“Standing at a Time of Challenge “ Sermon preached on January 18, 2009 at Joy Metropolitan Community Church

Good morning! And welcome to Joy on this crisp Sunday morning made even more special because of the celebration of the life of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and almost on the eve of an event so far-reaching in its significance that we may not fully understand it until history unfolds before us—and that is, of course, the inauguration of the first African American president in our history. How marvelous it is to be honoring a society-altering past and celebrating an exciting and hopeful future here among friends today. I took the title of my sermon from one of the thousands of meaningful quotations from Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. With allowances for updating his pronouns, he once stated, “The ultimate measure of people is not where they stand in moments of comfort and convenience, but where they stand at times of challenge and controversy.” I believe that as we both pay respect to Rev. Dr. King and pray for the leadership of President Elect Obama, we can certainly all agree that we are at such a time.
Both Samuel and Jesus were at such times as well. In our Old Testament reading Samuel is at the start of his leadership. Yahweh has called him and he has been serving under the mentorship of Eli. But things have not gone well because Eli’s sons have done evil things and Eli is soon to pay the price for those evil deeds. But Eli is still in touch with God and he realizes that Yahweh is calling to young Samuel. His advice is simple: when God calls, be prepared to listen.
Jesus, too, is at a turning point in the early part of His ministry. He is engaged in the business of calling His disciples. He is beginning to be known, but not without the doubters voicing their thoughts: “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” These two passages indeed are timely for us as we face our own challenging time as a community, country and world.
I want to say to you two things today. First, I believe that just as God called Samuel, Jesus, and Rev. Dr. King to a ministry far greater than anyone truly understood, I believe that God is calling us to just such a ministry, here, today, in Orlando, Florida at Joy Metropolitan Community Church. Secondly, I believe that God will show us the way and give us the wherewithal to undertake this ministry.
In 1976, the founder of MCC Churches, Troy Perry preached a sermon entitled “God Has Called Us, God Has Spoken, the Message is Clear” at the close of the UFMCC General Conference. That was just 8 years after the first MCC church service was held. He proclaimed, “We’re at that place now where you are calling us to be true to the vision that you have given us. That vision is to teach and to preach that you love all people right where they’re at. And I am suggesting that we are still in that place.” I am sure that Rev. Perry is as saddened as the rest of us are that we are still, still, still in that place.
One of my Joy Friends sent me an email with the report on the outcome of Proposition 8 in California. Putting aside my disappointment that no one has so far done the same kind of study in Florida regarding the passing of Amendment 2, I believe that we can gain some significant insight about the failure to keep that amendment from passing in Florida last November. Overwhelmingly, the factors that were shown to affect the way California voters voted were ideology—or viewing oneself as conservative rather than liberal, political party, and whether or not one attended church on a weekly basis. When these categories are factored in, they were more important than race, economic status and gender. Of people who attended church regularly, 70 percent voted to support Proposition 8. 70%--think what this means in light of the Gospel that we have been called to preach. With the wisdom that age, persecution and ministry bring, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Anglican Archbishop of South Africa, states this about the church’s historical treatment of GLBTQ people: “We reject [homosexuals], treat them as pariahs, and push them outside our church communities, and thereby we negate the consequences of their baptism and ours. We make them doubt that they are the children of God, and this must be nearly the ultimate blasphemy.” Those of us who have known and loved other churches know well this “nearly ultimate blasphemy”. My word to you today, and perhaps the thing I most want you to take from this sermon is this: We must stand in this time of challenge; we must take the good news to those who ‘doubt they are the children of God’. We must not grow comfortable within the safety of these walls or the relative safety of our mostly isolated lives. We must reach out to those who do not know the good news that God loves them and Jesus lived and died for them. And let me tell you why…
Our folks are dying-- from AIDS, from Crystal Meth, and, sadly, from suicide. Most of us are familiar with the issues relating to AIDS and drug use among our communities; I want to look specifically at the issue of suicide, particularly among our younger folks. First let me admit, that there is much debate regarding the statistics related to youth suicide. Nevertheless, the most often accepted numbers would indicate that around 30% of the young people WHO SUCCEED in their suicide attempts are GLBTQ young people. The debate is divided. Many conservative groups state that the reason there are so many more lesbian, gay, bi and trans youth attempting and succeeding at suicide is because they are now being told that homosexuality, bi-sexuality, and being transgender are normal and lifelong and cannot be changed. In other words, they are in despair because they are being told they cannot change into ‘normal’ heterosexual human beings. And so, groups that offer hope of change to heterosexuality—even when that entails lifelong celibacy and denial of sexual urges—reach out to those young people and their families with their good news of transformation. The pain caused by that outreach seems beyond our reach.
On the other hand there are some conservative groups argue that our statisticians, that is GLBT, have inflated those numbers and there are not so many young GLBTQ dying because of torment, rejection, and bullying. To those groups, I want to scream, in behavior, not so politically or clerically correct, “What is the matter with you? If one young person dies because they have been rejected or brutalized, that is too many. The hundreds of young people who take their lives every year because of confusion, rejection by family and friends, and fear that God will not accept them either, is a tragedy beyond our ability to truly take into our hearts.
