me, should overflow from my life with love and forgiveness, acceptance and welcome, inclusion and hope for others.
Jesus’ followers bent the gender rules of their day almost to the breaking point. Women left their expected gender roles in the home, caring for children, taking care of the family and went on the road with Jesus and the boys. Women were disciples of Christ. Women ministered to others in his name just like the boys did. Women supported the ministry of Jesus out of their own wealth. Women were often the only ones present at critical moments in Christ’s life: at the foot of the cross when the men ran away in fear for their own lives, and in lonely graveyard on a cold dark Easter morning. Jesus made a special resurrection appearance to a woman named Mary. Women were in the upper room when Christ appeared to all of them after his resurrection. Women were at Pentecost when thousands came to faith in a single day and believe me when I tell you that they also preached about their experience with Jesus just like the men did. They couldn’t have done anything else because the spirit of God had filled them to overflowing. Women preached and taught and cared and shared the love of Jesus with the world around them in amazing ways then and now. No matter what our fundamentalist religious friends tell us, women can do it all. In Christ there is no male nor female.
But, the boys bent the gender rules, too. Don’t forget that Christ washed the feet of his own disciples, often cooked for them and may have performed other so-called feminine role expectations in his relationship with them. Jesus and the boys didn’t live up to the gender expectations of their day. They didn’t marry, they didn’t have regular jobs, they took off on a journey of faith following an itinerant preacher around from village to village. Jesus and his followers were gender benders to the extreme in order to achieve the dream of a creating a New Community of Love and Hope of Welcome and Inclusion, of healing and recovery, of social and economic justice for all. In more ways than had ever occurred previously their little band was a society of equals and a place where gender didn’t matter so much as loving others because God first loved them.
The unnamed woman in today’s story demonstrated by her extravagant actions, by her sacrificial love, by her pouring out of an expensive perfume, the very same things that Jesus would do when he faced the threat of violence and refused to return violence but instead demonstrated by his peaceful, extravagant actions a sacrificial love by pouring out of his own life and love for all of us so that you and I might know that God loves us supremely and wants to fill us with God’s kind of love that freely overflows from our lives outward into the lives of everyone else we are in relationship with, no matter who they are. And to achieve that might mean that you and I have to bend the gender rules of our society, too, just like Jesus and his followers did so very long ago.
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Will You Join the Parade or the Funeral Procession? Luke 7:11-17
Luke 7:11-17
........Jesus went to a town called Nain. His closest followers and a large crowd followed him like he was leading a pride parade. When he arrived on the outskirts of the town, he ran into a funeral procession. The only begotten son of a widow had died and was being carried out to the graveyard, followed by his mother and a large crowd of the townsfolk. When Jesus saw the widow, he felt was deeply moved within himself because of her tragedy, and said to her, “Don’t weep.”
........Then he stepped forward and touched the cloth and wicker of the funeral bier they carried him in, and the bearers came to a halt. Jesus said, “Young man, listen to me. Rise up!”
........The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him back to his mother. Everybody was quaking in their boots and they were quick to credit God with what was going on. They were saying things like, “A great prophet has risen up among us!” and “God must be pleased with his people!”
........The news about Jesus spread like wildfire throughout the Jewish territory and all the surrounding areas.
We have in our gospel passage today an interesting choice: Will we join the PRIDE Parade that Jesus is leading, or will we join the funeral procession?
Our families often act as if we’re already dead when we come out about our sexuality and seem to want to have a funeral for us, instead of joining us in celebrating our honesty about ourselves. Let me put it this way: Have you ever felt as if you were dead to the world, or that you might as well be dead because those who you thought loved you and cared for you were acting as if you didn't exist or that they'd be better off if you were in fact dead?
That is a common feeling among Queer People (LGBTIQA). When we come out honestly about who we are and who we love we are often met with opposition, which is bad, or we are simply ignored and shunned, which is often worse. When I came out to my family my sister cried because she believed that meant I wouldn't be in heaven with her. One brother, also a Christian minister, refused to accept any communications from me, unless it was about my children, his nieces and nephews, because he didn't want to know anything about my 'gay lifestyle.' He even uninvited me to his son's wedding because he thought I might do something to advance the Gay Agenda...whatever that is. I never did figure out what he was afraid I might do other than drag my partner along with me to the ceremony. My father announced to the family that he had taught me better and that I knew what the Bible had to say about such sinful behavior as same-sex love. Friends I thought were close and caring suddenly became distant and shunned their relationship with me.
