“Our Mission: The Queer Body of Christ”

“Our Mission: The Queer Body of Christ”

Sermon for MCC New Haven

January 27^th 2013

Rev. Brian Hutchison, M.Div.

Texts:

1 Corinthians 12: 12-26

Luke 4:14-21

A selection from gay 19^th century poet Walt Whitman’s

Leaves of Grass: “I Sing the Body Electric.”

“I sing the body electric,

The armies of those I love engirth me and I engirth them,

They will not let me off till I go with them, respond to them,

And discorrupt them, and charge them full with the charge of the soul.

Have you ever loved the body of a woman?
Have you ever loved the body of a man?
Do you not see that these are exactly the same to all, in all nations and times all over the earth?

If any thing is sacred the human body is sacred,

…

O my body! I dare not desert the likes of you in other men and women, nor the likes of the parts of you,
I believe the likes of you are to stand or fall with the likes of the soul, (and that they are the soul,)
I believe the likes of you shall stand or fall with my poems, and that they are my poems,
Man's, woman's, child, youth's, wife's, husband's, mother's, father's, young man's, young woman's poems,
…

O I say these are not the parts and poems of the body only, but of the soul,
O I say now these are the soul!”

I encourage you to look up the full text of this poem and read it in its entirety. Walt Whitman so beautifully expresses the beauty and goodness he sees in the human body. (And he goes into detail about almost every part of the body, and I do mean EVERY part.)

In our post-Puritan society, we still hold onto a lot of baggage concerning bodies. As a culture, I am sad to say the United States is “body-negative.” Though we have largely embraced the free-love mentality of the 1960s and sex symbols are everywhere in the media, we have not as a culture embraced our bodies as good, holy vessels that have great potential for good, holy experience.

I think it is fitting that the Apostle Paul uses the analogy of the body for understanding the way the church should function. Each human body, even with what we call faults, disabilities, flaws, and undesirable traits, is beautifully and wonderfully made. We give no glory to God when we say things like, “At least he’s beautiful on the inside.” Even those who have been badly burned or scarred carry beauty with their bodies.

Paul tells us that each one of us is a member of the Body of Christ. And each member of the body has a purpose that is no lesser than the others. We are diverse, but in our diversity we have strength, as the body has integrity. Most people have hands that allow us to do many things, but the body cannot be all hands (can you imagine what that would look like?). Most people have eyes that allow us to see and through them know what we are doing. But we could not function as a blob of eyeballs! So it is with the Body of Christ. We truly need one another.

Give some time today and this week to ask yourself which body part your life most resembles. (I know where some of your minds went!) Are you a foot that helps the body to travel softly across the earth? Are you an eye that gives vision for the church? Are you an ear that listens for truth and takes it in? Are you the loins that help the church to procreate? Are you the birth canal that delivers God into the world each day?

Embracing each part of the body as a blessing from God is being “body-positive,” and that is part of the identity of MCC. I have told congregations before that MCC is the third breast of the body: giving nourishing milk to the world, but so unexpected!

The global Body of Christ is a queer body. Like our queer bodies, it experiences violence. Its parts are so different, yet somehow fit together. They have different beliefs and values and yet all claim to follow in the Way of Christ. Some parts are ill and some parts are well. Some parts are old and some parts are new. The jury is still out on whether some parts are implants (and by that, I mean churches that have a message of hate). But somehow, this body has moved forward through two thousand years of history.

Since the early 1980s, in MCC we have declared to the world that the Body of Christ is HIV-positive, that the Body of Christ has AIDS. Thirty-two years later, this is sadly still true. Today, more than 34 million same-gender-loving and heterosexual people around the world are living with HIV. And all are children of God. An illness does not disqualify anyone from being a member of the Body of Christ, amen?

Jesus cared about bodies. He proclaimed in our reading today from the Gospel of Luke, quoting the Prophet Isaiah “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because [She] has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. [She] has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” In reading this scripture, Jesus was telling those in his home town of Nazareth that he was taking this passage seriously, that his mission was to do exactly as it said.

