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Sermon June 30, 2019
The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers,
The Church of the Nativity and St. Stephen’s
Third Sunday After Pentecost, Proper 8, Year C, Track 1
Observance of LGBTQ Month
http://lectionarypage.net/YearC_RCL/Pentecost/CProp8_RCL.html
For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Galatians 5:1
Please be seated.
In the early 70s, the youth group at my church started making weekend trips to New York City. St. John’s Lutheran church in Greenwich Village welcomed youth groups for a special experience in the City. At the time, there were many youth who ran away from home and were enticed by New York City. St. John’s ran a program called Operation Eye Opener as a way to prevent youth from running away. We walked the streets of New York at night, including a visit to Night Court. We heard from people who had been addicted to drugs. While my youth group participated in these events, we also veered from them, going to Broadway Plays or visiting nearby parks.
Greenwich Village at the time was a safe haven for people who were Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender. After all, the rebellion at The Stonewall Inn had happened in 1969 within 500 feet of the church. While I don’t remember anyone telling me about that important event, I do remember seeing, for the first time, same gender couples holding hands and clearly being together as romantic partners. I was 15 the first time I visited, so fairly young.
I can’t say why or how I was taught that human sexual expression and gender identity were more expansive than society approved of at the time. I do know that it was through my church…through my, at the time, Lutheran faith tradition. I still remember in 1974, when I was 17, how a friend I’d known for a few years, who lived in another town, disclosed to me that he was gay. It was during a church youth event. I recall being very supportive of him and yet, knowing that I needed to hold that information in confidence…that he would not be fully accepted everywhere he went.
And over the years, I heard so many stories about the abuse people I knew faced as they fully embraced their sexual orientation and gender identity. My heart ached for them.
Last Sunday and this Sunday, we’ve been reading from Paul’s Letter to the Galatians. Last Sunday we heard the well-known phrase from the third chapter, verse 28:
There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.
This Sunday we hear that we are free in Christ Jesus. We keep hearing we are the beloved of God. We keep hearing we are created in God’s image. We hear about the unity in diversity of the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We keep hearing that we are all one in Christ Jesus.
For people who are LGBTQ, being free in Christ is what is promised; however, what occurs in practice in too many Christian communities, is abuse and denigration.
While many of us can see how much things have changed in society for people who are LGBTQ – marriage equality to name a big one – there is still so much pain inflicted upon people who are LGBTQ. There is pain from faith traditions. There is pain from governments and secular institutions, like discrimination against people who are LGBTQ being legal. Suicide rates for young people who identify at LGBTQ are still much higher than those for the population at large. Women who are transgender, especially those who are Black, are especially vulnerable to being murdered.
Midst the monumental changes, the cruelty and pain still existing 50 years after the Stonewall rebellion is disappointing.
Truly, don’t all of us want to be free in Christ? Free to live in the fruit of the spirit as described by Paul in the fifth chapter of his letter to the Galatians? Free to live in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control?
Earlier this year, Vestry voted that we should put a clear statement of welcome to all on our website and that we should ask to be listed as a Believe Out Loud parish, publicly stating we are open to all people, including people who are LGBTQ. That, I believe, was an important step to supporting all of us being free in Christ.
This region is not the most welcoming for people who are LGBTQ, especially young people. I have been told of various instances of bullying or ostracism that have occurred, at least here in Newport. The Program and Mission Committee voted to support the formation of an organization or program for youth who are LGBTQ and their supporters. The work to create this organization is continuing. Again, an important step to all of us being free in Christ.
May we as a parish and as individuals continue the work to ensure all can be free in Christ and that all can be free to live into the fruits of the Spirit.
Amen
