| Progressive and Christian: All Are Welcome |
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Progressive and Christian: All Are Welcome
Douglas S. Long
Luke 8:43-48 (The Message)
In the crowd that day there was a woman who
for twelve years had been afflicted with hemorrhages. She had spent every penny
she had on doctors but not one had been able to help her. She
slipped in from behind and touched the edge of Jesus' robe. At that very moment
her hemorrhaging stopped.
Jesus said, "Who touched me?" When
no one stepped forward, Peter said, "But Master, we've got crowds of
people on our hands. Dozens have touched you."
Jesus insisted, "Someone touched me. I
felt power discharging from me."
When the woman realized that she couldn't remain
hidden, she knelt trembling before him. In front of all the people, she blurted
out her story - why she touched him and how at that same moment she was healed.
Jesus said, "Daughter, you took a risk
trusting me, and now you're healed and whole. Live well, live blessed!"
Have you ever heard the story about the old country
preacher, a very successful pulpiteer, who was asked what the secret of his
clear and crisp communication was? And he replied “Well first I tell them what
I’m gonna say, and then I say it, and then I tell them what I said.”
Not to be too redundant for those of you that have been here
the last two Sundays, but today I’m addressing the third in this October series
on some central themes of how we try to be progressive and Christian.
And though the stereotype of Christians in our wider culture
is a narrow and fundamental one, we do believe it’s possible to be progressive and Christian. And so the first week I
spoke about Jesus being our authentic window to God, while not claiming that as
an exclusive view, as the only way to God…
and last week I spoke about progressive Christianity and the
environment… that earth is our home and the Creation is understood as a logical
extension of the Creator... so that how we treat the Creation is part and
parcel to how we love the Creator.
Next week we'll focus on a phrase from our Covenant-
"Justice as the Social Expression of Love."
Which leaves today to choose some other important aspect of progressive
Christianity and without any doubt, one of the hallmarks of the current
progressive Christian movement is its acceptance and embrace of some persons that
the wider church does not embrace.
Many of us can remember times when people were alienated
from some church communities simply because of their skin color. As hard as
that is to now comprehend for us it is equally unbelievable that some churches
today still partition duties and responsibilities and privileges based on sex.
Incredible! There are churches that do not allow women in their pulpits. Catholics will not allow women to be
priests and the largest Protestant denomination in this country won't allow
them as their Senior Ministers either.
I'm reminded of the sermon contest that the Baptist Seminary
in
So how did a woman come to win? All of the final three… were
women.
The current really hot divide, however, is not about race or
gender but, of course, sexual orientation. No doubt we will find others to
exclude in time… but for now, gay and lesbian persons, or you could broaden it
to the GLBT community, or broaden beyond that to the GLBTQQI/SGL community… (and
if you have no idea what some of those initials stand for, then you can have
fun Googling it later.).
But no question about it… most every Christian denomination,
these days, and for the past decade or so, has been divided over the gay and
lesbian community.
Progressive Christianity says… what’s there to debate?
People are people… most born straight, but not all. Some
born gay and so gay folks are people, too… deserving of all the rights and
privileges of every other person.
It is not a sin to be gay.
It is not a punishment by God to be gay.
Being gay is not a lesser form of humanity.
The United Church of Christ has taken some hits for this
stance. Several churches have left our denomination in the past two years,
after our General Synod overwhelmingly voted to affirm same sex unions… several
left and several have come into the fold as well.
Three years ago, major networks, NBC and CBS, wouldn't air a
UCC television commercial because it seemed 'gay-friendly.' Three years ago!! …
and just this past month there was a report of a UCC congregation in Michigan who was about to settle on a new
Insurance policy when an agent for a competing company asked if he could give a
quote. In the application process, someone at the home office decided that
being in a denomination with 'gay affirming' stances made it a higher risk.
Here's an Insurance quote for you: "Our company's
decision to not submit a quote to your organization arose out of information
that was supplied in a supplemental application, indicating that your
organization 'publicly endorses or practices the marriage of same sex couples'
and 'publicly endorses or practices the ordination of the homosexual
clergy." (For an even more recent church 'ban,' see http://www.ucc.org/news/church-in-texas-excluded-from.html)
Yes. We do endorse same sex marriage and we do ordain gay clergy.
