Jesus, You, By the Seaside*

You do remember this is a gay blog, right? One thing I want glbt people to learn to do is to be proud of being gay. Another thing I want us to do is learn to read the Gospels with gay eyes; these stories are about us too, you see.

Well, when I was in seminary we had a lot of chatter, that is “we the gay folk,” about this particular Gospel, because it is a very gay-resounding story. To understand that, you need to understand what it meant to be a seagoing sailor who caught fish. Okay, enough with the polite stuff: you need to know we’re talking about a lot of men in their 20-30s (but mostly at the low end of that scale) and they’re all working naked. Think about it. If “clothed” meant a tunic, you would take that off to get into the water, wouldn’t you?  So, here is Jesus walking along selecting naked men to be his disciples. But I’m going to stop there. As I said last week, you can fill in the gaps for yourself according to your own experience of gay life.

You see, the magic of the Gospels is that they are written to liberate every one (and I split that deliberately), every single one. There are a zillion ways you can read that story so you are in it. And that is really the magic of the Gospels. They are not instructions for us; rather, they are stories about us. So our job is to see how we fit in.

Do we immediately leave our nets and follow Jesus? Everybody in this story did just that. Why would we do that? It says because we could learn to follow Jesus. And Jesus was proclaiming the good news of the kingdom.

I have to admit after almost two decades of preaching and writing I get pretty weary of trying to be a beacon of light in the gay community. In the church, we have a lot of gay people. They pretty much are scared that they are only being slightly tolerated. How many times have I been to meetings where gay vestry would say “well, we won’t get the crazy ones”—meaning gay people who might dare to hold hands, or sit close, or pray together. In the real world, there are many many gay people who just say “I reject religion” and won’t even talk about it. Of course, they are hurt, from having been rejected by religious communities.

Do you want me to say that’s okay? I won’t because it isn’t. There is no justification for any oppression of gay people in Christianity.

There is no justification. None, Nada, zip, zilch. I don’t care what you now think you are going to bring up “but it says …” or “ but she told me …” there is none. As Peter says in Acts, ‘there is no partiality in Christ Jesus.’ No partiality. And you are made gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered in the image of God. Goodness there is a whole sermon there isn’t there, about how God is the very image of transgender?

Paul says this week “Has Christ been divided?” What a heroic preacher he was. No. I love the last line of this pericope: “for the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” And that’s just about it. Are you with God? If so, then the power of the cross is the power that brings you home to God. And if not, then all is foolishness.

Let’s go back to Jesus walking by the lake ….; did you think that story was about some old guys two thousand years ago? Ha ha … that story is about you. Jesus is choosing you. Right there wherever you are, however you are.

The message of this Gospel to gay and lesbian and bisexual and transgendered Christians is to come out with power. Isaiah says “there will be no gloom for those who were in anguish.” My friends God has given us life, and God has given us gay life on purpose to give us joy of a particular and special kind, and God has called us to spread that joy into all of God’s creation.

Amen.

*3rd Sunday after the Epiphany (Isaiah 9:1-4, Psalm 27:1, 5-13, 1 Corinthians 1:10-18, Matthew 4:12-23)

© 2011 The Rev. Dr. Richard P. Smiraglia. All rights reserved.