It is extremely hard for you and I to be honest with others about our sexuality, our love relationships, or lives with others when they might react in such negative ways. I can fully understand why many in our Queer Community would rather 'stay in the closet' at work or with family. It sure does make life easier at least in those particular relationships, but it sure does complicate the rest of your life when you aren't sure the secret will stay a secret. Secrets seem to get leaked all the time.
I remember talking to my sister about my coming out before I discussed it with anyone else in the family. She was responsive and accepting, or seemed to be on the phone. She told me that she would keep what I had shared confidential until I shared it with other members of the family. The next day my niece, her daughter contacted me to tell me she loved me and was glad I had come out about my sexuality. Confidential? I don't think so. In fact, as soon as she got off the phone with me, my sister had called my brothers to tell them what I'd said on the pretext of 'protecting our father.' Secrets get leaked, so why try to keep them?
Our church is going through some mighty big changes: a new name that more closely identifies us with our surrounding community, a new time of worship, and soon a new place of worship. What better time to examine the question about what kind of church do we want to become than during PRIDE month when we will meet more people than we do any other month of the year for the sole purpose of telling them about Emerald City Metropolitan Community Church Seattle? Exactly what kind of church, what kind of Christians do we want to become? I think these four simple verses from Luke’s gospel will give us a handle on answering that question.
Jesus, as usual was accompanied by a great crowd of people including his own disciples. We could compare it to a PRIDE Parade with Jesus leading the way. People were glad and proud to be a part of the Jesus Parade. Jesus was clearly an important person. Jesus was teaching them truth from their Holy Scriptures. Jesus was a prophet from God. And just like those of us today who go to parades to see the spectacles that we might witness nowhere else, people followed Jesus because they just might see him perform a miracle. And Jesus would do exactly that, but not to impress anyone, instead he would work a miracle in the life of a person who had come to the end of her rope and was desperate and defeated by life. Jesus would lift her up and give her the opportunity to begin again.
When I look out at you I see people who are at the end of their ropes, I see people who need to know that God can and will give you the opportunity to begin your life again. What has been, those things that have dragged you down into the depths of depression and despair can be wiped aside by God and you can celebrate a new life, a new hope, a new kind of existence unlike anything you have ever experienced before. God wants to do that for you. Hang in there. Good things are coming your way.
Two crowds meet. One joyful the other grieving. Who gives way. Did they have laws back then that said that when a Pride Parade met a funeral procession the Pride Parade had to halt until the funeral procession went by? Or maybe the funeral had to wait for the parade? Luckily, Jesus was in charge that day and unlike anyone else in his company, Jesus saw the situation and more importantly Jesus saw the woman. Often in the gospel it is reported to us that it is Jesus who sees the person in need before anyone else sees them.
Jesus sees this woman whose son has just died, her only begotten son. Jesus sees that she is a widow who has already suffered the death of her husband. And Jesus is very aware of the terrible situation she is now in. In that society no one was worse off than a widow without children or an orphan without parents. Neither had any hope for the future. Women could not own property, they were property. Women could not work outside the home, but only in their husband’s or son’s business. Without a husband, without a son, this widow was condemned to life on the street where she would be taken advantage of by any man that wanted to trouble her and make her life more miserable than it already was. Because of her situation she faced death herself sooner than she should.
Jesus sees, really sees this woman and the gospel tells us that he was deeply moved. The word used here says that his very gut was wrenched with pain or discomfort because of her plight. Have you ever been so moved by another person’s horrible situation that your very bowels did a flip flop within you? That’s how Jesus felt that day about this woman.
Jesus speaks to the woman, “Don’t weep.” This is a phrase used throughout the Scriptures by Prophets and Angels and now by Jesus. It means that you should hold your breath and have hope again because God is going to act on your behalf and God is going to do it right now. It is not a terrible masculine appeal for a woman to stop her inappropriate crying, or a father’s dismissal of a child’s hurt feelings. It is an acknowledgement of the terrible situation that the woman is in and a code-word in Jesus’ society that something wonderful is about to happen. I imagine she gasped in amazement and probably sobbed more so and loudly in the hope that this Rabbi, this teacher, this prophet of God would in fact be able to change her situation.
