Monday, June 24, 2024

Representation Matters: A Sermon for 5B Pentecost

 


On Wednesday...Juneteenth...I was remembering the day that would have been my mom's 97th birthday. As a way of marking the date, I posted a video I had made for her memorial service in Tallahassee of her "reporter on the scene" account she did for the international LGBTQ+ program "This Way Out" of Bishop Gene Robinson's consecration in November, 2003. It was delightful, if bittersweet, to listen to my mom's voice and in her very "Anonymous Peggins" way describe the event that rocked The Episcopal Church 20+ years ago.

I also heard some interesting interviews as I drove to a clericus meeting with a variety of black artists, part of the Juneteenth programming happening on NPR that day. More about that in a moment.

As I left clericus and started on my way to Valdosta, I was shocked and hurt by a meme posted by one of the St. Barnabas faithful. It was one of those designed to denigrate queer people while extolling the mighty and proud U.S. Army. (For the record, the church member apologized.)

And then...as I started researching the First Reading assigned for this Sunday (1 Sam. 17:57-18:5, 10-16), I was again hit with more homophobia as biblical commentators attempted to distance this reading from any suggestion that King David and Prince Jonathan might have had some feelings for one another that went beyond handshakes. 

All of these thoughts...experiences...and the wounds ripped open in me...led to this sermon.

And, dear reader, please understand that I did A LOT of research for this one.

Texts: the 1 Samuel mentioned above and Mark 4:35-41.


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I will never forget the first time I saw a woman standing at the altar.

I was about ten years old and our Episcopal Church had called a deacon.

I didn’t know what that was…but I knew it was someone ordained…and I knew her name was Fran Potter.

What I didn’t know was what an impression it was going to make on me to see her…the Reverend Fran Potter…standing up front…wearing a white alb and stole…climbing into the pulpit at Christ Episcopal Church…and being at the table.

There was this bubble of excitement…of joy…and of glee…to see a woman…someone who looked about my mom’s age…standing in the same space as all the male priests and curates I’d seen up to that point.

Even as a little kid…I was amazed at what a difference that made in my perception of who could be a minister in the church.

Representation matters.

This week…as many of us were marking and remembering Juneteenth…I was struck again by what it means to see someone occupying space that was normally held by the cultural majority.

I was listening to an interview with George Shirley…the first African-American tenor at the New York Metropolitan Opera.  

Mixed in between snippets of his singing…which was full and round and gorgeous to listen to…Shirley talked about his faith in God…and how that helped sustain him in a world where he was very much a minority.

He mentioned that…as a tenor in opera…those parts are the male romantic leads…and so he would often have to stand beside a white…often European…soprano on the Met stage.

He shared one story from a time in 1963.

 A music critic for the Saturday Evening Post wrote a harsh critique of his portrayal of a French nobleman in the opera “Manon.”

This critic had said something about Shirley not “looking like a French noble man.”

Shirley said he could not let this particular comment go without a challenge.

He wrote a letter to this critic.

After asking questions about some of his other comments…he put to him a pointed question:

what does a French noble man look like?

And he went on to name one of the major sopranos of the Met who had sung the role of Aida.

That character is supposed to be an Ethiopian princess.

So…she’s supposed to be black.

But the sopranos singing that role at the Met in those days were not black women.

He never received a response to his letter.

Instead…that critic refused to look George Shirley in the eye for the rest of his career.

As Shirley noted…”Critics don’t like to be criticized.”

And it no doubt gave that critic something to consider when evaluating the performance of a singer who didn’t “look like” what they believed a character should be.

George Shirley loves singing…and has enjoyed playing various characters of Italian operas in his career.

One of the things he loves about music in general is its universality.

Music…from his perspective…is for everyone and doesn’t belong to any one group of people.

For him…there’s no reason why black people shouldn’t sing Verdi and white people shouldn’t sing the art songs of the late African-American composer Harry Burleigh.

As long as everyone is singing and honoring the texts…it’s all good.

And I can imagine for a young black boy to see a black man cast as a duke or prince in an opera…it sends a message of “I can be that, too.”

Again: representation matters.

The same can be said for the stories in the Bible.

And this morning…we heard the start of the relationship between the brave David…the Goliath-slayer…and King Saul’s oldest son Jonathan.

In our English translation of the Hebrew…we hear about the love Jonathan had for David.

That Jonathan gave him his cloak and his tunic… and the two men made a covenant with one another.

For anyone who is a member of the LGBTQ+ community…these words will prick up our ears.

