Putting Love into Action

Since we're living in a world where tribalism and division seem to be the norm, I felt the need to address the underpinnings of white Christian Nationalism in a way that might get some people to think. 

Read it and see. Did it make you think?

Texts: Ps.23; 1 John 3:16-24; John 10:11-18

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In case we didn’t pick up on the obvious hints from our hymns and our readings this morning…this Fourth Sunday of Easter is often called, “Good Shepherd Sunday.”

God is that loving Shepherd walking us through the valleys of our lives…

the shadow of death throwing shade on us…

as God brings us safely to the still waters.

Jesus is that shepherd laying down his own life for God’s sheep.

This is the Jesus so oft depicted in stained glass windows with the whitest softest face…

carrying an even whiter sheep on his shoulder.

I love the imagination of those stained-glass artists! Clearly…they’ve never tried to handle sheep before!

An actual sheep is not nearly so co-operative or placid…

And I think Jesus might look a little darker…and certainly wouldn’t be so neat and clean after gathering up Mary’s little lamb in his loving arms.

The original hearers of this Gospel would have likely been surprised at Jesus calling himself a “good” shepherd.

While shepherds appear throughout the Hebrew scriptures as noble people such as King David…by the time we get to the days of Jesus…they’d fallen out of favor.

The society of the New Testament regarded them as untrustworthy,

so they couldn’t testify in court.

And living among the sheep…they were…shall we say…pungent.

They were anything but “good.”

That’s why at Christmas time…Luke makes sure we know that when Jesus was born in a stable in Bethlehem…the first group to get this good news were these lowly shepherds out on the hillside.

The least will be first.

Jesus isn’t afraid to claim a kinship with these working-class outcasts of the First Century.

That’s how Jesus operates.

Instead of removing himself from those who are the marginalized…the frowned upon… the disinherited…Jesus is the first one to pull up a chair…and break bread with them.

For Jesus…”to be” that root verb for… “I am”… means living into that strange paradox of being a “good” “Shepherd.”

And as a “good shepherd”…Jesus cares for the sheep.

The sheep are all those who listen for his voice and come to him when they hear their name.

And when one of those cute little lambs decide they’re going to wander off…

Jesus puts aside his own life…

his own wants and needs…

and goes to find the wayward wooly creature.

Wandering away happens.

We know it.

Many of us have probably done it…more than once or even ten times.

Our lives get cluttered with worries.

We get so busy with our jobs

or we have family obligations that pull on our attention that somehow… we find ourselves straying far away from God’s lovely still waters.

We figure we’ll get back to that whole God thing later.

Weeks…maybe for some of us…years go by.

Soon… we find ourselves in that valley the psalmist talks about…or in some other pit of despair we’ve fallen into.

And then in our thrashing about…that’s when we cry for help. 

And the Good Shepherd leaves the flock to go find us…

pushing away the overgrowth of our worries to reach us and call to us…

and lead us back to the flock.

All without judgment.

The shepherd…out of the abundance of goodness…

is filled with the joy that the one who had gone off on their own is realizing that there’s something sweeter about being in relationship…and coming into the community of God.

Sometimes…the lost sheep…the wanderers… were driven off because of bullying by other sheep.

There’s a cartoonist whose drawings frequently pop up in my social media feed.

His name is David Hayward but he draws under the pseudonym The Naked Pastor.

The cartoons often times depict various flocks of sheep…representing generic church members.

They have white bodies and black heads and stand clustered together.

Often they look very dull and disapproving as they talk to Jesus or other characters.

The one cartoon that I’ve seen the most depicts this bunch of holier-than-thou sheep looking dismayed.

Jesus is carrying a sheep over his shoulders who is rainbow-colored.

Some versions have the sheep in the pink and blue colors representing the transgender community.

It seems the flock had no use for this lone sheep with Jesus.

The leader of the “majority” flock is chastising the Savior:

“Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Hold it right there!” she says to Jesus, “He”--- meaning the colorful sheep---“He isn’t lost. We kicked him out.”

To which Jesus responds, “I know. I found him.”

Nobody…no matter who they are…is going to be left out.

That’s so clear when we hear Jesus talk about how there are these “other sheep that do not belong to this fold.”

These sheep need to be brought along also.

They shouldn’t be kept from the experience of God’s endless well of love.

And there are hundreds of people in that camp.

We can imagine who some of these sheep might be.

People who are afraid to walk through our doors…or don’t want to come to a church…possibly because they’ve had some of those bad experiences like those condescending sheep at another church.

Or they’ve never met someone who believed in God and wasn’t a jerk about it.

