Sermon preached on the 5th anniversary of Reconciling in Christ Sunday. In the mid 1990's I went to a conference in Green Bay, Wisconsin on the theme of Peace and Justice in a New Era --- this was two years after the end of the first Gulf War and three years after the fall of the Soviet Union. This conference was around this time of year and because of the bad weather, it ultimately ended being just a handful of us with one of the main speakers --- Rev. William Sloane Coffin. For those who have never heard of the late Rev. Coffin, he had been chaplain at Yale University and then pastor of Riverside Church one of the most prominent congregations in New York City. At this point in the 90's, he had just retired from leadership of SANE/FREEZE --- now called Peace Action --- one of the largest peace and justice organizations in the US.
Anyway, because it ended up being a small group because of the poor weather, we were able to go into some deep conversations on some important issues as Christians: war and peace … but also over the issue of homosexuality. I had been a pastor just a year and I remember Rev. Coffin vividly stating that just as slavery was the issue for congregations and pastors in the 17th and 18th centuries, homosexuality would be the issue that would define the church of the 20th century.
Well since mid the 1990's some things have changed and some things have remained the same: Sept. 11, 2001, Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan --- Rev. Coffin died in 2006. And some things have not changed --- Green Bay, Wisconsin is still cold. And Rev. Coffin was right, how the church has dealt with homosexuality has been the defining event in the past two decades. As I reflect on my own life, my faith has grown and changed as well, particularly on some of those same topics that we discussed in that church in Green Bay, Wisconsin so many years ago. For me it has proven to be true, that faith is a journey, not simply a set of beliefs, and doubts and questions and the community of people with whom we share in this faith journey, are our allies.
Today, on this Reconciled in Christ Sunday, we are marking our fifth anniversary as a Reconciled in Christ congregation, a congregation that publically welcomes the full participation of all people specifically lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Lutherans in all aspects of the life of this Church.
In our celebration of our anniversary as an RIC congregation in 2012, we welcomed a new member Daniel Graney who shared about his journey as a gay Lutheran man through the Missouri Synod Lutheran Church, as a pastor in the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches (AELC) to be with us today. And last year, we heard from Katy Stewart, executive director for the Transgender Education Network of Texas. Ms. Stewart was born in San Antonio as David and she spoke about her faith journey as she navigated through life as a woman.
Today, we are going backwards in a way, because I thought I would share some of my own faith journey particularly over the issue of homosexuality as a heterosexual Lutheran pastor. How did I get to where I am today? And what words could I share that would be helpful to you in your faith journey?
We don't have enough time to go through all I have learned, and some lessons are too sensitive and personal and not appropriate to discuss in a mixed, large group in a Sunday morning worship service, but I can share with you one particular point in my journey, and as is often the case an event that involves a person.
A life changing man that helped me in my journey of faith that I want to share with you was Darnell. Darnell was a classmate when I was attending college in Vermont in the early 1980's. Darnell was an African-American man from Atlanta, Georgia and he was the first, proudly open, gay man I had ever met.
Over the two years that we were classmates he began to unravel some of my basic preconceptions, my racism and homophobia in a persistent, non-threatening way. Although our mutual Christian backgrounds never really came under discussion he challenged one of my most basic dilemmas and set me on the course to explore exactly what does the Bible say and not say about homosexuality. What was my basic dilemma? I had grown up Christian, as a Lutheran, attended Sunday school, confirmed my faith as a teenager, was active in a Senior High youth group and although I was not active in the church and would move further away for a time, I had never really engaged in a serious debate with the Bible and my faith. For example, when it came to what I thought about homosexuality as a Christian, I pretty much walked the middle of the road. I've always thought that all persons should be afforded the same rights and no one should be discriminated against. But I also took the interpretation of biblical prohibitions to homosexual sex at face value. Looking back at the point in my journey of faith it was the beginning of what John Westerhoff in his book; "Will Our Children Have Faith" termed moving from an afflictive faith (faith of affiliation), a faith that emphasized community and belonging --- to a "searching faith" with its doubts and critical judgments and experimentation.
Darnell spurred my faith and Bible study forward by sharing his journey in life, the gradual realization around his early middle school years (if I remember) of his own sexual insights and preference. At first he fought it and tried to be like many of his friends then out of deep despair shared his feelings with his mother. Thankfully, unlike some, his mother listened and then they together began a quiet journey exploring what his feelings meant. What was it from his journey that Darnell said that led me to reconsider what I thought? Basically it was not anything other than --- sex.
