| “How long, O Lord? … How long … ?
How long must I bear pain in my soul, and have sorrow in my heart…? … [A]nswer me, O Lord my God! Give light to my eyes, or … my enemy will say, ‘I have prevailed.’” Over the ages, this insistent prayer from the beginning of Psalm 13 has found its way onto the lips of countless oppressed people, including, as we have need to recall today, on Gay Pride Sunday, myriads of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender persons-or, for short, “GLBT persons.” “How long must I bear pain in my soul, and have sorrow in my heart…? … [A]nswer me, O Lord my God! Give light to my eyes…” This morning I feel there’s little need for me to belabor the point of the historic oppression of GLBT persons, for that reality is already deeply etched on the mind and heart of nearly everyone here today, whether we are ones who have suffered such oppression, or are ones, like myself, who in the past have inflicted such oppression. So this morning I want to dwell not so much on the anguished opening of Psalm 13 as on its exuberant ending, on its climactic affirmation of trust in God’s steadfast love, when the speaker says: “But I trusted in Your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in Your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, [for God] has dealt bountifully with me.” Here, at the psalm’s conclusion, the speaker affirms that although in our darkest hours of endured oppression it may seem as if God has forgotten or even abandoned us such, in truth, is not the case. For steadfastness in love is so intrinsic to God’s essential nature that should our deliverance from oppression be postponed, should light for our eyes be delayed, such circumstance must be attributed not to any lack of steadfastness in God’s love but rather to the absence of human agents willing to actualize the deliverance that God has purposed. Now, in this morning’s Second Lesson, from the Gospel of Matthew, we hear Jesus imploring people of every nation, people like us, to become just that kind of agent for God’s steadfast love- persons willing to work to actualize God’s purposed deliverance of others. To this end, Jesus bids us all welcome those who are different from ourselves, those who need shelter from harm and oppression. Jesus bids us become agents of God’s steadfast love, persons willing to offer those different from ourselves hospitality rather than hostility, extending to them not a brew of fear and suspicion but a cup of cool, refreshing water-like all those cups of water some Presbyterians have been extending for nearly a decade, through the Evelyn Davidson Water Project, extending to those marching in the Gay Pride Parade, on 5th Avenue between 12th and 11th streets, right in front of the First Presbyterian Church. Now, in a way that strikes me as nothing less than God’s own doing, the message of today’s Second Lesson was powerfully prefigured less than two weeks ago in the call given to Presbyterians by the new Moderator of our denomination’s 214th General Assembly, the Reverend Fahed Abu-Akel. You see, our new Moderator was himself a stranger in need of shelter from harm and oppression when, as a Palestinian Arab, he immigrated to this country in the year 1966. And it was American Presbyterians like us who proved to be for him the agents of God’s steadfast love, the agents who lifted him from oppression to well-being and nurtured him toward his ordination to the ministry of Word and Sacrament twelve years later, in 1978. Because of our new Moderator’s personal experience, it is not at all surprising that upon his election to high office, one of his first acts was to call upon Presbyterians to renew our commitment to the extending of hospitality to those different from ourselves. As the Reverend Abu-Akel himself put it: “The ministry of hospitality is a gift from God. The early Christians were first known as ‘the hospitable people.’” Now you may be asking, “But did our new Moderator intend to call Presbyterians to extend a warm welcome not only to immigrants but also to gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender persons?” Well, to answer that question I can do no better than to quote from an e-mail I received last Tuesday from Mitzi Henderson, the Co-Moderator of More Light Presbyterians, a group of which our church is such a vital part. Mitzi writes: “Early [last Saturday] morning a small group of us from More Light Presbyterians and That All May Freely Serve met privately with new moderator Fahed Abu-Akel, to introduce ourselves and voice our hopes. He was a very sympathetic listener, and [he] wept [while] recounting his encounter at the assembly with an elder who is the father of a gay son and [who] spoke [to the new Moderator] of his pain at the church’s rejection of his son.” Mitzi concludes, [“All in all, this] was the most genuine, warm reception [our group has] had from any moderator.” So, our Moderator himself seems quite willing to extend a refreshing cup of welcome to gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender persons. But what of the 214th General Assembly as a whole? Was it the kind of Assembly that will only lead us to raise once again the cry that opens Psalm 13, “How long, O Lord? … How long …?” Or was it the kind of Assembly that will lead GLBT persons and their allies to proclaim, with Psalm 13’s final verse, “I will sing to the Lord!”? Well, the truth of the matter probably lies somewhere in between. The 214th General Assembly seemed to me one that puts us neither into reverse gear nor into forward gear, but one that leaves us in neutral, reciting to ourselves neither the pessimistic lines that open Psalm 13 nor the optimistic lines that close it, but reciting instead the heartfelt prayer found midway through it, the prayer, “God, give us yet more light for the eyes.” Why do I say, “leaves us in neutral”? Well, the negative feature of this Assembly was that it spoke to GLBT persons nary a word of real welcome into the church. Yet a positive feature of the Assembly was that it voted down, time and time again, the many demands made by persons on the far-right that this Assembly speak to GLBT persons words of outright rejection. For example, the Assembly turned down the demand by the far-right that it instruct the Presbytery of Northern New England to discipline Christ Church, of Burlington, Vermont, the sole More Light Church in that presbytery, a congregation which, like us, openly ordains GLBT persons. And