Subversive Protest

“Subversive Protest”

Sermon for MCC New Haven

March 29, 2015

Rev. Brian Hutchison, M.Div.

Texts:

Mark 11:1-11

Mark 14:1-15:47

         Who doesn’t love a parade? It’s a time when we can see all the local organizations and businesses that do good for our community marching down the street together. We have a huge St. Patrick’s Day parade here in New Haven every year. One could view the parade as a celebration of Irish pride, but it often just becomes an excuse to drink in the morning. Unfortunately, LGBT pride parades too often seem like the same. Don’t get me wrong- I love a good party. But we should never forget that our U.S. pride parades started with protest marches just a few decades ago. We can never forget the sacrifice that LGBT people made by showing their faces in Gay Liberation assemblies in a time when they could be put in jail and fired from their jobs for being gay or trans. And even today, LGBT people around the world face the fear of death for participating in LGBT pride events.

Today’s LGBT pride parades are often criticized for being overly sexual or perpetuating stereotypes. Even I have said at times that we should drop the colorful beads and streamers and pick up picket signs until we have full equality. But there must be a balance to life, a “Middle Way” as the Buddha would say. The middle way is a queer mix of celebration and protest. In the LGBT community, we have both separately. We protest for our rights and we celebrate the diversity of our community through parades. We walk down the center of our towns and cities with our queer siblings, not to “rub it in people’s faces” or to “recruit” as some accuse us of, but rather to remind the world that we are still here, that we matter, that we contribute greatly to the betterment of society, and we deserve equal rights. That’s it- no more, no less.

         Jesus’ brief ride into Jerusalem was a queer mix of protest and parade. He was parading in with a theatrical demonstration of humility. As theologian John Dominic Crossan describes it, in mockery of the Roman Pontius Pilate who was possibly entering Jerusalem on a warhorse on the West end of the city, Jesus rode in on a borrowed donkey. While Ego rode in with armed soldiers and gold emblems lifted high in praise of the Empire, Love Incarnate rode in with shouts of “save us!” from the poor and the outcast who threw their tattered and torn garments beneath him.

         There is a terrible misconception about this scene in scripture. The misconception is that the word “hosanna” means “praise God,” as the word “hallelujah” does. No, “hosanna” means “help, save!” These people were suffering terribly under the oppression of the Roman Empire. They were overtaxed, overworked, restricted in rights, and unfairly punished. The Romans kept the Jewish people in constant fear by leaving a row of crucified bodies just outside of the city walls. Jesus surely saw that carnage as he entered the city and could predict what was in store for him. But he proceeded anyway, because as Love Incarnate, his call was to nonviolent resistance of oppressive power.

         Jesus didn’t go easily. It took a lot of chutzpa to enter the city in protest as he did. How he avoided immediate arrest is unbelievable. But Mark tells us that Jesus turned over the moneychangers’ tables, and then taught within the city against the misdeeds of the religious leaders in their neglect of the marginalized.

         This kind of protest was relived in 1965 when Civil Rights leaders led a protest from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, seeking voting rights. “King had won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, and his higher profile would help draw international attention to Selma during the eventful months that followed. On February 18, white segregationists attacked a group of peaceful demonstrators in the nearby town of Marion. In the ensuing chaos, an Alabama state trooper fatally shot Jimmie Lee Jackson, a young African-American demonstrator. In response to Jackson’s death, King and the SCLC planned a massive protest march from Selma to the state capitol of Montgomery, 54 miles away. A group of 600 people set out on Sunday, March 7, but didn’t get far before Alabama state troopers wielding whips, nightsticks and tear gas rushed the group at the Edmund Pettis Bridge and beat them back to Selma. The brutal scene was captured on television, enraging many Americans and drawing civil rights and religious leaders of all faiths to Selma in protest.

King himself led another attempt on March 9, but turned the marchers around when state troopers again blocked the road. That night, a group of segregationists beat another protester, the young white minister James Reeb, to death. Alabama state officials (led by Wallace) tried to prevent the march from going forward, but a U.S. district court judge ordered them to permit it. President Lyndon Johnson also backed the marchers, going on national television to pledge his support and lobby for passage of new voting rights legislation he was introducing in Congress. Some 2,000 people set out from Selma on March 21, protected by U.S. Army troops and Alabama National Guard forces that Johnson had ordered under federal control. After walking some 12 hours a day and sleeping in fields along the way, they reached Montgomery on March 25.

