Unshakable Wholeness

“Unshakable Wholeness”

Sermon for MCC New Haven (CT)

Rev. Brian Hutchison, M.Div.

October 28, 2012

 

Texts:

Mark 10:46-52

Psalm 34:1-8

         Good morning MCC! Before I jump into the sermon, I want to first introduce myself for all those I have not yet gotten to speak with this weekend. I am Rev. Brian Hutchison and I am an ordained minister in MCC. I currently live with my husband of six years James in Fort Lauderdale, Florida where I am a staff minister at Sunshine Cathedral MCC. Before moving to Florida, James and I lived in Maryland where I was pastor of New Covenant MCC in Laurel, MD. Before that, I was a clergy intern at MCC San Francisco (CA) and a hospital chaplain intern for CPMC in San Francisco while I completed my Master of Divinity degree at Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, CA. Before professional ministry, I was involved with MCC Washington DC where I was a devoted member of the Gospel Choir (I love gospel music!) while I worked on my Bachelor’s degree in Psychology. So needless to say, I have had time to grow within MCC and I am proud to call myself MCC clergy.

         As a minister, I bring my own unique gifts and talents that I am happy to share wherever I go. As I mentioned, I am a singer and love the power of music. I also believe in the power of ritual and its deep meaning in the human experience. And so I enjoy creating meaningful rituals that help individuals and congregations move from sorrow to joy, heartache to fullness of heart, and from woundedness to wholeness.

         And this is where I see the Gospel meet our experience today. Are you ready for some Good News church? (Yes!) Mark brings us some good news today. In the gospel text we heard today, Jesus and the disciples are walking either from or to Jericho (the translation is a bit ambiguous). Within the first five words of this text, a biblical image comes to mind. Remember in the 6^th chapter of Joshua when Joshua leads the Israelites in a march around the city of Jericho until the walls fall down. Then they kill all the men, women, and children in the city because they were different… which of course was the most loving thing to do…  But the thing in this text that comes most to my attention as an advocate for the oppressed and those on the margins of society is that God commanded that the prostitute Rahab and her family were to be spared because they had given refuge to the Israelites.

         We cannot overlook that in the genealogy of Jesus found in the first chapter of Matthew, Rahab the prostitute is listed there. The gospel writers followed in the Way of Jesus by themselves advocating for the marginalized. And this great gem is found in the first few words of this text.

         But it gets better folks! Our storyteller Mark tells us that this blind beggar named Bartimaeus (son of Timaeus) was sitting by the road. Now let’s pause here again for a minute. The name Timaeus means “honor” or “honorable.” And since the prefix “bar” means “son of,” we come to an idea of what Mark is trying to tell us. Bartimaeus was the son of honor, but what was he himself? All we are told is that he is a blind beggar, and in the Ancient Near East, those with such a disability and misfortune were viewed as sinful. In their understanding of justice, this man must have done something wrong in order to become blind. Bartimaeus’ father was called Honor, so his name might as well have been Shame.

         And so here comes the Rabbi Jesus and his followers down the road. And in their arrogance, they hush Bartimaeus for calling on Jesus to have mercy on him. In the tradition of the Spirituals, I can almost hear him sing, “O Lord have mercy on me!” They attempt to silence him. How many times has the popular crowd or the majority tried to silence us as a community? Fundamentalist Christians even ask God to keep us quiet because we must be terrible sinners. But we see from Jesus’ answer that we will not and cannot be silenced.

         Jesus then calls Bartimaeus to come to him. So he throws his clothes off (amen?), jumps up, and went straight to his great opportunity for healing. He says, “Rabbi, I want to see again.” But let’s stop here again and for a minute, let’s assess our assumptions. We readily assume that Bartimaeus wants to physically see. In hearing the miracle stories, they make us wonder whether there was an “age of miracles” (as some say) that we are just living too late to get in on. We know that many of us face illness, but we cannot pray it away. Begging God to take away disease has been proven ineffective. This isn’t because God is merciless, but rather because finitude is simply part of our existence.

         But what I do know is that miracles do happen. According to A Course in Miracles, “Miracles are natural. When they do not occur, something has gone wrong.” In the teachings of The Course, a miracle does not have to do with a supernatural occurrence, but it rather has to do with a change in perception, a change in our vision so to speak. The miracle is a choice of love over fear.

