+Z’ev

Today’s assigned readings:

AM Ezekiel 2:1-7, Acts 11:1-18
PM Isaiah 49:1-6, Galatians 2:1-9

…I, Paul, had been entrusted with the gospel for the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel for the circumcised…
Galatians 2:7

Today’s feast is curious. Today’s date has nothing to do with the life of either Apostle. As with so many saints’ days or even Dominical holy days, today is a Church anniversary: in or around 258, under the Valerian persecution, what were believed to be the remains of the two apostles were both moved temporarily to prevent them from falling into the hands of the persecutors.

Icons for the feast usually show the two men embracing or even kissing! An interesting notion considering we’re commemorating the transfer of their relics. Also, there is no clear notion in the scriptures that Peter and Paul really got along. Luke has an interesting version of the “Peter eating with Gentiles” story if we compare it to a similar story in Galatians 2:11-2:14. This must have come before Peter’s vision… or maybe the other way around? Not sure. The writer of Acts usually sounds like a friend of Paul’s. But today’s passage makes it almost sound like Petrine Propaganda and that Paul comes along for the ride. Maybe the propaganda is an insert? Is that why “Cephas” (Kephas, in Greek) is used in verse 9, and it’s suddenly shifted to “Peter” or Petros? Don’t know: I do think it’s odd that the writer(s) use both names.

And then we come to Galatians and you have to imagine that after he spoke to God, saw the sheet filled with foods, etc, Peter backslid into the old ways of the Circumcision Faction. That’s not too infallible.

We want to imagine that Paul and Peter agreed on everything. This is a reading-back. Some also like to imagine that Peter was the First Pope - whom Paul opposed to his face for being wrong so there’s nothing so infallible about him in Acts and Galatians. It’s ok to be reading our current assumptions into these ancient texts: there’s no way not to. But it’s important to be honest about doing it.

It’s comparing passages such as these - or manufactured feast days such as this one - that make me want to accept the “revisionist” readings of scripture and Church history: that there were many orthodoxies, eventually stamped out by the state Church. Than the state church constructed a reading of scripture and of history that supported her. You can call this the “Dan Brown” reading if you’d like but I think his work of fiction is only the most far-fetched of these.

Which brings me to the question of Authority… which is a good one for the feast of these two.

Who has the authority to read the scriptures and tell us what they mean?

This has been my on-going struggle over the last couple of years. It seemed a logical assumption - shared by many who make the journey - that someone must have that authority. Everyone seems to make it somehow: for Romans it is the Pontiff. For some Eastern Christians it is the consensus spoken in the Ecumenical Councils and continuing on through their bishops to this day. I’ve heard that idea voiced by at least one Anglican as well - that the Bishops gathered in communion can speak the “Mind of Christ”. Other churches hold the same ideas about Synods, seemingly, although some insist the “real” Church can’t do anything opposed to scripture which idea creates a sort of infinite regress of Authority on itself. Some groups seem to think the Senior Pastor or the founding preacher holds that Authority. Most American Protestants take up many “Bible study books” with various interpretations and never notice the conflicts in them - or if they do they seem to mark it all down to providence. Some seem to trust the footnotes almost as much as the text. The more liberal sorts pick up the Jesus Seminar materials or maybe the work of non-theistic rejection conducted by Jack Spong.

Ultimately - even in the most authoritarian of all possible choices - what I came to realise is that each of us relies on herself for the final choice: even if that choice is to give up making any further choices.

Each of us experiences what all the converts have since the very beginning:

And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as it had upon us at the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said, “John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
Acts 11:15-16

I know Jesus promised us the Spirit would lead “you” into all truth. The “you” is plural. It should be “Y’all” or, as they say in these parts, “You’uns”. But it is still an egalitarian word. He didn’t say “will lead y’all, from the top…” or “will lead you’uns who are leaders and the rest of them as wants ta will have ta follow…”

Peter and Paul “those who were supposed to be acknowledged leaders (what they actually were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality)”; Peter and Paul and the rest of us are in this together.