But as my fellow presbyter and wise friend the Very Reverend Billy Alford puts it: all those “other sheep” want and deserve to receive the same compassion and generous inclusion we afford to someone who knows the Prayer Book backwards, forwards, and sideways. 

Even the ones who come and still walk away are no less loved by the Good Shepherd…and may even be loved more.

And that’s OK.

Jesus constantly had people walk away from him and his message of love.

But that didn’t stop him from living it…breathing it…and sharing it freely.

It didn’t stop him from showing us that our best lives can be lived if we make it a regular practice of showing compassion for people and being generous in including people…inviting them to come to this table of bread and wine and share it.

This is how love becomes more than just mere words;

it becomes an action.

We don’t get any personal gain from loving in this way.

We DO gain by manifesting a community where people are accepted for who they are.

With no papers or proof of worthiness.

It’s the act of us trusting enough in our relationship with Jesus that we will risk getting to know a person different from ourselves…listen to their story…and say “Welcome to the fold.”

And in this way…we become the shepherd to each other…helping to walk with each other through those dark valleys…and then sit down beside the still waters.

As Easter people…people who’ve passed with Christ through the little deaths of our pains and problems…and emerged on the other side…bruised but unbroken…we are the good shepherds for all of God’s people.

In the name of God…F/S/HS.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Bible: A Book, Not a Baton

A child cries as mom is frisked at border in Texas photo by the Independent.co.uk

Late Thursday night, I saw on Facebook that a friend had tagged me in a post. In it, we were to play a game of quoting the Bible to defend a position. I was puzzled by this, having missed the news in favor of earning a living and rehearsing with my theater company. Luckily, she had included a video clip of Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions smirking and quoting the first few lines from The Letter to the Romans, Chapter 13: 

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God.--Romans 13:1

This was to justify the administration's policy of separating children from their parents as they cross from Mexico into Texas in search of a better life in the United States free from the gang violence that forced them to flee. Those gangs, by the way, such as MS-13? They began in the Latinx communities in Los Angeles. We deported the gang members back to their countries of origin, and those gang members took their well-honed gang terror to their native lands thus creating this exodus of people running to the U.S. border for safety. Once upon a time, we promised hope to all those "tired and huddled masses yearning to breathe free." Apparently with this administration, hope has an asterisk.

As I pointed out to my friend, and therefore all her friends, the practice of proof texting the Bible (lifting a passage out of context to make a political, social, economic, etc. point) is a really bad idea, especially if you aren't someone who has spent the time studying Scripture and wrestling with its contents. There are those who do that. You can usually find them at seminaries or on college campuses...and--dear me--even sometimes in the pulpit! And what most knowledgeable people will tell you is that the Bible is chock full of passages that are mysteriously slipped in that seemingly have no place; thus making it quite possible that another party added these lines into the script after the fact because that party had a score to settle or some other self-interested idea.  In fact, this line to support the authority of government as "God given" is noted in the Harper-Collins Study Bible as very likely one of those add-ons. Why would Paul stick that in after he just finished a whole statement where he made the case for what makes a good Christian, which comes down to "love God and love your neighbor as yourself"? 

It's fascinating, and very infuriating, that the hacks of this administration will quote Scripture for every part of the Bible except the Gospels. Perhaps they might want to check out what Jesus, who is the Christ where we get the word “Christian,” had to say about how we are to treat the poor, the children, the widows, the prisoners:

‘When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. Then the king will say to those at his right hand, “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.” Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?” And the king will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” Then he will say to those at his left hand, “You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.” Then they also will answer, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?” Then he will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.” And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.’ 

Of course, that is a bit wordy, and doesn’t make for a neat 10-second sound bite. It also seems to fly in the face of what this administration believes.

Maybe I should break this down into something a little easier to comprehend: the policy of separating children from their parents and telling mothers that they are taking their kids “to the showers” (history buffs, does that make your skin crawl?!?!) is abhorrent, evil, and un-Christian. It would be “better for us to have a great millstone tied around our necks and be drowned” than to continue with this way of treating traumatized and frightened people coming into our country. (Matthew 18:6)

What would Jesus do? Not what we’re doing!

What Welcome Looks Like

Last weekend, I attended an evangelism workshop.

You read that correctly. I. Attended. An. Evangelism. Workshop.

I did this willingly in advance of a revival that is happening in the diocese of Georgia in September.

Yes, you read all that correctly, too. This is still me writing, OK. And no--I have not forgotten my Northern roots or my sexual orientation and identity. Having established these facts, you can read on in confidence that I will 'xplain all of this. :-)

Presiding Bishop Michael Curry is on a mission to inspire Episcopalians to be a little more assertive and bold about the Jesus we teach and preach about in our churches. Because that Jesus is not the one who puts an asterisk next to the word "all" or places limits on who is eligible to inherit the eternal life God promises to all. The Jesus we talk about is ever-expanding the banquet table and adding more chairs and heaping up more plates of food for anyone who is desiring and he won't even check to see if you'd been in the church last Sunday or not. 

