The Rev. Brian H. O. A. McHugh
Episcopal Diocese of El Camino Real
Sermon for: June 29, 2008
Season: Gay Pride Service, United Church of Christ, San Luis Obispo, CA
Title: May They All Be One
Let me tell you up front what the central point of my reflection at this Gay Pride service is. Doing this will hold me accountable to myself and to you for my words. I’m following the first of the Four Agreements enunciated by Don Miguel Ruiz, by which I try to live: Be impeccable with your word. My point - and I believe it to be the Good News of the Gospel - is this:
Each and every human person is a manifestation of the holy energy at the core of all life. Every human being is a sacrament of that Holy Mystery - if I may use an old Anglican phrase, an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace. Every person, irrespective of the particular configuration or manifestation of their sexuality or any other characteristic, is a unique, beautiful, sacred Being. God does not disown or reject any person, for God cannot disown or reject Herself.
Now you may ask, Where the hell in the Bible did he get that?! Believe me, I got it from the Bible alright. But not because it is written out in just those words. I got it from the Bible, and from the Gospel, and from the eternal Christ who shines at the heart. I got it filtered through my own personal experience over fifty years and that of thousands of others, of hearing and pondering the Word. I got it through the reasoning of my and many minds, through the longing of my heart, and through the working of the Spirit of Truth which the Christ promised and bestowed.
When I was ordained a priest, I took and oath that I believed the “Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the word of God, and to contain all things necessary to salvation”. And I do. But not in some simplistic, literalist way. I firmly believe that the Mystery we call “God” dwells within and not without. That God is revealed from the inside out. That God is always vulnerable to the workings of the human mind and heart. All Scriptures are written by human beings who are seeking out the meaning of their lives. The myriad pictures we have of God reflect the experience of human beings in every time and culture. Many, if not most, are projections of individuals and cultures, their times and experiences. Many claim to know God, to know that God is “on their side” - a projection that Bob Dylan so aptly parodied. Most of those pictures are misleading, in my view, in terms of the actual nature of “God”. The wonder of sacred writings, for me, is that the still, small voice of God manages to be heard in the minds and hearts of those who are willing to be surprised by the vast and infinite Compassion of God. Over 40 years in ministry, I have learned the wisdom of the old rabbi who said of the Bible’s message, God is Love; all else is commentary.
God has insinuated Herself in sneaky ways into many hearts. Certainly into the hearts of many Gayfolk, many of whom were brought up in cultures and religions which filled them with shame and terror, and caused them to doubt their worth and beauty. It is a wonder to me that so many Gayfolk continue to be part of religious communities, almost all of which have excluded and condemned and brutalized them for millennia. Happily, some of those faith communities have changed their ways, and many of the rest of us are slowly struggling to get there. That “still small voice” has quietly, persistently whispered, and been heard in generous and loving and open and sometimes needy hearts. Hearts that have seen that the orientation of Gayfolk is not a sinful or unnatural choice. Just another facet of human nature. The only choice involved is to reject lies and self-doubt and to be one’s authentic self. The God I know wills this freedom for Gayfolk and for all persons.
It is a cliché, but ….. God does indeed work in mysterious ways! She has in mine. And I think that my experience is a kind of metaphor for the way the Divine Spirit works. I knew what my sexual orientation was when I was a little boy. Luckily I was born in Canada in the late 40’s, among somewhat dour Scots Presbyterians who were both upright and whiskey drinkers. The topic of sex, at any level, was avoided. I did not have to deal with the particular ingrained Puritanism which lies at the root of the American psyche until I came here in the late sixties. There was a counterbalance to Puritanism then in the Flower Revolution, and I am proud, at 62, to be a Hippie throwback. I came here to be a monk, which I was for 15 years. And so - and I can’t help crediting God in this - I ended up in a community of almost all Gay men! What a coup for the guidance of the Unconscious! I could be myself as a Gay man. Equally important, I was then free, in a religious setting of daily prayer and Scripture and learning, to enter into a relationship with the God Who created me and unconditionally loved me just as I was. What a blessing, considering the hell that so many Gayfolk still go through in accepting their gift.
