The basic theme of the readings is as we gain a fuller understanding of who we are, how do we see our relationship with God, others and ourselves? One of the choices for the Old Testament reading is Sirach 10: 12-18. Verse 12 begins with: "The beginning of pride is to forsake the Lord, the heart has withdrawn from it's Maker." As lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, questioning and queer people we celebrate our diversity every year through Pride celebrations. If you stand on the anti-gay side of the movement towards LGBTQ equality, the word pride is a word used to suggest that LGBTQ people have an arrogant view of ourselves. Anti-gay conservative Christian preachers will often preach against pride and specifically direct such towards a questioning individual in their audience so as to shame them about their sexual orientation and/or gender identity expression.
Marti Steussy commented on the reading from Sirach in Out in Scripture.
"Is pride always a bad thing?" Those of us who are labeled "defective" often draw strength from lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender pride celebrations. These are occasions when we give to one another the place of honor ("Friend, move up higher") in a wider culture that would keep us, at best, in "the lowest place" (Luke 14:10).
Pride seems more of a problem for those who already enjoy privilege. And when we hear some of this week's lessons speaking of God enthroning the lowly in place of established rulers (Sirach 10:14), we may feel justice is finally being served.
I really do not think that the pride spoken of in Sirach is meant to shame LGBTQ people about learning to have a sense of pride about who we are, who we love and to mean that we should not seek equal rights. I do think it is meant to remind us to be careful about taking the position of our opponents, and therefore we should not think of ourselves better than heterosexual people, just because we are LGBTQ. A pride that understands who we are and honors who we are before others and God is a good and noble pride. A pride that says that we deserve our place because we are more important than everyone else who is different from ourselves is not a good pride.
John McQuiston II wrote a devotional book entitled: "Always We Begin Again: The Benedictine Way of Living." McQuiston has taken the Rule of St. Benedict and put it into the language of every day people who have families, jobs and/or are struggling with our lives of prayer, spirituality and living with one another. In the one page on humility John McQuinston writes the most profound of words.
Cultivate humility.
To be exalted is to be in danger.
Pride is considered sin because it warps our
existence.
It establishes our lives on a false foundation
No one can win all the time.
Therefore, a life on bettering others
will always be unfulfilled.
The way to affiliation with the sublime
is not to add,
but is to take away more each day
until we have been freed,
even from the desire for perfection. (Page 37).
I think this can speak volumes to the struggle that heterosexism creates for LGBTQ people. Our anti-LGBTQ adversaries have themselves developed a pride that suggests that they are to always benefit at the expense of those who are not. Racism as Bishop Gene Robinson says suggests that those who are Caucasian benefit at the expense of those who are not. Sexism suggests that men benefit at the expense of women. (See page 24 of In the Eye of the Storm). And so a huge group of people have assumed a place of privilege from which no one who is not like them, can be given an opportunity to be included at the table, until they decide it is okay. This is the problem with placing the rights of immigrants, LGBTQ, women, and people of other races, languages, religions etc into the hands of judges, legislators, elections, Church Conventions, conferences and leadership groups. When the rights and opportunities of underprivileged people are made by people who are privileged, there is always the probability that the underprivileged will loose, because the privileged do not wish to give up what they think is theirs.
Helene Russell finds the outlines for such a common life, a life of mutuality, in Hebrews 13. The writer envisions a community where strangers and prisoners are welcomed and remembered, whose members are not just willing but glad to share whatever they have. While some might read "honoring the marriage bed" as a put-down of same-gender marriage (Hebrews 13:4), Marti Steussy suggests that this admonition is about the community acknowledging and providing a supporting framework for intimate relationships. Mutual love includes respecting appropriate boundaries where intimacy is involved. Charles Allen regards this practice of mutual love as nothing less than practicing the presence of God. The foundation for this practice is God's promise, "I will never leave you or forsake you" (Hebrews 13:5).
The Gospel for today from Luke 14: 1, 7-14 suggests that we not assume what is not ours, but take our place from where we are first. This is a very difficult lesson for those of us who are already second class citizens in the Church and society. However, the good news here is that God knows all of us as welcomed guests to God's Banquet. Everyone who comes to share in the Holy Eucharist is there because God has invited them to come. Those who assume authority over the Banquet so as to decide who should not be there, are advised to be careful about exalting themselves, lest they should have to be humbled. When Church authorities attempt to make the decision that practicing LGBTQ people, women who have had abortions, politicians who support marriage equality and a woman's right to choose etc should not be welcomed to receive Holy Communion appear to forget that they are not a Pope, Bishop or Priest because they are worth all the brains in their head. Everyone is welcome to God's Banquet, because God's love is unconditional and all-inclusive. Every child of God is invited to share in the Body and Blood of Christ, because it is for everyone's salvation that Jesus endured his passion, death and resurrection. It really is not the place of Ecclesiastical people to decide who is or is not holy enough to receive Holy Communion. God's grace moves our hearts to want to receive Christ in the Eucharist, God's grace invites us, and by God's grace we receive the very Presence of God so that, that Presence is to become real in us who receive God. Such is God's work of grace, not the decision of those who think they are better than God.
God desires to pour out the very best of God's Self into all of us. We do not need to hold ourselves or have others hold us in high esteem to be known by God or others as individuals who have the dignity, integrity, value and respect that is given to us by the very reason that we are God's beloved. However, because we are God's beloved with whom God is well-pleased God wants us to live with a sense of dignity and integrity. "No good thing will the LORD withhold from those who walk with integrity." (Psalm 84:11). No matter where we find ourselves, including beneath the proverbial or political shoe of someone who thinks that because they are heterosexual they are better than those of us who are LGBTQ, that God still knows us as the "apple of God's eye: hidden under the shadow of God's wings." (Psalm 17: 8 paraphrased). "I praise you, O LORD, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made." (Psalm 139: 14).
Today we are invited to know ourselves so that we will have a sense of humility as we also gain a sense of God ordained pride by whom we have been created, redeemed and sanctified. We are also invited to remember and be sensitive to the needs of others, while at the same time never compromising the very essence of who we are and who or how we love others.
Lord of all power and might, the author and giver of all good things: Graft in our hearts the love of your Name; increase in us true religion; nourish us with all goodness; and bring forth in us the fruit of good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen. (Proper 17, Book of Common Prayer, Page 233).
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)
Gracious One,
you meet us,
hold us and challenge us in our life together with others;
transfigure our relationships so that mutual love may continue
until we find ourselves welcomed into the highest place
you have reserved for all your children,
through your Word and Spirit.
Amen. (Prayerfully Out in Scripture).
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