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A sermon by Rev. Wayne
Irwin of
Centenary United
Church, Hamilton,
Ontario, Canada
on June 18, 2006
Text: John 17:6-11
(Words of Jesus, praying for his disciples –
New Revised Standard Version)
“I have made your name known
to those whom you gave me from the world.
They were yours,
and you gave them to me, and they have kept
your word.
Now they know that everything you have given me
is from you;
for the words that you gave to me I have given
to them,
and they have received them and know in truth
that I came from you;
and they have believed that you sent me.
I am asking on their behalf;
I am not asking on behalf of the world,
but on behalf of those whom you gave me,
because they are yours.
All mine are yours, and yours are mine;
and I have been glorified in them.
And now I am no longer in the world,
but they are in the world,
and I am coming to you.
Holy Father, protect them in your name that you
have given me,
so that they may be one, as we are one.”
My mother – after 96 years of living –
was sitting . . . beside me . . .
on our love seat . . . in our home . . .
three years ago . . . on a Sunday afternoon.
“I conducted a wedding yesterday,” I said.
“Two men . . . they married each other.”
My mother . . . blind, but still very bright .
. .
I could see her processing this information.
Said she . . . in all innocence . . . in
response:
“That sounds kind of queer!”
Her use of the word was not derogatory.
But historically,
the word has been used in that way,
as a pejorative, disparaging term,
meant to put down
the members of the bisexual, lesbian, gay,
and transgender community,
meant to put down
those who do not fit the societal norm.
But, currently, there are some GLBT folk
who are again using the word
as a way to identify themselves.
Reclaiming it
as a label that is more open, more fluid,
more all-encompassing, less rigid . . .
as a label
that allows for a broader identity.
So, although there are those today
who feel that the word ‘queer’
can never be applied in a positive way,
because if its historical use,
there are many others today
who say they believe there is great value
in repossessing the word.
But these are not straight people.
And as a straight person, myself,
I believe it is inappropriate
for me or for anyone else who is straight
to use that word
to describe someone in the GLBT community.
Because of its history of use
by those of our society who were straight,
or who were obviously homophobic.
Unless . . . we own the word for ourselves.
Then we can use it.
Unless . . . we who truly walk with Jesus
understand . . that because of that . . .
we also . . . are quite queer!
Then we can use it.
Consider this:
A man, flesh and blood, Jewish,
is tried and executed
in first-century Jerusalem.
He has been fingered because he is different.
Rejected because he doesn’t fit the norm.
Unwanted in society (in the religious society)
because he challenges the status quo.
He is known by the name of ‘Jesus.’
A common name of the time and culture.
But his followers
have begun to call him
something else.
“Christ,” “Anointed One,” . . . “Messiah.”
And that’s because his followers . . .
those who walk the roads with him . . .
observe that he is significantly different.
That what he teaches is revolutionary,
in religious terms.
Spiritually revolutionary.
That what he teaches
is a Truth and a Way
that leads to blessing, not to cursing.
And that he lives what it is he teaches.
And that he embodies what he believes.
And they consequently declare him to be
God’s Word incarnate.
And more amazingly,
even though
he has been put to death,
they declare that he’s still with them,
that they are still walking the roads with him,
talking with him,
and hearing him remind them
that he and they are still united
. . . in Spirit . . . and in Love . . .
and in awareness of the Truth.
So for them, Jesus, the Christ, is Lord,
Risen Lord.
For them, he is both human and divine.
Both fully alive
and yet also fully above and beyond this life.
And so the question that arises, then for us –
for us who find ourselves alive in this world,
with all of our normal or not normal
personal particulars . . .
and for us who are searching,
as all people do,
for the model, for the pattern,
for the example
for the hero, for the heroine,
for the superstar,
for the one to emulate –
the question that arises then, for us
is this:
What kind of Lord is this Jesus?
This Risen Jesus?
What kind of Example? What kind of Hero?
What kind of Model for life?
And the answer, I dare say
is that Jesus is a queer example!
He is extraordinary, and odd,
and different, so very different . . .
from the norm.
Jesus is an aspect of God’s initiative
who comes at God’s behest to this world
to make things better . . . and he is queer.
And for good reason.
Because only that which is queer
can actually unsettle that which is normal,
and shift it from its entrenchment.
So that’s why Jesus teaches, for example,
“Love your enemies.
Do good to those who despitefully use you.”
Because that is a queer thing to do.
Even normal Christianity
doesn’t seem to get that.
Certainly doesn’t do that.
“Bomb the ‘bejesus’ out of them.