Part one of Jesus’ mission is to bring good news to the poor. Take a look at the front of your bulletin or at the poster in front of me. This picture is called “Patrono De Los Desperados” or “Patron of the Desperate Ones” by Mexican artist Octavio Ocampo. No, this is not just a picture of Jesus, and it is not a picture of Marjorie the Trash Heap from Fraggle Rock :). Ocampo has presented in this artwork his vision of the Body of Christ. It is made up of women and men (and even a dog) who scavenge for food and belongings among the garbage. This Body of Christ is not cleaned up. It has no façade. It is a true face of Christ, composed of those on the margins of society, the “least of these.” Jesus and Ocampo remind us that the poor are part of our body.

Part two of Jesus’ mission is to proclaim release to the captives. We remember today all those who are kept prisoner illegally, those who are part of a worldwide pandemic of human trafficking, and those who are in prison for their crimes. The raw truth of the corrections system in the United States is shocking. Hear this carefully.

The US has the highest number of people incarcerated in the world. As of the last census in 2010, 2,266,800 people, almost 1% of the population is in prison. Two percent more are on parole. This fact alone is shocking, but what is even more shocking is the disproportionate number of people of color in prison. Forty percent are African American, though African Americans make up only 12.6% of the total population. Twenty-one percent are Hispanic, though Hispanics only make up 16.4% of the total population. People of European descent make up 34.7% of prisons, but they comprise 72.4% of the total population. Some conclude from these statistics that people of color are just more likely to be criminals. But I cannot accept that as truth. What I see beyond these statistics is gross injustice. People of color are struggling in this country out of a history of racism. And so instead of putting them in the fields as slaves as was once legal, they are put behind bars.

Now don’t hear me wrong. I am not saying that those who commit crimes should not be brought to justice. What I am saying is that systemic oppression is pushing these folks into prisons. Spiritual teacher Marianne Williamson says, “We see criminals as guilty and seek to punish them. But whatever we do to others, we are doing to ourselves. Statistics painfully prove that our prisons are schools for crime; a vast number of crimes are committed by people who have already spent time in prison. In punishing others, we end up punishing ourselves. Does that mean we’re to forgive a rapist, tell him we know he just had a bad day and send him home? Of course not. We’re to ask for a miracle. A miracle here would be a shift from perceiving prisons as houses of punishment to perceiving them as houses of rehabilitation. When we consciously change their purpose from fear to love, we release infinite possibilities of healing.[1]”

Crime in our nation is a complicated thing to tackle. But there are steps that can be taken now, and we are called as the Body of Christ to advocate for them. Especially with gun law reform in the news right now, the time is ripe for a plentiful harvest. We can stop violence as Christ calls us to do. We just must act together as a society with the Mind of Christ.

Poet Kahlil Gibran reminds us, “Oftentimes have I heard you speak of one who commits a wrong as though he were not one of you, but a stranger unto you and an intruder upon your world. But I say that even as the holy and the righteous cannot rise beyond the highest which is in each one of you, so the wicked and the weak cannot fall lower than the lowest which is in you also… You are the way and the wayfarers. And when one of you falls down he falls for those behind him, a caution against the stumbling stone. Ay, and he falls for those ahead of him, who though faster and surer of foot, yet removed not the stumbling stone.”

We all have the negative potential to commit misdeeds and crimes. And we all also have the collective responsibility to ensure that “stumbling stones” are removed so that those who come after us will have a lesser chance of stumbling.

Bishop Oscar Romero gives us our charge today in his poem titled The Long View. Listen to the words and find liberation:

“It helps, now and then, to step back and take the long view.
The kingdom [of God] is not only beyond our efforts,
it is beyond our vision.
We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction
of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work.

Nothing we do is complete,
which is another way of saying that
the kingdom always lies beyond us.

No statement says all that could be said.
No prayer fully expresses our faith.
No confession brings perfection.
No pastoral visit brings wholeness.
No program accomplishes the church’s mission.
No set of goals and objectives includes everything.

That is what we are about:
We plant seeds that one day will grow.
We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.
We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces effects beyond our capabilities.

We cannot do everything and
there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.
This enables us to do something, and to do it very well.
It may be incomplete,
but it is a beginning, a step along the way,
an opportunity for God’s grace to enter and do the rest.

We may never see the end results,
but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker.
We are workers, not master builders,
ministers, not messiahs.

We are prophets of a future not our own.”

         Church, we know that there is so much in our world that is upside-down. Jesus knew that of his world too. Jesus didn’t single-handedly stop global evil in his ministry 2000 years ago. Many terrible things have happened over that time. But he did give us tools to work with, truths to live by, and the Holy Spirit to lead us. And as we boldly live by these truths through our beautiful bodies, knowing with every fiber of our beings that we are made in the image and likeness of God, we can work miracles.