Jesus touches the basket they are carrying the man in and he halts the funeral procession. Jesus, this great and holy man of God, does the unthinkable. He risks becoming ritually unclean by touching the funeral bier of the dead man. Jesus is like that. Jesus keeps doing the unexpected and he gets trashed and criticized for it every time he does it. Jesus eats with a tax collector and sinners. Jesus touches and heals a leper and a crazy man. Jesus lets a prostitute, a lady of the streets, pour expensive perfume on his feet and massage them and wipe them with her long hair, a sign of her unsavory life. Time and time again Jesus goes out of his way to care for another person in a manner that upsets the proper folk of his day because he has chosen to lower himself to the level of those he cares about. Jesus comes into their lives as if he was one of them and that makes all the difference. The child of God who came into the world as a human being, actually lives among us, with us, like us. Jesus comes along side of us and shares our lives, our joys, our sorrows with us. Jesus is one of us.
Jesus speaks to the dead man. I can almost imagine Jesus whispering into the ear of the dead man in a compassionate way, “Arise, live again. Get up.” And the man sits up. Imagine the crowds reaction when he not only sits up but he speaks as well. Speaking and eating are signs that the dead person has really come to life again and there is no doubt about it. When Jesus visited the disciples after his resurrection we are told that he not only spoke to them but he ate with them. Only a living and breathing body could do such things. This is not a ghost. This is a real person who has come back to life.
Jesus gives the man back to his mother. We read rapidly over this sentence. It doesn’t make much sense to us in our day and age. But it meant a great deal in that society. Jesus who has raised this man from the dead is due a considerable return from him. You might say, “Jesus owns the man.” It’s not unusual in human history for this concept to become a part of a society, “I rescued you, I own you. I rescued you, you owe me.” But Jesus takes the man and gives him back to his mother. Jesus gives up any claim he has on this man’s life and releases him to return to his mother. In so doing Jesus gives her back her life also. She now has a place in that society. Her son is alive. Jesus restores her social position as well as her economic position in her world.
The people are filled with amazement and cry out that a great prophet has risen among the people. There are other stories from the Old Testament about Elijah and Elisha raising the dead sons of widows. That would have been something the people would have known and celebrated. God is doing again what God has done in the past. Here is a formula we know and recognize and it tells us that God is present with us and that God is working miracles for us because God loves us supremely. Jesus turned a funeral procession into a PRIDE Parade that celebrated the Love of God in the lives of all the people in the village of Nain that day.
We need to decide what kind of church, what kind of Christians we want to be. Will we be those who see others and realize deep within ourselves what they are experiencing? Will we speak loving words to them? Will we touch their lives with optimism and self-esteem? Will we do whatever is necessary to give them back their ability to live again in hope and joy? It might mean that we have to get down and dirty, that we have to do things differently than any other church has ever done God’s work before. Others might call into question our hanging around unclean people, but we must go where God is sending us and do what God is calling us to do. We really don’t have any other choice if we are to be Emerald City Metropolitan Community Church Seattle. We have a very special history, a very special calling, and we most certainly have a very special vision of our future in Seattle.
Listen dear friends, there is much more I’d like to say, but this sermon would be much too long. So let me finish by saying that Jesus can resurrect your life, no matter how dead you feel, no matter how dead others feel you are. Jesus wants to come to you today and whisper intimate words of life and love and joy and celebration about the restoration of dead relationships while giving you beautiful new relationships with this family of God. Jesus can even take the grief that our families feel at our coming out and replace that grief with joy and celebration that we are alive, healthy, happy and living life as we were created to live it in loving relationships with our same-sex partners. There is no shame in being who God created you to be!
Let Jesus come into your life during PRIDE month this year and resurrect you from your dead life and raise you up to live joyfully! Celebrate Life! Celebrate PRIDE! Celebrate God who loves you exactly the way God created you!
........Jesus went to a town called Nain. His closest followers and a large crowd followed him like he was leading a pride parade. When he arrived on the outskirts of the town, he ran into a funeral procession. The only begotten son of a widow had died and was being carried out to the graveyard, followed by his mother and a large crowd of the townsfolk. When Jesus saw the widow, he felt was deeply moved within himself because of her tragedy, and said to her, “Don’t weep.”
........Then he stepped forward and touched the cloth and wicker of the funeral bier they carried him in, and the bearers came to a halt. Jesus said, “Young man, listen to me. Rise up!”
........The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him back to his mother. Everybody was quaking in their boots and they were quick to credit God with what was going on. They were saying things like, “A great prophet has risen up among us!” and “God must be pleased with his people!”
........The news about Jesus spread like wildfire throughout the Jewish territory and all the surrounding areas.
We have in our gospel passage today an interesting choice: Will we join the PRIDE Parade that Jesus is leading, or will we join the funeral procession?
