John 14:6-15 (NRSV)
Jesus said to Thomas, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him."
Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied." Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, `Show us the Father'? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.
"If you love me, you will keep my commandments."
One of my favorite movies is Fried Green Tomatoes. I love the story, the characters, the actors and the twists as the stories unfold. At the very end of the movie the 82 year old Ninnie Threadgood says: "Truth is a funny thing sometimes." She said this after she had confided to Evelyn Couch that the man Iggy Threadgood was accused of murdering was killed by Sipsie an African American woman during the 1930's while the man was trying to take off with he and his ex-wife Ruth's baby. To keep a Sheriff from discovering that an African American killed Frank Bennet for which Sipsie would have been sentenced to a hanging for sure, Iggy and Big George barb'qued and served up Frank. Sipsie's famous sentence "The secret's in the sauce" while picking up the empty dish from the Sheriff investigating Frank Bennet's murder is just so hilarious. Ninnie's phrase: "Truth is a funny thing sometimes" is so applicable to what I am going to write today.
We commemorate today in the Episcopal Church, Saint Augustine of Hippo who lived from 354 to 430. His writings, sermons, and classics in Western Spirituality have shaped much of what Christians in the Western lung of the Church have believed for centuries. In the Roman tradition he is said to be one of the Church Fathers. A great deal of our theology about the Trinity and the Sacraments was given life by the incredible mind of St. Augustine. As many Christian traditions up to this present day have been working to condemn the physical love of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, questioning and queer people, they have often attributed a fair amount of their moral theology to St. Augustine as one of their references.
I have already spent a lot of time writing about how the Bible has been misquoted and misinterpreted to condemn homosexuality. What we do not really record accurately is that much of early Christian culture did not know or have an appreciation of homosexuality. A blog article appeared in Alternet this week of how early Christians actually condoned same-sex marriage.
John Boswell in his book Christianity, Social Tolerance and Homosexuality the author wrote:
"It may be objected that the general thrust of early Christian sexual ethics would have precluded homosexual intercourse regardless of the particular objections brought against it. This argument deserves attention. It should be noted in the first place that whether or not early opponents of gay sexuality could have deduced the sinfulness of homosexual behavior from the general systems of sexuality, they did not. Saint Augustine, for example, who more than any other single writer determined that the sexual attitudes of the Christian West, never related homosexual activities to heterosexual ones, and discussions of homosexual acts are conspicuously absent from the treatises in which he expounded his system of sexual minorities." (Page 161).
Keep in mind that Augustine was converted and baptized into Christianity by Ambrose of Milan in 387. Ambrose is said to be a convert of one of Jesus' Apostles. This quote from John Boswell's book gives some evidence of what Gray Temple spoke of in his book Gay Unions in Light of Scripture, Tradition and Reason that the writers of the Bible and the early Church did not have two concepts called heterosexuality or homosexuality. Sexuality was at that time known as a way of how the strong dominated the weak. St. Augustine and many of his contemporaries did raise the standard to suggest that human sexuality was mostly about procreation. It is from there that the Catholic church condemns artificial contraception, abortion and homosexuality In the Episcopal Church we understand that in an economy that is more interested in capital gains than life itself, that raising a child in a society that does not seek to expand public education, health care, personal growth and potential so as to contribute to society, that birth control is far from the greatest of evils. It is also amazing how many so called "prolife" people who condemn abortion, have no problem with the shooting of an abortion doctor, as well as killing all public funding by which an unwed mother would be able to give birth to and raise a child.
In today's Gospel Jesus tells the disciples that Jesus is the way, truth and life and that we all go to God through him. Yet in all that we have read and heard do we really know who Jesus is? Do we understand that in Jesus, God has called unto God's Self those whom society and the Church considers the throw aways? The poor, the sick, those who are told they are second class citizens because of their race, class, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity/expression, language, culture, religion, they are the people God seeks through Christ. Because of God's grace through Jesus, all people are invited and able to approach God and seek salvation and wholeness. God does not call people to give up the essence of who we are as people. God does not expect that we will not love people in the unique way God has created us to love. What we are called to do is recognize that what we do, who we do it with or for is all about knowing, loving and serving God in Jesus by the Holy Spirit. LGBTQ people can love God in Jesus by the Holy Spirit through our loving relationships with our partners/husbands/wives/significant others
When we distort the truth about who God is by trying to dictate how we think God views people the results are catastrophic. It is because of such misunderstandings about God's relationship to LGBTQ people that leads to terrible events such as a four year old girl being denied admission to a school operated by the Anglican Church of North America because she has two mommies. A school district that has seen at least three LGBTQ related suicides, among youth has anti-gay advocates show up at a school board meeting to oppose tougher anti-bullying policies. The Presbyterian Church USA voted that a minister who performed several legal same-sex marriages before Prop 8 was voted on in California, that the minister violated the vows of her ordained ministry. Because "truth is a funny thing sometimes" and gets all messed up by Church traditions that misinterpret the Bible and create policies that really do not exist, people get hurt and abused just because they followed Jesus and loved a little differently.
Yesterday Susan Russell wrote in her blog:
Shouldn't our lives, our relationships and our vocations be entitled to equal protection, blessing and respect without our having to justify ourselves? To prove anything? Do we really have to invite strangers into our lives -- our stories --in order to "prove" that we deserve recognition of the full humanity God gave us by our heterosexual brothers and sisters?
Welcome to the kingdom not-yet-come! Of course all those things are true, and yet again and again -- over and over -- hearts and minds are changed when we risk ... when we speak our truth ... tell our stories ... share our lives ... offer ourselves to this Godly work of healing homophobia an inch at a time.
If we are going to talk about Jesus as the way, truth and life in today's Church and society than one of the things we must do is correct the Church Tradition that has been mishandling and misunderstanding the truth. If we believe and understand that Jesus is the truth then we have to also be willing to ask the Holy Spirit whom Jesus the truth also said would guide us into all truth. (See John 16: 13). In other words, we do not have it all right, yet. When the Church insists that we have understood all truth and therefore we no longer need to redefine or understand truth, the Church runs the risk of causing Christianity to die. And sadly, that has already been happening. Perhaps there can be a new resurrection as the truth gets cleaned up and spoken of in all charity with the desire and wish for an inclusive Church.
Grant, O merciful God, that your Church, being gathered together in unity by your Holy Spirit, may show forth your power among all peoples, to the glory of your Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirt, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Proper 16, Book of Common Prayer, Page 232).
Lord God, the light of the minds that know you, the life of the souls that love you, and the strength of the hearts that serve you: Help us, following the example of your servant Augustine of Hippo, so to know you that we may truly love you, and so to love you that we may fully serve you, whom to serve is perfect freedom; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (Collect for St. Augustine, Holy Women, Holy Men, Celebrating the Saints, Page 545).
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