Refusing to be Snubbed ... Omnipotent Persistence and Determination ...

by the Rev. Robert Taylor,

St. Mark's Church, Seattle, WA

 

Thanks to David Enroth (SpiritWarriorSky@aol.com) for forwarding:

In his beautiful homily about mercy, Robert Taylor invites each of us to consider where we find mercy in our own lives?

In the piece that follows Robert's, South Asian Sufi Muslim Jamal Rahman reminds all of us in his letter to the Seattle P.I. that we can always get more from honey than from the fruits of a bitter tree: "If an extremist commits a wrong, don't criticize his religion. Point out the verses of beauty in his religion. Help the person become a better Muslim, Christian or Hindu.

 

May peace greet you warmly on this blessed Saturday ... Sky

 

 

Sermons at Saint Mark's

 

The Very Reverend Robert Taylor, The Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost, August 14, 2005

 

 Unabating Mercy

Isaiah 56:1-7             Romans 11:13-15, 29-32                Matthew 5:21-28

Many of us love the metaphor of a journey to describe our lives. At Saint Mark 's we often talk about the "spiritual journey."  "Journey" acknowledges the truth that none of us remains the same.  "Journey" honors the dimensions of change that shape us. In today's Gospel we meet two people who are changed because of their meeting.  Neither of them leaves their encounter the same.  One is the Canaanite woman and the other is Jesus.  Their journey of change is held together by the very thing that the woman asks for, and which Jesus at first seems unable to offer -- mercy.

In the Hebrew Scriptures, mercy is almost always an expression of God's compassion and tenderness. God's mercy is often experienced, even when the Hebrew people are wayward or not keeping the commandments. God's mercy is often more important to God than the criteria of laws. So in the Old Testament we have glimpses of God being changed, of God left different by being merciful. 

Denise Levertov suggests that we should live in the mercy of God.  She writes that God's "vast flood of mercy" is "flung on resistance."[i] At one point she describes God's mercy as being like a waterfall, flinging itself "unabating, down and down, to clenched fists of rock."  I imagine that like me, you too have been resistant, oblivious or petulant about the possibility of living in the mercy of God. Like those clenched fists!

One writer bewails the fact that we live in a time in which we no longer seem willing to live with the experiences of life without naming them. She suggests that by naming everything -- passive-aggressive, co-dependent, dysfunctional, alcoholic, etcetera, there's a desire for life to be less painful, bloodless.  She says that in the naming we have all been "reduced to literary criticism." [ii]

Some of that naming is a useful tool. We could have a field day naming the behavior of the woman in today's Gospel, to say nothing of the behavior of Jesus! 

The woman has a whole host of things working against her. She is a woman in a culture where that did not count for much. She was a Canaanite, and Josephus wrote that the Canaanites were the worst enemies of the Jewish people. She breaks all cultural and social norms by speaking to this Jewish man. She shouts. She is loud. She is dogged.  Her ethnicity, gender and socio-economic status all work against her in trying to connect with Jesus[iii].  And Jesus seems like those clenched fists of rock that mercy is flung down on.  He is the one who seems resistant. But she will not be snubbed.

Jesus is dismissive of her, and rude.  He compares her to the dogs, a term used for Gentiles. Even household pets, fed with the crumbs from the table, fare better than this woman. To Jesus she is just not part of his mission. She is outside of salvation.

But she does not allow any of his behavior toward her to become a stumbling block.[iv]   She believes that divine mercy knows know bias, no boundaries.  She believes that Jesus will show mercy. And something is clearly happening in their interaction.  Perhaps they're each amazed at what is going on in their encounter.  Perhaps neither of them was prepared for this turn in their journey. To the degree that she is persistent, so Jesus seems to begin to believe. This powerless woman shows Jesus that mercy is not about privilege. Mercy seems to ground her. It is the basis of her faith in him.When Jesus acknowledges her faith he seems to expand his sense of purpose and mission.  

Not only is her faith acknowledged, Jesus calls it "great."  And healing happens. An even more powerless person, the woman's child, is healed.  I wonder what healing Jesus received from this journey of resistance giving way to mercy?

I wonder where those clenched fists of rock, resisting mercy, lie along your own journey or mine? Sometimes we are not able to breathe in the waterfall of mercy that Levertov writes of. The unabating quality of mercy seems too much. Or does it? The Canaanite woman expected it and would not rest until mercy was acknowledged.  At the very least, Levertov says, we might breath the spray of mercy. Rumi says that in all of the expansion and contraction of life, his refuge is with the Merciful. [v]

Today's gospel offers mercy as part of the way of life, part of the way of being with one another, mercy as part of how we are in the world, mercy defining our journey with the Merciful One. Jesus is changed by mercy. The Canaanite woman invites even Jesus into being merciful. Nothing between them is the same because of mercy. 