Nearly 50,000 supporters–black and white–met the marchers in Montgomery, where they gathered in front of the state capitol to hear King and other speakers including Ralph Bunche (winner of the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize) address the crowd. “No tide of racism can stop us,” King proclaimed from the building’s steps, as viewers from around the world watched the historic moment on television” (History.com).

This month, for the 50^th anniversary of the march, many of the original Civil Rights leaders joined thousands of people to march once again across the Edmund Pettis Bridge. It was a reminder to the world that freedom and equality have not yet been fully realized here. Racial discrimination has been against the law since the 1960s, but the law did not end racism. We still have a long way to go.

         This past week, we witnessed the passing of a so-called “Religious Freedom” bill in Indiana. This bill was a wolf in sheep’s clothing, but we did not fall for the trick. The proponents of this bill argued that businesses should have the right to discriminate against LGBT people, based on religious grounds. The bill passed and the governor signed it, but not without protest and consequences. LGBT leaders around the country are now calling for a boycott of Indiana. We will not hold conferences there, buy products made there, or visit there. Several large companies have already canceled events in Indiana. The “queer dollar” is powerful and we should not be ashamed to use it wisely. Bigots must be shown that they cannot discriminate against us without consequences. Some say that doing so is bullying. But I care to differ. Our spiritual ancestors demonstrated non-violent protest and we follow in their footsteps by doing the same. Today, we wave our proverbial palm branches in the streets of Indiana, shouting “Help us, God! Save us from oppression!”

Jesus’ counter-cultural actions of Holy Week did not stop at his protest march into Jerusalem. According to the Gospel of John, Jesus acted very scandalously when he got down on the ground as a slave or a woman in that time, and washed the disciples’ feet as a demonstration of what God’s love looks like in action. Jesus queered the hierarchy of power of his time in any way he could. In the words of the Apostle Paul, (Galatians 3:28), “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.” In his final days, Jesus broke down societal boundaries by demonstrating with his male body what it meant to give up male privilege, what it meant to be humble by looking with pure love into the eyes of the sick, the poor, and those condemned as “sinful.” In contrast to society, Jesus affirmed their sacred worth as blessed children of God.

Many begged Jesus to save the Jewish people by overthrowing the government. But Jesus knew that’s not why he was there. He was there to transform lives, to establish a counter-reign, the Reign of God or Kin-dom of Heaven. We call Jesus “the Christ,” “the Anointed One,” and “Messiah.” These are not titles of a far-off deity sitting on a cloud, waiting to end the world. No, these titles tell us of a subversive carpenter who embodied the call of the Divine to give up Ego completely and instead show his world the greatest possibilities of humanity. I am a follower of Jesus Christ, not for afterlife fire insurance, but because I see in Yeshua of Nazareth the depth of the human experience lived out fully. In a short three years, Jesus gave Life his all, and while he lost his own life, he gave Life to countless others. His words and Spirit still give us life 2000 years later.

We know of modern prophets that followed very similarly in the footsteps of Jesus. After decades of serving the poor and demonstrating nonviolent resistance against the British Indian Empire, Mohandas Gandhi was assassinated by shooting in 1948. The icon of the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S., Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. followed in the way of Jesus and of Gandhi in using nonviolent resistance against police who defended Jim Crow laws. After his own sort of march into Jerusalem (the March on Washington in 1963), King was also assassinated in 1968 in Memphis, TN. Also, openly gay City of San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk led protest after protest for gay rights in the 1970s. He too was assassinated in 1978. We also remember that in 1998, gay college student Matthew Shepherd was beaten and left to die on a wooden fence, a scene eerily similar to crucifixion. But Matthew is only one of thousands in the US and around the world who have been crucified by the bigots of our world. The truth is that Matthew’s murder became well known because he was the image of privilege in this country: a white male. So we in MCC choose to never forget the countless others who dared to be themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people of color whose lives were ended much too soon by hatred and violence.

