Psalm 5:1-8
Or
2 Samuel 11:26-12:10, 13-15
Psalm 32
Galatians 2:15-21
Luke 7:36-8:3
There are many Lectionaries that contain view points that can be applied to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people. This weekend's readings are full of texts that are calls to God's inclusive mercy. God's mercy to forgive our sins is available to all of God's creation. God calls of all who seek God's inclusive mercy to approach God and love God in the way God created us to love God.
We begin our Scripture analysis with the Human Rights Campaign's Out in Scripture.
The texts for this week are full of the names and stories of women in the Bible: Jezebel in the Kings text, Bathsheba (implied) in the Samuel text, the unnamed woman who anoints Jesus' feet with her tears — as well as Mary Magdalene, Joanna, the wife of Herod's steward Chuza and Susanna — in the Luke text. These stories invite us to take a look at power dynamics in the biblical narrative and our communities.
In 1 Kings 21:1-10, (11-14), 15-21, Jezebel and Ahab abuse their royal power, which results in the innocent death of Naboth, and, in 2 Samuel 11:26-12:10, 13-15, David is confronted by the prophet Nathan for his abuse of royal power, which has resulted in the innocent death of Bathsheba's husband, Uriah. Of all the characters in these stories, it is Jezebel who is most vilified in subsequent biblical narrative and interpretation. In Western culture, the name "Jezebel" denotes "evil woman." This evil has been sexualized, but in the biblical narrative itself, Jezebel's abuse of power is not connected to her sexuality, but her religious zeal and political ambition. True, in 2 Kings 9 she will "paint her eyes and adorn her head" to confront her enemies, but this is a sign of her royal power and not sexual seduction.
While Jezebel's (and Ahab's) actions were clearly a sign of abuse of political power, the ways in which wickedness is often sexualized — and in particular with regard to women; lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people; and people of color — must be noted as we work with these texts. Often when marginalized people exercise their power appropriately they are sexually demonized by those whose positions of "power over" are threatened.
In Luke 7:36-8:3, the unnamed woman who anoints Jesus' feet with her tears is sexually demonized. She is called "a woman of the city" (meaning prostitute), a "sinner." Elizabeth Schussler Fiorenza points out that most prostitutes in the cities of the New Testament world were impoverished and forced into this type of livelihood as a result of their marginal status in a patriarchal society. She claims that "all categories of sinners were in one way or another marginal people who were badly paid and often abused" (In Memory of Her: A Feminist Theological Reconstruction of Christian Origins, 128).
Yet this "woman of the city" is the one who offers radical hospitality to Jesus in the story — and it's not even her house! She crashes the dinner party because she believes she has a place at the table. Her empowered, embodied action makes the host nervous. Simon, a caricature of respectable religiosity, is upstaged by this woman, "a sinner" whose name we do not even know.
Stories like this one from the gospel of Luke resonate for LGBT people in the month of June as many will gather for pride celebrations. These celebrations have their historical roots in what is called the Stonewall Rebellion. On June 28, 1969, drag queens, "women of the city" and most of them people of color, resisted arrest and continued harassment by New York City police at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village.
In this letter to the churches in Galatia, Paul is refuting those who have come preaching a different gospel. A gospel which claimed that there were compulsory behaviors associated with becoming Christian, namely the circumcision of Gentile converts. In Galatians 2:15-21, he claims that whether Jew or Gentile, all have been justified by God's grace in Jesus Christ. In these days following Pentecost, the Spirit continues to call the church to a radical inclusion and hospitality that transcends any notion of compulsory behavior (as heterosexuality and celibacy) which would make God's love and grace conditional.
With the psalmist we say, "Lead us, O God, in your righteousness, and make your way clear" (Psalm 5:8),"Instruct us in your way and make your way clear" (Psalm 32:8).
I also want to share some thoughts from Gospel for Gays which refers to this weekends Gospel story as "A Very Gay Story"
The other three gospels contain a somewhat similar story of a woman anointing the head of Jesus with costly ointment while he was at dinner. In all three, the episode immediately precedes the passion narrative, and in all three Jesus defends her, telling her critics that she is anointing his body for burial.
Luke’s use of the story is unique. Here she is a known sinner, and her gesture is extreme: she washes his feet with her tears, wipes them with her hair, and in addition she anoints, not his head, but his feet.
She is worshipping him, not preparing his body for burial; and there are strong erotic overtones to her caresses.
It’s a wonderful story and an operatic gesture. Luke is presenting a deified Christ here, who serenely permits such attentions, like a living icon of the Pantocrator; Luke’s Jesus is always presented through a post-Resurrection lens.
He does not rebuke her excesses, he does not pull away: he defends them.
And in defending them, he implies that in reality, they are not excesses at all but only loving responses to the infinite mercy of God, who is realized in him.
That mercy is intuitively understood by a woman who is labeled as a public sinner; it is misunderstood, perhaps rejected, by the righteous male.
And interestingly, in forgiving her sins, “her many sins”, Jesus does not tell her to go and sin no more.
He only offers mercy.
It’s a very gay story. Drag queens and flamboyant, operatic gestures are embedded in gay culture. Wonderfully so. Indeed, it’s easy to imagine this woman as a beautiful transvestite, pierced to the heart by the greater beauty of the Lord.
He does not reject her, he welcomes her.
