1) Faith in the objective understanding is what followers of Jesus Christ confess say in our creeds, read about in the Bible and know as a result of the Councils over the centuries.
2) Objective faith is complimented by 'subjective' faith. This is the human response to Divine truth, depicted in the New Testament as involving trust in God rather than intellectual assent. (See page 213).
Over these past few weeks the faith of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning and queer (LGBTQ) people has been shaken. Over the past several decades as our communities have worked toward greater inclusion in the Church and equal rights in all of society, many have become apathetic towards religion. This is why talking to LGBTQ people about faith takes a special sensitivity. Our readings today are challenging us to consider faith and persistence when answers do not come so quickly. When church communities and religious based organizations make statements that are abusive towards LGBTQ people it is really difficult to keep our faith and be persistent in prayer as we seek God's will for members of our communities. Why do Christianists and arch-conservative Catholics appear to be winning all the time? Why doesn't God whisper in their ear and change their hearts? I too often wish I had better answers to questions like these. But I don't. I do know that losing is not a reason to give up. I have no intention of letting the anti-LGBTQ bigots tell me that I cannot have a relationship with God and the Church just because I am a gay man. I can and have found love in my life. We can and did find a welcoming, affirming and celebrating community of faith where we can be who we are, without experiencing the rhetoric that we have in other situations.
As usual on Sunday's Out in Scripture has some excellent commentaries for today's Readings. I am going to copy and paste some of them hear and then write my own thoughts on today's Gospel.
The book of Jeremiah is about catastrophe and survival, destruction and rebuilding, grief and joy. Jeremiah's prophecy is the reflective outpouring of very troubled times; times not unlike our own. Jeremiah's prophetic purpose is to help people make sense of their tragedy, recover their identities and move toward the future.
In Jeremiah 31:27-34, we see an ideological and theological shift in the understanding of being in relationship with the divine. In God's previous covenant with the people of Israel, the law was an external experience. The words of God's law once written on stone tablets needed to be passed on from one generation to the next through teaching and rigorous instruction. In this text Jeremiah is prophesying a new future where all people will live in unbroken covenanted relationship with God. God has made this new relationship possible by shifting the religious experience of God's law from an external enterprise to an internal one. God tells Jeremiah, "I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall by my people" (Jeremiah 31:33). The fundamental theme of the text is that all of Israel will live in a restored covenanted relationship with God. And that restoration will include everyone, "from the least to the greatest."
Both Psalm 119:97-104 and Jeremiah 31:27-34 are speaking to an experience of relating to God in a new way. The Israelites were an exiled and oppressed people who, in these texts, are being promised the gift of hope. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are offered the same promise. God is our God, and we are God's people, and the pronouncement of this new covenant has been sealed upon our hearts through the internal transformation of divine law. We are claimed and marked as God's children and that claiming can never be undone!
2 Timothy 3:14-4:5 is one of those "zingers" — a passage that is sometimes thrown at LGBT people because we understand scriptures differently than those who perceive it literally or those who refuse to be open to God's work through LGBT people. The Human Rights Campaign's online article, The Bible and Homosexuality, shows how many LGBT people engage passages from the Bible often used against LGBT people. For many, such an LGBT-positive perspective is not consistent with faithful interpretation of Scripture.
However, in the course of our conversation together we realized that, in fact, that Scripture is our Scripture. LGBT people are not excluded from affirming this Scripture's teaching that "All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteous" (verse 16). We are not excluded because this affirmation does not mean that we believe we should robotically "do" everything we might read about in Scripture.
Sometimes, rather, Scripture is useful for showing us precisely what not to do, and expresses ways of relating to one another that God would not have us follow. For example, consider "texts of terror," stories of desolation, violence and grief, as those found in Genesis 16:1-6; 21:9-21; Judges 11:29-40; Judges 19:1-30; 2 Samuel 13:1-22. (For more information on texts of terror from a LGBT perspective, see Michael Mazza's article Texts of Terror, Texts of Hope). The usefulness of Scripture, in other words, is not confined to a single simple interpretation, but requires prayerful, honest and passionate seeking of God's way in passages that are sometimes contradictory, complex or even oppressive.