The national organization Lambda, long recognized for its work for equality for our community notes that “in the United States, a teen takes their own life every 5 hours because they are gay, lesbian, or transgender, and cannot deal with the added stresses that society puts upon them”. This means that before most of us get home today, at least one young person will have died while we gathered with our family and friends to worship a God who gave us Jesus to show us the measure of divine love and concern that is present through God’s grace. WE MUST SPREAD THE GOSPEL OF RADICAL ACCEPTANCE AND LOVE WITHOUT CONDITION before the next person dies. We must stand in the time of challenge.
Secondly, Lambda and other organizations point out the unacceptably high number of homeless youth who are GLBTQ. As many as 40% of youth wandering the streets of major cities, including Orlando, have been thrown out of their family homes because of their sexual orientation or so brutalized by parents demanding that they change that they left in fear and despair. WE MUST SPREAD THE GOSPEL OF RADICAL ACCEPTANCE AND LOVE WITHOUT CONDITION before the next child sleeps on the streets of New York, Dallas, Chicago or Orlando.
By now, some of you may be asking yourselves: where is she going with this? What is she going to ask me to do? And you are right, I am going to ask something of you. I’m going to ask you to stand with me in this time of challenge and controversy. I have gone through my own “surely you don’t mean me, God” and “Surely you don’t mean Joy”. But I cannot escape the voice that calls to me and to us in this night of challenge just as Yahweh called to Samuel. And Samuel, said, “I’m listening”. Listen with me to the voice of God calling us to care, to SPREAD THE GOSPEL OF RADICAL ACCEPTANCE AND LOVE WITHOUT CONDITION now in our community, in our world. We must not shun this great work, because the forces of conservatism, or hatred, and of persecution rage long and loud in our land. Please do not leave here believing that GLBTQ issues are all that matter to me—you know me better, but, today, my heart is full with the call to SPREAD THE GOSPEL OF RADICAL ACCEPTANCE AND LOVE WITHOUT CONDITION to all our brothers and sisters, young, middle age, and old, who have not heard or cannot believe that God loves and accepts them and that we love and accept them.
We know, and see today, that Jesus’ contemporaries doubted that he was capable of bringing the good news, of being the Messiah. Philip tells Nathanael that he has found the true Messiah. We can hear Nathanael’s scorn and imagine his derisive laugh when he says, “not from Nazareth, can anything good come from that little po-dunk town?” But Peter stands in the face of challenge and says, “Come and see”. And we are well familiar with the ministry and redemption that came from the man from Nazareth, Jesus, who calls us today to move beyond whatever limitations have been placed on us by others or ourselves. But we must, just as Jesus did, SPREAD THE GOSPEL OF RADICAL ACCEPTANCE AND LOVE WITHOUT CONDITION.
Today we celebrate the life and work of one of our great prophets, Rev. Dr. King. It is incumbent upon us to hear his words, in light of the many challenging and controversial issues we face today. This month we celebrate the beginnings of MCC both nationally, and locally. Another prophet, Rev. Troy Perry, does not shrink from calling us to this great work. Both of these prophets had dreams. Listen briefly with me to them both. First, Rev. Dr. King, in his speech accepting the Nobel Prize. “I have the audacity today to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits. I believe that what self-centered [people] have torn down [people] other-centered can build up. I still believe that one day [humankind] will bow before the alters of God and be crowned triumphant over war and bloodshed, and nonviolent redemption good will will proclaim the law of the land….I still believe that we shall overcome.”
And now listen to Rev. Perry from the same sermon I quoted earlier, “This is my dream, I shall come to the City of God, to [the] Kingdom, knowing I shall be totally accepted as myself, sharing my ‘being somebody’ with all gay people everywhere. I dream of that time when all people who are gay, all who are hiding it, will step forth freely into the light of truth, total acceptance and understanding…I dream that we can all come out of hiding, that we can all stand tall and walk with our heads held high…”
These two dreams, not so different, though one more specific that the other, are worthy dreams for us today. I think that neither one of these men thought that we would need to preach or to hear a sermon such as this in 2009. But they would both be equally proud that we were standing tall in the face of challenge. For we know that God still calls, we still listen, and we must act in faith in the One who calls us in the middle of this night of challenge and controversy.
There are no easy answers, no obvious first steps. But this I know, God is calling Joy to SPREAD THE GOSPEL OF RADICAL ACCEPTANCE AND LOVE WITHOUT CONDITION beyond these walls and grounds. We must find ways to reach the youth, at least in our neighborhood, if not the world. We must find ways to reach the disaffected adults—those who have tried to find acceptance in their churches and have been rejected and those who have never known the peace that comes from a relationship with our great God. We must find ways to reach the older people, those alone, those afraid of ‘coming out’ after all these years. And so, as I have done before, I call us to action...to explore new ministries and to build up existing ones.
I call us to dream dreams and to do the work to turn those dreams into reality. Most of all, I call myself and all of you, to care more about freedom for all people than comfort for the few. I call us to sacrifice in the name of Jesus, to go forth, to SPREAD THE GOSPEL OF RADICAL ACCEPTANCE AND LOVE WITHOUT CONDITION, without exception. I call us to pray, and pray fervently. I call us to love, and love as we have never loved before. I call us to reach out, and reach out farther than our own individual arms will reach. I call us to give, and give of our time and energy. I call us to free ourselves and others, and free our lives to work and live in the name of Jesus, that once, little known prophet from Nazareth who stood tall in the face of challenge and controversy and, by doing so, saved the world. Amen and amen.