Our lead presenter, the Rev. Canon Stephanie Spellers, put before us the following definition of "Episcopal Evangelism":

"We seek, name and celebrate Jesus' loving presence in the stories of all people--then invite everyone to MORE." 

I was so delighted to see this definition! Nowhere does it say, "Go out and convert those heathens and unchurched people," or "Go tell a stranger that they need to find JEEE-SUS to be SAVED!!!" Instead,  this room of about 70 people were split into pairs, and we did some real simple exercises of listening to our partner tell their story and then sharing our own answer to whatever was the question before us. And in this sharing, strangers can become friends, and friends can hear in each other's words similar ideas, dreams, hurts, and anxieties. Where is Jesus in that? Right there in the middle. Because the Good News of God in Christ happens when we take time to get to listen and know each other without an agenda. As our Presiding Bishop says:

"Evangelism is about sharing the journey into a deeper relationship with God and with each other, and not about us controlling the end result. It's not about us increasing our market share, and it's not just propping up the institution. If we believe the relationship with a living God does matter, then evangelism and anything that helps us to come closer as human children of God matters."

I went into the workshop with skepticism and I left with a feeling of affirmation. Everything I was hearing was telling me that I have been doing evangelism, the Episcopal Way, this whole time beginning with this blog which I started in 2007 when I had my own awakening. For newcomers, you can see that first entry by clicking HERE.

So, is evangelism just listening and telling stories? No, not just. It's important, and it's a cornerstone, but the chief cornerstone begins with each of us first getting settled into our own skins. The starting point is--as it always is with the Episcopal Church--prayer. Prayer is not just our words offered up to God; it's our hearts and minds opening to receive "the peace of God which passes all understanding." In some traditions, there's a lot of calling on God, petitioning God. We do that, too. But I have found that sometimes the best prayer begins with taking some time to be silent and even as I pray aloud, I find that I often leave some space in between to give room for me and others to listen. Once I am settled, I'm ready to take that important next step of encountering another person or persons. My challenge...as an introvert...is how to initiate a conversation. I've been lucky enough to be an Education for Ministry mentor which gives me some practice in how to open a dialogue. But that is often very specific to whatever is happening within the group. I don't want to fall into "reporter mode" either because that can feel confrontational. So, instead of asking lots of "why" questions...the trainers suggest another approach that can illicit a story: ask "when" questions such as "when have you experienced community?" or "what" questions such as "what kind of a community do you dream of being part of?" And then...listen. In all likelihood, what I am likely to hear is a description of God. I have had this experience, many times, as I witness various communities that I move in within my city. And I have thought, "This is God at work in this person or people!" Now, my challenge is to acknowledge that out loud. For all I know, it may be the chance to hit the reset button for the other person's perception of what it means to believe in God in Jesus. That would be Good News.

This kind of acknowledgment and affirmation of the good others are doing is what I think Jesus meant when he expressed in Matthew's Gospel: "Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous; and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward."

Amen.

Clicked off: the Confrontation Seen Everywhere

When I saw the video this morning of a tense and heated confrontation between student journalists at the University of Missouri and protesters, who were both students and faculty, I felt as if I'd been slingshot back in time to situations in which I encountered anger and mistrust while attempting to do my job. Fortunately, I never had it quite as bad as young photojournalist Tim Tai had it. And while some faculty on the campus made sure I knew they didn't like me because I was a journalism major, I never experienced a faculty member threatening me with physical harm as happened to Mizzou junior Mark Schierbecker.

This video made me angry enough to write the following email letter to Dr. Melissa Click, the Communications professor who was screaming at the journalists and threatening them. I carbon-copied Garnett Stokes, the University Provost as well as my former advisor and KBIA-FM news director, Mike McKean:

Dear Dr. Click,

"Who wants to help me get this reporter out of here? I need some muscle over here." 

Seriously? You said that? Will you be including this video in your future dissection of video and popular culture topics in your Comm School classes?

As a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, I am appalled that a professor at my alma mater would be a party to inciting violence against a journalist who in this case was also a student at the university. A protest such as Concerned Student 1950 is deserving of media coverage, and these student journalists were attempting to fulfill their public trust to gather information and present a current reasoned reflection of the days' events. The reporter who you wanted removed was seeking interviews with participants. As one of the journalists kept repeating, they were trying to do their job. I find it ironic that only a couple of days prior, you had tweeted a message to the world inviting media coverage of these unfolding events. When the media came, you pushed back. How bizarre.