by turning down that demand, the Assembly tacitly agreed to allow that presbytery to continue relating to this congregation in pastoral ways, rather than judicial ways. Also, the Assembly rejected the demand that it tell the presbyteries to cease and desist for five years from sending to the Assembly further requests for constitutional changes having to do with the issues of ordination and human sexuality. Since the current constitution speaks to GLBT persons in quite an unwelcoming way, the Assembly’s action at least leaves the door open for us to attempt sooner rather than later to make positive changes to the constitution. The Assembly also called for a one-year period during which all Presbyterians are to pray lovingly for those in the church with whom they disagree. This discipline of prayer, if carried out, is certain to lead us all to become more gracious, and it will surely help prepare the way in our denomination for the eventual welcoming and full inclusion of GLBT persons. In another positive development, this year’s Assembly also refused to endorse the Federal Marriage Act, a piece of legislation meant to limit the civil contract of marriage solely to heterosexual couples. This action by the Assembly was an extension in principle of its overwhelming reaffirmation, by a vote of 85% to 13%, of our denomination’s longstanding policy of advocating a full array of civil rights for GLBT persons. Amazingly, ever since 1978, our denomination has been willing to tell society to treat GLBT persons equitably, even though we don’t do so ourselves! So these were the official actions of this year’s Assembly, actions that at least left us in neutral gear rather than putting us into reverse. And off the floor of the official General Assembly, in a number of special luncheon and dinner programs sponsored by progressive groups within our denomination, I think the gears of our church actually were getting shifted from neutral into forward, giving us reason to proclaim with new hope those optimistic words spoken by the ancient psalmist, “I will sing to the Lord.” Consider, for example, the speech given to the group called the Covenant Network by a minister from our own presbytery, the Reverend Jon Walton, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church here in Manhattan, where all those cups of cool water get passed out to marchers during the Gay Pride Parade. This is the same Jon Walton who, as announced in last Friday’s New York Times, has been formally charged with heresy by a minion of our denomination’s far-right wing, Mr. Paul Rolf Jensen-the heresy of advocating the ordination of GLBT persons. Our own presbytery has now had to respond to the charges filed against Jon by setting up a committee to investigate Jensen’s allegations. Anyway, back to Jon’s speech at the Covenant Network luncheon. In it, Jon condemned the church’s obsession with “sins of the bedroom,” while it has so little to say about “sins of the boardroom” and about such other serious matters as “pride, selfishness, envy, [and the idolizing of wealth.]” Jon called upon Presbyterians to end the “judicial cannibalism that pits presbyteries against their own churches, and sessions against their own congregants, in matters of conscience and non-essential theological disagreements”-the kind of judicial cannibalism of which, poignantly, Jon himself has now become a victim. In Jon’s speech to the Covenant Network, he also boldly declared that getting the matter of gay ordination right is not, as some would maintain, just a distraction that keeps us from fulfilling the main mission of the church. Not at all, Jon asserted. For getting the matter of gay ordination right “may in fact be precisely the business that God has given us to do-which is why [this issue] won’t go away. In fact, if we cannot solve this [matter] with God’s help, then what [matter] do we think God will help us solve?” If we can’t get right something so relatively simple as extending a welcome and offering a cup of cool water to those who are different from ourselves, then how can we ever expect to get right anything that’s more complicated than that? And finally, let me lift up one other special luncheon that was held at the General Assembly in Columbus, the luncheon sponsored by three of the groups with which Rutgers Church is affiliated: namely, More Light Presbyterians, That All May Freely Serve (the umbrella organization for our own New York City branch called Presbyterian Welcome) and the Stoles Project (in whose ministry of making and displaying stoles for ordained GLBT deacons, elders, and ministers Cathy Blaser, Jon Lembo, and many others in our congregation have been so deeply involved). At that luncheon the Reverends Susan Craig and Erin Katrina Swenson spoke personally and prophetically about the “BT” part of “GLBT”-namely, the bisexual and transgender persons whom the More Light movement also affirms, and whom typical Presbyterians have even more trouble welcoming than we have welcoming just “plain old” gays and lesbians. Craig is herself a bisexual person, and Swenson is herself a transgender person. I left that luncheon conscious of how closed-minded I had continued to be about bisexual and transgender persons, and I left freshly opened, through their witness, to new levels of understanding and to new levels of commitment to inclusiveness. So, welcome to B’s and T’s as well as to G’s and L’s. And if any of you would like a full transcript of the presentations by the Revs. Craig and Swenson and copies of the More Light Statements on both “Bisexuality” and “Transgender,” please speak to me at the door or call me in the office, and I’ll have them sent to you. Christ calls us to be agents of God’s purpose, agents of God’s purpose to deliver those who are oppressed and in need. Christ calls us to welcome those who are different from ourselves and to extend to all a cup of cool, refreshing water. So let us welcome all those in need. For when we act as agents of God’s welcome, we speed the day when that sorrowful lament, “How long, O Lord,” will be changed into the exuberant proclamation, “I will sing to the Lord!” Let us pray: O God, when we ourselves are oppressed, grant that a song of confidence in You may still be found on our lips. And whatever our condition may be, help us to become Your agents for welcoming the stranger and all those in need. Through Christ, we pray this. Amen. |
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