It's been a long and strange 18 months since I posted a sermon. Ministry in pandemic was/is a day to day and week to week learning experience, and some usual tasks (like posting printed sermons) lost urgency.
On Sunday, June 26, I was thrilled to walk in Seattle's Pride Parade as part of the Diocese of Olympia group - sharing the message that God's love is for Everyone - no Exceptions! I preached this sermon at 8:00AM (a service that is not recorded or broadcast) before leaving for the parade.
Readings for the Day are here (Track 1).
Freedom.
The colonists arrived on the eastern shores of this continent 400 years ago in search of freedom.
A civil war resulted in a proclamation that no person may be owned by another - legally freeing hundreds of thousands of enslaved persons to earn and keep wages, to marry, to become educated and own property.
Non-native settlers gradually moved west seeking the opportunities of wide open spaces.
Women fought for legal recognition of their freedom - to vote, to earn equitable pay for their work, to control what happens to their bodies.
LGBTQ folx stood up for their rights to the same things as other people - to be authentically who God created them to be, to enjoy the legal privileges of freedom. Job security, wholistic health and mental health care, marriage and children, a safe home.
Freedom.
Is a lifetime journey.
Like the series of freedoms I just listed, our understanding of freedom continues to change.
And just because a single court case has been fought and won does not mean the work of living into that freedom is finished. We know that our institutions, including the Church, have deep roots of institutional racism. We know that many people who lived on these lands for generations before any entitled European settlers arrived live in poverty rooted in their displacement. We know that women make about 80 cents for every dollar that men with equal education and experience make. We know that poverty in this country disproportionately affects people of color, and that enslaved labor is still legal for prisoners. Just this week we saw the Supreme Court rescind a freedom to have agency over their own bodies that women have had for 50 years.
Freedom is a journey of many steps.
Freedom.
It can be a code word for my freedom to do whatever I want is more important than respecting you.
A code word for violence rooted in scarcity, in fear that your freedom takes something away from me.
This concept of freedom thrives on racism, sexism, homophobia.
This is NOT the freedom we celebrate and recognize in The Episcopal Church and here at Trinity.
And this is NOT the freedom referenced in the Gospel or the Epistle today.
In the letter to the Galatians, Paul implores the community to live into the very freedom they are created for. Freedom from the world’s vices of competition and scarcity. Freedom from that whole list of behaviors that he associates with the flesh. Behaviors that deny or hide the innate good and beauty, the reflection of the Holy, that is in each of us from birth. Behaviors that are coping mechanisms for our fear, our comparisons of ourselves with other people, our sense that there isn’t enough love or power or respect for us.
By contrast, Paul invites us into a life of freedom that cultivates and is rooted in the fruits of the Spirit. Ways of living that are grounded in knowing we are enough, we are beautiful, we are beloved, we are worthy. Freedom to love and be loved, without competition or scarcity.
In the Gospel today, James and John are feeling the competition - and their response is violence. ‘Jesus, these people aren’t giving you enough respect, let’s call down fire from heaven to consume them!’ Jesus avoids the question of whether they really can call down fire from heaven, and redirects them to generosity and self-control as they move on to the next place. No need to get violent because people don’t agree with you, let’s keep moving on this journey of freedom.
For Jesus, freedom is not a call to violence. It IS a call to live and promote the fullness of life Jesus brings for all people. As people of community, our freedom is intertwined. We are not free until ALL people are free.
The freedom of following Jesus includes many unknowns. Three times in the gospel, people follow Jesus and hear uncertainty about the future of walking a journey of faith and freedom. Even Jesus doesn’t know where he will sleep. His eyes, and the eyes of all of us who follow him, are set on the road ahead, on the freedom we are already walking in and toward.
Our freedom in Christ allows us to continue humbly learning about our own privileges and the fears that keep us acting out of scarcity. And learning how we can live more fully rooted in those fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Fruits that are part of us, gifts from God, unearned and wholly ours, wholly us.
Today, I choose to walk with my lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and gender inquiring siblings, God’s beautiful children, in the Pride parade. I join them to support and celebrate and delight in their journeys toward freedom. To respect the dignity of every human being. Because their journeys are our journeys - the journey of being seen and acknowledged, respected and wholly human.
This is our journey of faith, of living into the fullness of freedom in Christ.
Let us walk together in love.
No comments:
Post a Comment