Don't get me wrong. I do not disagree with Concerned Student 1950 and the righteous anger the students and faculty are showing. I was part of the Mizzou culture from 1986-1990, and therefore am aware that racism existed then, and am greatly disturbed by the reports I am hearing now. My sincere hope is that Concerned Student 1950 and the existing administration and the Board of Curators will now take time to sit down and set accountable goals of diversifying our campus, and having a true listening process so that we can become a model of how to move this country toward recognizing the sins of racism and realizing a future where racial equality can be more than just a nice ideal. Critics will take potshots at such efforts, but I have more confidence than ever in my alma mater to ignore the noise of the enemies of change, and begin this important and vital work. 

I also hope that Concerned Student 1950 and the existing administration will continue to make the athletic department, and the football team specifically, a part of this effort toward a better Mizzou. The football team and Coach Pinkel exhibited true courage and leadership by emptying themselves of their position of privilege and power in an effort to draw focus to those whose voices were being ignored. I have never felt prouder of the Tigers in my life. I don't care if we win a national championship in football; I care that our coach is teaching his players what "team" means and how to be men. They did that. 

Teamwork is what it will take to change the culture at Mizzou. Willingness to relinquish assumed privilege to make room for more voices is what it will take to change the culture at Mizzou. Respectful communication amongst those voices is what it will take to change the culture at Mizzou. Having a world-renown journalism school, with hard-working dedicated bright students to get that message out to the world, is a necessary part of exhibiting leadership at Mizzou.

Threatening student journalists has no place at my university. I don't know what kind of sanctions the school might impose on your behavior. I hope you are big enough to review the video and rethink what message that sent.

In solidarity with the students, both protesters and journalists,

Susan Gage
BJ, Broadcast Journalism, 1990 

This evening, word is out from the Columbia Missourian, the city newspaper published, edited and reported by students and faculty of the Journalism School, that Professor Click, who held what is called a "courtesy appointment" to the J-School has resigned that appointment and apologized for her actions. From her statement, she apparently did as I hoped she would: reviewed the tape and realized just how far off-the-chain she'd gone.

"I have reached out to the journalists involved to offer my sincere apologies and to express regret over my actions. I regret the language and strategies I used, and sincerely apologize to the MU campus community, and journalists at large, for my behavior, and also for the way my actions have shifted attention away from the students’ campaign for justice."

Life is messy. Protests are heated. I'm with the J-School dean who commended the students assigned to walk less than the length of a football field to the Carnahan Quadrangle to cover these historic events. Seeing them, and how they conducted themselves, tells me that my peculiar and oft-misunderstood School on the University campus is still turning out excellent journalists. Certainly being in the midst of an important protest happening on the campus is better than the classroom experience, and will lay the foundation for many a First Amendment discussion for years to come.

Baptized into the Wilderness

I figured I would get this entry written and up on the blog a day early, mostly because I have another entry that I want to post tomorrow to mark an unrecognized (generally) day in the lives of the saints.  Anyway, for those who might be scouring the blogs looking for insights and musings upon the baptism of Jesus, here's mine!

The Gospel lesson from Matthew gives us the story of the baptism in this way:

Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?" But Jesus answered him, "Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness." Then he consented. And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased." --Matt 3:13-17

We have, in our traveling through time in the liturgical church calendar, completely skipped over many years of Jesus' life.  He is not an infant; he is a young man.  His parents have obviously returned from Egypt, secure in the knowledge that their child is safe from a fearful despot King Herod.  We don't know a whole lot about Jesus' child years, save for one story told in Luke's Gospel, in which Jesus the youngster has gone missing and his parents are desperately looking for him.  They eventually find their son sitting in the Temple teaching the elders.  Mary, as one might imagine, is pretty ticked off that her son decided to go off somewhere and left her frantically looking for him.  And Jesus answers his mother by saying he was where he was supposed to be doing what he was supposed to do.  In today's vernacular he might toss in a "Chillax!"  And, just as at the time of his birth, Mary listens to her son's words and ponders them in her heart.  Moms very often have an inkling when something is up with their children.

So, that's what we know of Jesus the teen from Scripture.  Now here he is getting baptized in the full immersion experience.  And, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 

I see this as the critical moment in which Jesus is opened further to know what his path and his destiny must be.  I'm not saying he isn't God, but when "The Word became flesh" the Word became a human being with all the limitations and the ability to bleed in the same way as everybody else.  If the Word had been the Word as it was without the human baggage, well, it seems to me that would have blown apart the whole mission of redemption.  And so, Jesus emerges from the water...

