This upcoming weekend the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning and queer communities celebrate National Coming Out Day. This weeks blog writings from me will be about coming out and how we can relate coming out with our call as disciples and followers of Jesus Christ. LGBTQ people have been experiencing some real tragedies over these past weeks. It is time for us to begin to look at ourselves and our communities in positive ways. We need to see the many positive ways that God views our sexual and gender diversity.
The readings for this Sunday detail for us the experiences of people that have been stereotyped and pushed aside by the communities they are in. In the case of 2 Kings 5:1-3, 7-15c Naaman is told by the Prophet Elisha to go wash himself seven times in the Jordan to be cleansed of his leprosy. Interestingly enough, the Jordan is the same river that Jesus was baptized in through which he claimed water as the means through which we would share in Christ's death and resurrection. Naaman was cut off from his community because he was a foreigner and because he had leprosy. How many gay and bisexual men are cut off from their home communities because of their sexual orientation, and cut off from the LGBTQ communities because they live with HIV/AIDS or any other STD for that matter? It is a double-edged sword of stigmatization and rejection. It really does not matter how they got the diseases or what they did or did not do. They are still human beings with fragile hearts. The guilt that often comes with any STD including HIV/AIDS is bad enough. The isolation and rejection is another layer of bad icing for the cake.
As LGBTQ people, we have a blessed gift to be able to love uniquely. Our sexual and gender diversity is our gift, not our condemnation. Not only do our communities need to work to establish equality through the laws of our Nation, State and local Governments and churches, but also among ourselves and each other. We all know how difficult yet wonderful coming out is. But we also know how scary it can be. We do the greatest damage to our communities and to ourselves when we behave carelessly without concern for those with whom we come into contact.
In the Gospel of Luke 17: 11-19, we read.
On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!" When he saw them, he said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were made clean. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, "Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" Then he said to him, "Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well."
Here Jesus does a miraculous cure for every one. Yet it is the foreigner who comes back to give thanks to God. A "foreigner" can be translated in many ways. There are those who think that LGBTQ people are the "foreigners" to the Christian Church. Yet, when we come out and embrace the life that God has created for us to live, to love openly and freely as we are, our excitement is so great it is quite contagious. So it is no wonder that we might find someone from some Christianist or arch-conservative Catholic group who has to be the party popper. Yet, what is so interesting about the response of Christianists and conservative Catholics to the issue of homosexuality and transgender people, is how obsessed they are with the subject of sex.
Last March, Jason and I were in the Minnesota Senate Hearing Room for a hearing on a Marriage Equality bill. All of the Christianists and Catholics who came forward to oppose the bill, spoke only and mostly about homosexuality. The Senate Hearing Chairperson called them out and reminded them that the bill we were there to talk about was about marriage and giving same-sex couples the opportunity to share in that institution and that the opposition made the bill mostly about sex.
Coming out as LGBTQ people is about so much more than our sexuality. It is about how we love other people and about who we love. Our ability to love other's in platonic and physically active ways is an expression of our thanksgiving to God for the awesome opportunity and responsibility to love another person. Our lives and our love is an expression of God through us for every person in wonderful, holy and wholesome ways.
The healing of the lepers and the one who came back to say thank you is all of us who are LGBTQ. When we return with the gift of our sexual and/or gender diversity to love other people, we are giving thanks and glory to God. When through the gift of our sexuality and gender identity/expression we express sorrow and anger about the terrible events of these last two weeks and call upon churches, school boards, our Governments and all to help create safe environments we are giving thanks to God.
Our thanks expressed to God needs to be shown as we help LGBTQ youth and all within our communities know that the sacred place that is the place of intimacy, is one that we must challenge everyone including ourselves to respect and protect from all any and all predators. Bishop Beckwith called our attention to such in the blog I posted yesterday.
We want to call attention to another, potentially deeper, issue here. It is the invasion of intimacy. Intimacy is a holy place within every human being; an innermost sanctuary where we develop our ultimate beliefs and values, nurture our closest relationships and maintain our deepest commitments. No one has the right to disclose that intimacy for someone else without consent. Such a violation is tantamount to the desecration of a sacred space. It is, in fact, a sacred space. It is the territory of the soul.
Technology, however, now provides tools to record, seize and disclose the most intimate matters of our lives without our consent. Identities can be stolen, hearts broken and lives shattered. Technology has placed powerful tools in human hands. Will they be used for building-up or for breaking down our neighbor? Tyler Clementi’s death certainly poses some important legal issues, but it also raises some critical moral concerns. Hubris has outstripped humility. And that is a serious problem. We can do better. We must do better, with God’s help.
In our Episcopal tradition, whenever we reaffirm our faith in worship, we are given a challenging question: “will you respect the dignity of every human being?” And we answer, “I will, with God’s help.” It is an important commitment. Whatever our religious tradition, we can agree on the need to respect one another’s dignity. With God’s help, we can stand together and stand up against bullies who would damage and destroy the lives of LGBT persons, their partners and families and friends. With God’s help, we can offer safety, support and sanctuary to all LGBT persons who are at risk. With God’s help, we can remind our society that every LGBT person is made in the image of God. The world needs our witness.
When we come out we affirm the sacred space that is in each of us where God and our souls communicate through our intimacy with God and our partner whom we love most deeply. As Bishop Beckwith has stated, we must work towards LGBT equality so that the sacred space of LGBTQ people may be regarded as just that: sacred space. It is the place where we and God commune, and it is there that God communes with us through committed loving relationships. It really is not the business of any Christianist person or group or any Catholic hierarchy to be doing all they can to vandalize the sacred space that is the place of intimacy for LGBTQ people. If we can just take seriously the opportunity and necessity of working toward that goal, we will be returning to Jesus to give thanks to God for the mighty and powerful witness of God's Holy Spirit in our lives, the Church and the world. Amen.
Lord, we pray that your grace may always precede and follow us, that we may continually be given to good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (Proper 23, Book of Common Prayer, pages 234 and 235.)
O God, you made us in your own image and redeemed us through Jesus your Son: Look with compassion on the whole human family; take away the arrogance and hatred which infect our hearts; break down the walls that separate us; unite us in bonds of love; and work through our struggle and confusion to accomplish your purposes on earth; that, in your good time, all nations and races may serve you in harmony around your heavenly throne; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Prayer for the Human Family, Book of Common Prayer, page 815).
O God of peace, who has taught us that in returning and rest we will be saved, in quietness and confidence will be our strength: By the might of your Spirit lift us, we pray, to your presence, where we may be still and know that you are God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Prayer for Quiet Confidence, Book of Common Prayer, page 832).
Our Creator beyond us,
Yet you dwell among us,
We praise you.
We pray for the home of promise
(which we've never fully known)
as we work to be your welcome in the world.
Grant us this day abundant life.
And forgive us our exiling
as we pray for the peace
to forgive those who exile us.
Lead us out of our need to create boundaries,
and delight us in the diversity of life!
For you are the Keeper of Community,
the Source behind our deepest longing,
and the One who provides an eternal Home.
Amen. (Prayerfully Out in Scripture).
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