The Path to Wholeness: Trusting Who You Are

The Path to Wholeness: Trusting Who You Are

Sermon for MCC of the Palm Beaches

Sunday October 2, 2011; 10:00am

Rev. Brian Hutchison, M.Div.

Good morning MCC! I am honored and blessed to be with you this morning as you focus on the lives and leadership of youth and young adults. This message certainly is not about me, but I do want to point out a few fun facts before I jump into the message. First, I want to point out how wonderful it is to preach for a church where Rev. Dr. Lea Brown is pastor, since Lea was one of my supervising pastors during my clergy internship in San Francisco. I now serve as a Staff Minister at Sunshine Cathedral MCC in Fort Lauderdale. So it’s great to cross paths again.

Secondly, in light of today’s young adult theme, I want to point out that I am 27 years old, and Tuesday will be two years since my ordination in Metropolitan Community Churches. If you do the math, I finished seminary and was ordained at age 25. Last year, I celebrated ten years of lay and ordained ministry in MCC. If you do the math, I became involved at age 16. Needless to say, I have a deep love and passion for MCC and I have dedicated my life’s work to see it thrive.

Finally, I want to point out that at 2:30pm on this past Thursday September 29, I experienced the miracle of legally marrying my partner of 5 years James Joseph at MCC New York in New York City. As we were boarding the plane home from New York yesterday, someone started to shove his suitcase on top of our garment bag in the overhead compartment. James tells him, “Careful, my tux is in there.” The man replies, “I’m sorry... Are you getting married?” “Already did,” he replies. “Congratulations!... Where’s your wife?” James first ignores the question, continuing his knitting. Then the man asks again thinking maybe James didn’t hear him, “Where’s your wife?” James turns to me and says nonchalantly, “He’s right here!” Bashfully, the man and several others around join in an awkward chorus of “Congratulations!” It doesn’t end there… Then, the man asks, “So did you wear a tux too?” I replied, “No, I wore my clergy collar and my black suit.” The reply was another awkward chorus, this time, “Ooooooh,” as their eyes grew large and they all shuffled quickly to their seats. I then turn to the woman across the isle and said, “Life just keeps getting more interesting, doesn’t it?” She agreed.

Would you pray with me? “Divine Love, we recognize your presence in this room today: in each other’s eyes, in warm smiles, in laughter, in the touch of a hand, in the beauty of music and dance, in the wisdom of written and spoken word. I pray that in this holy instant that your presence may be revealed by the words of my mouth and by the meditations of all of our hearts. We give you all the glory, our Source and our Strength. Amen.”

Let’s start from the very beginning… it’s a very good place to start. According to the oral story-telling tradition of the Hebrew people written in the Torah centuries after the words were first spoken, “In the beginning, when God created the universe, the earth was formless and desolate. The raging ocean that covered everything was engulfed in total darkness, and the Spirit of God was moving over the water. Then God commanded, “Let there be light” – and the light appeared. God was pleased with what God saw” (GNB).

Now, let’s fast-forward to around the year 30 when Jewish anti-establishment peacemaker Jesus of Nazareth is said by the gospel according to Matthew to have told those around him who were seeking for en-light-enment, “You are the light of the world. Do not hide yourself. Do not deny that you are light… because the world needs you to shine so that it can see… so that it can truly see.” The gospel according to John reads a similar way. John 8:12 reads, “Jesus spoke… again. ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will have the light of life and will never walk in darkness.” Also, in a gospel we don’t find in our Bible’s cannon today (the Gospel of Thomas), it reads, “Jesus’ disciples said, ‘Show us the place where you are, for it is necessary for us to seek it.’ Jesus said to them, ‘…there is light within a person of light and it lights the whole world. When it does not shine, there is darkness.’ ”

Looking at our world today, we can see what Jesus is saying here. Where is the light, especially among those who call themselves Christian, assumed to be followers of the Christ Light? We do not literally see other people as sources of light. I don’t know about you, but I’m not glow-in-the-dark and I don’t shine light from my eyes like a super-hero. And when surgeons operate on people, light does not shine out from the wound. What Jesus was talking about here is a metaphor. It requires a bit of imagination to understand and a bit of memory from our ancient ancestors to receive it in our spirits, but this “light” thing holds deep truth, and is maybe even the answer to our hardest questions.