Water, in psychological terms, is associated with emotions.  In the practice of the energy-based Polarity, a "water session" involves having a client lie in a prone position while working with their legs and their sacrum up to their shoulders.  The times when I have used this session are when a client expresses or demonstrates some kind of blockage in their emotions.  Either they are overwrought with emotion, or maybe they can't seem to express themselves.  The theory is that this work, by contacting certain points and moving their legs, connecting the lower part of their body to the upper part, can bring balance.  So that Jesus comes up out of the river Jordan, a body of water that has had emotional connections in the life of the Hebrew people and cleansed them of sin, and then has "the heavens opened to him", to me, reads as an opening of Jesus' consciousness, and God, through the Spirit descending as a dove, is revealing new wisdom and new understanding.  God punctuates the moment with the exclamation point:

"This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased."

That's a good thing for Jesus.  Because what is about to come next is a time of trial, a sense of being alone, and a period of great difficulty.  Next in the story will be the time in the wilderness, forty days,  which means "a long time" when talking about the Bible.  It will be in this period that the man who had just been immersed in the watery emotions of the Jordan River, and granted new insights in a bright beaming light with a dove descending upon him, will face the perils of what it means to be a person with wisdom.  Fools can go blithely along in life, bumping into walls and stumbling in the dark.  But to the one who has been given much, in this case wisdom, will face the test of using what he has to benefit himself alone, or understand that his mission is humankind's redemption.  Now that he's been baptized and called "My Son, the Beloved,"  will he claim nations for himself to enrich his own ego?  Will he live like he is invincible and throwing himself from the Temple to let the angels catch him?  Why not make a meal for himself out there in the desert out of the rocks?  In other words, being a beloved baptized son doesn't give him a pass on being tempted to be a selfish jerk.

The same applies to us.  We don't need to have doves descending, or bright beaming lights at our own baptisms to be called Beloved Sons and Daughters of God.  Even if those words weren't heard in our human baby (or older) ears, they are the true words that God speaks of each one of us.  Once brought into the fold, and into the church, we are now part of Christ, including all the difficulties and trials and temptations Christ faced.   This is why I call Christ, "My brother."  Like an older brother, who has been through every imaginable good and bad thing, Christ's life as told back to us by the evangelists is like sitting on the steps of my childhood home in New Hampshire, and having my brother share, "Here's how you deal with the bullies."  Christ's constant invite to us is to look at his life, listen to his words, and know that he has walked through fires like ours, and not allowed those fires to consume him.  Because he, just like us, have been first bathed in the waters of baptism.  People and institutions may attempt to grind us down, but nothing will rob us of our true selves as "beloved children of God." 

And that alone I think is reason enough to say, "Thanks be to God!"

St. Stephen: Paving the Way for More Love

St. Stephen by Giacomo Cavedone

 

The story of St. Stephen has a sad and gruesome ending. He was one of the seven selected by the apostles to become one of the first deacons in the church, doing the hands-on work of serving the needs of the widows and orphans while the twelve studied and prayed. In the Book of Acts, he's described as having an angelic face, a regular fresh-scrubbed cherub. And he wasn't shy about speaking out for Jesus Christ. This would eventually be his undoing within the Jewish community. False charges brought against him, which leads to his accusation that the Jewish leaders have consistently killed prophets and rejected the Holy Spirit. You can just imagine how well they received that tongue-lashing from the young deacon:

"When they heard these things, they became enraged and ground their teeth at Stephen. But filled with the Holy Spirit, he gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. ‘Look,’ he said, ‘I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!’ But they covered their ears, and with a loud shout all rushed together against him. Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him; and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’ Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them.’ When he had said this, he died."--Acts 7:54-60

Take a moment. Take a deep breath. And now, consider this particular line:

"Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him; and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul."

Saul, as we will learn in an upcoming chapter of Acts, is the persecutor of those who follow "The Way" and was en route to Damascus to wage war on the believers in Christ as Messiah when he had an encounter with the resurrected Christ:

"He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’ He asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ The reply came, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting."--Acts 9:4-5

Saul is blinded and must now rely on others to lead him into Damascus where a follower of The Way, Ananais, receives the instruction to pray over this man and restore his sight. Despite his misgivings, Ananais follows this order from God, and Saul, now with new eyes to see, becomes St. Paul, the one who would traverse from here to there to establish churches throughout the region and become a major influence on the spread of Christianity.

I have often wondered about the influence it must have had, even if subconsciously, for Saul to witness in approving silence the stoning death of Stephen. We are told that Saul was OK with watching Stephen die. But what was God working in that moment? Could it be that this death would pave the way for more love?