At the end of the road to the Cross, at Calvary, we stand with the tearful women and men who loved Jesus as his family. And as if we were there, we look up and see the reflection of our own suffering there with him. We see the Christ covered in Kaposi’s Sarcoma sores, body wasted from battling AIDS. We see the Christa, bald from chemotherapy, breasts removed by mastectomy. We see the Christ Child, dying of starvation. We see the Christ full of bullet wounds, or wrists slit, or victim of so-called “legitimate rape.” Why do we see these things at the Cross? Because in the words of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew (25:45), “Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for the least of these my sisters and brothers, you did not do for me.”

What the life and death of Jesus, Gandhi, King, Milk, and others teach us is that freedom is costly. Each of those great prophets knew that their own lives were at stake. But for the holy purpose of peace and justice to which they were called, they faced the Empires of their day and gave up their lives that others may live. May it never be misunderstood: Divine Love never desired any of them to suffer or die as they did. But since God has no body but ours, it is our life’s meaning and purpose to fulfill the Reign of Love in our time and place.

I believe that the Cosmic Christ stands with us, working in whatever ways possible to manifest justice and peace. So whenever you see injustice at work, allow Christ to lead you into holy protest.

I pray each one of you have a blessed and prayerful Holy Week. Remember, it is not a time of intentional sadness, but it is a time to mourn what has been lost so that come Easter morning, we can fully embrace the power of resurrection. And so it is. Amen.

Ego Death

-->

Ego Death

Sermon for MCC New Haven

March 22, 2015

Rev. Brian Hutchison, M.Div.

Jeremiah 31:31-24

John 12:20-33

As the weeks of Lent pass by, we get closer and closer to Holy Week. Next Sunday is Palm Sunday when we remember Jesus entering triumphantly into Jerusalem on a donkey, mocking Roman authority. We will remember Holy Thursday when Jesus breaks bread with his disciples and washes their feet in an act of complete humility. We will remember Good Friday when officials of the Roman Empire executed Jesus publicly because they saw him as a threat to their rule. And then we will finally celebrate Easter Sunday when Jesus’ family of choice finds his tomb empty, that Jesus has transformed from body to Eternal Spirit, the Risen Christ.

In the Gospel reading from John that we hear today, Jesus seems to know his fate. He had just resurrected Lazarus from the dead- the one he loved so dearly. Word had spread widely about what he had done, so many flocked to him. John wrote that some Greeks wanted to see him. Remember how Jesus had told Philip and Andrew to “Come and see” when Jesus first recruited them. Perhaps these pagan Greeks wanted to become disciples of Jesus. But they did not know what they would have to give up in order to follow him.

Jesus tells them that like a seed planted in the ground, he must die. But then like a sprout of wheat, he will be transformed to bear abundant fruit. He also says that when he is “lifted up,” he will draw everyone to himself. We can look forward in the story and take Jesus’ words at face value as a prediction of events to come: the Resurrection and the Ascension. But there is a much deeper meaning here that has to do with the individual and communal lives of us all.

All of us go through life transformations. Some of us come out as LGBT or as allies of the Queer community like Lazarus from the stinky tomb. Some of us enter relationships and may get married. Others leave relationships and divorce. Some of us give birth to or adopt children. We gain and lose friends throughout our lives. People we love die. We face health challenges. We move to different places and may buy a house. We retire and face the challenges of old age. All of these things are the substance of life. They are all part of a birth, death, and rebirth process. After a loss, we grieve, and then we are reborn stronger on the other side of the valley. In Eastern religions such as Hinduism, the cycles of life continue through reincarnation. And in Christianity, we affirm that when our physical bodies die, our spirits are reborn into Eternal Life. Life is cyclical. It is a great and wondrous circle. In the life of God, you and I have always existed and we will always exist. Death is but an illusion.

ACIM says, “In time we exist for and with each other. In Timelessness we coexist with God.” We are afraid to die because our brains only remember back to our childhood. We don’t often remember existing before birth. As a small child, I remember sitting in my favorite spot under the record player in the dining room. There was a space where my four-year-old body could barely fit. But I would sit in there and do what I would now consider meditation. Nobody taught me to do this; it just came naturally. It was in those moments that I felt complete inner peace and joy. I felt that I could remember in my spirit being with God before entering my physical body. Even though I could no longer see God, I knew in those holy moments that God was still with me.