Proudly.
I heard someone say recently if you have a problem with same
sex marriage the solution is simple… Don’t marry someone of the same sex!
But it's not a joking matter… the Church still, much to its
shame, for the most part beats up on the gay and lesbian community.
Now let me tell you, I can differ theologically with others
and be okay… but when they start doing emotional, sometimes physical harm, to
children of God in every way as equal as they are, I begin to lose patience
fast. If this was a theological game we were playing, well… big deal.
But it’s lives we’re talking about. Real people… and bigotry
against the gay and lesbian community is no different than bigotry against someone
of another skin color or bigotry against women.
God have mercy on the Church.
And I have to tell you that one of the hallmarks of Jesus'
ministry was throwing the doors of the church wide open to all.
Who were the outcasts in Jesus' day?
Lepers… Jesus was pretty clear there.
Samaritans… half-breeds as it were. …and again Jesus was
clear.
He publicly associated with women (not at the highest end of
the social strata, those kind), even
women of ill repute (lower still), even women with whom physical contact would
render one unclean in Jewish law.
Jesus openly embraced them all.
Story after story, time after time.
-The Genealogy in Matthew, at the beginning of the NT, is a
listing of generation after generation of murderers, adulterers, prostitutes, foreigners…
all part of Jesus' lineage.
- In Luke, Jesus tells the story of the Good Samaritan. In
our day, the Samaritan would be the illegal alien. The Good Illegal Alien.
Seriously!
… or the Samaritan Woman in John.
You remember the woman by the well who had been married several times… in our
day this woman at the well might be translated the prostitute at the bar.
-Jesus accepted several women into his travelling entourage.
Jesus welcomed them all.
-In fact, while some depict the birth of Jesus as miracle,
others say the power of the story is in an unwed mother whose son is a gift of
God.
All are welcome.
-Matthew was a tax collector…. collecting taxes for the
Imperial Rome. Talk about a pariah!
-Heck, even the Apostle Paul, not really known for his
openness, even came around after reflecting on it a while saying to the church
in Galatia…
"There
is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one
in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3:28)
The story of Jesus and the hemorrhaging woman is
particularly poignant for today. It's the story that Eleanor read…. and it's
familiar to many of you.
She risks reaching out to Jesus… and is healed.
In fact, the pericope, the segment, ends with Jesus saying
as much.
Jesus said, "Daughter, you took a risk trusting me, and
now you're healed and whole. Live well,
live blessed!"
"You took a risk trusting me," said Jesus.
Can people in need today trust the Church?
I will never forget the more recent story a woman in need
told me. Some of you have heard it, too. This woman struggled as teenager with
her sexuality. She tried to be straight, but it just wasn't in her genetic
make-up. …and so, naturally she began to date other women.
The story, and the woman's life, took a horribly dark turn
when, still as a teenager, she was raped by a man twice her age.
In her distress the woman explained to me that she went to
her priest … who counseled her saying that the man who raped her was an angel
sent by God to correct her sexual confusion.
And do you think that the woman now is going to have an easy
time trusting the church, any church, taking a risk to reach out?
Last month, some of us attended the NC Pride March in
We wanted to join the handful of other churches that had
tables and booths explaining that congregations did exist that welcomed the
GLBT community…. that all churches were not homophobic.
I had been invited to participate in what has become a
traditional communion service at the event. Standing in a circle, shoulder to
shoulder in the midst of a wider celebration, I have to tell you the litanies
were powerful and prayers poignant.
I was particularly moved by the prayer of confession. Part of
it read:
From the teachings of the Church
which have oppressed and limited our lives,
denying us the abundance of life
and spirit promised in Jesus Christ:
O God, save us.
For the times we have allowed
ourselves to be defined by other's expectations of us; when we have believed
the myths and lies that the culture has told about us.
O God forgive us.
… and then, in that so often excluded and alienated
community, we began serving the bread and cup.