I imagine that this death of Stephen somehow did trouble Saul much in the way I think any person of good conscience gets agitated when they witness injustice, or humans being brutalized. It's the story of those who witness the bullying of their classmates. Perhaps they just stand by and collect the coats of the ones who are throwing the punches. Perhaps they need to do this in order for God to do the work necessary to make them discover empathy for the one who is being beaten up.

It's what happened to me when I witnessed the execution at Florida State Prison in 1996. I was indifferent about the death penalty until I watched the state put a man to death in the electric chair. And my shift in thinking didn't happen right away. It happened over a period of months as the scales fell from my eyes with each report I did for public radio on capital punishment and the justice system. I was no longer on the fence about it when it became clear that it was indefensible.

I imagine, too, this is the process that a former homophobe goes through when they encounter a gay person in a way that blows their prejudices out of the water. It's hard to hold on to beliefs when those beliefs come face-to-face with reality, and the reality isn't as scary or "weird" as one thought.

St. Stephen died with his eyes fixed on the Christ who would not only forgive those who killed the deacon, but would later intervene to take their most ardent enabler and convert him to the purpose of spreading the Good News. More proof that with God, nothing is impossible.

A Brief Word About Bullying

It has been heartening to see so many people wearing purple, or layering lavender on their Facebook profile pictures in association with Spirit Day. This is the day that the LGBT community has adopted to send hope to those kids who are under assault from classmates, and sometimes teachers and administrators, and to let them know, in the words of the now famous catch phrase, "It gets better." The campaign is directed to LGBT kids, but it is a message for any kid who gets picked on for being different.

We live in a culture where bullying is accepted. Much as we say we're against it, TV shows where judges ridicule singers or competitors expose themselves to what amounts to hazing to win prizes are among the most prolific and popular. And in between those shows right now, voters are reminded why this candidate is a liar and cheat as opposed to the other candidate who is just an all-around ugly human being. Until there is a real commitment from our leaders to refrain from bullying, how can we really expect children to be kind?

I thought it was appropriate that today's morning office included Psalm 17, which includes these verses:

Keep me as the apple of your eye;
hide me in the shadow of your wings,

From the wicked who assault me,
from my deadly enemies who surround me.

To the child being harassed at school or dodging verbal and physical abuse on the bus or the walk home, please know this: you are stronger than you think. You are the apple of God's eye. And you have a legion of adults who not only empathize with what you are experiencing; we are working to make the world better now.

Shaking Off Dust

Rev. Danielle Morris of the diocese of Central Florida.  Photo by S. Sheridan, ENS.

 The word filtering down from Indianapolis is good.

The House of Bishops has approved a resolution calling for a churchwide response to the epidemic of bullying.   They've also adopted a resolution to offer anti-discrimination protection for church employees who are transgender and opening ordination to transgender people.  And there was a baptism using the fountain outside the Westin Hotel!   How cool is that?!

The discussion is underway about same-sex blessings.  There were more people who rose to speak in favor of resolution A049--a resolution to authorize liturgical resources for same-sex blessings.  The chatter on blogs for weeks has been that this proposal, which is the product of last convention's resolution C056,  was almost a "done deal."   But I noticed as I scrolled through countless tweets that the opposition to A049 was largely coming from one diocese.  More searching and I found out which one:  Central Florida... with some additional help from the diocese of Southwest Florida.

Well, at least it wasn't the deputation from Jacksonville.   But rather Orlando and Fort Myers.  Still two dioceses in this state in which I live.  I only wish that the report from the Episcopal News Service had revealed that someone, anyone, testifying in favor of A049 was from the Sunshine State.  Miami?  Ft. Lauderdale?  Unfortunately, if they did, it wasn't in the report.

It seems fitting, then, to have the Gospel of Mark for this Sunday be the passage in which Jesus realizes that he will not be able to make headway with his message in his home town, and so he and his apostles move on.  And he sends them out, two by two, to take the good news to the people with these instructions:

He said to them, "Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place.  If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them."--Mark 6:10-11  

It would seem to me that if I were an LGBT Episcopalian living in either of those dioceses I would be ready to shake the dust off my feet as I walk out the door.  During the testimony, one of the priests from Central Florida looked at a young gay man from Duke University and told him he would be welcomed in her church, and then went on to implore gay people to be sensitive to the consequences of having the Episcopal Church welcome us as full members.  She noted that by pressing for our full inclusion, we were putting Christians living in predominantly Muslim countries at risk.  Because Christian would then equal gay and that wouldn't sit well with Muslim leadership. 

