I.
Good morning, Rutgers Presbyterian Church! “The bridegroom rejoices
over the bride, (Isaiah proclaims) and so your God shall rejoice
over you.” Today is the 75th anniversary of the birth of Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr. Let us rejoice for the gift he gave to all of
us through his witness and life, and let us rejoice in this day
God has made.
I want to rejoice for a few things. For being back…with you,
on this second Sunday of Epiphany. I have been rejoicing in seeing you
again after six months of incarceration for civil disobedience against
the “Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation,” formerly
known as the School of the Americas. This is where the U.S. trains
Latin American soldiers before releasing them to serve under the
command of foreign armies.
While in prison I rejoiced because through your letters and prayers
I could feel your presence. Forgive me when I did not write back
quickly enough. I thank your Board of Deacons for the beautiful and
heartening cards, which were an encouragement, and for the almost
weekly notes from Mary Birchard. Prior to prison, I had appreciated
the practice of prayer and the power of loving thoughts; but
post-prison my belief in these spiritual gifts has been strengthened.
Prayer and positive thoughts help, and can beneficially influence the
facts of our lives. Thank you for giving me a stronger belief in
that.
I rejoice this morning that many of you have had the privilege of
getting to know Mieke Vandersall over the past months. After a search
process which reviewed a number of candidates, Mieke Vandersall has been
called to be your new Coordinator of Presbyterian Welcome. You should
know that she comes to this position having just worked for several years
as the Director of the national Presbyterian organization Voices of
Sophia (devoted to justice and theology for women in the Church – and that
she accomplished that while also finishing her degree at Union Theological
Seminary), and you should know that she also served as the Co-Moderator of
Presbyterian Welcome several years back. Presbyterian Welcome is blessed
with this new Coordinator. And for her, I rejoice.
I rejoice for the presence this morning of a number of evangelists
here from around the country. For Lisa Larges, the Regional Partner
Coordinator of That All May Freely Serve, and for Janie Spahr, Freely
Serve’s national evangelist. I rejoice for the presence of Mardee
Rightmyer, who evangelizes for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender
equality in the Presbyterian Church through That All May Freely
Serve—South, based in Atlanta. I rejoice that they join me this morning
for what is my final sermon with you as your first Coordinator of
Presbyterian Welcome. I give thanks for the support my work has
received from these wonderful colleagues in ministry at so many points
along the way.
I rejoice this morning for several leaders from Presbyterian Welcome
who are also here from beyond the bounds of your congregation. I am
deeply thankful and rejoice for each of you. We have come so far
together!
II.
Today is the second Sunday of Epiphany, a season that traditionally
begins with a reading of the three Magi who give their gifts to Christ.
They give gifts in recognition of the Word-Made-Flesh, in recognition
of God-in-their-midst. Today’s lectionary reading from First
Corinthians is also about the giving of gifts.
It’s a familiar passage:
“Many are the gifts, but one is the Spirit;
many kinds of service, but the same God.”
It’s a beautiful passage. My gifts come from the same source as
yours—as if they are fruits on the branches of the same gift-giving tree.
If you are a skilled musician, and let’s pretend I’m a talented
computer-high-technology guy, the Good News is, our gifts are bestowed on
us by the same God. When we use them for encouraging and nurturing each
other, when we allow them to be spiritual gifts, they testify yet again
to their common origin in the Spirit.
It’s a great message. It has a sense of openness. This is the kind
of scripture-text that has helped keep a welcoming and generous spirit
alive in the Church from generation to generation. Paul gives examples
of ten spiritual gifts: Wisdom; Knowledge; Faith; Healing; The working
of miracles; The gift of prophecy; Discernment of spirits; Speaking in
tongues; Interpretation of those who speak in tongues. Theologians,
conservative or liberal, would not make the case that this is new
doctrine to which we should conform. We don’t get the sense from Paul’s
enumeration of gifts that it’s a restrictive list or exclusive. Rather,
it seems to suggest a spirit-of-investigation-and-discovery. Just a
chapter later, in fact, Paul is already expanding his vision, adding
among the gifts hope and love.
“Many are the gifts but one is the Spirit,” suggests we might not even
know what gifts are possible—where they arise from or where they will
lead. It may be that God has gifts for future generations to discover.
Who knew in generations past, of the gifts that lesbian, gay, bisexual,
and transgender persons would have to give each other, their communities,
and the Church of Jesus Christ? Who could have guessed? The
Spirit-of-Many-Gifts could have guessed.