         I think that in this story, Mark is trying to teach us about the way we see the world. Bartimaeus wanted desperately to escape a worldview that told him that he was “less-than”- less than human, less than lovable, less than a child of God. And Jesus brought this beloved child Good News: Your faith has made you well. At once, a shift in perception allowed Bartimaeus to shed the identity that had been given him, one of shame. In its place, he took on an identity of faith, especially faith in himself.

         How many of us sit by the side of the road waiting for Good News to come our way, hoping for the right thing to be said to us so that we can finally move on with our lives? Waiting for that person to apologize or for someone else to make it right. Friends, if any of you sit in that place of shame, know that you do not have to wait any longer. Jesus has already spoken the words, not just to Bartimaeus, but to you: Go, your faith has made you well!

         I know all the excuses for staying in that place of shame. I’ve been there myself.  “I don’t deserve wholeness,” or “At least in my shame I am in control,” or “I don’t know any other existence.”  Between the lines of Scripture, Bartimaeus may have said these things. But I can see Jesus just smile with unconditional love, and speaking those simple words that helped Bartimaeus to awaken from the terrible nightmare he was living in.

         19^th Century New Thought teachers Malinda Cramer and Fannie Brooks James wrote this, “Being whole must be our realization. We unfold health eternal. The individual, as an expression of the universal Life, can be only what that Life is. The Infinite created us out of its own health; healing is the awareness of that health as our nature.”  In other words, since God is Wholeness and we are made in the image and likeness of God in Original Blessing, then we are by definition whole as well. All around us may tell us otherwise, but the Divine Light within will always repeat the truth with each beat of our hearts: You are whole, you are whole, you are whole.

         Can you believe that, MCC? After all that you have gone through, after the stress and the pain, you are not broken. You are in fact perfect, whole, and complete just as you are. There is no need to compare ourselves to each other or to say that we are better than other groups of people because in the deepest parts of our humanity, we are ALL perfectly whole.

         If in this moment, this is difficult to accept or to understand, look to the Psalm that we heard today. The psalmist gives testimony to how s/he was saved. The psalmist writes, “God freed me from all my fears” and “God saves the helpless from their troubles.” And finally, “Happy are those who take refuge in God.”  In the same way, MCC Doctrine tells us that we are saved from loneliness, degradation, and despair. All it takes is a mind-shift from fear to love, from fear to the God that we know as Divine Love, from un-consciousness to Christ-consciousness. We have the power to not only set ourselves free, but through our loving word and touch set others free as well.

         Saints, the Good News today is that there is another Way. Oppressive and fearful systems and ideologies in our world do not have to have the last word. We have the choice. And with that choice, we can truly choose exactly what we are looking for: the peace of God that passes all understanding and joy that leads to dancing. Amen.

Unlikely Children of God

“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.

Purity of Heart, Not Puritanism

Philippians 2:14-16 (GNB) "14 Do everything without complaining or arguing, 15 so that you may be innocent and pure as God's perfect children, who live in a world of corrupt and [unloving] people. You must shine among them like stars lighting up the sky, 16 as you offer them the message of life."

A point I often struggle with in my writing and preaching concerns "purity of heart" vs "puritanism." The word "pure" may evoke strong images of up-tight ultra-religious people who refuse to have any fun. I rather view purity as releasing unloving thought and action from ourselves. This release has nothing to do with judging ourselves harshly or punishing ourselves for past unloving action. This release rather has to do with growing up spiritually by choosing Love over ego.  It's one of the hardest things to do, as ego gives us a false sense of control; and in a fearful world, security becomes our primary concern. True courage is shown in our ability to choose loving action over "being right." In practicing release of ego, ask yourself often, "Would you rather be right or be happy?"

Sexism is the Root of Homophobia

Historically in the Western world, male bodies have been revered as dominant, stable, and honorable. Female bodies have been treated as objects, property, unpredictable, and messy. Though the rigid ancient social hierarchy is long gone, its remnants remain. Women are still viewed as objects in popular culture. Men are still the "untouchable" unless seduced into being touched. Women are permitted to dress "sexier," not just because of the benefits of the sexual revolution, but because we still hold to the notion that women are to be objects of male gaze. As these norms are slowly changing to a more egalitarian sexual freedom, those who still hold to the hierarchy feel threatened and pull the "morality" or "values" card. Sexism/misogyny is at the heart of current culture wars. Same-gender-loving relationships threaten social conservatives precisely because we dismiss any notion of inequality between the sexes.