It’s sinners who recognize and respond to Jesus. The righteous fail to do so.
That’s what troubles me about this story; that’s where it cuts into my life and my complacency.
I don’t like to think of myself as a sinner. We don’t like to think of ourselves as sinners. Gay people especially don’t like to think of themselves as sinners, for obvious reasons: having been so labeled for centuries, we refuse to go back into that particular cave.
But that’s not what the story’s about. That’s what the Pharisee would expect: righteous and pure Jesus “should” recoil from the woman’s caress, rebuke her, send her away for purification, and even if she succeeded in meeting the standards of the law, he would only permit her presence at a distance, veiled.
He’d never allow her to touch him.
How different is that from the attitude of church authorities toward gay people right now?
This story tells us something completely different, which challenges both us and those authorities. It tells us that it’s only through being sinners that we find and recognize Jesus – because only sinners feel the need for the mercy of God.
So the kingdom of God is for us.
But whenever we feel righteous and self-sufficient (for example, when we sit in judgment over those same authorities!) – we’ve lost it.
A woman created as a woman who accepts herself as a woman cannot go to God and receive God's mercy as a man. God did not create her to request God's mercy as a man. God will not require her to change the fact that she is a woman to come to God and ask God's forgiveness for her sins. Just as Jesus was open to how the woman came and washed his feet and dried them with her hair, and anointed him in a plea for God's forgiveness of her sins, so Jesus granted her God's mercy based the love that she brought to him, and as a woman God forgave and blessed her.
Gay and lesbian individuals cannot approach Jesus and ask God's forgiveness of their sins as someone who is straight. God did not create them that way. God welcomes and receives gay and lesbian folks as they are and forgives them of their sins, and cherishes the love with which they bring to God so to receive God's merciful love. This twisted theology taught by right wing religion that the only way that LGBT people can receive God's forgiveness of their sins, is to turn from being LGBT. That is Biblical and theological error of a most egregious sort. That terrible misinterpretation of the Bible is used to justify spiritual, physical and emotional violence upon LGBT people
As for our sisters and brothers who are bisexual and transgendered they too must be invited and encouraged to come to God as they are, to receive God's mercy. A woman who honestly feels that she is a man within, has to approach God and love God that way. A man who feels in his soul that he really is a woman, has to freely and openly approach God in that way. God invites everyone to come to God as they are. God pours out God's merciful forgiving love on all who come to God as they are.
This morning at St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral we sang from The Hymnal 1982 #470:
There's a wideness in God's mercy, like the wideness of the sea;
there's a kindness in God's justice, which is more than liberty.
There is welcome for the sinner, and more graces for the good;
there is mercy with the Savior; there is healing in his blood.
There is no place where earth's sorrows are more felt that up in heaven;
there is no place where earth's failings have such kindly judgments given.
There is plentiful redemption in the blood that has been shed;
there is joy for all the members in the sorrows of the Head.
For the love of God is broader than the measure of the mind;
and the heart of the Eternal is most wonderfully kind.
If our love were but more faithful, we should take him at his word;
and our life would be thanksgiving for the goodness of the Lord.
As much as LGBT people may not want to go there, we must admit that we too are sinners like all of humankind. We too need God's mercy and we also need God's help to avoid becoming over self righteous so that we become like those who are against our work for equal justice. God has created all of us LGBT folk with the gift of loving God and others exactly as we are. We are always invited by God to go to God just as we are, to receive God's mercy for our sins. Whatever those things are that we have thought or done, or have not done. We are invited to come back to God, to love God and receive God's inclusive and extravagant love and mercy.
For those who have been reading my blogs, I want to list below the prayers for today a list of very gay friendly churches, denominations and organizations that are welcoming and affirming for LGBT people. They are places where we as LGBT people can find God's love as we are, and share it with people who are just waiting to find out who we are and how they can be helpful to us. God is waiting for us to serve and love God and others. God is also waiting to share God's inclusive merciful love with all of us. When will we approach God to love and be loved by God?
Keep, O Lord, your household the Church in your steadfast faith and love, that through your grace we may proclaim your truth with boldness, and minister your justice with compassion; for the sake of our Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (Proper 6, Book of Common Prayer, Book of Common Prayer, Page 230).
Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are truly sorry and we humbly repent. For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and forgive us that we may delight in your will and walk in your ways, to the glory of your Name. Amen.Almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us all our sins through our Lord Jesus Christ, strengthen us in all goodness, and by the power of the Holy Spirit keep us in eternal life. Amen. (Prayer of Confession, Forgiveness with Absolution, Book of Common Prayer, Pages 116, 117)
This is a very partial list, there may be others I do not know about.
Episcopal Church, United Church of Christ, Metropolitan Community Church, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Friends United Meeting, American Baptist Churches USA, Presbyterian USA, The United Methodist Church, Unitarian/Universalists
The following are religious based organizations assisting LGBT people. Welcoming Resources, Integrity USA (Episcopal), Lutherans Concerned, The Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists, Brethren Mennonite Council for LGBT Interests, Open and Affirming (Disciples of Christ), More Light Presbyterians, UCC Coalition, Reconciling Ministries Network, Room for All (Reform Churches of America), Welcoming Community Network, Gay Christian Network, Dignity USA, Soulforce, Truth Wins Out, Believe Outloud, Chicago Consultation, TEACH Ministries.
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