Let's Talk About Justice

Introducing to his intent to co-sponsor an amendment to our state’s constitution, our state senator said to his interviewer: “We want Minnesota to have a conversation on this.”

                We at First Congregational had the conversation, when we were preparing to become an “Open and Affirming” church. In November, 2000, we approved our Statement of Openness and Affirmation which includes a pledge to support “relationships and families based on the Christian principles of love, justice, fidelity, trust, and mutual care.”

                We have celebrated the marriages of several couples whose unions are not recognized by the State of Minnesota, and in our eyes, as well as in our church records, these couples are married.  We look forward to the day when all our families can live without fear of discrimination.

                The introduction of an anti-marriage amendment (and I believe that is the only proper description of an amendment that would seek to shrink the definition of marriage) threatens our families. Once again, some of our families will be placed in the spotlight, and required to defend their right to be who they are. I can only imagine how dispiriting the prospect of being under such constant pressure.

                Again, remember our Statement of Openness and Affirmation:

We commit ourselves to oppose discrimination and prejudice in our attitudes, our personal relationships, and our congregation. We will seek justice and advocate redress of the wrongs committed against sexual minorities in our local community and in society at large.

                It is not enough to be a safe haven, a sanctuary for GLBT folk and their families. With all our might, and with faith that God will provide us “courage in the struggle for justice and peace,” we can participate in the transformation of our society. We can change the things that must be changed.

                Our state senator has called us out. He wants us to have a conversation about marriage. Let’s give him a conversation. Every day, every night, let’s give him a conversation. Let it be patient, and kind, and persistent. Let our hearts be aligned with Jesus’ heart.

Jesus is the one who stood between a woman who was about to be stoned to death, and the men who held the stones and had “the law” on their side. Jesus is the one who disregarded the boundaries that were supposed to separate him, a good Jewish rabbi, from “the unclean”—children and women and sinners and tax collectors. Jesus is the one who looked out at a hungry crowd and told his disciples, “You give them something to eat.”

“Wait” you might be thinking, “Should the church be involved in politics?”

I absolutely agree that the church shouldn’t be a tool of any king, party, or candidate. But living the faith has social, economic, and political consequences. Having decided to follow Jesus, we must be ready to accept the consequences. The consequences may include irritating our relatives who disagree with us. Some of us can avoid the consequences by being silent, others do not have that luxury.

But the rewards of discipleship are far greater than the consequences. Because when we follow, we receive the joy of being part of the body of Christ, transforming the world.

Minnesota is going to have a conversation about this. We must be ready to talk about justice.

Who Will You Bring to the Welcome Table?

Texts:

Acts 8:26-39; Romans 12:3-21; Luke 14:1, 7-24

We would like you to preach on any scripture that some Christians point to as proof of God's view on homosexuality. We'd like to know the "actual" meaning of those verses so we can be armed against it with knowledge, for us and for our daughter. (L & M)

As we come to the close of our summer season, we are also coming the the close of the Uncommon Lectionary series. I address L & M's request in the August newsletter, and I have re-posted my old "Bible Bullets" paper to the website. If you go to uccbrainerd.org and click on the "Bible Bullets" box, you will be linked directly to the paper. In it, I address several of the scriptures that some people fire at GLBT and allied folk. But knowing the "actual" meaning, as M and L call it, in quotes, will not stop the assault of anti-gay rhetoric.

Somebody said-- maybe it was Brett Farve-- somebody said "The best defense is a good offense." Explaining why we don't hold those few verses in the bible as God's final word on sexuality is a defensive tactic. Articulating what we do believe about God's embrace of all the people, that would be the offensive tactic.

The story of the Ethiopian eunuch is, to me, one of those revelations of the wideness of God's mercy, the breadth of God's embrace. It is an affirmation that those who have been marginalized and ostracized and disenfranchised belong in the church. They are not just allowed in the church, as if through a side door, they belong in the church as members of the body of Christ, and as leaders too.

The man in the chariot was a student of the Hebrew bible, the law and the prophets, but he could not become a Jew. Not because he was an African-- but because he was a eunuch. He was without, and according to the Levitical code-- the same code that is quoted to condemn gays, by the way-- according to the Levitical code he was barred from the temple.

The man in the chariot, the Ethiopian eunuch, had been reading from the book of the prophet Isaiah, about the suffering servant, "in his humiliation justice was denied him," and in that verse he found someone he could relate to, having just come from Jerusalem, where he was doubly the outcast (a foreigner and a eunuch), doubly humiliated. About whom does the prophet speak? About himself, or somebody else? Philip told him about Jesus, and he almost did not dare believe it. Could this mean there was a place for him?

"Here is water, what is to prevent me from being baptized," he asked. "What is to prevent me--" no one else in scripture speaks in this way, as if he is preparing himself for rejection, once again. Waiting to hear the reason-- "You're black. You're a eunuch." But no. There was no rejection.

The man was baptized at once, and went on his way rejoicing. Post-canonical legend has it that the Ethiopian later became the founder of the Christian church in Ethiopia. If so, then who and when was the first sexual minority elected bishop? It wasn't Gene Robinson in 2003 after all!

This isn't the only story, the scriptures are full of affirmations of God's expansive embrace. The table of the Lord is a welcome table. In an age when so many people decline the invitation, why would the church deny a place at the table to anyone who responds to the call?

What if we made the parable of the great banquet our story? What if we decided, as a congregation, that this is our metaphor for ministry in the coming months? Every week, a banquet is prepared. A sermon stews for days, until it's just right. The musicians rehearse. The table is adorned with flowers. The hosts make lemonade and coffee to go with the desert, the greeters are ready to open the doors, Shirley is at the guestbook with pens and the extra nametags.

Here is the church, here is the steeple, open the doors, where are all the people? Sixty, Seventy, Eighty people, that's good, but there is still room. Ninety, one-hundred, one-hundred and ten... still room! Go out into the highways and compel them to come in, the host says in the parable, my table must be full. People can't eat, if they're not here.

Many people received the invitation and declined. Does the host say to the servants, go out and beg those people to reconsider, please? No. The host focuses on the people who haven't yet received an invitation. The host sends the servants out to find the people who do not know that a banquet is prepared and they are welcome.

I met a man last week who started a GLBT support group at the VA hospital. He asked the group how many of them had grown up in a church. Nearly all raised their hands. Then he asked how many were involved in a church at present. None but a few raised their hands. Most didn't know of a church where they would be welcome.

Who else missed the invitation? Maybe they are under the mistaken impression that they aren't invited, because they are poor, and they think the church is only for people with money to give, or they are single, and they think the church is only for traditional families, or they have no children, and they think the church is only recruiting people who can fill the Sunday School. Maybe they are tone deaf and think the church is only for people who can sing.

If you were one of those servants, called to fill up the welcome table, who would you find? Who would you bring?

Who will you bring to the welcome table?