God’s love is deep and wide
God loves all people
Beyond differences that may divide us…
We start every worship service, Sunday and weekdays before the Free Store opens, saying that God loves all people, beyond differences that may divide us.
This is a counter-cultural statement.
We live in a world where the differences that divide us are used to separate us and keep us in fear from one another.
It has long been a political strategy to pit poor white people against poor Black people.
Men against women.
Rich against poor.
Straight against gay.
People who are multiple generation immigrants against first generation immigrants.
That is the world we live in, but it is not the world God created it to be, it is not who we are.
We are the Church for All People.
We don’t just believe that every person has sacred value and divine worth, we have experienced it. We have felt the energy that is created when we live and work out of our diversity.
Somehow diversity has suddenly become a cancelled word. Not only in national politics, but two days ago Ohio State University closed its Office of Diversity and Inclusion and its Center for Belonging and Social Change.
Diversity is being portrayed as a negative trend that must be stopped, but we know that diversity is not a negative thing to be wiped from our culture, diversity is a gift and an opportunity that has made us who we are at Church for All People.
When we can bring all of who we are to the table, our unique perspectives and backgrounds, that is when we shine.
As our core value says, “All people have gifts to give and a desire to serve.”
The ability to express the diversity of our gifts is the miracle that makes Church for All People happen.
But we find ourselves living in this strange time where diversity is being devalued and people are being erased.
The contributions of people of color erased.
The gift of people who have come here from other countries erased.
The existence and sacredness of transgender people like me erased.
In last week’s sermon, Alex Clementson said “Your existence is a form of continual résistance to the laws and powers that be in a way that says God has formed me in this moment so that I may be a reminder to the empire that you cannot erase what God has determined to exist.”
You cannot erase what God has determined to exist.
But this world is sure trying.
Today is the final sermon in our series on the revised United Methodist Social Principles. All of these sermons have been about protecting the right to exist. We have heard messages about protecting the right of creation to exist, protecting the rights of people to exist in a world plagued by racism, slavery, human trafficking, and addiction.
Today we hear the invitation of the social principle to protect the rights of people of all sexual orientations and gender identities. Our social principle reads that people of diverse genders and orientations, “are disproportionately impacted by social stigmas, discrimination, coercion and violence, we call on churches, governments, businesses, and civic organizations to do all in their power to combat such unjust treatment and to promote equal rights and protections for all.”
Now, I planned this sermon back in December. Before the onslaught of executive orders and legal actions against transgender people that has taken place over the last six weeks.
These actions are not solely about bathrooms and sports and military service, they are ultimately about erasure. Denying the right of people like me to exist.
Perhaps the most obvious occurrence of erasure happened when the National Park Service recently removed the mention of transgender people from the Stonewall Memorial website.
This was not only an erasure of the category of transgender people, it is an erasure of history.
If you aren’t familiar with Stonewall, the Stonewall riots were a series of violent confrontations between police and queer people outside the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in the Greenwich Village, New York, in 1969. The riots lasted for six days and publicized the persecution of LGBTQ people, giving rise to the gay rights movement around the world.
The riots that happened at Stonewall began with transgender women of color pushing back against the police who regularly arrested and harassed them for simply being who they were. The saints of Stonewall, the people who gave birth to the movement for LGBT rights, were a Black, transgender woman Marsha P. Johnson, a Latina transgender woman Sylvia Rivera, and a Black, butch lesbian Stormé DeLarverie.
They were pushing back against a world trying to erase them… and here we are 55 years later in a world that literally erased their historic contributions.
Almost 2,000 years ago the early Christian saint, Irenaeus, wrote that: “The glory of God is a human being fully alive.” Jesus said in John 10:10, “I came that you might have life and have it abundantly.” Everything we do here at Church and Community Development for All People centers on this vision of all people being alive.
Do you know what that feels like to be fully alive? To have that pep in your step. The feeling you have when you put out an outfit that fits just right? When you perform a song that really smacks? When the wind is at your back and the world is your oyster?
Jesus had that kind of moment in this scripture that is known as the transfiguration.
Jesus gave up whatever it was like to be God, humbled themselves, took on the form of a man, and lived amongst us. In our bodies, our frailty, our human condition.
But there is this one moment that is Jesus coming out party, where Jesus truly shines.
Jesus transitions in to his more authentic self.