So where along your journey, where along our journey together, does mercy find us?  Where do we breathe it in?  How are we healed by it?  Mercy makes herself known by making sure that nothing remains the same after we have experienced it.  Who invites you into mercy?

---

[i] Denise Levertov, "To Live in the Mercy of God," The Stream and the Sapphire (New York: New Directions Books, 1997), p. 31.

[ii] Patricia Hampl, Virgin Time (New York:  Ballantine Books, 1993), p. 12.

[iii] Judith Gundry-Volf, "Spirit, Mercy, and the Other," Theology Today, Vol. 51, No. 4 (Jan. 1995), p. 508.

[iv] Ibid. p. 519.

[v] Rumi, "Expansion and Contraction," Love Is a Stranger, (Boston: Shambhala Publications, 1993) page 40.

---

A collective problem needs collective fix

 

Regarding Kathleen Parker's Sunday column that says Islamic extremism requires a Muslim solution, I, as a South Asian Muslim, invoke three insights from Mahatma Gandhi.

First, to deal with extremism in another faith, it is the sacred duty of every individual to have an appreciative understanding of that faith. All religions are humankind's heritage. We are all interconnected.

Second, every religion has truths and untruths. Verses are open to human interpretation. Can we, with courage and grace, confront the verses of awkwardness in our own tradition. If someone says, "My religion is the only way," this is not the voice of religion, but that of ego. We do not see things as they are, but as we are.

Third, if an extremist commits a wrong, don't criticize his religion. Point out the verses of beauty in his religion. Help the person become a better Muslim, Christian or Hindu.

Religious extremism is a collective problem requiring a collective solution.

Jamal Rahman
Co-minister Interfaith Community Church
Seattle

Excerpt from an interview on Iraq war: Chris Hedges - by Sarah Ruth van Gelder

CHRIS HEDGES: Iraq is a particularly bad situation for combat soldiers and Marines because it is classic insurgency warfare. It's very similar to what soldiers and Marines experienced in Vietnam, what Israeli soldiers experience in Gaza and on the West Bank, and what the French experienced in Algeria.

You have an elusive enemy. You're not fighting a set organized force, the way we were, for example, in the first Persian Gulf War. So you very rarely see your attacker, and this builds up a great deal of frustration. This frustration is compounded by the fact that you live in an environment where you are almost universally despised. Everyone becomes the enemy. And after your unit suffers -- after, for instance, somebody in your unit is killed by a sniper who melts back into the slums where the shot was fired from -- it becomes easy to carry out acts of revenge against people who are essentially innocent, but who you view as culpable in some way for the death of your comrades.

Robert J. Lifton, who did a lot of studies on the Vietnam War, called these "atrocity-producing
situations." It became very easy in Vietnam to shoot down a woman in a rice field as revenge for a comrade who may have stepped on a mine a few hours before.

War always creates trauma. But in counter-insurgency wars, you are constantly on edge. Going down to a corner store to buy a Coca-Cola creates tremendous amounts of anxiety because somebody could come up behind you and put a gun to the back of your head and kill you.

That's what we're seeing in Iraq. The psychological cost -- the emotional cost -- that we're inflicting on our soldiers and Marines is devastating.

One of the disturbing things about this war is that, because they are so short on numbers, they are treating people for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and then sending them back into combat situations.

So I'm worried about what we're going to see over the long term as these young men and women are
re-integrated into the society. . .

[Read more of this interview at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/revrickm/ message/606

Chris Hedges has written for The Dallas Morning News, The Christian Science Monitor, National Public Radio, and The New York Times. Hedges was part of The New York Times team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2002 for coverage of global terrorism, and he received the 2002 Amnesty International Global Award for Human Rights Journalism.]

What If God Is All There Is?

by Rev. Rod Romney

 

August 7, 2005

As I prepare today to leave home in Idaho Falls and drive westward toward Orcas Island and the third annual Interfaith Retreat on Orcas Island (August 13-18), I am reminded of a little pamphlet I read a few years ago by Louisa von Dessan. In that pamphlet she offered some insights in a life that is dedicated to spiritual consciousness rather than mere physical survival.  She asked such questions as, "What if there is no one to blame but you?" and "What if heaven and hell are simply your perceptions of the world?"  Here are some responses I have made to those questions.

What if everything that is happening in our world today is right on schedule and happening to according to the choices we have made?  That would mean that such events as September 11, 2001 are the result of choices we as a nation have made.  Shall we then continue to make choices that would lead to more such events, or shall we search for ways to be more inclusive and compassionate of all people.  The United States is the wealthiest nation on earth and consumes 90% of the earth's resources.  It is understandable that many of the poorest nations should hate and mistrust us.  Remember also that those who govern our nation today are there because of choices we made.   Should we begin to rethink our political choices?