Our families often act as if we’re already dead when we come out about our sexuality and seem to want to have a funeral for us, instead of joining us in celebrating our honesty about ourselves. Let me put it this way: Have you ever felt as if you were dead to the world, or that you might as well be dead because those who you thought loved you and cared for you were acting as if you didn't exist or that they'd be better off if you were in fact dead?
That is a common feeling among Queer People (LGBTIQA). When we come out honestly about who we are and who we love we are often met with opposition, which is bad, or we are simply ignored and shunned, which is often worse. When I came out to my family my sister cried because she believed that meant I wouldn't be in heaven with her. One brother, also a Christian minister, refused to accept any communications from me, unless it was about my children, his nieces and nephews, because he didn't want to know anything about my 'gay lifestyle.' He even uninvited me to his son's wedding because he thought I might do something to advance the Gay Agenda...whatever that is. I never did figure out what he was afraid I might do other than drag my partner along with me to the ceremony. My father announced to the family that he had taught me better and that I knew what the Bible had to say about such sinful behavior as same-sex love. Friends I thought were close and caring suddenly became distant and shunned their relationship with me.
It is extremely hard for you and I to be honest with others about our sexuality, our love relationships, or lives with others when they might react in such negative ways. I can fully understand why many in our Queer Community would rather 'stay in the closet' at work or with family. It sure does make life easier at least in those particular relationships, but it sure does complicate the rest of your life when you aren't sure the secret will stay a secret. Secrets seem to get leaked all the time.
I remember talking to my sister about my coming out before I discussed it with anyone else in the family. She was responsive and accepting, or seemed to be on the phone. She told me that she would keep what I had shared confidential until I shared it with other members of the family. The next day my niece, her daughter contacted me to tell me she loved me and was glad I had come out about my sexuality. Confidential? I don't think so. In fact, as soon as she got off the phone with me, my sister had called my brothers to tell them what I'd said on the pretext of 'protecting our father.' Secrets get leaked, so why try to keep them?
Our church is going through some mighty big changes: a new name that more closely identifies us with our surrounding community, a new time of worship, and soon a new place of worship. What better time to examine the question about what kind of church do we want to become than during PRIDE month when we will meet more people than we do any other month of the year for the sole purpose of telling them about Emerald City Metropolitan Community Church Seattle? Exactly what kind of church, what kind of Christians do we want to become? I think these four simple verses from Luke’s gospel will give us a handle on answering that question.
Jesus, as usual was accompanied by a great crowd of people including his own disciples. We could compare it to a PRIDE Parade with Jesus leading the way. People were glad and proud to be a part of the Jesus Parade. Jesus was clearly an important person. Jesus was teaching them truth from their Holy Scriptures. Jesus was a prophet from God. And just like those of us today who go to parades to see the spectacles that we might witness nowhere else, people followed Jesus because they just might see him perform a miracle. And Jesus would do exactly that, but not to impress anyone, instead he would work a miracle in the life of a person who had come to the end of her rope and was desperate and defeated by life. Jesus would lift her up and give her the opportunity to begin again.
When I look out at you I see people who are at the end of their ropes, I see people who need to know that God can and will give you the opportunity to begin your life again. What has been, those things that have dragged you down into the depths of depression and despair can be wiped aside by God and you can celebrate a new life, a new hope, a new kind of existence unlike anything you have ever experienced before. God wants to do that for you. Hang in there. Good things are coming your way.
Two crowds meet. One joyful the other grieving. Who gives way. Did they have laws back then that said that when a Pride Parade met a funeral procession the Pride Parade had to halt until the funeral procession went by? Or maybe the funeral had to wait for the parade? Luckily, Jesus was in charge that day and unlike anyone else in his company, Jesus saw the situation and more importantly Jesus saw the woman. Often in the gospel it is reported to us that it is Jesus who sees the person in need before anyone else sees them.
Jesus sees this woman whose son has just died, her only begotten son. Jesus sees that she is a widow who has already suffered the death of her husband. And Jesus is very aware of the terrible situation she is now in. In that society no one was worse off than a widow without children or an orphan without parents. Neither had any hope for the future. Women could not own property, they were property. Women could not work outside the home, but only in their husband’s or son’s business. Without a husband, without a son, this widow was condemned to life on the street where she would be taken advantage of by any man that wanted to trouble her and make her life more miserable than it already was. Because of her situation she faced death herself sooner than she should.
Jesus sees, really sees this woman and the gospel tells us that he was deeply moved. The word used here says that his very gut was wrenched with pain or discomfort because of her plight. Have you ever been so moved by another person’s horrible situation that your very bowels did a flip flop within you? That’s how Jesus felt that day about this woman.