Immediately, a man in the back started praying very loudly.
Now, though I was one of the clergy leaders I was not the
organizer of the service and so I didn’t know if the prayer was part of the
plan or not… but something about it made me suspicious and I tried to listen
carefully so as to ascertain what was happening. Sure enough, a couple of the
minutes into the long prayer, after the “We thank you glorious Father God for
the beauty of this day and the gift of life, that you, Father God, have set us
in this time and place to serve your never changing will and follow your Word
of truth…" after that sort of introduction… next came… "And we pray
for these who have strayed from your perfect will into the worldly ways of immorality
and evil. We pray for these here today who ignore your holy Word, watering it down
to the words of men. We pray…"
Well, you get the gist.
And the communicants kept coming… ignoring the voice of
intolerance and persecution posing as a pious person of faith. They almost
seemed to pity this loud representative of the churches that had excluded them
from the table of Christ for most of their lives.
There were more disruptions as we continued to serve. The
main instigator (There were at least three, one who was documenting it all on a
video camera…) …the main instigator wore a NY Yankees shirt and held a pretty
golden retriever on a leash. He blended nicely in the festive crowd, many
others who had brought their pets. He moved among them with colorful rubber
bracelets that said prideandpeace.com, posing as a supporter, handing them out
to all who would take them. The web site, of course, is far from gay friendly…
and explains that such 'sinners' are headed to hell.
A little later in the morning, I saw this ‘disrupter’ as he
approached one of the other UPUCC people who were there… and this UPUCC person
assumed that the fellow was a friendly supporter. …So I quickly made my way
into the mix and a rather interesting conversation ensued. I have to say that
this guy was not your run-of-the-mill angry heckler. He was practiced, quick
talking, combative to be sure but seasoned in his approach… for the most
part. Eventually, after several attempts
to anger me didn’t gain traction, he resorted to calling me a fat, bearded slob
who was leading people to hell. It was at that point I simply raised my hands
and said I didn’t see any point in talking further.
I realized rather soon in the course of that conversation
that I was being filmed by one of the disrupter’s cohorts and a few times he
actually invited me to say some things on camera. I politely declined, keeping
my back to the one filming (Of course, I was wearing one of our church T-shirts
with our web site plastered across the back in large font.).
So… the next day I 'Googled' what I could remember about the
guy… we had talked for quite a while and I learned enough about him that, sure
enough, I pulled him up.
Seems he IS a professional organizer, and has a church based
outside of
There’s a video clip of when a Hindu led prayer in Congress,
according to the site a sure sign of
And of course, there are the predictable anti-gay photos and
placards. (One new to me there was:
“Gay Pride is why Sodom got fried”)
Why do I bother to mention these extremists?
…because the majority of churches in our country see these
extremists and say nothing …and by
turning their heads they stand in silent solidarity.
We have chosen not to be silent about the embracing love of
God.
All are welcome here.
One more thing….So, this fellow, the disrupter, asked me in
our lengthy conversation the obvious question… "Would I be welcome in your
church?"
Some of you may disagree, but I told him that he would be
…he would be welcomed guardedly… And as
long as his speech and his actions did not harm other members of the community,
the guarded welcome would continue.
Who really is welcome here?
All are welcome who welcome others,
for sure.
All are welcome who seek the spirit
of peace, the spirit of love, the spirit of the Christ.
Do we need to agree with each other to be welcomed?… No.
…but bringing harm toward another, whether physical or
emotional, will not be welcomed.
Hate speech will not be
protected under the guise of free speech.
Pious arrogance will not
trump the loving embrace for all.
Why?
Because here, we will do our best simply to follow the lead
of Jesus, servant and lover of all. So,
in the words of Marty Haugen:
Let us build a house where hands will reach beyond the wood
and stone
to heal and strengthen, serve and teach, and live the Word
they've known.
Here the outcast and the stranger bear the image of God's
face;
let us bring an end to fear and danger:
all are welcome, all are
welcome, all are welcome in this place. (from “All Are
Welcome” Marty Haugen)
Amen.
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