Light evokes a very primal response in humans. The very first humans relied on the sun to warm them and allowed them to venture out from home by day to hunt and gather. The light of fire at night kept away predators. Torchlight allowed travel by night as well as by day. Moonlight allowed many over the centuries to escape from their oppressors. Fire has allowed us over the millennia to cook our food. We now know that the sun’s light provides us with the essential Vitamin D, which allows us to absorb calcium for strong bones, among other things. Sunlight also makes us happy. Millions of people suffer from seasonal affective disorder (ironically called SAD), also known as seasonal depression, when the days become shorter in the winter or in locations where the sun does not shine as often. Our experience tells us that light is at the center of our existence.

On the other hand, we must be careful about how we use language around light and darkness. The metaphor of light as good and darkness as evil has been used too often through the centuries against people of color to deny their place in the household of God. Slave owners of European descent in the US often said that the so-called “curse of Ham” from the Hebrew Bible justified their supremacy over people of African descent, those with darker skin. In the Mormon community, a passage in the Book of Mormon about the correlation between skin color and moral value was used until the 1970s to prevent people of African descent from becoming members of the Latter Day Saints. But there is beauty and wonder in darkness. The psalmist even tells us, “To God the darkness is just as the light.”

But for today’s purposes, we will claim the goodness of light - just as the Creator in the book of Genesis calls it. Jesus used this metaphor because it would translate well to those he was speaking to. I think it works for us too. Jesus is telling the disciples a higher spiritual truth than the reality they had been living in. Jesus essentially tells them, “You may look in the mirror and just see Matthew or Mary or Judas; and you have given a value to yourself based on what people have told you you are. ‘You’re a cheat.’ ‘You’re a whore.’ ‘You’re a backstabber.’ The empire tells you that you are disposable. But I tell you, ‘You are divine light.’” These people that Jesus hung out with weren’t the cream of the crop according to society’s standards. They were common people, some of whom lived scandalous lives- my kind of people J. But Jesus affirmed them in the most profound way he could in saying, “YOU ARE LIGHT.” Jesus affirmed their sacred worth as no one ever had.

And this is where the so-called “Generation i” comes in. It wasn’t until recently when I heard the current youth and young adult generation called “I”. At first I didn’t like it. I thought, “It sounds like we’re all just selfish. Everything has to be about me.” There is some truth to that in our culture. The Apple Corporation is proud to sell the iPod, iPad, iPhone, iMac and various other “I” products to millions of customers every year. The trick to their success is the ability of the individual to personalize everything in the device. The music, photos, videos, text, and much more can be a reflection of the person’s life… like looking in a mirror and seeing what you want to see.

And there is the root meaning of generation i. We are seeking to find our place in a world that seems to be staring back in time as if the past just fell off a cliff before their eyes. We see generations before us in shock over the great losses of wars, diseases, famines, economic struggles, social changes, and personal grief. We see some seeking to bring back a golden age that never existed. Specifically in the LGBT community, we see unhealed wounds from great losses to HIV/AIDS, breast cancer, and hate crimes. We see the pain from these losses manifesting as addiction and abuse. We see others holding on to understandings of God that damage our spirits when proclaimed to us as gospel truth, some even within our own communities.

I know from sentiments expressed by MCC young adults at our recent MCC Young Adult Retreat that Generation i has a different kind of spirituality than generations past. For us, the theistic God who is separate from our being, far away, solely male in identity, usually angry and irritable, blessing a small few while damning most- this God is dead. For us, if that God existed, he should be put on trial for genocide. That is the God responsible for the atrocities that leave generations before us in shock.

But for those of us of the next generation who experience God as closer than we are to ourselves, we seek to open our minds to new discoveries of who the Divine is for each of us. We don’t throw away the beautiful wisdom passed down for us to inherit. We don’t claim to be the only ones who experience God in this extremely personal way. We are glad to know that those older than us do too. But we also know that God cannot be put in a box. Many churches have poured time, energy, and finances into preserving understandings of God that became dead idols long ago. Most of my unchurched peers think all churches are like that. To them, it’s as if Christians are just attempting to live out the social rules of 2000 to 4000 years ago. That is so separated from their reality in the 21^st century that they are certain church will never be for them. And I know this understanding is not just among my friends. Surveys show that it is widespread.