I have heard this argument before.  And I have said in a prior blog entry that the sick part of what is happening with Christians in Muslim countries is that many of those Christians have turned on LGBT people and persecuted my African and Asian brothers and sisters resulting in death, imprisonment and general fear.  And let's face it: the divisions between Muslims and Christians, and the dangers of fundamentalist fury in foreign countries, existed long before there was any hope of same-sex blessings in the Episcopal Church.  Asking us to continue to live in a crucified place is not OK.  


Many of us in the southern United States continue to live in that crucified place in a way that our brothers and sisters in the northern urban areas do not.  Even as I celebrate the turning tide toward full justice occurring at General Convention, I am also aware that no matter what happens in Indianapolis, laws and canons in Florida will not change.   Church-wide things might be different, but as the old advertising campaign used to say, "Florida: the rules are different here."  It seems our church can move forward in many parts of the country, but we refuse to budge from our bygone era in Florida.  A049 allows for the trial use of same-sex blessings, but our bishop won't allow our priests to use them.  Period. 

Shall I simply shake off the dust of this place?   The Mark passage is similar to the message delivered to Ezekiel:  "I am sending you to them, and you shall say to them, 'Thus says the Lord God.' Whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house), they shall know that there has been a prophet among them."  

I think it's incumbent on all LGBT Episcopalians in this state to not shrink and fold in the face of opposition to our full inclusion.  The Spirit is speaking to the church and is calling the larger body to move more in the direction of making all of us in the LGBT community welcomed guests to the party.  We must continue to live and love as we do and claim our place in the body of Christ.  There is a reason so many of us are coming back to the church.  And there is a reason so many of us who want to come back stay away.  We must ask the groups such as Integrity to give attention to places such as Florida and equip us with what we need to educate about LGBT inclusion and lessen the fears about us.  I, for one,  would rather stand in a prophetic place than a crucified place.

The American Catholic Nunsense

The CBS morning news program was interviewing a Roman Catholic sister about the past month's hue and cry from the Vatican over nuns in the United States caring more about the poor than denouncing marriage equality.

I almost started to cry for this woman as she talked about the excitement that had filled the RC church after Vatican II, and mentioned the "opening of the windows and letting air in."  I remember reading that when a cardinal questioned Pope John XXIII on what he hoped to accomplish with Vatican II, he went to a window and opened it.

In the meantime, his successors have not only closed the window, it seems Pope Benedict XVI intends to place locks and bolts on it.

The earnest interviewers prodded the sister: what does she think needs to happen?   She responded with, "Vatican III."   And what would that look like to her?  From what she says, a Roman Catholic church where the laity have more of a voice, and decision making is more democratic.  It's the laity, she says, who know the good works of the nuns and their commitment to living out their vows of service to others... which includes LGBT people and the environment.

Sadly, what the sister is looking for is, well, not Roman Catholicism.   At least not Roman Catholicism as it has been practiced now for centuries.   She is yearning for the church that, in the early 1960s and in a world of increasing pluralism, tried to get to that place where it had more in common with those who broke away and were labeled by the Vatican as the unclean, unorthodox, rabble rousers... aka Protestants.  Vatican II was Pope John XXIII's attempt to stretch out a hand into that open air on the other side of the window and meet God in a new place, in the experiences and faces of those who had been labeled heretics.

Pope John XXIII died before Vatican II was done.  Since so many confuse the Church with God, I wonder if that's what some meant when they scoff that, 'God died in the 60s.'

Every time I see the Roman Catholic Church doing something else to crucify Love incarnate in the world, I cringe.  As the sister noted in her interview, there is a growing denomination in the United States: ex-Catholics.   So many of my friends who are now either Episcopalian, or Jewish, or pagan, or agnostic, or atheist, come from families where they were raised in the Roman Catholic Church.  And it is that Church that made them think that God is some paternalistic fire-breathing drill Sergeant in the sky and that Jesus preferred men (but not that way!)  because all the apostles were men, so only men can serve at God's altar in the church.   The view of God that the Vatican seems to prefer is the half-world view, where there are men... and then the rest of us.  No wonder they waste so much time thinking and plotting around issues of homosexuality; the only other beings that count in the world are men!

Interesting, too, that CBS did this interview on the day when many of us are marking the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, when she learns she's going to be the God-bearer and goes to her cousin, Elizabeth, who is going to give birth to John the Baptizer.  Mary, the mother of Jesus, is the one feminine example the Roman Catholic Church has glorified.  And yet, I believe that same young girl who bore the Son of God is weeping tears of frustration to see what has become of the people her son came to redeem.  How would this incarnation of the Vatican have treated her today?  Branded her a feminist (as if that's a bad thing!) and told her to stand ten paces behind her husband?

