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.