June 6 Sermon: Pride Kick-Off Sunday
Sermon, June 6 2010
Pride Kick-Off Sunday
Holy Covenant UMC
Rev. Kate Hurst Floyd
Galatians 1:11-24
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Once upon a time, in a far, far away land called Galatia, some people of Celtic descent lived a quiet and quaint life. They worshipped their sun and river Gods, dined on pork and pita and hummus, worked from sun-up to sun-down and gathered with their families at the end of the day for dinner and ritual worship.
One day, a day just like any other day, as the sun began to set, a stranger wandered into town. This man didn’t look or talk like the Galatians, he had his own God. He was a Jew, one of the people from a different land. He told them to call him Paul.
Paul was unlike anyone they had ever met before…he was meek and mild and demeanor but strong with his convictions. The children loved to listen to him talk for he was a marvelous story teller and had lived an exciting life that the Galatians could only imagine in their dreams. He once was Pharisee, a Jewish leader who took delight in persecuting people in the name of religion, particularly people who claimed to follow a man called Jesus Christ. The children were spellbound with his past of violence and hatred, the ways he tortured in the name of God and put Christians on very public trial. His life was what they read about in adventure books. But the adults knew that he was full of regret; they could see the ways his past now lived on the lines in his face.
But Paul’s greatest story wasn’t about his religious persecution, but about how he changed. He’d gather the Galatians around a fire, children and adults, men and women, slave and free, and tell his story: One day, a day just like any other day, as the sun began to set, Paul was walking down a road, on the way to a place called Damascus. His mind was full of the thoughts of the ways he had killed Christians today and the people he was going to hurt tomorrow. Wouldn’t God be proud, he thought to himself? And just as thoughts of God began to circle in his mind, he had a vision. He encountered the living God, he encountered this man named Jesus Christ, and he was overcome with love and grace and mercy. He felt freedom unlike he had ever known. From that day forward, he changed his life. He wanders to different places, like Galatia, all over the Middle East, talking passionately about the love of Jesus Christ.
As surely as the sun rises and sets, Paul was sure that Christ’s love sets people free. He stopped persecuting Christians and became one himself.
The Galatians, too, were changed forever by Paul. He helped them start churches in their homes and they gathered now to worship, not the sun and river Gods, but the one God who came to earth as Jesus Christ, to spread love and grace for ALL people. To set us free from our sins and transgressions and to help us love and spread forgiveness and justice.
All was going well for the Galatians, practicing this new faith, encountering the living God, empowered by the Holy Spirit, redeemed by Jesus Christ.
Once upon a time, a very recent time, in a land not so far away, were people who lived a good life, going to church and work and school, engaging the world from sunrise to sunset, gathering with friends and family at the end of the day to give thanks to God.
And yet there were many people in this land who felt they could speak for God, speak without first listening, leaders who took delight in persecuting people in the name of religion, spreading hate and fear and putting people on trial. Leaders like Paul used to be. Mostly these were Christians, people who claimed to follow Christ, and they had it out for those they deemed to be unworthy: Encouraging women to keep their mouths shut, blaming feminists for natural disasters in the world; telling gay and lesbian persons that they are an abomination to God, ruining our country and faith; spreading false information about those who are hiv-positive; inciting violence against transgender persons. People were gaining power by trying to oppress others in the name of Jesus Christ.
The hurt inflicted on these people was very real…it comes in overt ways: from violent beatings and bullying to kicking people out of faith communities and families—leading to depression and heartache and even suicide; and it comes more subtly: Pastors saying: you’re welcome here, just don’t hold hands with your partner or make it obvious who you are; or you can come to worship, just don’t expect to be put on any committees; or you can move the chairs, just don’t work with our children.
In this land, there is a church called The United Methodist Church which sends a really confusing message: saying both that people of all sexual orientations and gender identities are of sacred worth, but denying the right of same sex couples to get married, and for self-avowed practicing homosexuals to be ordained.
The people were confused and hurt and angry. Who speaks for God? What does the Bible really say? Where is truth? They longed for their faith to be a fairytale kind of religion, like it was in Galatia, where the truth of Jesus Christ rang true. But back in that far away land, a long, long time ago, the Galatians were starting to lose their happily ever after. They began to ask the same kind of questions, to hear the same confusing messages.