“Many are the gifts, but one is the Spirit” also suggests a quality
of humility. Our gifts come from God. We cannot take full credit for
them, even when we are using them faithfully which in turn implies
guidance from God. Because they flow from God and not from us, some
spiritual gifts are not superior to others; there is no hierarchy.
III.
One way of describing Presbyterian Welcome’s mission is: to search for,
to recognize and to celebrate the gifts of Presbyterians who are lesbian,
transgender, bisexual and gay, and to ordain those who are called to
share their spiritual gifts with the Church. Presbyterian Welcome’s
vision statement reads, “we envision…a Church where God’s gifts of
ordained ministry are recognized in persons regardless of sexual
orientation or gender identity.” It could equally say, “We envision a
Church which is led by a Spirit-of-Many-Gifts, and which doesn’t create
a hierarchy of them.”
The Good news is, Presbyterian Welcome and That All May Freely Serve
and More Light Presbyterian ministries will have a good resource for
pursuing this vision of a Church-as-inclusive-as-God’s-grace. It’s the
companionship of a Spirit which is persistent and inclusive. Paul
writes to the Corinthians: it’s a Spirit “who allots to each person just
as the Spirit chooses” (I Cor. 12:11). It’s a choosy
Spirit, it’s a calling-Spirit, and when it chooses to activate gifts in
us and lead us, it’s not easily ignored. The prophet proclaims in
today’s reading from Isaiah: “God delights in you” (Is. 62:4). It’s a
delightful Spirit too! The mission of inclusion in the Presbyterian
Church will be sustained by a persistent, inclusive, choosy and
delightful Holy Spirit, from whom many gifts flow!
During my six months of incarceration at Fort Dix, New Jersey, which
is the largest federal prison in our nation’s rapidly expanding prison
system, I discovered a world populated by the poor, by immigrants, people
of color, and persons with addictions and mental illness. Thirty-five
years after the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., what he called the
“un-holy-trinity” of racism, poverty and militarism are still alive,
having undergone some shape-shifting in the last generation. Our
national prison system is slowly taking on the features of an industry.
It’s a world of stigma, with over two million residents and no vote.
It’s a community of men whose gifts will not be easily accepted when
they come back to the civilian world. It’s also a community of
heightened spiritual awareness on the part of many turning to God through
a variety of traditions in an attempt to make sense of where they find
themselves, and of the circumstances that brought them there.
Cans of mackerel are the “coin-of-the-realm,” the currency in
circulation among inmates at Fort Dix, because of course we were not
allowed money. And the prison economy was not about cigarettes, or
stamps—it was all about mackerel; it was a mackerel economy. Two macks
bought a haircut; one mack a large piece of peanut brittle sold
door-to-door by a man who made it in one of the microwaves in my housing
unit. And the mackerel was used for many other exchanges.
I want to give Presbyterian Welcome this token gift of a can of
mackerel that I mailed out from Fort Dix, as a reminder that in
Presbyterian Welcome’s ministry of recognizing and celebrating gifts:
search for spiritual gifts even among obstacles and setbacks, among the
hardships and struggles. Allow this token also to remind you that when
the church prays for you and intercedes for you, it really does help.
Allow it to remind you that God dwells particularly with the oppressed,
and that there is never a hierarchy of spiritual gifts. In God’s house,
all gifts are welcome, multiplied, and shared.
At this risk of stretching this can of mackerel too far, I want to
give it to you also in recognition of the fact that Presbyterian
Welcome’s logo is a fish. It’s not a mackerel—it’s an inclusive fish;
it represents all fish. It also represents God’s grace, swimming
freely. It represents a resurrection-breakfast with Jesus on a beach.
And it represents the evangelical call to go and be fishers of women
and men.
IV.
I want to close today by sharing with you a few of the gifts and learnings
I feel Presbyterian Welcome has given me and that I take with me as
strength for my journey. Like Paul’s examples, this list is not exclusive,
and among them there’s no hierarchy:
You have given me memories of wonderful Pride Parades down
Fifth Avenue.
And the chance to see the premier production of “Love According to Luc.”
You have given me the gift of viewing the Shower of Stoles, and hearing
Presbyterian pastors of New York City preach.
You have taught me how to fund raise, and given me an appreciation of the
connectional church.
You have given me room to make a few mistakes.
You have allowed me to function even though I have no gifts as a high-tech
computer guy.
You sent you prayers and blessing to me while I was in prison, and you’ll
never know what that gift meant.
Most generously of all, you’ve given me the enormous privilege of hearing
personal stories of faith and struggle, of heart-aches and joys, in homes,
churches, hospitals and restaurants. Through this ministry, I have had the
enormous privilege of seeing God’s Spirit-of-Many-Gifts alive and at work
through you.
Amen.