I feel for the nuns in this situation.  Today's Eucharistic reading from Colossians reminds us all that whenever we are faced with the obstacles erected by those in the world, we need to go back to the place that is the center of our calling and being:

Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.--Col. 3: 14-17

Christ is eternal.  Popes are temporal.  Stay strong and stay the course, my sisters-in-Christ.

    


 

It's Getting Better... But Not Fast Enough For Some

Today, so many across the country celebrated the once-and-for-all end of Don't Ask Don't Tell.  I stopped by the Midtown Filling Station and toasted some of our local queer vets, hugged a couple more at the Mickee Faust Club, and felt the lightness in my own body of knowing that one of the more discriminatory policies of the past was done.

And then my heart sank.

In the Buffalo, NY, suburb of Williamsville, 14 year-old Jamey Rodemeyer committed suicide on Sunday.  His parents say Jamey was bullied in middle school with anti-gay slurs and taunts.



The above video is Jamey's "It Gets Better" statement to other kids. He was a fan of the pop star, Lady Gaga.  The last message he sent on his Twitter account: @ladygaga bye mother monster, thank you for all you have done, paws up forever.

On a day of much rejoicing, it is a boy like Jamey who reminds us that our work continues.  Lady Gaga certainly does try to instill in her fans an understanding that they are beautiful beings worthy of love.  PFLAG works tirelessly at promoting a message that all people deserve equal rights.  And while the It Gets Better project has its heart in a very good place, I prefer our PFLAG message of "Make It Better Now!"  The Jameys of the world need to know that their schools and social clubs are safe, and harrassment via the internet won't be tolerated either.

It's ironic that the Big Bend Anti-Bullying Task Force in Leon County was showing the film, "Bullied" again tonight.  Perhaps someone should ship a copy of the film to Jamey's high school in upstate New York.

The Don't Ask, Don't Tell chapter is closed.  I look forward to when we finish the chapters on things such as bullicide of queer teens.  One day, this country will get bored with the Book of Homophobia.  But we are far from the end at this point.

Grant O Lord, Jamey, eternal rest
And may light perpetual shine upon him.

A Successful Night

I needed some time to recover from what has been a whirlwind of activity in my life before I could post on the great event that happened Tuesday evening on the Tallahassee Community College campus.

The Big Bend Anti-Bullying Task Force, a product of conversations between Gentle Shepherd MCC, PFLAG-Tallahassee and State Rep. Michelle Rehwinkel Vasilinda's office, kicked off an awareness campaign with the movie "Bullied", a film that tells the story of the Jamie Nabozny case in Wisconsin. Jamie came out as gay when he was in middle school, and thus began a cycle of violence and abuse that nearly killed him a couple of times. Principals and other school administrators refused to protect him from a group of bullies who would punch him, kick him, and even urinate on him. They (the school) would tell Jamie and his parents, "Boys will be boys." Or the even more incredible, "Well, if Jamie is going to be so openly gay, then this is what he can expect." Jamie finally met a legal advocate who encouraged him to sue the Ashland, WI, school district. He did, and he won.

The movie was produced for the Southern Poverty Law Center's "Teaching Tolerance" campaign. And in only a few months, the Center has already sent off nearly 40,000 copies at the request of school districts and non-profits.

We were lucky to have the film director and producer, Bill Brummel, join us for the panel discussion after the movie. He noted for the crowd of about 120 people that it was important to protect all children in schools. And that it was incumbent on everyone to work on changing the culture, so that bullying becomes unacceptable. A tall order. But it is not impossible to make what everyone assumes is part of growing up into a thing of the past. The attorney on the panel, Holly Dincman, said what I had been saying in our meetings with the representative: protecting students from harassment and bullying is a human rights issue.

One of the most moving moments to me during the evening was when the moderator, Pat Smith, a light-skinned African-American woman, began sobbing as she related her own experiences of being bullied in middle school by a darker-skinned girl. She talked of the fear, and the depression, and the anxiety caused by the events which all came back to her as she watched the movie. Beyond my feelings of empathy for her as she tried to compose herself again to lead the discussion, I was heartened that a black woman in the south could see the connections to her own experience through a film about a white gay boy in Wisconsin. The trauma of bullying is a universal feeling. The hurt and the damaged caused by "isms" and "phobias" are the same. This is why the artificial barriers erected by some between the black experience and the gay experience are just that: artificial. The bigotry is for different reasons, but it is still bigotry. And it is all wrong. The fact that the moderator saw herself in the story of Jamie Nabozny speaks to that universal truth, and to the long-term effects of bullying. Imagine how much adults spend on therapy trying to undo the damage done to them in childhood!

I considered the evening a success. We've got people thinking and talking. That is the beginning of action, and the way that we can make things better now.