Remember that Jesus said, “Whoever serves me must follow me. Wherever I am, there my servant will also be.” This doesn’t just mean that if we believe in Jesus, we will go to heaven when we die. It also means that even in this very moment, the Spirit of Christ is with us. In our darkest moments of despair and rage, Spirit is with us. In our times of great celebration, Christ parties with us. In our times of waiting on life to move forward, God paces back and forth with us. Through all the cycles of life in this world and the next, we are never alone.

Sometimes we do feel alone though. Especially the socially marginalized feel loneliness. LGBT youth commit suicide at alarmingly higher rates than their peers. The mentally ill are cast out on the streets to lives of fending for their lives. Even though Jim Crow signs saying “Whites Only” have long been taken down from public spaces, people of color are still made to not feel welcome in many places. Loneliness is a pandemic- one that requires great healing.

This is where our work begins. Since 1968, Metropolitan Community Churches have provided a sense of community for LGBT folks who had nowhere to fit in. We should not take that for granted. Our churches have saved countless lives from physical death and spiritual harm. That is why we continue to meet here in New Haven, even though we are a relatively small group. What we do matters. Preaching the Gospel of the Unconditional Love of God is life-changing work that we will continue to do as long as we can.

The remedy for devastating loneliness is found in today’s scripture. Jesus says in all of the Gospels, “Those who love their lives will lose them, and those who hate their lives in this world will keep them forever.” Now don’t misunderstand- Jesus is not telling us to live miserable lives with no pleasure or joy. To find the deeper meaning, we look to the Greek word translated here as “life.” The word is “psyche.” We know this word as it is used today in psychology. But at the time the Gospels were written, it meant “spirit.” Your psyche is your life essence, what your personality is made of.

So with that understanding, what is Jesus demanding of us to follow him? I identify the psyche in two parts: the ego false self and the beloved true self. Plato originally defined it this way. This is also the way ACIM defines the self. According to these sources, God did not create the ego; rather we create the ego out of fear. We perceive a scary and dangerous world that can damage our spirits, so we build up the ego as a defense. I believe that as a child, I stopped sitting under the record player to commune with God when I chose to form an ego instead. I bet you did the same. The true self is what God created within us and it cannot be destroyed, though it can be hidden.

Jesus tells us that we cannot hold onto our egos if we want to follow him. We cannot live in fear, guilt, shame, hatred, or selfishness if we want to be God’s friend. God will delete the ego’s friend request! But a friend request from the true self is not even needed, because it has been a part of God for Eternity.

Toltec Spiritual Teacher Don Miguel Ruiz tells this story: A Native American grandfather was speaking to his grandson about violence and cruelty in the world and how it comes about. He said it was as if two wolves were fighting in his heart. One wolf was vengeful, resentful, and angry, and the other wolf was understanding and kind. The young man asked his father which wolf would win the fight in his heart. And his grandfather answered, “The one that will win will be the one I choose to feed.” The bad wolf is the ego and the good wolf is the true self. Could you imagine the kind of transformation the world would go through if we all chose to feed the good wolf?

But we all know the ego does not die easily. We have lived with our egos our whole lives and we have come to befriend them because we think they protect us. They’re like those friends we know we shouldn’t associate with because they are a bad influence but we keep them around anyway. So how can the ego die? Certainly not from attacking it because the ego will just play victim. Not through exorcism as some traditions attempt to do because of the false belief that a demon has entered a person. The answer is simple, but complex: Put complete trust in God.

Various spiritual traditions describe the moment of trusting God in different ways. Roman Catholics might call it mystical communion with God or transcendence through prayer. Evangelical Christians call it “getting saved” by accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior and rejecting Satan. Jewish practitioners of Kabbalah call it relationship with Infinity (Ein Sof). Buddhists call it Enlightenment through meditation and letting go of attachment to the world. Sufis in Islam call it “repairing the heart” through doing a meditative whirling dance. New Thought practitioners like myself call it Metaphysics- contemplating reality versus non-reality. Whatever you call it, this different way of being in the world is rooted in the absolute trust in the God of your understanding.