Jesus speaks to the woman, “Don’t weep.” This is a phrase used throughout the Scriptures by Prophets and Angels and now by Jesus. It means that you should hold your breath and have hope again because God is going to act on your behalf and God is going to do it right now. It is not a terrible masculine appeal for a woman to stop her inappropriate crying, or a father’s dismissal of a child’s hurt feelings. It is an acknowledgement of the terrible situation that the woman is in and a code-word in Jesus’ society that something wonderful is about to happen. I imagine she gasped in amazement and probably sobbed more so and loudly in the hope that this Rabbi, this teacher, this prophet of God would in fact be able to change her situation.
Jesus touches the basket they are carrying the man in and he halts the funeral procession. Jesus, this great and holy man of God, does the unthinkable. He risks becoming ritually unclean by touching the funeral bier of the dead man. Jesus is like that. Jesus keeps doing the unexpected and he gets trashed and criticized for it every time he does it. Jesus eats with a tax collector and sinners. Jesus touches and heals a leper and a crazy man. Jesus lets a prostitute, a lady of the streets, pour expensive perfume on his feet and massage them and wipe them with her long hair, a sign of her unsavory life. Time and time again Jesus goes out of his way to care for another person in a manner that upsets the proper folk of his day because he has chosen to lower himself to the level of those he cares about. Jesus comes into their lives as if he was one of them and that makes all the difference. The child of God who came into the world as a human being, actually lives among us, with us, like us. Jesus comes along side of us and shares our lives, our joys, our sorrows with us. Jesus is one of us.
Jesus speaks to the dead man. I can almost imagine Jesus whispering into the ear of the dead man in a compassionate way, “Arise, live again. Get up.” And the man sits up. Imagine the crowds reaction when he not only sits up but he speaks as well. Speaking and eating are signs that the dead person has really come to life again and there is no doubt about it. When Jesus visited the disciples after his resurrection we are told that he not only spoke to them but he ate with them. Only a living and breathing body could do such things. This is not a ghost. This is a real person who has come back to life.
Jesus gives the man back to his mother. We read rapidly over this sentence. It doesn’t make much sense to us in our day and age. But it meant a great deal in that society. Jesus who has raised this man from the dead is due a considerable return from him. You might say, “Jesus owns the man.” It’s not unusual in human history for this concept to become a part of a society, “I rescued you, I own you. I rescued you, you owe me.” But Jesus takes the man and gives him back to his mother. Jesus gives up any claim he has on this man’s life and releases him to return to his mother. In so doing Jesus gives her back her life also. She now has a place in that society. Her son is alive. Jesus restores her social position as well as her economic position in her world.
The people are filled with amazement and cry out that a great prophet has risen among the people. There are other stories from the Old Testament about Elijah and Elisha raising the dead sons of widows. That would have been something the people would have known and celebrated. God is doing again what God has done in the past. Here is a formula we know and recognize and it tells us that God is present with us and that God is working miracles for us because God loves us supremely. Jesus turned a funeral procession into a PRIDE Parade that celebrated the Love of God in the lives of all the people in the village of Nain that day.
We need to decide what kind of church, what kind of Christians we want to be. Will we be those who see others and realize deep within ourselves what they are experiencing? Will we speak loving words to them? Will we touch their lives with optimism and self-esteem? Will we do whatever is necessary to give them back their ability to live again in hope and joy? It might mean that we have to get down and dirty, that we have to do things differently than any other church has ever done God’s work before. Others might call into question our hanging around unclean people, but we must go where God is sending us and do what God is calling us to do. We really don’t have any other choice if we are to be Emerald City Metropolitan Community Church Seattle. We have a very special history, a very special calling, and we most certainly have a very special vision of our future in Seattle.
Listen dear friends, there is much more I’d like to say, but this sermon would be much too long. So let me finish by saying that Jesus can resurrect your life, no matter how dead you feel, no matter how dead others feel you are. Jesus wants to come to you today and whisper intimate words of life and love and joy and celebration about the restoration of dead relationships while giving you beautiful new relationships with this family of God. Jesus can even take the grief that our families feel at our coming out and replace that grief with joy and celebration that we are alive, healthy, happy and living life as we were created to live it in loving relationships with our same-sex partners. There is no shame in being who God created you to be!
Let Jesus come into your life during PRIDE month this year and resurrect you from your dead life and raise you up to live joyfully! Celebrate Life! Celebrate PRIDE! Celebrate God who loves you exactly the way God created you!
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