Transfigured by Love

                                                                 February 22, 2009

             Transfiguration Sunday

It's Transfiguration Sunday, the last Sunday in Epiphany, the Sunday before the beginning of Lent. Transfiguration remembers the event when Jesus took Peter, James and John up the mountain and was "transfigured," appearing with Moses and Elijah.

The implications of the association are clear… here Jesus is bound to two of the most influential figures in the Hebrew Scriptures. He is the new Moses leading his people and, like Elijah, he will exit the human realm ultimately in a manner other than through death.

Some traditions understand the transfiguration as a literal event. Some interpret it as metaphor and symbol.

I think it was a little of both. Something happened, and the disciples saw Jesus in a new way. Randall Bailey, who was with us a couple of weeks ago, refers to the transfiguration as Jesus’ ‘coming out’ event. This is when the disciples understood who he was. …and just after this Jesus’ ministry turned toward Jerusalem… which is why we recognize “Transfiguration Sunday” each liturgical year as the Sunday just before the beginning of Lent.

The Transfiguration… What literally happened? I don’t know… but what I do know is that people can be transfigured, transformed, made new and full of energy so that their countenance seems to shine.

I've seen people transfigured. They seem to radiate a glow of sorts. They are transfigured by love.

Seriously, this transforming love… have you ever seen it in someone (or felt it in yourself?).

It's an undeniable, exuberant, flowing over with goodness sense of completion.

Transfigured by love.

Now, I’m jumping from the Biblical event to the here and now for the remainder of this sermon …just so you’ll know. The backdrop is the Transfiguration… the power of God’s love to transform each and every one of us. That’s the back drop. The Here and Now is this…

While we cannot deny that love transforms us, there are voices in our society that want to constitutionally ban this transforming love.

You're going to hear a lot in the next couple of weeks about defining marriage… it’ll definitely be in the news.

…partly because today, February 22, has been proclaimed Marriage Sunday …for “every church across North Carolina.” Here is the invitation in the words of those who issue it:

NC4Marriage is asking pastors all across North Carolina to preach about God’s design for marriage and the scriptural admonitions about homosexuality on February 22, 2009. Pastors are also asked to educate their congregations about the NC4Marriage campaign to pass a Marriage Protection Amendment. Participate in Marriage Sunday on February 22 and make that day a special tribute to marriage…

So I think I will!

The "invitation" continues:

An unknown number of same-sex couples that reside in North Carolina have already obtained marriage licenses in Connecticut, in Massachusetts, or in California before Proposition 8 passed. At any time, one or more of these couples could file suit in a North Carolina court in an attempt to convince a judge to overturn our State’s marriage laws, arguing that they unconstitutionally prohibit “marriages” between same-sex couples. Without a provision in our State Constitution defining marriage as the union between only a man and a woman, any court in our State could redefine marriage by legalizing the union of same-sex couples.

Please support two main events that NC4Marriage is promoting:

·         Marriage Sunday -- February 22, 2009.

·         Marriage Rally -- March 3 at the State Capital in Raleigh.

Apparently the proposed legislation is spear-headed by Representative Paul Stam… to which Equality North Carolina, a progressive lobby FOR gay rights has initiated the “Stam the Tide” campaign. …and they are raising money to organize efforts to keep marriage from excluding them. Equality NC will lobby the legislature on March 24^th.

The NC4Marriage movement has garnered some strong and powerful allies in the Catholic Church as well. Perhaps you’ve seen the recent news that (from N&O article)

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Raleigh is starting a new ministry to gays and lesbians. The ministry is called Courage, and its aim, in the words of its executive director, is to "assist men and women who are afflicted with the thorn of same-sex attraction." A 29-year-old international ministry with about 90 U.S. chapters, the Courage Apostolate will serve as a kind of support group -- like Alcoholics Anonymous -- for men and women who want to remain celibate.

The move is part of a more aggressive push by the dioceses of Raleigh and Charlotte to march in step with the Vatican on the issue of homosexuality. On Feb. 24, the bishops of both dioceses will hold a news conference at the legislature to announce their support for an amendment to the state's constitution defining marriage as a union of a man and a woman…

The Catholic Church maintains that same-sex attraction is not sinful but that homosexual sex is.