Send them straight to hell!”
That’s the mantra of so-called
‘normal Christianity,’ it seems,
at least as it is epitomized in contemporary
North American civil religion.
It’s also seen
in the outrageous behaviour in history,
of some of the old leaders of Christendom–
Pope Innocent the 3rd . . . 13th
century . . .
for example,
ordering the slaughter of anyone
who taught any doctrine or allowed any belief
other than what the Pope taught or allowed.
100,000 people, at that time
– men women and children, put to death,
by the established Church.
Most of them innocent of any charge.
But victim to the Pope’s infamous edict:
“Kill them all. God will know his own!”
So, just as normalcy in any area of life
needs the influence of queerness
in order to understand itself
and in order to improve itself,
in order to be shocked out of its complacency,
so religious establishment needs Jesus,
and heterosexuality needs homosexuality
in order to understand itself
in order to see its error
and in order to change and improve.
And thus, we who are committed
to walking with Jesus,
committed to living life under the rule
of the Spirit of Jesus,
it is good for us to remember
that he was truly queer
in the eyes of the establishment.
And that being queer, therefore, ourselves,
as an Affirming faith community
is a legitimate aspect of walking with him!
Jesus, the crucified innocent,
the archetypal “hated Other,”
can be understood thereby
to be the quintessential ‘queer,’
to be the one who understands
that it is in the life at the margins
where the greatest learning occurs,
where the most potent teaching occurs.
And that the true Church, then,
the faith community alive today
that affirms everyone
in the way that Jesus did,
the people truly incarnating his Spirit
must, then also live as a community
and expect to live
on the margins of even the Church . . .
and not in its core . . .
in order to teach the Church.
And that’s what we are endeavoring
to understand and to live,
we who are
the Hamilton Centenary community
of the Christian Church.
We expect to be different in our ministry
from the churches around us.
And appropriately so.
Until the Great Day of Enlightenment.
The status quo of the Church across the world
can never be challenged,
can never be moved,
can never even be budged,
unless the challenge,
unless the push . . arise from within
from that which is queer within,
from that which is extraordinary within,
from that which is
provocative . . . yet faithful.
And thus, for those of you here present,
who are lesbian, or gay,
or bisexual, or transgender,
or for those of you
who describe yourself otherwise
but know yourself to be marginalized . . .
understand
that you are the teachers
for us in the church
who are straight
for us in the church
who are identified with the norm.
Understand that you are our rabbis.
Our imams.
You are our ministers.
Our evangelists.
You are the ones
calling us to repentance.
The ones calling us
to turn from our evil ways.
You are the ones
calling us to renew
ourselves
and to be transformed into true incarnations
of the unconditional love of God.
And to learn anew
what it really means
to walk in the Way of Jesus.
Remember, as our Bible reading today attests,
that Jesus prayed for his followers,
acknowledging
that they were in the world
. . . but not of it.
And so all of us
who have chosen to walk with Jesus
are consequently called to be the same –
to be a faithful presence in the world .
. .
but not a representative or supporter
of the world the way it is!
So, the point, dear friends,
for us here in Centenary, is this –
that this community of faith
to which we belong,
and to which we invite any of you to belong,
who don’t already belong
. . . this community of faith
does not belong to the world.
It does not belong to the city.
It does not belong to the establishment.
It does not even belong
to those who have been its members
over the past 140 years.
Not even to The United Church of Canada.
The building does . . . but not the community!
This community of faith,
known as Centenary,
does not even belong to us.
It belongs to Jesus!
That’s our Affirming commitment.
We belong to Jesus. . . And to no one else!
Centenary . . . belongs . . .
to Jesus – the quintessential queer!
We belong to the One who knows,
beyond anything individually
we can ever know,
what it is to be marginalized . . .
what it is to be crucified . . .
for simply being who you are.
And so those of us who gather here
with regularity,
on Sundays, or on other days,
on evenings,
or during the week in the tea room,
we care that the rest of you know . . .
we care that the whole
of the GLBT community
in Hamilton and across the world know
that you are not only welcome here,
and welcome to be with us online here . . .
but you are also understood here . . .
And you are accepted here . . .
and not only accepted here,
but affirmed here . . .
And not only affirmed here . . .
but loved here . . .
And not only loved here,
but needed here.
You are needed here!
We need you here.
We need all of you here.
We need your gifts.
Your ideas.
We need your teaching.
We need your encouraging.
And we need your love.
You have heard it said:
“Be there . . . or be square!”
Well, I say unto you:
“Be here . . . and be queer!” |