I intentionally chose “I Surrender All” for us to sing today because the song demonstrates what is required for us to ascend to new heights in life. We must surrender all of our fears, regrets, and grudges in order to fully commune with God. We should keep driving our own lives, but must also trust Jesus to take the wheel. Giving our lives to God is not just an evangelical thing. Finding ourselves within the Life of God is what it means to follow Jesus.

One of the best ways to commune with God is to commune with the most marginalized in society. Remember that Matthew 25:40 says, “Whatever you did for the least of these my siblings, you did it unto me.” So share a meal with a homeless person. Tell a fearful LGBT youth how to join community where they will be fully accepted and celebrated. Affirm a transgender person in their transition process. Vote for immigration reform that will welcome the stranger. Humble yourself by making a donation to the church or to a charity. All of these actions cultivate Christ-Consciousness instead of ego-unconsciousness.

Philosophers and theologians have debated for millennia on how to kill the ego. Some in the 1960s tried to do so through use of LSD. They felt separated from the ego and on some plane at one with All Life, but when the high ended, the ego was still there. No drug or pill can reduce the ego. And nothing you can do can kill it in an instant. Salvation from the ego is a life-long process, from one moment to the next.

But thank God, we are never alone on the journey. As the voice of God said through the voice of the prophet Jeremiah, “I will put my Instructions within them and engrave them on their hearts. I will be their God and they will be my people.” We are indeed God’s beautiful Queer people- saving each other from loneliness and despair, and communing with God at greater heights each and every day. May the dead seed of your ego sprout into a magnificent plant that bears much fruit. And so it is. Amen.

Follow That Star

Follow That Star

Sermon for MCC New Haven

January 4, 2015

Rev. Brian Hutchison, M.Div.

Isaiah 60:1-6

Matthew 2:1-12

A talking cricket once sang for a puppet that had a terrible problem with telling the truth…

“When you wish upon a star
Makes no difference who you are
Anything your heart desires
Will come to you

If your heart is in your dream
No request is too extreme
When you wish upon a star
As dreamers do

Fate is kind
She brings to those who love
The sweet fulfillment of
Their secret longing

Like a bolt out of the blue
Fate steps in and sees you through
When you wish upon a star
Your dreams come true.”

         As the Gospel of Matthew tells the legend, a group of Persian astronomers, priests in the Zoroastrian religion, were studying the stars and noticed something peculiar: a particular star rising in the East and setting in the West. Certainly they knew all of the constellations by heart, so a difference in the star pattern had meaning to them. So, like you do, they set out with gifts to give to the new king of a culture completely foreign to them- the Jewish people. It would have been over 1000 miles to travel between Iran (then called Persia) and Bethlehem. Matthew doesn’t say they rode on camels; that’s just legend. The image of three kings on camels has been engrained in our minds from greeting cards. But they were not said to be kings or have camels, and just because there were three gifts does not mean there were three men; there could have been two or eight. They were rather said to be Zoroastrian priests who traveled a long way… and for what? Apparently just to give gifts to a baby and to worship him.

         I don’t know about you, but it sounds pretty far-fetched. Why would priests from one religion travel so far? It would not be completely out of the question for people to travel throughout the Near East for trading purposes. And throughout the ages, people have seen comets and other differences in the sky that they wanted to put meaning to. But that is not the point Matthew was trying to make and once again, truths do not necessarily come from facts.

         Christian scholars tend to agree that Matthew was attempting in telling this story to show that from the very beginning of Jesus’ life, the gospel message was not just for the Jews. It was rather for the whole world. Evangelicals often interpret Matthew’s message as saying that everyone in the world needs to be “saved” by confessing faith in Jesus as the one and only savior of the world. But Matthew never gives us a confession of faith from the Magi. The simply travel, avoid dealing with the malicious King Herod, give Jesus expensive gifts, venerate him, and go home. Matthew could have had them say something like the Roman Centurion did after Jesus’ crucifixion “Surely this was the Son of God” (Matthew 27:54). But no, the only voice the Magi are given is asking where they can find the newborn King of the Jews.