         Together, let’s worry less about how we should worship in church and be concerned more about how we should worship God through service. Let’s worry less about what we get and be concerned more about what we can give. Let’s worry less about how others have done us wrong and be concerned more about how we can better treat others with love. We are the queer Body of Christ and we have a mission to live out. With these frail, vulnerable, fallible, transitory, beautiful bodies, we can, with God’s help. Amen.

---

[1] Williamson, Marianne. A Return to Love, 86.

Justice Now

“Justice Now”

Sermon for MCC New Haven

January 20, 2013; 10:00am

Rev. Brian Hutchison, M.Div.

Texts: John 2:1-11, 1Cor. 12:4-11

         On this past Tuesday January 15^th, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would have turned 84 years old. We all know his life was taken much too early by assassination in 1968 at the age of 39. In the United States, King’s birthday is celebrated on the third Monday of January, which will be tomorrow. Also tomorrow, President Barack Obama, America’s first African American president will be sworn in for a second term with both Abraham Lincoln’s Bible and King’s Bible.

         This week, I reflect on the impact Dr. King and the civil rights movement have had on my life and on the LGBT community. I remember in second grade coloring a sheet we were given with a picture of King sleeping in bed with a thought bubble above his head that read “I have a dream.” At that age, I wondered why a dream meant so much. We all dream, right? The teacher explained to us what the kind of “dream” King referred to meant. She told us that this kind of dream is about hope for a better future. She then told us that as a Black woman, not too long ago she would not have been allowed to be a teacher for white students. We were all amazed by this because we loved Mrs. Penndel so much. She then pulled out the record player and put on the record of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Even now, I can remember the chills that went all over me after first hearing it. To this day, I still get those chills. I now know that King’s prophetic voice has always resonated so strongly with me because I too have a calling to preach social justice in our world. And I will.

         The social Gospel I preach is not only for people like myself: white, gay men. The social Gospel I profess and preach is the gospel that King and those who inspired him including Bayard Rustin, Mohandas Gandhi, and Jesus preached. It is a message of Good News. That Good News is that we are all One Human Family and each person in this multi-billion member family should be treated with dignity and respect and should be given equal rights. As ACIM (1:88) says, “God is not partial. All [God’s] Children have [God’s] total love, and all [God’s] gifts are freely given to everyone alike.”

         Some LGBT rights leaders have been criticized for comparing the LGBT rights movement to the civil rights movement. “After all,” they argue, “LGBT people were never taken from their homeland and made slaves.” I’ll stop the argument right now by saying that we get nowhere when we start playing the game of “I’m more oppressed than you are!” What I can attest to is that same-gender-loving and gender-variant people have suffered under patriarchy, heterosexism, homophobia, transphobia, hetero-privilege, homo-hatred, and hetero-supremacy for millennia. Some societies throughout history have been more favorable of queer folk, especially indigenous cultures of Africa and the Americas. But we know all too well through our own experience the prejudice that we continue to face today in our current context.

         In light of remembering MLK’s birthday, I want to talk a bit about the man behind King’s civil rights career: Bayard Rustin. Bayard was instrumental in teaching King most of what he knew about nonviolent social action, which they also learned from the followers of Gandhi in India. As a young man, Bayard was a professional singer in Harlem, mostly of Negro spirituals. His grandmother was a Quaker and Bayard professed his grandmother’s faith all his life. The Quakers (also known as the Society of Friends) have a long history of pacifism. They have always refused to go to war. So when Bayard burned his draft card and encouraged others to do the same, he was put in prison until the war was over.

         This wouldn’t be the last time Bayard would be put in jail. For sitting next to a white man on a bus in North Carolina, he was put on the chain gang for 22 days, working 10 hours a day in the hot sun. (Rosa Parks wasn’t the first African American to refuse to move to the back of the bus; her act was just well timed.) After Bayard returned to New York and reporting on the barbaric nature of the chain gang, North Carolina finally banned it. The next time Bayard was arrested would haunt him for the rest of his life. This time, instead of being arrested for intentional civil disobedience, he was arrested in Pasadena, CA for public lewd acts and sex perversion. Bayard had never hidden his sexuality and his colleagues in the civil rights movement never gave him flack about it. But being caught having homosexual sex in public not only put him in jail; it was the blackmail that white supremacists would hold over his head for the rest of his life.