… recently, Pope Benedict XVI reiterated the implacable opposition of the church to homosexuality. The Vatican refused to back a United Nations resolution urging the banning of criminal penalties against homosexuality. Last year the Vatican urged seminaries to enlist the aid of psychologists in screening candidates for homosexuality and other "psychic disturbances."

The Rev. James Fukes, pastor of St. Julia Catholic Church in Siler City, who will serve as the spiritual director for Courage, said the new ministry was added at the request of parishioners.

"There have been some people who asked for some ministry by the Catholic Church to help them deal with the challenges and difficulties they have and remain close to God," he said.

Next month, the Rev. Paul Check, national director of Courage, will lead a workshop in Raleigh for priests and lay leaders. A priest in the Diocese of Bridgeport, Conn., Check has written widely on homosexuality, including one article in which he suggests that gay men come from broken homes or grew up alienated from their fathers and overprotected by their mothers.

"For example, many men with same sex attraction lack hand-eye coordination and as a result were spurned or the subject of jokes by their fathers or the neighborhood boys because they could not play certain sports easily," Check wrote in the St. Austin Review's November-December 2008 edition.

It’s not that the Catholics deny homosexuality… you just can't practice it.

Joi Williams was visiting last year the church community she where she earlier served as Associate Minister… a Baptist church in the NC mountains…. and one of the deacons saw her on the street and struck up a conversation. He explained that he has visited the web site of her current church (That would be us) and that he noticed they accepted homosexuals.  “Are they practicing homosexuals?” he asked.

Joi’s eyes grew a bit wide… “Oh no, they aren’t practicing. They don’t need anymore practice. They’ve already figured it out!”

True story.

One bit more from NC4Marriage:

I am writing to invite you to participate in one of the greatest opportunities but also one of the greatest challenges confronting families and churches in North Carolina. What is at stake?  Your freedom to talk about and encourage the type of family life that God designed. Your freedom to teach your children the Biblical meaning of marriage, free from indoctrination in our public schools that homosexuality and same-sex “marriage” are normal and acceptable. And the freedom of churches and pastors to preach about and foster God’s divine design for marriage.

So let’s look at this for just a moment. Have you ever stopped to look at what the Bible does say about marriage? Those of you who have had the privilege of offering a homily at a wedding… have you ever looked for good Biblical material? Frankly, there’s not a lot there, specifically, that is helpful. We read I Corinthians 13… about love in general. But marriage…? In fact, the most oft quoted scripture is from Ruth…   “Whither thou goest I will go and whither thou lodgest I will lodge.”     Beautiful… of course, in its Biblical context, it’s a conversation between two women- Ruth and Naomi.

…but here are the NC4Marriage folk saying they fear will they not have the “freedom to teach your children the Biblical meaning of marriage.”

Vaughn Roste, the son of two Canadian Lutheran pastors, is a freelance writer in Edmonton. He has a degree in theology himself and, a few years ago, he undertook a comprehensive study of passages in the Bible that deal with marriage. Using a Concordance, he looked up every reference... (marriage, marriages, marry, marries, married, wedding, weddings, wed, husband, husbands, wife, and wives.) …over 800 references.

And from that he distilled what he calls the “12 Biblical Principles of Marriage.”  (I’ve summarized, shortened and rephrased a few, but here, basically is his list):

1. Marriage consists of one man and one… or more women (and from Genesis to Chronicles, more than 25 references are cited)
2. Nothing prevents a man from taking on concubines in addition to the wife or wives he may already have (You can find examples in Genesis, Judges, II Samuel, I Kings, I Chronicles, Daniel… you get the picture)
3. There are some helpful guidelines. For example: A man might chose any woman he wants for his wife, provided that she is not already another man’s wife or his [half-]sister, nor the mother or the sister of a woman who is already his wife. The concept of a woman giving her consent to being married is foreign to the Biblical mindset.
4. If a woman cannot be proven to be a virgin at the time of marriage, she shall be stoned (Deut 22:13-21).
5. A rapist must marry his victim (Ex. 22:16, Deut. 22:28-29) - unless she was already a fiancé, in which case he should be put to death if he raped her in the country, but both of them killed if he raped her in town (Deut. 22:23-27).
6. If a man dies childless, his brother must marry the widow (That’s in both the Old and New Testaments… Thank God, John, we have children.).
7. And it is imminently clear in the Bible that women, of course, marry the man of their father’s choosing…. Because…
8. Women are the property of their father until married and their husband after that (It’s in the Old and New).
9. The value of a woman?  … approximately seven years’ work. (Who could argue with that?)
10. Inter-faith marriages are prohibited. (Ali and Kim… you’re in trouble.)
11. Divorce is forbidden, (We got a lot of problems here) and finally….
12. Better to not get married at all - (That’s only a New Testament idea.).