And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, his clothes became dazzling white.
Jesus true nature is more fully revealed in this moment than in any other time in scripture.
More of his authentic self is displayed here than any other time.
And then, two very different things happen.
Jesus fully comes out as all that he is and from the cloud came a voice that said, ‘This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!’
Jesus is affirmed by his dad.
But while God affirms Jesus in this moment of sacred transformation, Peter, James, and John don’t know what to do with what they have seen.
The scripture says, And they kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen.
When you have had those moments of fully alive, has someone ever tried to put you in your place? Tell you to be quiet? Have you been ever told you are too much? What are you smiling about? How dare you shine so brightly? Keep silent and don’t tell anyone.
That is what it feels like to be erased.
I know for me I feel more fully alive today than I ever have in my life.
Perhaps the most telling transformation in my life is not in the clothes I wear or the length of my hair, but in my relationship with the mirror. I once avoided and hated mirrors. Now I look in to a mirror and smile and recognize myself and am proud of what I see and say to myself, “I love you.”
And yet, while I love who I am and who I am becoming, not everyone in the world is excited about me shining so brightly.
Who am I to dare to be my beautiful self when we have all been conditioned to play small, to go along with the crowd?
I believe that God has not only done a new work in me, but that God is doing a new work through people like me to expand our understanding of the diversity of creation and stretch our understanding of who the neighbor is that we are called to love.
Back in the fall I successfully defended my doctoral work. In those studies, I created resources to equip other transgender faith leaders.
In my research I interviewed a transgender playwright from England named Jo Clifford. Jo has gained some worldwide notoriety (positive and negative) for writing plays like God’s New Frock and Jesus Queen of Heaven.
In our interview, Jo talked about the struggle people have with us transgender folk. She said:
We're living in a time of transition. It's not just us that are in transition. It's the whole of Western Society that's in transition. One of the things that doesn't work anymore are traditional ideas of what it means to be a man and what it means to be a woman. The gender binary is no longer enough. It doesn't help anybody. And young people understand that--inside their own bodies deep, deep inside their selves. And this is what right wing politicians hate us so much. Because they know in their bones that we are bringing about change that will deprive these old patriarchs of their power. That's when they're kicking back against us so strongly. And so in a sense what we bring is very profound.
Diversity brings profound change.
Think of the diverse faces in the March on Washington.
The diversity of queer women of color who started the LGBT rights movement.
The diversity we see this in this room that has brought about the transfiguration of the South Side of Columbus.
In order for diversity to do its thing, we have to live out this social principle.
We have to be the ones to “do all in our power to combat such unjust treatment and to promote equal rights and protections for all.”
We know the government is no longer going to do it, corporations are no longer going to do it, universities aren’t going to do it.
So this is an opportunity for us as a church that promotes and protects all people, especially vulnerable queer people, so that we can glorify God.
A gallup study released a couple of weeks ago reported that 23 percent of Gen Z people identify as LGBTQ. Most queer people have a rightfully cautious view of the church. What if we were the church who lived out our own social principle and promoted equal rights and protections for this growing and vulnerable population?
I don’t have any ideas on how we can change the rest of the world. I can’t undo executive orders or change the policies of Ohio State University or Target or anyone else. Despite all of our advocacy work I have been a part of over the last several we couldn’t stop any of the harmful anti-trans legislation here in Ohio.
What can we do?
For my queer siblings, continue to show up and shine with the glory of who God created you to be. We might be tempted to hide, but that is not healthy for us. That leads to our own despair. Shine with all God created you with.
For my allies: do what God does in this scripture.
When someone is vulnerable and they shine with their full glory and they come out, affirm them.
All people want to be affirmed, known, and loved… especially LGBTQ people, many of whom have been rejected by families and communities.
When others say negative and hateful things, stand up for us: we are God’s creation
Say about us what God says about their own transitioned child: this is a child of God, listen to them.
Follow the example of Pastor Ernest. When people went to him complaining about me, he would simply respond: she is a child of God and this is a Church for All People.
Let us be the ones who fully affirm each other in our identity, our mission as a Church for All People, our journey to be all that God created us to be so we can shine with that glory.
Let us make space for the diversity of God’s creation to shine with all the colors of the rainbow. When we do that, God shows up, the miracle happens, we shine with the glory of God.