         But even after this event, Bayard didn’t have shame about his sexuality. He was known for his many lovers who admired him for both his good looks and his charismatic personality. In fact, his first partner Davis Platt eventually broke up with him because he was always finding new men in his bed J It wasn’t until the end of his life that he would settle down for ten years with his partner Walter Naegle. So needless to say, Bayard had a lot of “energy”.

         It was his charismatic personality, intelligence, and networking ability that brought him to be hired as the organizer for the March on Washington on August 28, 1963. (This year marks 50 years since the March.) Bayard worked tirelessly to get 100,000 people to attend and his work paid off when over 200,000 people showed up on that historic day. Martin Luther King may have been the face of the March, but Bayard had been the one to really make it happen. And because of what he did for the African American community, his sexuality was irrelevant to all but those who opposed him. The Black Panthers called him a “homosexual pervert” because they opposed his philosophy of nonviolence, not because they cared who he slept with. Bayard took such insults in stride and continued to fearlessly work for social justice for the rest of his life.

         We know that the struggle against racism continues today. Amen? We may have a president of African descent, but that fact does not mean racism has been defeated. A perfect example of this sad fact is an e-mail that was widely distributed by Republican Kansas House Speaker Mike O’Neal this week. The e-mail was a prayer for President Obama’s death using the 109^th Psalm. The text reads, “When he shall be judged, let him be condemned: and let his prayer become sin. Let his days be few; and let another take his office. Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow. Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg: let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places. Let the extortioner catch all that he hath; and let the strangers spoil his labor. Let there be none to extend mercy unto him: neither let there be any to favor his fatherless children.'” This is what this legislator considers “Praying for your enemies.” We know that’s not what Jesus meant by that.

         Many people in our country live in irrational fear. And unfortunately many of these people call themselves Christians. To be Christian is to follow in the Way of Christ, which is the Way of Love. But there is no Love in racism, sexism, or homophobia. There is only fear. ACIM teaches us that the opposite of love is fear. And Christian scriptures tell us that perfect love casts out fear. If we are to heal ourselves and the prejudice of our country, perfect love, unconditional love is the only answer.

         It is this same love at the center of the civil rights movement that is also at the center of the LGBT rights movement. In Bayard Rustin’s own words, “Gay is the new (n-word).” Until her death in 2006, Martin’s wife Coretta Scott King was a follower of Christ and also an ally to the LGBT community. She said in 2004, "I still hear people say that I should not be talking about the rights of lesbian and gay people and I should stick to the issue of racial justice... But I hasten to remind them that Martin Luther King, Jr., said, 'Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere' ... I appeal to everyone who believes in Martin Luther King, Jr.'s dream to make room at the table of brotherhood and sisterhood for lesbian and gay people." She later said, "We have a lot of work to do in our common struggle against bigotry and discrimination. I say 'common struggle,' because I believe very strongly that all forms of bigotry & discrimination are equally wrong and should be opposed by right-thinking Americans everywhere. Freedom from discrimination based on sexual orientation is surely a fundamental human right in any great democracy, as much as freedom from racial, religious, gender, or ethnic discrimination."

         Mrs. King’s message of radical inclusivity reinforces the messages of her late husband and all those who inspired he and Bayard Rustin. This is a common struggle. We need not create a hierarchy of injustice. We need only fight injustice wherever we find it.

         At first, I wondered what today’s Gospel reading had to do with the occasion of MLK’s message and the fight for justice. After all, we most often hear about Jesus turning water into wine through jokes or cartoon strips. When I go to parties, it’s a common joke when the booze runs out that I should make some more from the tap J It can seem like a menial “look what I can do!” magic trick if we don’t look at the details. But in the details of this story lies a profound message: transformation happens and the abundance of this transformation is for ALL.

         I like to think that Jesus was a party man. After all, he did want the guests of the wedding to enjoy themselves, so he provided 120-180 gallons of good wine (apparently he had good taste!... I wonder if it was a white or a red…) But beyond that, he wanted to demonstrate the bounty of God’s abundant grace. From the stone water jars used for Jewish rites of purification came something new and transformed, just as from the Jewish faith came the Way of Christ.

