“Unlikely
Children of God”
Sermon for
Celebration MCC (Naples, FL)
October 7,
2012
Rev. Brian
Hutchison, M.Div.
Texts:
Mark
10:13-16
Hebrews
2:10-12
Today is a
very special Sunday in the life of MCC. Yesterday marks 44 years since the
first worship service of Metropolitan Community Churches. We tell the story
every year on this Fellowship Sunday of our founder Rev. Elder Troy D. Perry
and his journey of dreaming of a church for LGBT people in a time when such an
idea was extremely radical. After being excommunicated from his Pentecostal
denomination for being gay, Rev. Perry left his wife and children, moved to Los
Angeles California after serving in the US Army, and lived as much as he could
as an openly gay man in LA. Though he had friends, his despair over being gay
in a homophobic society led him to attempt suicide. Thank God he survived
because he soon thereafter had an epiphany that he was still called to
ministry, but a different kind of
ministry- to the gay community.
Troy’s
friend Willy Smith asked him, “How’re you going to organize a bunch of queens,
and get them to follow any religion, or any person, or do anything together?
You know how bitchy they are. They always act individually. Nobody has ever
organized the gay community into anything and accomplished anything. It’s as
ridiculous as trying to get a bunch of crazies in the funny farm to act as a
team” (The Lord is my Shepherd and He
Knows I’m Gay, 105).
Regardless of many people telling him he was crazy for the idea, Troy
advertized in The Advocate magazine,
even giving the address to his own home where the service would be held.
So
on October 6, 1968, twelve people showed up for worship at Troy and Willy’s
home in Huntington Park, CA. Troy borrowed a preacher’s robe from a
Congregational minister friend, a coffee table was used for the communion
table, and a record of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir was played for music in
addition to hymns sung acapella. Troy’s sermon was titled, “Be True to You,”
ensuring those gathered that being themselves was God’s loving will for their
lives.
When
it came time for Communion, Troy made sure to give an open invitation, giving
no restrictions on who could receive the Sacrament. To this day, all MCCs
celebrate a fully open Communion.
Though only a portion of those gathered received Communion that day, everyone
was in tears. There was a very real sense in that service that it was the
beginning of great things to come.
MCC
has come a long way in 44 years. We faced the arson of many of our churches,
the fight for LGBT rights, the AIDS crisis, and so much more. But God has
stayed faithful and we have churches all over the world. Though we hear of some
individual churches closing, we are one of very few Christian denominations to
be actually growing (if not holding steady). But this doesn’t mean we can sit
back and watch ourselves grow. We must make our all-inclusive welcome known in
every community we inhabit.
I
know that Celebration MCC has great potential. I am thrilled that Rev. Dr.
Stephanie Brown will be soon here as your settled pastor. You have stayed
strong through the desert of this past year and I know your strength will
continue as you grow in wisdom and in numbers with your new leader.
Now
what does the gospel reading have to do with all this queer church stuff? We
heard in this short reading from the Gospel of Mark a very powerful message.
Some of us may miss the deeper meaning because we have heard this scripture so
many times before and because it is so often illustrated in Christian
children’s books. You know the scene: A very model-esque Jesus sits on a rock
with his Herbal Essences hair flowing in the breeze as little pasty white
children come and sit on his lap. (More recently, the children are shown in
many nationalities, but I just need to point out the reality of American
religious history here.) In my Methodist Sunday school growing up, we sang,
“Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world. Red and
yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight. Jesus loves the little
children of the world.” Of course that’s not really considered politically
correct anymore, but the point got across to me as a child: Jesus loves
everyone. If you grew up with the King James Bible, you may remember it as,
“Suffer the little children come unto me.” One of my seminary professors Rev.
Dr. Jay Johnson remembers being afraid of this passage as a child because he
thought it meant he had to literally “suffer.” That’s one of many reasons why we
more so use contemporary versions in MCC.