I think it’s fair to say in summary (using Roste's words):

"the Bible teaches that marriage is a covenantal union of one man to as many women as he might want and can afford."

The Biblical view of marriage is not monogamous: it is not necessarily based on love, or on any amount of mutuality.

But the current “conversation”, the current public discourse is not just about marriage, it’s about justice and equality for gay persons period.  Beyond the health benefits, tax laws, children, wills and legal implications… which are very, very significant, I would point out that the current movement is not just about whether same gender folk can marry…

What it’s really about is whether they have the right to exist at all.  

A week and a half ago, Scott Jones, a UCC minister, offered the prayer for the Oklahoma House of Representatives.

Holy and ever living God,

Compassionate and Merciful,

We, your servants, are listening.

 … 

Giver of immortal gladness, fill us with new life today.

We, your humble people, beseech thee.

And in all your many names, we pray. Amen.

That's not the entire prayer but you get the gist of it.

20 % of the Legislators present voted that the prayer be stricken from the record. 17 more abstained.

Why?

Rev. Scott Jones is gay… and apparently, these nay voters claim, GOD does not hear the prayers of gay men.

Rep. Sally Kern, R-Oklahoma City, was among those who voted to strike the prayer from the record. Kern is on record as calling homosexuality "the biggest threat our nation has, even more so than terrorism and Islam."

This isn’t just about who can marry. This is about who is recognized as fully and wholly human.

I do remind you that… at our 2005 General Synod in Atlanta, UCC delegates voted overwhelmingly in support of a resolution calling for marriage rights to be extended to same-gender couples. The resolution, In Support of Equal Marriage Rights for All, "affirms equal marriage rights for couples regardless of gender and declares that the government should not interfere with couples regardless of gender who choose to marry and share fully and equally in the rights, responsibilities and commitment of legally recognized marriage."

So… what do we do?

            Our voice in this conversation is critically important. We do not have the luxury nor dare we be so complacent (call it for what it is… timid and lazy) … we do not dare risk sitting on the sidelines and let other voices rule the stage.

I got a letter last week inviting me, and all the pastors in this area, to a complimentary buffet breakfast at the Millennium Centre at the Crabtree Marriot. It’s to something called ‘The Truth Project.’ I hope you never hear of it again… but I’m wary. What an ambitious but thoroughly serious wing of Focus on the Family (You know James Dobson?)… what they are attempting to do, in their words they are “seeking to instill a systematic and comprehensive Christian worldview within the body of Christ.”

[Their truth? We were born in sin, Jesus is the only way back to innocence… further truths, Darwin is dangerous, men are to lead, and especially in America, God’s gift to the world.]

We cannot stay quiet and let such fundamentalist voices take center stage in our culture’s discourse.

Here’s another thing… let me remind myself, and let you over hear, that our tone in this conversation is critically important. If we simply characterize those who disagree as hateful morons (… though I do not doubt a few of them may be. There are morons in every crowd… even our own.) … If we simply characterize those who disagree as hateful, the manner of our words overcomes the meaning of them. Many people who are pushing for marriage to be defined in an exclusionary manner are not hateful at their core… and we need to always remind ourselves of that. How do we talk honestly and even lovingly with those who do not agree. Well, how we talk should be rooted exactly in that way… in honesty and love.

Because, you understand, what we are really talking about here is love …love rooted in and given by God …love given by God and then wondrously shared human being to human being.  That love is a transforming thing… and it serves as the basis of what all marriages should be-          a public profession and the consequential daily practice between two adults celebrating their God-given, transforming love, one for the other.

That love, by the way, can never be legislated… nor squelched by any law.  We are transfigured by its power within us, a power and goodness that comes from the very source of creation, from the heart of God.

Amen.