         Out of the stone jars of the Black Civil Rights Movement and the Women’s Rights Movement comes a new and flavorful, thirst-quenching drink: the LGBT Rights Movement. It is not any more or any less relevant or important than the movements that came before it. But it is a movement of our time, and a movement of the holy Spirit of God.

         Like Bayard Rustin, we must have no shame in this fight. We are fighting for our very lives. Hate crimes happen every day. Forty percent of homeless youth are LGBT. HIV infections continue to rise among young gay men. We are not treated equally in the workplace. And churches are still preaching hatred to our next generation. We have work to do, church.

         When you recognize these injustices in New Haven, will you join me in speaking truth to power? (If so, say Yes!) Will you join me in fighting the good fight? Will you ACT UP with me? Will you reach out with a hand of compassion? Will you walk next to me in following in the footsteps of Rustin, King, Gandhi, and Jesus the Christ? Engaged action will be the lifeblood of this church if we are to thrive. Today, we choose to act in the loving justice of God, and so we choose abundant life. What a miracle! Amen.

"Dive Deep!", a Sermonette

“Dive Deep!”

Sermon for MCC New Haven

January 13, 2013

Rev. Brian Hutchison, M.Div.

Texts:

Luke 3:15-16; 21-22

Isaiah 43:1-7

Repeat after me: “I am” … “God’s Beloved Child” … “God” … “is well pleased” … “with me.” Imagine it now in your mind: the sky opens up, the warm presence of the Holy Spirit flows over you, and you hear the voice of God in your mind’s ear say to you. “You are my Child, the Beloved. You make me happy!” Saints do you know what joy God takes in you? Can you comprehend that even when you aren’t at your best, God still sees you with the eyes of a Parent with unconditional love?

Some say that this message was only for Jesus. This message came to him as he was being baptized in the Jordan River. But as we are ALL God’s children, this message is for us too! And some say that this message is just for those who have been baptized formally by the institutional church. But baptized or not, we are still ALL God’s children and this message is for us all. Some say that our sexual orientation or gender identity takes away our status as God’s children. But that is a deadly lie that is in no way the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

After a suicide attempt, MCC’s founder Rev. Troy Perry experienced a reaffirmation of his life. He had lived, though he had slit his wrists in the bathtub. And while lying in a hospital bed, he heard in his mind’s ear the voice of God tell him, “Troy, you are my beloved child! I don’t have stepsons and stepdaughters!” This is the epiphany that ever since has been preached in every MCC around the world. Our queerness does not make us second-class citizens in the Realm of God; rather our queerness gives us a unique calling.

         This calling has to do with the fact that with our very lives, we demonstrate the Gospel by speaking truth to power. We have been and continue to be on the margins of society, viewed as abnormal. But “normal” is a category created by man, not by God (and I do mean "man"!). “Normal” to God is human beings loving each other. When a human loves another, it is a miracle, and miracles are what is “normal” to God. This miracle of love is the only relation God recognizes in our world. All else is an illusion. Only we are tricked by this illusion.

         Holy Baptism is a recognition of a change in heart from fear to love, from the illusion of lack to the reality of abundance. It is not about specific belief. God doesn’t care about the wording. Remember, we created our own languages; God speaks the language of the heart. One chooses as an adult to be baptized if s/he is ready to live in the fullness of Christian life- that is following Christ. It does not mean being a puritan, not ever enjoying the pleasures of life anymore. That is only a stereotype of what it means to be a Christian. To be a Christian, marked by the outer sign of the waters of baptism, is to follow in the Way of Christ, which is the Way of Love.

         Baptism in Christian traditions is a sacrament. A sacrament is an outer sign of an inner reality. So in MCC we have two sacraments: Holy Communion and Holy Baptism. We practice Communion every Sunday and we offer Baptism whenever someone wants to be baptized. Today, we will have the opportunity to both remember our baptisms (for those of us who have been baptized before) and be baptized for the first time. But before we do that, I have to give you some history of what baptism has meant traditionally.