What
your Sunday school teacher or preacher probably didn’t tell you is the history
behind this biblical scene. In the ancient Near East, children were viewed as
having little value. With so many diseases without cures, many children did not
see adulthood. And in the social hierarchy, children held no power. When
children were orphaned, there was no orphanage to send them to. They just
wandered the streets picking up scraps for food and finding shelter wherever
they could. These children were considered “untouchable.”
Since
Jesus was known to be a friend to the friendless and an advocate for those on
the margins of society, people brought the street kids to Jesus. The disciples
were not happy with this. They scolded the people, thinking that their Rabbi
was too holy to associate with such people. Jesus was irate with them for
keeping anyone away from him. So he called them to himself anyway. He embraced
them with arms wide open and gave them a blessing. And remember: a blessing is
not making someone or something
sacred but rather affirming the
sacred value of someone or something. Jesus affirmed the sacred value of these
street kids.
And
remember too that Jesus was an unmarried Jewish man. By his age, he was
expected to have his own wife and children. So bringing children to him for him
to touch was a scandalous act.
Unfortunately
today, Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender people face the same kind of
stigma. We are labeled as “child molesters” and “unfit parents.” Many states
prevent us from adopting children though American foster homes are filled to
the brim and children around the world are homeless. Statistics show that the
vast majority of child molesters are heterosexual and that such abuse does not
have to do with sexuality but rather with a psychological disorder having to do
with power. Unfortunately the Roman Catholic child sex abuse pandemic has
deeply damaged trust of the clergy and of the church as a whole. Church: we
have a lot of work to do to show the world that our community has the capacity
to appropriately love the children of our world.
We
remember also that there is a child sex trafficking pandemic going on around
the world. According to UNICEF, the world child trafficking market is over
twelve billion dollars a year, with over 1.2 million child victims
(sctnow.org). Such statistics are enough to make a person lose faith in
humanity. I’m sure seeing countless children on the streets was enough for
Jesus to ask, “Why?” but then proceed to call them family.
Our
reading from the New Testament book called Hebrews reminds us of this very
fact. It says that Jesus is not ashamed to call ANYONE family, because we all
have the same Parent, the Source and Ground of our being. Jesus did not have
what people today call “traditional family values.” He probably didn’t marry or
have children. And remember in chapter three of Mark where the scripture says,
“Then Jesus’ mother and his brothers came; and
standing outside, they sent to him and called him. A crowd was sitting around Jesus;
and they said to him, "Your mother and your brothers and sisters are
outside, asking for you." And he replied, "Who are my mother and my
brothers?" And looking at those who sat around him, Jesus said, "Here
are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and
sister and mother."
Jesus
meant no disrespect to his blood family. He was simply demonstrating that
loving family is more than blood. Jesus created his family of choice from those
who had no family. He could have conformed to norms, but he was called by the
Spirit of God to transcend those norms to instead create what he called the
“Kingdom” or Kinship of God.
We
here are all siblings in Christ. That doesn’t mean that we get to call each
other brother and sister because we all believe the same doctrines and creeds. Church
is not meant to be a clique. It does mean however that we claim each other
as siblings because we, like Jesus, see the God-spark in each other and we call
it Good. We take care of each other in love and respect in the example of Jesus.
MCC
doctrine states that we are “saved” in that we are saved from loneliness,
degradation, and despair. But we can only be saved if we like those street kids
two thousand years ago, in our
vulnerability and humility, allow ourselves to be embraced by the open arms of
Jesus. And today, those arms are yours and mine. St. Teresa of Avila, a queer
Christian mystic who lived in the Middle Ages gave us this illustration: you
are the hands, the feet, the face, the very body of God. And it is through you
that God’s will is done.
Saints,
I urge you in your ministry going forward to open your hearts and minds to the
possibility of meeting the living Christ in the most unlikely children of God. Remember
that you are not yourselves helpless
children needing to rely on anyone to spoon-feed you, but that you are adult children of the Living God who
will always guide you to abundant life. Be authentic MCCers; that is, be
true to you. God bless you all on your amazing journeys of faith. Amen.