Today’s assigned readings:

1 Samuel 8:1-22, Acts 6:15-7:16, Luke 22:24-30

But Jesus said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those in authority over them are called benefactors. But not so with you; rather the greatest among you must become like the youngest, and the leader like one who serves.”
Luke 22:25-26

I love the story in today’s passage from 1 Samuel. The conversation between Samuel and the People, on one hand and between God and Samuel, whispering “in the ears of the Lord” is endearing. God’s heart is clearly hurt. And Samuel is wounded as well - because his sons, who might be judges after him, are royal schmucks that the people don’t want.

Interesting side comments: since when would a judge’s son(s) rule after him? All the other Judges were, seemingly, hand-picked by God. Why would the people or Samuel assume primogeniture? This passage matches nearly perfectly with the picture painted by Julian Jaynes in his seminal work, The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind… I’m not capable of explaining his theory in a concise way, but I heartily suggest Jaynes’ work as a reference when dealing with material from the earlier Hebrew scriptures or other early literature, especially if you want to look from a non-theistic point of view.

Anyway… God makes it clear to Samuel, “for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me”. It’s about Israel rejecting God. Samuel then goes on to warn Israel just exactly what a King would do (vrs 11 - 18). And then, today, we have Jesus saying, “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them… But not so with you… the leader must be like one who serves.”

I’m left meditation on how many times since Constantine, Christians have taken to themselves a “leader” who was more like the “Kings of the Gentiles lording it over them” and far less one who serves. In fact, most often, we like to take kings in the same way Israel does - “We are determined to have a king over us, so that we also may be like other nations, and that our king may govern us and go out before us and fight our battles.”

Are we rejecting God’s kingdom thereby?

This is an especially interesting question as we enter into a “presidential election cycle” here in the US - but most of us have to deal with it as well. And, given that St Paul totally changes the Bible’s anti-kingly tune by insisting that kings are appointed by God, we’re left with a choice to make. It’s not to pit one against another as if to prove a contradiction in the Bible and make it all untrue. The conversation that’s in the Bible continues today. People of faith have made either choice - for or against kings - and, we continue to make them. I think either can be the right choice for one to make in working out one’s salvation.

Politics, as Tony Blair noted on Tuesday, are a varied field.

The second thing that I would like to say is about politics and to all my colleagues from different political parties. Some may belittle politics but we who are engaged in it know that it is where people stand tall. Although I know that it has many harsh contentions, it is still the arena that sets the heart beating a little faster. If it is, on occasions, the place of low skulduggery, it is more often the place for the pursuit of noble causes.

More than “he arena that sets the heart beating a little faster”, politics can be a huge distraction - for me and others. I’d go so far as to call it an addiction: no matter how many times I say I’ll not blog on it again, I do. No matter how many times I say I don’t care, I do. No matter how many times I manage to not vote - and manage not be overly critical of those whom the rest of you elect b/c I realise it’s not my place to complain - I still find myself in moments of support for or detraction from various political types or movements. How do we make choices in the political arena - not astute choices, not even “right” choices. How, rather, do we make choices that work for our salvation and the salvation of others? Not “Salvation” in the “get out of hell free” sense, but rather in the fullest sense of the Greek word: wholeness. Please note “wholeness” includes this world and the next, neither to the exclusion of the other. How do we make our choices?

One of the curious things in US Politics is that, allegedly anyway, the Government is by “the People”. In such a democratic society, in theory anyway, we are all the leaders. We are all called by Jesus to be servants who lead by our submission and love. In such a political set-up as we have in America it is perhaps even more important that we find a way to be servants rather than lords.

So many times in politics it’s not that way for me, nor, I think is it that way for most of us. We make our political choices without thinking, as the American Indians say, unto the 7th Generation. Rarely do we even think of our neighbour in the process, who may have totally different needs or desires. We think only of getting the most votes and squashing the weaker minority. I can see this among my co-activists in the gay community: our goal is any victory possible rather than to drag the “others” along with us. It’s evident in housing choices where one might seek to increase her “property value” without realising that increased housing costs drive out the poor who, otherwise, might drag down that same “value”.

So rarely do political choices value “humans”. I cannot work out my salvation in a way that enslaves you.

Jesus promises to place those who follow him in a Kingdom where we may “may eat and drink” at his table: that is the Eucharist, the Eternal Paschal Feast that is everywhere. We confuse that divine kingdom with the petty ones of this world - rejecting God. Instead we could be manifesting that kingdom in our very lives and actions: inviting others to eat and drink with us.