I spent 26 years in parish ministry, often filled with rage at the homophobia of society and of Religion – and we all know what rage can do to us. I was profoundly frustrated at the either inability or unwillingness of people to see the reality before their eyes and hearts in the Gayfolk they knew - the normal glorious fragile humanity we all share, in the heart of the Mystery of God I had come to know. But I chose or was blessed with parishes in which I was basically accepted and appreciated for my gifts. When I finally “retired” in utter frustration at our House of Bishops seeming to kow-tow to homophobic bigots in the Anglican Communion and at the affront (as I see it) to my seminary classmate Bishop Gene Robinson, I considered renouncing my orders. But my partner and other friends counseled wisely. The gift I was given was that the rage was taken away. I resolved to “make no peace with oppression”, to live calmly but passionately as the sacred being I knew myself and each of us to be. And I ended up in a California that now – and I hope forever - allows same-sex couples to marry with the same equality under the law promised by the founding documents of this land.
The title of my sermon today is from the great prayer of Jesus in the Gospel called “John”. May they all be One, as You, Father, and I are one. Jesus wants us all to know the unity that He knew with the Source of His Being. What he prayed for was not superficial in any way. It is not about looking alike; not about a renunciation of uniqueness; not about male or female, “Jew or Greek” (metaphorically speaking), Gay or so-called “Straight” – though I am happy to say that most of my heterosexual friends are anything but what I would call “straight”; “wonderfully bent” would be more like it! It is about knowing at the gut level that each of us is part of the Mystery we call God. It is about knowing that together we are one unquenchable blaze of Compassion, Love and Justice. It is about knowing that our calling as people of Faith is to actualize and make real, by our practice, the truth of our making in the image of the God of Compassion, and our unity as human persons free to be whole.
“Pride” is a paradox. It is both a sin and a blessing. A sin (that is, a rejection of our nature as Love) when we fail to live into our divine nature. A blessing, when we gather together as we do this afternoon, “of many tribes and people and tongues”, of theological perspectives, and of shades of sexual orientation, to claim our sacred selves, and to claim the essential unity we each and all have.
It is my duty and privilege to say today to all Gayfolk: Be proud. Be joyfully and passionately yourselves, with unwavering confidence and power and love. And to say the same to all who have gathered here in support of their sisters and brothers in the family of God. May we all be One, for such I know to be the desire and longing of God. As the lovely Psalm 139 says: You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Sermon: June 8, 2007 Proper 5 A (RCL)
[Hosea 5:15-6:6][Ps 50: 7-15][Rom 4:13-25][Mt 9:9-13,18-26]
Avoiding Rock Bottom
In the reading from the prophet Hosea this morning, we hear a somewhat petulant God whining. God is ticked off that Ephraim and Judah, who have behaved badly themselves and are now being oppressed and suffering, have turned to the great king of Assyria instead of Him for help. God is heard saying:
I’ll go back where I came from until they come to their senses.
When they finally hit rock bottom, maybe they’ll come looking for me.[1]
The people seem to understand the process of their Life and of their relationship with their God. They say:
Come on, let’s go back to God. He hurt us, but He’ll heal us.
He hit us hard, but He’ll put us right again.
In a couple of days we’ll feel better.
By the third day, He’ll have made us brand new.[2]
Don’t be distracted by the portrayal of God as hurtful and causing pain. I’ve pondered the Scriptures for decades. Of course, being Episcopalians, you are free to interpret as you like! Personally, I know, and I think any of us who truly know God knows, that God does not hurt or cause pain or death. As is said elsewhere, “God does not desire the death of a sinner, but that they should repent and live.” Speaking of God as the origin of both good an evil is an ancient way of saying that God is present in and to all things. It is we human beings who cause suffering and pain and death to ourselves and others, physically and emotionally. It is in embracing the Divine source of Life that we find the power and grace to Live.
Living is what it is all about. Living is why we are here this morning. If you have been doing this for a long time, I suspect it is because you know what Ephraim and Judah knew. If this is new to you, you have brought your hunger for life to the right place. There is a deep and powerful energy that flows through the great Mystery we call Life. A deep and powerful movement – into and away from pain and death and into Life. Our Baptism into Christ is a mind-blowing, blazing image of the power we have laid claim to in our saying Yes to the Gospel. There is indeed a way by which we can be drowned in suffering, where we die at one or many levels, and rise to healing and new life.