Remember this was my college years; I had had several meaningful, intimate relationships with several young women through High school and in college. And although I grew up in a somewhat culturally diverse environment with a large portion of my life having been spent outside of the United States, I had generally received an education on homosexuality via whispers and jokes, had learned somehow what "gay" meant, and by this time in early 1980's understood in a general way the topic of homosexuality. Other than a young woman who I dated briefly who said she was a lesbian on our second and last date, I didn't know any gay kids in junior high or high school --- well, at least I didn't know any people like Darnell --- proudly open.
It wasn't until Darnell put a face to active gay sex at a time period in the early 1980's when HIV/AIDS was rearing its ugly head, did I come face to face with what I call the "ick factor --- yuck factor." It was the uncomfortable feeling I had felt earlier --- in 1980 --- when I went with friends to see a movie starring Al Pacino called "Cruising," a psychological thriller about a serial killer who targeted gay men, "yew --- you've got to be kidding!"
In reflection, I was in the "natural law" camp of faith who said that, though there is not an overwhelming amount of verses in the Bible about homosexuality --- six, to be exact --- there was an argument to be made from the book of Genesis. It's the "Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve" and "it's all about the plumbing" this general feeling that I just did not want to understand or really think about, the adult physical intimacy between two people of the same sex.
Darnell nudged me in the direction beyond natural law because he was able to point out that revulsion is not an argument. For example, what we find "icky" can be socially conditioned. Something I myself had experienced and remembered from events in my own life earlier because as I said, I was raised for a time in other parts of the world. That what my American culture took to be yucky and gross… like some foods could actually be quite good. Or the reverse, take for instance the eating of a hamburger which for many Americans is natural yet for Hindus in India is morally and physically repugnant.
In other words, Darnell lit a spark on my path to look more objectively at my faith and by doing so, helped me grow deeper in my faith. Take for example, the familiar Leviticus 18: 22 "You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination." Or Leviticus 20: 13 "13If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall be put to death; their blood is upon them." As people of faith we can see this portion of scripture as part of God's living Word. Not to be ignored out cut out like former President Thomas Jefferson did with portions of the Bible he did not like. Rather it is to grapple with these two passages and begin to understand that they are part of the holiness code directed largely at an audience of men, a code of purity meant to distinguish the behavior of one group of people primarily male Israelites from another the Canaanites.
That means that this code is instructive because ironically it teaches us in the reverse --- that homosexuality has been part of many cultures for generations and in broad sense that it is part of God's creation. And that these verses to not correspond to loving and caring same-sex committed adult long term relationships as we understand them now. As people of faith we can put those lessons in their historical and social context because these lessons also suggest other cultural prohibitions. For example it is a code that permits polygamy, prohibits sexual intercourse when a woman has her period, bans tattoos, prohibits eating rare meat, bans wearing clothes that are made from a blend of textiles, prohibits cross-breeding livestock, bans sowing a field with mixed seed, prohibits eating pigs, rabbits, or some forms of seafood, and requires Saturday to be reserved as the Sabbath and a host of other things, some things of which many faithful Christians do not follow.
Rather, in growing faith or as John Westerhoff terms in the book I referenced earlier, an owned faith, we are able to see God's interaction with God's creation in diverse cultures throughout time renewed in, with and through Jesus Christ.
Darnell and I have never corresponded since our graduation. We each went our separate ways. Nevertheless I believe that Darnell was a gift from God in my life, reminding me that although we can become a Christian in a moment, no one has ever become a disciple overnight. The Christian life is not an "instant" recipe that one mixes up in a minute in cold water. It does not offer "instant" discipleship, "instant" fulfillment, or "instant" steadfastness. It is a long process of development, from justification to sanctification to glorification. That's why we celebrate this day reminded once again that in, with and through Christ, we are reconciled as the family of God, all created and loved by God.
What do I have to share as a heterosexual Lutheran pastor? Simply point to what has been helpful for me: 1. we can invite the Holy Spirit into our hearts to do a new thing and invite new ideas to our tables. From my experience, we can invite gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender friends to lunch, dinner, out for drinks or for a rousing round of mini-golf and ask them about themselves.
2. We can invite ourselves to be fully present and invite our neighbor into our heart. We can listen --- listen to the stories of life. Listen deeply for places where their story might sound a bit like ours. Listen for places where our stories intersect; the pain and joy. Listen for how their story is interwoven with God's and listen to our heart, if we are willing to hear honest answers. 3. When we have some level of trust, we can do things like ask an LGBT person questions that seem weird or uncomfortable --- not because we want them to feel weird or uncomfortable or because we are hoping to trip them up --- but because we need each other, to learn a few things. Yes, that means we have to acknowledge a little bit of ignorance and fear. And fourth, we are to ask real questions, not veiled, loaded questions that are meant to corner or cajole or convert. So, I have grown in faith, thanks to Darnell and thanks to all of you. May God be with us as we grow reconciled in Jesus Christ. Amen.