Double coincidence: today is the 24th of June and the same readings have come up again in the Eucharistic Lectionary on the same Sunday and it is also Gay Pride Sunday… So I post this

Sermon, 24 June 2001

by D. Huw Richardson

The Lessons were St Pauls Letter to the Galatians 3:23-29 (Neither Jew nor Greek, etc)
And Luke 8:26-39 (Christ healing the Man possessed by the Legion of Demons)

It’s my sense that both these readings that we’ve heard today talk about healing of one sort or another. The Gospel speaks of an internal healing, and the Epistle talks about an external healing in the community.

In October of 1986 Rolling Stone Magazine published an article called “AIDS on Campus.” The idea was to discuss how the sexual culture on college campuses had changed in the three or four years that AIDS had been part of public discourse, at that time. At the end of the article was a section called “Strange Bedfellows,” where the writer was talking about how AIDS had created very odd friendships. And in that section was a paragraph about a gay man who was a member of a college fraternity. And the gay man shared the story of his straight roommate, who was concerned that he might “catch AIDS” as they shared a joint, back and forth.

Since my mother’s here, I’ll state categorically that I did not inhale!

Rolling Stone interviewed me because they couldn’t figure out what a gay man was doing in a fraternity. I had a coming out story that was, truthfully, very odd. I had almost no negatives to report. I had a loving family and a caring and supportive church community. And when you consider how bad it could have been - with a group of 20, post-adolescent, sexually frustrated males, living in a house with a common shower, and beer on tap 24/7 - I had an amazing fraternity to come out in!

The semester I came out, I was elected Secretary of my fraternity, and also Chairperson of the Gay and Lesbian Union and New York University. As a result, my fraternity went from being what ad copy called “the nation’s oldest continually active fraternity” - which I know Tim Smith has trouble with - to being poster children for multi-cultural diversity! That year we got $20,000 in funding from the university, which was quite a leap over the $3,000 we got the year before.

Actually, my fraternity loved me.

My fraternity and my gayness were only two parts of a contradictory picture. I was in the Protestant Campus Ministry, where I was the Episcopal Peer Minister. But I was also known on campus as a person you could call and ask questions about paganism. In fact, two dorm counselors paid me real money to go sit in the dorms and talk to their students about why that pagan roommate wasn’t a Satanist who was going to kill you when the sun went down.

I was known for going to church every Sunday, and yet during the two years when I was the only gentile studying Hebrew at NYU, worshiping on Friday nights at the Congregation Bet Simchat Torah, practicing my Hebrew and worshipping, right along with everybody else. When I went to church they wondered what I was doing with those pagans. And when I went to pagan groups - or gay groups - they wondered, “what is he doing with those Christians?”

Oh, and that fraternity! Oh my goodness!

For their part, my fraternity was okay with my religious backgrounds, but they really wanted to keep the gay stuff in the bedroom and not in the living room.

That’s one part of my patchwork quilt, sewn together at one point in my life, in 1985, 86, 87 - when I was in NYU. It’s not a “legion” inside, but it’s close. It seems at times all we can do is take out one facet of ourselves, one part of our legion, and show it to the people around us, in the hopes that they will like that. But the “legion” inside, even a small one: it’s as if we are filled, filled with a thousand points of very disparate light. And each light accents only one fragment of the whole. And sometimes one fragment of the whole, Christ intended is “the whole.”

I’ve spent an inordinate part of my life - most of the last 20 years - being GAY! Big rainbow flags, big triangles, gay parades! I think I was all every bit gay. Gay owned and operated businesses and gay stores and gay jobs and gay employees and gay roommates and gay media and gay news. When I came to San Francisco I even worked for a time at gay.com!

It all seems very oddly imbalanced now, when I think about it, but I moved to San Francisco to be a gay pagan. (Indicating his vestments, the president’s chair in which he is seated, and the entire congregation - laughter) Evidently this is what gay pagans do in San Francisco on Gay Pride Day!

When Paul was writing Galatians he was writing to a community that was made up at the time - as were most Christian communities - of Jews who had come to believe that Jesus was the messiah, and of Gentiles who had reached that decision as well. And they were debating, arguing, fighting and praying about the question, “How can a Gentile enter into relationship with the Jewish God through the Jewish Messiah, if he doesn’t first become Jewish?” And Paul’s answer to them was very important.