You see, after a time with the people in Galatia, Paul decided to move on. He had good news to spread far and wide, so one day he strapped all he owned on his back, put on his sandals, and wandered to Corinth and Rome. The Galatians were left without their leader…and so other religious leaders started to take power. These were leaders who insisted that the message of Jesus was only for a few, select people who had to fit inside their self-imposed categories—they had very clear lines for what it meant to be in and what it meant to be out. And they said to the Galatians: You can follow Christ, but only if you do it in the way we deem necessary. And this means losing the distinctive markers that make you who you are, who God created you to be, and being someone else—you have to be circumcised and eat the food we tell you to. Only if you follow Christ like we tell you to will you truly be Christians. They drew their own boundaries around the Gospel and created rules that Jesus never preached.
The Galatians were hurt and confused, some were angry. Many began to change who they were so they could fit in, so those in power would approve. And somewhere along the way, with all this focus on trying to follow the rules and change who they are, they began to lose their faith. They asked: Who speaks for God? What does the Bible really say? Where is truth? They longed for their faith to be a fairytale kind of religion…Were they in or were they out? They weren’t so sure anymore.
Paul, off in another far away land, hears about what’s going on in Galatia…the imposition of rules and possibility of persecution…and he is furious. He must set the record straight for the Galatians so he writes them a letter.
And he says: For I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel that was proclaimed by me is not of human origin; 12for I did not receive it from a human source, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.
Paul makes it clear that anyone trying to spread their own Gospel, their own rules about who is in and who is out, their own, human standards for the faith, is not preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Christianity is no fairytale religion, the way it has been lived out over the centuries and continues to be used to persecute, divide, and hate. But when those voices start getting too loud, when we get confused, like the Galatians…not knowing who to trust or where to turn…we have the good news of the gospel to set us free. Because like Paul, we hear the word of God saying that the true Gospel of love doesn’t come from human hands and authorities…people who try to make themselves like God to feel powerful. Paul knows that the truth of love comes from God and no human hands can pervert it. There are, of course, boundaries and rules around the truth of what it means to be Christian—but these boundaries come from the teachings of Christ, not the power-trips of human beings.
This truth is the grace of Christ who dines with outcasts—tax collectors and prostitutes, women of all kinds; The truth is the healing hand of Christ who touches the leper and the blind and the unclean women…unafraid to physically share love; The truth is his call to justice for the least of these: the hungry and the cold, the voiceless and the prisoner, the meek and the humble and those who are turned out. The truth is the freedom that repentance leads to new life for all, unburdened of our past. The truth is that God is love, manifest in Christ.
Friends, this is the voice we need to be listening to…the voice of God through Christ, proclaiming grace and freedom and love and welcome for all. For all. Because even though we don’t live at the same time as the Galatians, we still have all kinds of supposed religious leaders, false prophets, using their human authority to proclaim some kind of stringent rules for God—sure about who is in and who is out.
As we celebrate 20 years of Pride, being a Reconciling Congregation, we know this truth all too well. For there is joy in this place that provides welcome and home and love in an often hostile world. But there is also pain mingled with the celebration, not only from outside voices but from those within—from the rules of the United Methodist Church that keep us from truly being free; to the pain inflicted during our conversation on Christian marriage. We’re not living with happily ever after, even after 20 years.
But in the midst of the hurt, here’s the good news: Our faith is much stronger than a fairy tale. For our faith is not of human origin, of people spinning tales of black and white, good and evil, in and out. Ours is a faith of love that always overcomes hate—ours is a faith rooted in Jesus Christ, who once upon a time, on a day unlike any day before or since, overcame death with life, evil with peace and love.
So we live with the greatest hope: the reality of resurrection. And this is where we turn when the world and the church are spewing hate: to the triumphant reality of new life, where all are welcome and loved. Where God celebrates who God created us to be. And no human being can ever tell us otherwise.
Our tale, as Christians, is of a reality where all of God’s children, all, feast at the heavenly banquet. For our hope is in the day when pain and tears will be no more, where justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
And this isn’t just a future hope: As we pray for this day, we continue to live it out right here, right now.
*When we are kicked out of our families and faith communities, we find new life in this family of faith, marching together in the PRIDE parade, witnesses of God’s love not just to each other but to the whole world.
*We find new life when we are finally able to love ourselves as God does, unconditionally, and recognize the beauty of our own creation.
*And though faith is not easy like a fairy tale, we do find new life when we are willing to struggle with hard conversations, like around our marriage policy, to share our truth with tears to one another; to give up our privilege; and I am confident that through our hard work, our partnering with United Methodists across the connection, and by the power and grace of God, we will change the laws of The UMC and change them soon.
When we come to this table and receive communion, we are in communion already with the God who is love. And we will work each and every day, from sun-up to sun-down, to share this good news, to work for justice, and receive new life. For resurrection is more real than any story we humans can spin.
Thanks be to God.
Tags: Kate