Many segments of the church have failed my generation. In its attempt to save our souls, it has often taken our lives. It has idly stood by, failing to be the Good Samaritan on the road when queer youth are forced to sell their bodies in order to survive. For some, it seems Satan’s new name is Change and God’s new name is Doctrine. It has failed to be relevant in a world that has embraced scientific truths and lives through the lens of those truths. Such a church is destined to die. But in the meantime, it is killing our youth.

Many have said in the past year or so that teen suicides are on the rise. We are not sure if they are actually on the rise or if the public is becoming more aware of the reality. But we do know that young men and women are taking their own lives as a result of the current reality of living in an isolating and alienating world. When religious authorities deny their inner light, they are pushed into the darkness of the corners of their minds. Social scientists remind us that to have a place in the world- to have a sense of belonging- is as essential as food and shelter. When babies are not given love they fail to thrive and they die, even if they are fed and given basic needs. In the same way, young people fail to thrive if they are not loved and affirmed.

I have heard some people stereotype LGBT teens who take their own lives as overly hormonal and over-dramatic. This kind of thinking is dismissive and doesn’t fix the problem. And telling teens that life will get better is a good thing; it’s a hope-filled response. But it is only the first step. If we really care, we will show them a different reality. And it is starting to happen right before our eyes- in this little corner of the world called MCC, and that little corner of the world below where I was just married called MCC New York’s shelter for homeless queer youth, and in MCC’s HIV ministries reaching out to young gay men who are infected every day.

MCC is sometimes caught in those grave-cloths of the past, but I see MCC rising up with new vision and new leadership. I see change happening. I see people in our communities experiencing God as Joy, Unconditional Love, Deep Peace, and Radical Hospitality. MCC is a church that I have faith will enter the future as not only a refuge as it has been for 43 years, but a place where each person can live into the spiritual reality, “I am divine light. What I seek already lives in, through, and as me.” MCC is a church that will not allow dogma to come between seeking souls and innovative experiences of God not yet discovered.

Generation i is a generation of boundary-breakers. The categories of the modern world just can’t hold us. For example, if I sleep with a woman, it doesn’t make me any more a straight man than mooing makes me a cow. If I wear feminine clothes, it doesn’t necessarily make me female or even gender-queer (though for others, it may). I may call myself gay today, queer tomorrow, and bisexual on Tuesday- and it is none of anyone’s business because in the reality of God possibilities of “I AM” are endless.

God, in the form of a light source: fire- is said to have told Moses on Mount Sinai to tell the people that “I AM” sent him. The people already knew that they were supposedly created somewhat like this God. So to tell the people that this God simply is Being- not a being but the Ground of Being is to say that I simply am too. I AM good. I AM worthy. I AM light.

MCC of the Palm Beaches, you are the light of the world. In whatever ways you may have hidden under a basket in the past, we call you to come out. Come out of the bindings of uncertainty and proclaim the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ: not “regardless of” but because of who you are- regardful of who you are, you are light and you are home here. You are part of the divine spark that first lit the universe. You are enlightened. I leave the light on for those who wander in the night searching for a home where God dwells.

The young adults of MCC have decided a spiritual truth for us: we want to know you. We do want you to pass on the light of your wisdom from a life of experience. We do want to know how you experience the divine. And we want you to know us too. We want to build a bridge where there seems to be a void. As you grow into the truth of who God is calling you to be in the Light of God, you will change. Your ray of light will refract and appear as a rainbow of diversity. Church sometimes may not look like church as you have known it. You will stretch and bend, but you will not break. And miraculous healing will happen as we reveal our inner light to each other, from generation to generation.

And as we do so, in the words of Jesus, we will become salt to the world. We will be the spice of life, enhancing its flavor to demonstrate with our very lives in beloved community that life really is worth living. And this truly is Good News! Amen.