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!
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