         The five meanings of baptism that are widely known in the mainstream of Christianity are: 1) Forgiveness, 2) Union to Christ’s death and resurrection, 3) Incorporation into the church, 4) Receiving the Holy Spirit, and 5) New birth or regeneration. Going through the act of baptism is not to perform a magical ritual that causes these things to happen. Whether you have a little water sprinkled on your head or you’re dunked, it is always a recognition of something that has already happened in the heart. The baptized is recognizing that she is forgiven of misdeeds, not of her identity. (We affirm in MCC that our identities are not sins and therefore do not need to be forgiven.) The baptized knows what it means to walk through the fires of hell and live. The baptized has a deep desire to be an integral part of Beloved Community. The baptized feels the guidance of the Holy Spirit on his life or wants to feel that guidance. And the baptized is willing to leave negative life patterns behind, embracing instead the positive, loving Way of Christ.

         In the 3rd century Syrian church, female deacons (called deaconesses) were appointed for the baptism of females. This was because of the very intimate nature of baptism.  In that church, the whole body was anointed with oil before baptism.  One did not anoint oneself; a fellow church member of the same sex did it.  Can you imagine stripping down naked in front of your fellow church members as they watch you being covered in oil? Well rest assured, we are not going to do that today. You can do that on your own time if you like :)

         No, today we are here to reaffirm our greatest identity, our identity as Children of the Living God. This is an identity that no one can take away from us, for we are all born with Original Blessing. God’s blessing of the abundance of life is ours today.

Your Epiphany

“Your Epiphany”

Sermon for MCC New Haven

January 6, 2013, 10:00am

Rev. Brian Hutchison, M.Div.

First Reading: Isaiah 60:1-6

Gospel: Matthew 2:1-12

Today, we celebrate a holy day that dates back to the early church. That holy day is called “the Epiphany.” The word epiphany in Greek means “manifestation” or “to show.” So we call this time in the Christian year “epiphany” because we recall how God was made manifest in Jesus and how he was first “shown” to the world. Before Christians began to celebrate Christmas in the fourth century (replacing a pagan holiday recognizing a Roman sun god on December 25^th), Christians celebrated the Epiphany: the birth and baptism of Jesus.

The strange thing about the gospels found in our Bible is that the years between the nativity scene and Jesus’ baptism at nearly thirty years old are missing. We are told of Jesus teaching the elders in the temple at age twelve, but the only other childhood story of Jesus given in the gospel of Matthew is that of the visiting Magi.

In our Christmas hymns and in the nativity scenes we put under our Christmas trees and sometimes on our lawns, two events are shown at once: the birth of Jesus and the visiting Magi. Take note: the Magi are not said to arrive from the East until quite some time after Jesus’ birth. Notice in the text that the Magi do not visit the barn where Jesus was born. They visit Mary (and we assume Joseph) at their house. So there is no cow smell to cover by frankincense and myrrh.

Tradition has filled in many more details than the Bible tells us. Scripture does not include how many Magi there were, only that there were three gifts. Matthew does not name the Magi, though tradition has called them Melchior, Caspar, and Balthazar. Tradition has also called them “kings,” even going as far as to say that they were the kings of Persia, Arabia, and India. From this tradition comes the hymn many of us know, “We three Kings of Orient…” With some words changed, the choir will treat us with this song for the offertory. (Keep in mind, calling Asian people “oriental” in 2013 is like calling people of African Descent “colored.”)

As rich as it can sometimes be, let’s put tradition aside and focus on who these Magi really were and what impact they had on our spiritual ancestors and on our spirituality today. In MCC, we believe that the wisdom of other faiths can help us on our path, the Way of Christ. So let’s learn about another faith today and let our souls be fed.

History tells us that those called Magi in Jesus’ time belonged to a particular religion: Zoroastrianism. Since five hundred or so years before Jesus was born, until today, Zoroastrians have followed the teachings of their prophet: Zoroaster (or more accurately Zarathustra). Zarathustra was born in what is now Iran and was a priest in their religion that worshipped many gods. Some of those gods were good and others were evil. In a sort of epiphany or “aha” moment, Zarathustra came to the conclusion that there is only one good God named Ahura Mazda, but there is also an evil god Angra Mainyu, who seeks to destroy and cause chaos.

The purpose of life for Zoroastrians (also called Magians) is to “refresh” the world with good, opposing all evil. They do so through “good thought, good word, and good deed.” Doing so is said to add to the power of the one good God. Zoroastrians worship around a fire or facing the sun, as the good God is represented by light and the evil god is represented by darkness.