The Mystery of the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus throbs at the heart of our Faith. The same Mystery lies at the heart of our own human lives. But as we hear from Hosea, this is an old, ancient, eternal Truth. Ephraim and Judah understood and experienced it. It is heard in every faith and religion, and in all the great literature of every language and people. Have you read Ursula LeGuin’s Earthsea Trilogy? Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings? Beowulf? The same Message rings out:
Come on, let’s go back to God. He hurt us, but He’ll heal us.
He hit us hard, but He’ll put us right again. In a couple of days we’ll feel better.
By the third day, He’ll have made us brand new.
The eternal pattern familiar to Christians in the Christ’s Passion, Death, and Resurrection goes on. We suffer, we “die”, we are buried, we are raised to Life. This is why the Cross shines as the core symbol of the Christian faith. Beyond anything else, it speaks of the God of Love Who is never absent from us, holds us in our pain, walks through the valley of the shadow of death with us, and lifts us up to new Life. The great Holy Week hymn says it all:
Inscribed upon the cross we see in shining letters, God is love:
it cheers with hope the gloomy day, and sweetens every bitter cup.
It makes the coward spirit brave, it takes its terror from the grave, and gilds the bed of death with light.
The balm of life, the cure of woe, the measure and the pledge of love.[3]
But we, like Ephraim and Judah, must do our part. Come on, let’s go back to God. He hurt us, but He’ll heal us. Twenty-six years ago, I left a monastic vocation after 15 years; but, new life opened up in front of my sadness. Six years ago I had heart surgery; I was prepared to awake or not; I did, and knew I was healed. Three years ago I met Dennis; a whole new Life opened up. Two years ago my colon burst; I almost died; I had a colostomy that was later reversed. I was raised to life. In April I “retired”, the culmination of decades of fury at how I and other Gayfolk are treated by society and the church; but out of it came a gift: my anger was taken away, and I am ready to lay hold on Life again. I have aggressive prostate cancer; I face it with calm and trust. Think about it - every one of you here today has experienced this Great Love healing us and giving us Life as we turn into the embrace.
We are not here being “the church”, waiting for an arbitrary God to decide if we have followed the rules/contract suitably enough that She will throw us a tidbit which we have “earned”. We are here, avoiding rock bottom, being “the church”, together eating and drinking God’s Life, holding ourselves in the context of the Death, Burial, and Resurrection of Jesus, in the sure and certain knowledge of at least some of the people of Hosea’s time - After two days God will revive us; on the third day [God] will raise us up, that we may live before Him.[4] We are instruments of that trust and embrace each to the other. Crucified, dead, we rise on the third day. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes in the morning.”
We’re here to practice our religion, which by Word and Sacrament and Fellowship hold us in the cycle of hurt, healing and revival. We bear each others’ burdens and so fulfill the law of Love. With the ancient Hebrews we say, Come on, let’s go back to God. To the God who lives in us. In Her we find the power to rise and live.
[bm+/060808]
[1] The Message, Hosea 5: 15
[2] ibid, 6: 1ff
[3] Hymnal 1982, #471
[4] The Message, Eugene Peterson
In the reading from the prophet Hosea this morning, we hear a somewhat petulant God whining. God is ticked off that Ephraim and Judah, who have behaved badly themselves and are now being oppressed and suffering, have turned to the great king of Assyria instead of Him for help. God is heard saying:
I’ll go back where I came from until they come to their senses.
When they finally hit rock bottom, maybe they’ll come looking for me.[1]
The people seem to understand the process of their Life and of their relationship with their God. They say:
Come on, let’s go back to God. He hurt us, but He’ll heal us.
He hit us hard, but He’ll put us right again.
In a couple of days we’ll feel better.