Many LGBT people and their allies have become accustomed to Scripture used against us as a tool of exclusion. Too often the dominant culture treats being Christian and being gay as mutually exclusive options. Might not attitudes such as this one constitute contemporary manifestations of the "myths" of which Paul warns Timothy? Against those who persecuted the early church for its "transgression" of the Jewish law, Paul exhorts Timothy to continue in faith, even — if not especially — when Scripture is being used against him. LGBT people and their allies here find affirmation that our tenacious hanging on and stubborn insistence that the Bible must surely also be for (and not just against) us turns out to be both God-given knowledge and as well as opportunity for ministry!
It is not enough for good people -- religious or otherwise -- to simply be feeling more positive toward gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people. Tolerance and a live-and-let-live attitude beats discrimination and abuse by a mile. But it's not enough. Tolerant people, especially tolerant religious people, need to get over their squeamishness about being vocal advocates and unapologetic supporters of LGBT people. It really is a matter of life and death, as we've seen.
I learned this in my dealing with racism. It's not enough to be tolerant of other races. I benefit from a racist society just by being white. I don't ever have to use the "n" word, treat any person of color with discourtesy, or even think ill of anyone. But as long as I am not working to dismantle the systemic racism that benefits me, a white man, at the expense of people of color, I am a racist. And my faith calls me to become an anti-racist -- pro-active, vocal, and committed.
In our Gospel today, this woman got what she wanted because she was persistent in her faith. She was willing to keep knocking on that door of the judge and demand that she get what she came for. It seems judges back then are very much like they are today. They do not reverence God or people. The Supreme Court "Citizens United" Decision is just such an example.
The bigger point here is that the woman kept believing that if she kept asking, eventually she would get some where. LGBTQ people have been knocking on doors to help supposedly pro-LGBT candidates get elected into office. And what do we have to do over and over again? Knock on their doors, make phone calls, write emails, some have done sit ins where they have been arrested. The point is, to keep doing something to make people aware of the need for full equal protections of the laws of our Nation for LGBTQ people, families and couples. Keep praying to God to ask that our prayers to help turn this nation and the Church around, some day will be answered. Look where we are today? We have made progress, we can still make more and we will make more. But not if people give up and get out of the fight for full equal protection. If we stop going to our welcoming and inclusive church communities, we cannot help the Church continue to move towards the full inclusion of LGBTQ people. If we do not participate in Church meetings, board meetings, groups, vestries, maybe even Diocesan Conventions, we will not effect the changes we want. We need to keep telling our stories, expressing our outrage over the young people who took their lives because of bullying, and express our profound disappointment with President Obama who has chosen to appeal the Stay on DADT. Choosing to become inactive and not even involved now, will only stop our communities in their tracks. Now is not the time to stop. Now is not the time to start throwing our faith in Jesus Christ out the door.
The late Harvey Milk said "We gotta give them hope." We have to give everyone hope that the work of equality and full inclusion can and must continue. We have every reason to keep going, keep praying and keep trying. The woman in our Gospel today kept asking and because of her faith and persistence even when the answers did not come quickly, she kept asking. That is what we must do in our faith lives, and what we must do in our work for justice, equality and inclusion.
Almighty and everlasting God, in Christ you have revealed your glory among the nations: Preserve the works of your mercy, that your Church throughout the world may persevere with steadfast faith in the confession of your Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Proper 24, Book of Common Prayer, page 235).
God,
even while Scripture is used as a weapon against us,
enlighten us with your Word of Spirit and Truth.
Help us to find your Spirit at work
in the most difficult passages.
Transform us and place your seal upon our hearts,
and may we use your law for love.
Equip us with minds, bodies and hearts
for your work toward the holy reign
of justice, love and peace.
Amen (Prayerfully Out in Scripture).
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