         The Magi did not know the God of the Jews. They worshipped a good god named Ahura Mazda and they feared a second evil god named Angra Mainyu. It sounds kind of like fundamentalist Christianity today doesn’t it? Worship Father God and fight Satan (in Hebrew ha-satan “The Accuser”). If Persians brought anything from to the East to Jesus, it was an idea: the idea that the Supreme God was ultimately good, unlike what people today sometimes call the “Wrathful Old Testament God.” God didn’t change, but ideas about God did. A wrathful God was not good enough for Jesus, and it’s not good enough for me either.

         Today is called “Epiphany Sunday” in the Christian tradition. Epiphany from ancient Greek means “manifestation” or “striking appearance.” In the Eastern Church, it is called “Theophany,” meaning “vision of God.” These titles teach Christians that Jesus’ appearance in the world was not ordinary, that it was truly seeing God in the flesh, Emmanuel. As the Gospel of John says, “And the Word (Logos/Wisdom/Sophia) was made flesh and dwelt among us…” (John 1:14). If people had not seen God through Jesus of Nazareth, he would have just been another Jewish peasant whom history would not remember. But people did indeed experience Jesus as the Anointed One who would somehow deliver them from despair and degradation.

         And isn’t that why we are all here today? Either you have heard about Jesus and how he allowed God to work through him and wonder how he might work in your life, or you can give testimony to the ways that the Living Christ has worked in your life.

         As a child, I used to watch The Wonderful World of Disney and on many occasions, I would sing along to Jiminy Cricket singing “When You Wish Upon A Star.” I remember asking my mom if wishing upon a star really worked. She said, “You won’t know unless you try.” So with the patience of Job, I wished upon stars night after night for a better life. With the innocence of a child, I believed that my dreams could come true.

         As an adult Christian, I don’t wish upon stars. Rather, I pray to God that the deepest desires of my heart will come to be. One of the most popular Christian prayers today is called the Prayer of Jabez from 1 Chronicles 4:10 (NIV): “Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, "Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain." And God granted his request.” I would like to believe that it’s that easy.

Even Jesus said in Matthew 7:7, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” But Jesus was not saying that God is a genie in a lamp. Just because you’re a Christian doesn’t mean you can ask God for a new car and it will show up at your front door. Ellen Degeneres might do that, but God wants something greater for you. In the midst of whatever you are facing in life, God wants you to focus on the Good.

Allegorically, the Magi were seekers of Truth. They sought to expand the horizons of their spiritual understanding. And after a long journey, they found a child that radiated the presence of God. It sometimes takes us many days, months, or even years to find a spiritual epiphany, but they do happen! You could come to church every Sunday for years and not really “get” the Good News of God’s unconditional Love. Just because you hear it doesn’t mean you will receive it. But then one day, maybe your heart is broken open enough for you to finally realize, “Wow, I am a beautiful child of God, made in God’s image, blessed to be a blessing!” Maybe you’ll finally realize, “My God- I really am essentially good even though sometimes I do bad things!” Or maybe, just maybe you’ll have the “aha moment” that “I am not the ego I have created. I am really a perfect, whole, and complete being.”

Each of us desires things at the depth of our beings. But we too often want them on our own terms. We expect blessings to show up in ways that we dream up in our minds. But that’s not how God works. God promises that we will be blessed, as we are a blessing in the world. But we don’t understand the value of blessings. The Magi brought some pretty expensive gifts. They didn’t receive in return more of the same. Instead, they received the invaluable experience of an encounter with the holy. And isn’t a transformative spiritual experience worth so much more than gold?

We all want a lot of the same things: enough money to pay the bills and to have some fun with, health of body and mind, and good friends and family. But if you don’t make the journey, you won’t arrive at your place of blessing. It is through the journey that you come to many epiphanies about what needs to change for the better in your life. It is the journey that allows you to leave excess baggage in the desert. Maybe you’ll do some trading with other wanderers.

But you will arrive at your destination if you do the work. You have to be prepared before you find what you have been looking for. On the journey, follow that star! As Dr. King said with such profound encouragement: Keep your eyes on the prize. And when you least expect it, when you’ve almost given up, God will blow your mind. May it be so. Amen.