It sounds a lot like our own Christian faith, doesn’t it? We could easily claim that the wise teaching of “good thought, good word, and good deed” is Christian. After all, such things are what a Christ-like existence is made of. And like the Jewish faith that Jesus followed, Zoroastrians believe in one God, Creator of the Universe, who is good. The difference is, Judaism has never personified evil. It seems Christianity got that idea from Zoroaster, along with much more.

So the belated baby shower scene we told in the legend found in Matthew represents so much more than just bringing gifts from afar. It has to do with the interconnectedness of our faiths. And it also has a lesson to teach us, one about seeking and finding.

It makes perfect sense in the Magi legend that they would follow a star. Stars are after all sources of light and the Magi believed that light came from God. In a town called Chak Chak in Iran, an eternal flame burns in the Zoroastrian temple that is said to have been started 2500 years ago by the prophet Zarathustra himself. Zoroastrians have kept that flame alive all that time by feeding the fire daily. It is the center of their worship. It is possible that the same flame that burns today is the flame the Magi left from to follow the star to Bethlehem.

What we are not told in our scriptures is that their empire, the Parthian Empire, stood in opposition to the Roman Empire that ruled over Palestine. So it was a dangerous act for the Magi to tell the hybrid Roman/Jewish King Herod that they were looking for the next King of the Jews. Herod killed most of his own family because he suspected they were trying to take the throne from him. So news of a possible new king being born would have enraged him. But the Magi took the trip regardless of the danger, bringing not only physical gifts, but gifts of wisdom from their tradition.

This brings up the question for us to day, what is it that we seek? Happiness? Power? Peace? Wisdom? What drives you day in and day out to get out of bed in the morning and go about your day? With the dangers of the world out there, what star shines in the heavens to lead you forward?

Some Christian ethicists have claimed that the aim of our faith is happiness. Not just the emotion, but also a life of happiness. And the purpose of practicing our faith is to help others to live happily, and in doing so we make ourselves happy. One of my favorite spiritual teachers Marianne Williamson asks the question, “Would you rather feel in control or be happy?” I know that question strikes at the root of my heart and mind. Especially in a world when we too often feel out of control, our first instinct is often to grab onto control, to be controlling. Marianne tells us, the solution to our fears is not to grab for control, but rather hand over control to God. Through us, God will work it all out. Let go, and let God, so to speak

Do you want to be happy? Don’t try to manipulate life until you are happy. Ask God to remove the barriers to your happiness. Do you want to be a shining star, a beacon of hope in the world? Don’t do everything in your power to get attention. Ask God to shine through you. You are the stained glass window. God is the Light. Do you want a life full of love? Don’t grip tightly to people that come into your life. Ask God to bless every relationship you have and to remove barriers to love in your life.

A star was shining in Bethlehem, church. Like the pillar of fire that led the Israelites through the darkness of the desert by night to the Land of Deliverance, the star led the Magi through the darkness of the desert by night to the child Jesus, whose name, Yeshua, means “Deliverance.” Your personal deliverance is near, friends. It may not feel like it at times. When our government passes legislation that is bad for the majority of Americans, especially the poor, we feel like we’re in the darkness of the desert. When school shootings happen, we feel the soreness of our legs from walking so far. When governments around the world fight to keep same gender love illegal, we have trouble catching our breath from the difficulty of the journey. When we see poverty and disease around us every day, we want to just collapse in the sand and give up.

But… the star still shines. It stopped shining over Bethlehem long ago, but it still shines- from within you. When you practice those ancient tenants of the Zoroastrian faith that we can claim as our own too: Good Thought, Good Word, and Good Deed, your light shines! Keep your thoughts, words, and deeds positive and you WILL be led through the darkness of the desert.

The prophet Isaiah speaks to all of us today through the ages. Hear his words from The Message translation:

1 "Get out of bed! Wake up! Put your face in the sunlight. God's bright glory has risen for you. 2 The whole earth is wrapped in darkness, all people sunk in deep darkness, But God rises on you, [God’s] sunrise glory breaks over you. 3 Nations will come to your light, [rulers] to your sunburst brightness. 4 Look up! Look around! Watch as they gather, watch as they approach you... 5 When you see them coming you'll smile - big smiles! Your heart will swell and, yes, burst!”

MCC, shine for the world to see! Be a beacon in the perceived darkness in the world, proclaiming God’s unconditional love for ALL. Be the Epiphany. Do not be afraid, for you are never alone. The Light of God is your strength and your guide. Amen.