For Integrity's Sake

“For Integrity’s Sake”

Sermon for Celebration MCC; Naples, FL

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Rev. Brian Hutchison, M.Div.

Texts:

James 1:17-27

Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21a

Ten years ago, I was given the “bless-ed” opportunity to meet Fred Phelps, the pastor of the notoriously anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church. He and his church were protesting the play The Laramie Project at the University of Maryland where I was a student. The Laramie Project is a play about the murder of gay college student Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyoming in 1998. I joined the school’s LGBT Pride Alliance in an organized counter-protest outside of the theatre. I decided at the protest that I had to face my fears and approach Mr. Phelps, peacefully of course.

I crossed the line that had been drawn by police in order to approach the crowd of people holdings signs that said things such as “God Hates Fags,” “God Hates America,” and “Leviticus 18:22 Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.” I have always said to this proof-texted verse that I don’t lie with man as with a woman; I lie with man as with a man. We know that in the ancient Near East, the receiving partner of any gender was thought of as being on a lower level in the social hierarchy and any male receiving partner was shamed for being feminine, as it was dishonoring the power that men held. We do not have the same kind of honor-shame society, but religious fundamentalists would have us believe that we still do.

In MCC, we have always dismissed the use of this verse against us, knowing full well that its use is always hypocritical. After all, no Christian can or should follow the Levite Holiness Code in modern times. So there is no need to continue to argue over it. I consider the argument over long ago.

Back to the story… I had taken time before the protest to “get myself prayed-up” so that I would not be consumed with fear upon facing Phelps. So when I approached him, I introduced myself. “My name is Brian and I am gay and I am a Christian. And God loves me for who I am.” I looked into his eyes, somewhat hidden by the shadow of a cowboy hat. And what I saw surprised me. Unlike most people I meet from day to day, there was no light behind his eyes. He appeared to me as an empty shell, void of life, void of joy. Instead of having the anger response I had anticipated, I rather had pity. I wondered to myself, “What happened to this man to make him into what stands before me?”

Considering today’s scripture passage from the book of James, I now wonder, “What does he see when he looks in the mirror each day? Can he see a child of God with sacred worth or does he see something that he hates?” I don’t know him personally, so I don’t know the answer to that question. But I can bet that it is the latter.

James writes, “If you listen to the word, but do not put it into practice you are like people who look in a mirror and see themselves as they are. They take a good look at themselves and then go away and at once forget what they look like.” Surely people like Phelps who preach a message of hate have read the loving words of Jesus that cover the gospels. They must know that the Greatest Commandment is to love God, neighbor, and self with our whole being. They have listened to it, but at least publicly they certainly do not put it into practice. It seems like we are reading two different bibles, and I don’t just mean two different translations.

In MCC, we preach the Unconditional Love of God, which has no bounds. It is not just for one class or type of people. We know that it is for all because this Divine Love is within all and around us all. We need to hear this message because as James points out, many in the world have a very different message. It is that ego message that he says to keep yourself “unstained” or from being “corrupted” by.

When you look into the mirror, what do you see? Do you see beauty? Do you see a miracle? Do you see sacred value? Do you see God’s beloved? Do you see a persona of the self you show to the world or do you see beyond that façade to the Inner Light? Can you see the infant that came into this world with Original Blessing?

We too often fail to see God’s beautiful creation when we look at ourselves. Too often we see our failures, our regrets, our worries, and our insecurities. We focus on these things because we want so badly for them to change. We stare at them as if our eyes could shine a laser beam to blast them into oblivion. But instead, we are mesmerized by them and sometimes obsess over them, cycling into a downward spiral of despair.

A colleague of mine, Rev. Terri Echelbarger reminds her congregation of the words of Saint Michael; Michael Jackson that is. I’m sure many of you know the song. I won’t sing it, but here are some of the lyrics: “I'm starting with the man in the mirror, I'm asking him to change his ways, And no message could have been any clearer, If you wanna make the world a better place, Take a look at yourself and then make a change.”

