For all the people wept when they heard the words of the law*

I always shudder a little bit when these readings from Nehemiah come up because of that place-name “Water Gate.” I’m of the generation that watched a president resign–the first time that had ever happened–and the whole scandal was so associated with a building named after this famous Water Gate that we have an entire genre of “gates” now: [your scapegoat]-gate.

Curiously, or interestingly, the reading from Nehemiah points us precisely toward the sorts of crises that might lead to upsets. In the story (Nehemiah 8: 1 ff.) Nehemiah has brought the actual text of the Ten Commandments out to read them to the crowd assembled. They’re all in awe of the God who has sent them such a gift, although they haven’t heard the “rules” yet. And when Nehemiah reads the crowd breaks down and sobs uncontrollably “For all the people wept when they heard the words of the law.” We are led to believe they are sobbing in awe of their awesome God, but let’s face it, the real reason they’re sobbing probably had to do with their sudden realization that they had broken every rule in the book. If these were the rules they were … ummm, let’s use doomed here.

Or maybe they were sobbing because they knew they were going to have to give up their power and authority. And here is where I bring the story home always to the present day. We all spent a lot of energy last week being upset by the Anglican Primates and the decision at the conclusion of their meeting regarding the Episcopal Church. All week long we have been showered with official pastoral responses by almost every bishop in the Episcopal Church and many from Canada and other Anglican churches as well. But in the end it mostly all comes down to the point we find ourselves sharing with Nehemiah. Someone needs to read the two commandments, those that constitute Christianity, to those bishops from other parts of the world who seek to continue oppression of glbt people. Because my friends, there is nothing in scripture to properly account for their “conclusion” that glbt people are sinful by nature. I could rehearse all of the arguments here but I don’t need to do that, we did that decades ago. If you want, hunt back in my archives for references to the scholarly work that brings all of the proof-texts to bear. There is nothing in Christ that condemns homosexuals or homosexuality. It is a made-up position, derived from deliberate misinterpretation of Old Testament texts. In fact, there is nothing in the Old Testament that condemns homosexuals or homosexuality. There are stories about David and Jonathan and Ruth and Naomi, for example, and other examples of revelation of God’s creation of all people in God’s image, gay straight or otherwise.

So that brings us to the weepers at the Water Gate. They realized their plight, because it was not just that they had sinned and not only that they had sinned but it was really that they kept doing it on purpose. And their sin was to oppress their neighbors. Christ gave us two commandments: love God, and love each other. And Christ told us to remember that the two really were the same thing, that to love each other is to love God and to love God fully means loving each other fully. Jesus also told his disciples that whenever they went to a place to bring the Holy Spirit and they weren’t accepted they were to shake the dust off their feet and move on to another place.

So my friends, remember this: those who seek to oppress us do not need to be convinced by Scripture that they are wrong, they know they are wrong, they are doing this on purpose. They have nearly lost the fight to restrict holiness to white males, and only by continuing to oppress the weak among them can they continue to maintain power over females and non-heterosexual males. I’ve written this before (this seems to be becoming a refrain for me): the theology is not new and they’re all familiar with it. In the same way that the Roman curia knows there is no necessity to prevent the ordination of women other than as a means of control; women were among Jesus’ disciples and appear all through the New Testament as founders of the new church.

Jesus constantly reminded people that the kingdom of God had already come near, the problem was for them to put aside their self-centeredness and open their hearts to the universality of God’s creation. This is still the promise of salvation, that in Christ God has given us all that we need to be at one with God and with all of God’s creation. All we have to do is stop oppressing, stop stigmatizing, stop obsessing about self and open our hearts to the movement of a loving God whose creation encompasses all people. Even gay people.

©2016 The Rev. Dr. Richard P. Smiraglia. All rights reserved.

3 Epiphany (Nehemiah 8: 1-3, 5-6, 8-10; Psalm 19; 1 Corinthians 12: 12-31a; Luke 4:14-21)

 

Members of the Body*

There are times when I think my body parts are at war with each other. Mostly my knees, which seem to be in a very bad mood lately. I love this reading from Corinthians. Can you imagine a knee saying to an ankle “I have no need of you”? No, I can’t either. All of the parts of the body, no matter how dysfunctional, are necessary, and what’s more, they’re all expected to work together in unison.

But, body parts is just the lovely beginning of this week’s scripture. We also have the fulfillment of scripture in the presence of the people of God. Beginning with Nehemiah. Now, what you need to know is, this event really did take place. And it was at the end of a very long exile, when the people had been brought back to Israel, and built a new city on the ruins of the old, and begun a new temple to God. In light of their sins, which they believed had caused their generations-long outcast and exile, they now wanted to turn again to God, directly. And this scroll Nehemiah is reading to them is probably an early version of the book we call Leviticus. “Rules” for the Levites, the tribe of Israel that provided the high priests.

So, I love this reading from Nehemiah. Of course, I can never forget the lecture Dr. Richard Corney gave in my Old Testament class at GTS about this reading. I could just see Nehemiah standing before the Watergate (like some ancient Richard Nixon) reading transcripts while the terrified people cried and the scribes gave interpretation. Well, if you’re old enough to remember the Watergate hearings, you will see the obvious parallel. (Otherwise, as Emily Litella used to say, “never mind!”) Look at this behavior! They  bowed their heads, they answered “Amen Amen.” They wept. Wow.

So, then, in the Gospel we have Jesus acting out this same thing. He goes to the synagogue where he had been an irrelevant little kid (or was he? we don’t know; maybe he had been a geek?). It says he’s full of the Spirit and he proclaimed the good news, which is God’s favor—release, recovery, freedom.” And then, sitting, a proclamation: fulfilled right in front of you.

So what is it that unites us with these stories? It is the truth about our lives as God’s children, as created gay individuals. God made us gay in God’s image. God calls us to constant work in God’s kingdom, which has drawn near, which is fulfilled in our hearing, if we will sit, stop weeping, and listen. And, as St. Paul notes, the body is one with all of its members, perfect in unity and diversity. No member of the body may cast out any other member of the body. God made you and me gay, because the body of Christ needs gay members. As former presiding bishop Edmund Browning famously said “There will be no outcasts.”

*3 Epiphany (Nehemiah 8: 1-3, 5-6, 8-10; Psalm 19 Caeli enarrant; 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a; Luke 4:14-21)

©2013 The Rev. Dr. Richard P. Smiraglia. All rights reserved.