By the third day, He’ll have made us brand new.[2]
Don’t be distracted by the portrayal of God as hurtful and causing pain. I’ve pondered the Scriptures for decades. Of course, being Episcopalians, you are free to interpret as you like! Personally, I know, and I think any of us who truly know God knows, that God does not hurt or cause pain or death. As is said elsewhere, “God does not desire the death of a sinner, but that they should repent and live.” Speaking of God as the origin of both good an evil is an ancient way of saying that God is present in and to all things. It is we human beings who cause suffering and pain and death to ourselves and others, physically and emotionally. It is in embracing the Divine source of Life that we find the power and grace to Live.
Living is what it is all about. Living is why we are here this morning. If you have been doing this for a long time, I suspect it is because you know what Ephraim and Judah knew. If this is new to you, you have brought your hunger for life to the right place. There is a deep and powerful energy that flows through the great Mystery we call Life. A deep and powerful movement – into and away from pain and death and into Life. Our Baptism into Christ is a mind-blowing, blazing image of the power we have laid claim to in our saying Yes to the Gospel. There is indeed a way by which we can be drowned in suffering, where we die at one or many levels, and rise to healing and new life.
The Mystery of the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus throbs at the heart of our Faith. The same Mystery lies at the heart of our own human lives. But as we hear from Hosea, this is an old, ancient, eternal Truth. Ephraim and Judah understood and experienced it. It is heard in every faith and religion, and in all the great literature of every language and people. Have you read Ursula LeGuin’s Earthsea Trilogy? Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings? Beowulf? The same Message rings out:
Come on, let’s go back to God. He hurt us, but He’ll heal us.
He hit us hard, but He’ll put us right again. In a couple of days we’ll feel better.
By the third day, He’ll have made us brand new.
The eternal pattern familiar to Christians in the Christ’s Passion, Death, and Resurrection goes on. We suffer, we “die”, we are buried, we are raised to Life. This is why the Cross shines as the core symbol of the Christian faith. Beyond anything else, it speaks of the God of Love Who is never absent from us, holds us in our pain, walks through the valley of the shadow of death with us, and lifts us up to new Life. The great Holy Week hymn says it all:
Inscribed upon the cross we see in shining letters, God is love:
it cheers with hope the gloomy day, and sweetens every bitter cup.
It makes the coward spirit brave, it takes its terror from the grave, and gilds the bed of death with light.
The balm of life, the cure of woe, the measure and the pledge of love.[3]
But we, like Ephraim and Judah, must do our part. Come on, let’s go back to God. He hurt us, but He’ll heal us. Twenty-six years ago, I left a monastic vocation after 15 years; but, new life opened up in front of my sadness. Six years ago I had heart surgery; I was prepared to awake or not; I did, and knew I was healed. Three years ago I met Dennis; a whole new Life opened up. Two years ago my colon burst; I almost died; I had a colostomy that was later reversed. I was raised to life. In April I “retired”, the culmination of decades of fury at how I and other Gayfolk are treated by society and the church; but out of it came a gift: my anger was taken away, and I am ready to lay hold on Life again. I have aggressive prostate cancer; I face it with calm and trust. Think about it - every one of you here today has experienced this Great Love healing us and giving us Life as we turn into the embrace.
We are not here being “the church”, waiting for an arbitrary God to decide if we have followed the rules/contract suitably enough that She will throw us a tidbit which we have “earned”. We are here, avoiding rock bottom, being “the church”, together eating and drinking God’s Life, holding ourselves in the context of the Death, Burial, and Resurrection of Jesus, in the sure and certain knowledge of at least some of the people of Hosea’s time - After two days God will revive us; on the third day [God] will raise us up, that we may live before Him.[4] We are instruments of that trust and embrace each to the other. Crucified, dead, we rise on the third day. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes in the morning.”
We’re here to practice our religion, which by Word and Sacrament and Fellowship hold us in the cycle of hurt, healing and revival. We bear each others’ burdens and so fulfill the law of Love. With the ancient Hebrews we say, Come on, let’s go back to God. To the God who lives in us. In Her we find the power to rise and live.
[bm+/060808]
[1] The Message, Hosea 5: 15
[2] ibid, 6: 1ff
[3] Hymnal 1982, #471
[4] The Message, Eugene Peterson
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