After years and years of being told we don’t belong in the church… to have two men professing such deep affection for one another is a welcome sign.

Representation matters, right?

But after looking at the Hebrew…and checking sources…and doing the type of research you’re supposed to do when writing a sermon…the truth is…it’s not clear that this is a gay male relationship in the way that we here in the 21st century might think of it.

Do gay people exist in the Bible?

Yes, of course.

Gay people have been in the world…long before the scientists of the 19th century invented the term, “homosexual.”

And there are characters in the Bible who defy traditional gender stereotypes.

That beautiful coat given to Joseph.

As the biblical scholar Peter Toscano points out—this long-sleeve coat of many colors—uses the same Hebrew word—for the long robe worn by virgin daughters of kings (2 Samuel 13:18).

So the Bible contains the full scope of God’s created humanity…without zeroing in on Jonathan and David.

However…there’s no denying that this is a same-gender…same-sex relationship…something that we would call a “Bromance.”

These two men share a close bond… even a tenderness between them.

That type of representation matters.

It was distressing to me…as I was looking into the meaning of this moment…that there were male commentators who responded with vitriol and anger at the suggestion that this could be seen as a gay relationship.

Some of them suggested that commentators who see queerness in this story were like the dreaded enemy…the Philistines…the ones that David destroyed and killed their giant leader Goliath.*

Such criticisms…to me…went beyond your normal disagreement between theologians and scholars.

That’s when I looked at our Gospel lesson from Mark…and this scene out on the water.

Water carries lots of representations…one of them being emotion.

And in this scene…the waters are turbulent and violent.

The disciples are frantic.

They’re caught in a tempest on their boat.

And where’s Jesus?

Sleeping.

They’re terrified and screaming at him to save them…which…of course… he did.

And then Jesus asks an important question:

“Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?”

Yes…things were scary.

Storms will do that…because they’re unpredictable.

But Jesus was still in the boat…still with them.

“Why are you afraid?” he asks.

Why are some of these biblical commentators afraid?

As a culture and as a society…I think we are unkind to boys and men.

Somewhere along the way…boys are taught or conditioned that to be men…they can’t show feelings.

They are not allowed to be vulnerable.

They must be strong…choke back their tears.

That whole “frogs and snails and puppy dog tails” rhyme comes to mind.

God forbid any boy have a touch of sugar and spice and everything nice.

I did a training some years back at my massage school.

We met one weekend a month over six months to learn techniques for helping clients release trauma through their bodies.

The majority of the class were women but there were four men, and the instructor was a man, a former Vietnam Veteran.

On the last day of this intensive time together…we did the usual sharing as we were about to part ways.

And what I remember was that the women in this class expressed how much they had enjoyed working with the men.

These guys were stunned.

The women were so grateful to have been with men…most of whom were straight men by the way…who were confident enough in themselves and who they were…that they could let down their guards…and share their feelings with women…and with each other.

And in this world…allowing oneself to show any kind of weakness…is a true sign of strength.

I think the idea of men having the kind of deep affection for another man that we see happening between David and Jonathan scares people…or certainly some male theologians.

And out fear…they become attackers.

In that way…they become like King Saul.

Look at what happened to him.

Saul…who at first seems impressed with David…sees him as a threat.

He is jealous of his success as a soldier…his skill as a musician…

When he sees the love that his son Jonathan and…for that matter… all of Israel… is showing to his rival…“evil enters him” and he attacks.

He wants to kill David.

Destroy this one who can be both a great warrior AND a lover of men.

Saul fears David.

Fears make us do terrible things.  

Jealousy will make us do terrible things.

Losing control or power can make us go wild.

When we let those things…those emotions…take over our hearts…we strike out and attack each other.

And nothing moves us further away from God.

It’s this same fear that I read in all of those commentators who express such disgust about the possible gay reading of Jonathan and David’s relationship.

We may not be able to say beyond a shadow of doubt that Jonathan and David were gay.

But what we can say is that Jonathan did love David and could see in him the kind of man he wanted to be with.

And their kinship is a representation of male bonding.

Their caring for each other is proof that men can and should allow themselves to have feelings and be vulnerable with each other.

Boys and men should have the confidence that it is OK to be both a warrior and person who cries when they’re hurt.

Remember: Jesus wept at the grave of his friend, Lazarus.

We don’t need to be afraid of these feelings and relationships…whether they’re gay or straight.

That representation matters. 

In the name of God…F/S/HS

 


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