It’s easy to look at other people and say, “How terrible is that person!” or “What a mess!” We justify talking about other people in saying that we don’t want to be like them. But in doing so, we forget Jesus’ words in the 25^th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew: Whatever you do to the least of these, you do it to me.” Those we judge aren’t always the poor or other marginalized people we tend to think of “the least of these.” But every person we judge has still experienced the human experience of suffering in some way. Often it is this kind of suffering that leads people to have unattractive attitudes or personalities. Can we have compassion for their pain?

It’s been all too easy over the two millennia since Jesus walked the earth for Christians to scapegoat certain groups of people. When reading the gospels, we can easily scapegoat the Pharisees. We have been taught that they were these nasty religious leaders who just didn’t get what Jesus was talking about. Actually, they were a minority group of lay Jews who worked for reform in the practice of Judaism. They wanted to make a change for their people, just as Jesus did. Just like Jesus, the Pharisees knew all too well the harsh oppression of the Roman Empire. The difference is Jesus took his message a step further. Jesus’ message of looking within to see what is in the human heart without guilt or beating yourself up was radical for his time. Jesus’ radical compassion pushed the edge of his tradition.

Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen tells us this: “A great deal of energy goes into the process of fixing and editing ourselves. We may have even come to admire in ourselves what is admired, expect what is expected, and value what is valued by others. We have changed ourselves into someone that the people who matter to us can love. Sometimes we no longer know what is true for us, in which direction our own integrity lies.

We surrender our wholeness for a variety of reasons. Among the most compelling are our ideas of what being a good person is all about.... Few of us are able to love ourselves as we are. We may have even become ashamed of our wholeness. Parts of ourselves which we may have hidden all of our lives out of shame are often the source of our healing....

Reclaiming ourselves usually means coming to recognize and accept that we have in us both sides of everything. We are capable of fear and courage, generosity and selfishness, vulnerability and strength. These things do not cancel each other out but offer us a full range of power and response to life.

Life is as complex as we are. Sometimes our vulnerability is our strength, our fear develops our courage, and our woundedness is the road to our integrity.”

An old African proverb says what Dr. Remen is talking about. It says, “The blessing is next to the wound.” We all have wounds, whether we want to admit it or not. But that does not mean that we are not whole. Our natural state is wholeness. Nothing in this world can touch the perfect unity of spirit that lies within you! We are not our wounds. But we still need to recognize that they are there because they hold next to them the blessing, the healing balm that will lead to realizing our wholeness.

One of my very favorite songs that I play when I’m feeling down is by Saint Michael’s sister, Saint Janet. She sings, “Afraid of my reflection
Tell me that's not me I see
That's who I wanna be
Stuck somewhere in the middle
On half full or half empty
Waiting for somebody to come and rescue me

Can't let that petty attitude
Start to jade my point of view
Only thing that does is bring me down
So I'm

I'm about to change my vibe
Today the sun's gonna shine
'Cause I made up my mind
That today will be the start of better days”

Friends, make this day the start of better days. As the Psalmist tells us, though weeping may endure for the night, joy comes with the morning!”

I offer you this final blessing from songwriter Libby Roderick:

HOW COULD ANYONE EVER TELL YOU
YOU WERE ANYTHING LESS THAN BEAUTIFUL?

HOW COULD ANYONE EVER TELL YOU
YOU WERE LESS THAN WHOLE?

HOW COULD ANYONE FAIL TO NOTICE
THAT YOUR LOVING IS A MIRACLE?

HOW DEEPLY YOU’RE CONNECTED TO MY SOUL.

Ego vs True Self

The ego despises our inner Wisdom, which knows that when we change our thoughts, we change our lives. The ego fears change because it thrives on control. Changing ourselves for the better may lead to a move, a new job, a new partner, or a new community. But yes, the change has to first come from within- a denial of the fear that ego propagates. Only then do we know what outer things will align with our True Self.

"Lifestyle"

Please stop calling my life a "lifestyle." Remember "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" with Robin Leach? Collecting mansions like a certain presidential candidate is a lifestyle. The fact I am attracted to men and love men intimately is not. I have a life and I like to think I have style, but please keep them apart!