It was a division in their society that was visceral. It was even felt in the prayers. In the Jewish tradition then - and still today, in Conservative and Orthodox tradition - the morning prayers include the lines, ” “Blessed are you Adonai our God, King of the Universe, for having not made me a Gentile.” “Blessed are you Adonai our God, King of the Universe, for having not made me a Slave.” “Blessed are you Adonai our God, King of the Universe, for having not made me a Woman.”

The prayers are phrased in that negative way: “thank you, God, that I’m NOT that.” A woman, by the way, does something I like. She gets to affirm: “Thank you, God, for having made me according to your will.”

So Paul’s answer: “As many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” There is neither Jew nor Gentile; there is neither slave nor free; there is neither male nor female. Paul’s answer was direct, to the point: divisions don’t count now. All are one in Christ.

The most heretical thing I ever heard preached in my entire life was in this very chair, by our Rector, Rick Fabian - and I don’t mean his questions about the Resurrection! He said Fred Phelps was a child of God and I had to love him. Fred Phelps - the pastor of the Westboro Baptist Church. “God Hates Fags” Fred Phelps - is a child of God and I have to love him.

And the second most heretical thing I ever heard is on our liturgy video (that you can buy at that table by the door!) And Dave Hurlbert says, “I have found a church where it didn’t matter if I was gay or straight - where I did not feel gay.”

The first thing the demoniac says is, “let me stay with you.” And Jesus’ reply is “No - go home. Reconnect with your family. Reconnect with your community. Reconnect with your life.”

I can’t tell you my story without telling you about the pain and the division. It’s not a valid story without that. But it’s not a valid story either, if I leave the rest off.

Jesus’ Gospel doesn’t seem to be just about one person’s “holistic self-integration” but rather, it’s about a community of different and disparate voices, healing, coming together. Because in Messiah God reached out to us when we could not reach out to Him. It is, however, only one small step to go from “here’s my pain” to “you were never a demoniac; you can’t understand!” “You were never a gay man; you can’t understand!” “You didn’t have trouble coming out - they said to me - you can’t understand!”

All are one in Christ. As many as have been immersed in Christ have put on Christ. Alleluia! We sing it in our baptism, but there are many ways to be immersed in Christ.

When I first started coming back to church I wondered “how could I give my life back to this person I had rejected? There must be something I could do in public. And then came Holy Week last year, and the Maundy Tuesday Service, and the foot washing.

And after dinner Michael Barger got up from our table and went to the kitchen to get one of those huge bowls and the towels, and he came back to our table. He came to me, and I saw Christ kneel down and wash my feet. And then Christ got up out of my chair and turned around, and knelt down, and washed the feet of Christ who was sitting right next to me. All are one in Christ. I ran from the room, crying. I couldn’t cope.

The divisions are real. The pain of our division and our sense of separation is real. But all are one in Christ. What changes? Our divisions, our pain become our gifts. And we are gathered together
like so many grains on so many hillsides into one loaf that’s placed on the altar, and we feed each other, and when it comes back to us, it is Christ. And every hand has a nail print.

1 Samuel 4:12-22, James 1:1-18, Matthew 19:23-30


Monday, the Nativity of St. John the Baptist*: (Xfrd)

AM Malachi 3:1-5, John 3:22-30

PM Malachi 4:1-6, Matthew 11:2-19


Tuesday*:

1 Samuel 6:1-16, Acts 5:27-42, Luke 21:37-22:13


Wednesday*:

1 Samuel 7:2-17, Acts 6:1-15, Luke 22:14-23


Thursday (Irenaeus):

1 Samuel 8:1-22, Acts 6:15-7:16, Luke 22:24-30


Friday, Peter and Paul:

AM Ezekiel 2:1-7, Acts 11:1-18

PM Isaiah 49:1-6, Galatians 2:1-9


Saturday:

1 Samuel 9:15-10:1, Acts 7:30-43, Luke 22:39-51

*There will be no posting on these days (although I reserve the right to pop up with an idea here or there).

OK… I’m off (well, I will be after I pick up the car, pack and nap). I’m off to Hamilton and thence to Toronto to spend the local pride celebration with my Brodie.

Blogging will be sporadic at both Sarx and +Z’ev.

Pictures will be forthcoming.