What if this life is just one small event in a larger life we all share?  That would mean if we don't get it right this time, we will have to keep trying until we do.  And it would mean that we are all in this together.  We share this life with others, and like it or not, God has no favorites and expects us not to have favorites either.  As sure as we do, it means we have lined up against those who we deem unworthy of our attention and love.

What if we are really one great cosmic family?  That would mean that everyone is a brother or a sister.  We would therefore need to recognize our oneness and treat each other with love and respect before we can fulfill our life purpose.  If George W. succeeds in wiping out Saddam H or any of his followers, as he has been  determined to do, he essentially would wipe out a piece of himself and incur a karmic debt that would have to be atoned somewhere and somehow.  Leadership sought for egotistic reasons incurs a terrible responsibility and burden, because it fails to recognize the inherent oneness of all things.

What if death is really just a birth into another life?  That would mean we would go into the next life with no more and no less that what we know at the exact moment of our departure.  That would also mean that we had better get busy and expand our consciousness to the point where we can know the truths that are available to us here and now.  Otherwise, we may have to come back and try again until we get it right.  The fear of death haunts most humans, largely because we have made ourselves the center of life and have forgotten that we are part of a larger life that includes everyone.

What if true prayer is not what we say but who we are?  Instead of accosting God with our words and giving God instructions on how to run this world, we would see prayer as simply clearing a path within ourselves, so that the divine can come alive in us.  That kind of prayer would use not only words but the silence of listening within, so that the truth and love of God could become known in us and made visible to the world through us.

What if God is all there is?  If God is all there really is, then we would have to let God out of the prison of our own concepts and begin to understand God as Expanded Consciousness, Essential Creativity, and Eternal Compassion.  This God force would be recognized as living potentially in every person, in all forms of creation, and manifesting itself as Universal Spirit.

Thomas Merton once said, "By accepting all things as coming from God, we receive God's joy into our souls, not because things are what they are, but because God is who God is." Every day we are given the opportunity to see God in all things.  Even tragedies and difficulties can be signs of God's presence and an invitation to a deepening relationship with the Mystery that resides within all aspects of life.  The one and only true gift from God is Love, given to us in times of darkness as well as in times of life, in times of failure as well as times of success.

Like the prodigal son in Jesus' parable, we all want to go home to God.  But the truth is we are already home.  We never really left.  Home lives inside each of us.  We may have forgotten it temporarily, but once we accept it, we receive the freedom, the joy and love that we have longed for all our lives.  Thus do we become a unique expression of the love God has ordained us to be, and thus do we become one with God.  For in the end, God is all there is.

[Rod Romney is a retired minister who now writes periodically for an Idaho newspaper and makes speaking engagements at various locations. He and his wife live in Idaho falls, ID.]

Christ and the Homosexual Person

by Reverend Charles Bidwell, Ph.D.

How would Christ deal with, or be in relationship with, persons who are oriented to love those of their own gender? Same sex love and relationships are natural and seem to occur in all races and cultures. How these cultures deal with same sex love is a direct result of the social and religious teachings of those in authority. Christians have different responses depending on their denominational views and their personal faith views. Some Christians condemn others bless; you must decide where Christ would stand with you to demonstrate God's love.

Where did you get that idea?

In Edmonton (and probably to a greater degree in conservative southern Alberta) there is a vocal segment of society that fears and condemns same sex emotional and spiritual relationships and physical intimacies. These fearful and condemning people are not evil but they are often unloving in their behaviours. It seems to me that they are delighted to discover certain phrases and paragraphs in the Bible that, taken out of context, seem to support their revulsion and convictions. Jesus commented on many aspects of life but he never impressed his followers with any words against loving someone of your own gender. The Bible has as much authority as we give it and it has a gold mine of wisdom that needs to be explored and mined; the nuggets are not sitting on the surface. So we need to take the time to read a passage in context and see with full vision what over-riding message and principle is being conveyed. Many 20th Century biblical scholars have done their research and have reported that the Bible does not condemn a loving relationship between any two people. Their evidence is published in many texts (such as may be found in the library of St. Stephen's College) but I suspect that many of the condemning persons are not interested in getting a different view of same sex relationships or of people who are oriented toward their own gender. Ignorance begets fear (we are afraid of the unknown or the stranger) and fear begets anger or hatred.
And now for something completely different.

How do you change and grow? First, you have to be open to change. Then you have to look for opportunities to learn something new. Ignorance begets fear (of the unknown and unfamiliar) so ask and read and increase the chances that the new knowledge will reduce your fear and anxiety.
One of the most effective ways to understand same sex couples is to meet and get to know them. When condemning people discover that someone they know and love is oriented toward their own gender, the condemning person is often challenged to re-think their stand. The friend does not fit their stereotype and their fear is not useful in helping them relate to this person with new insight. Whenever you are tempted to declare that you do not know any homosexually-oriented people realize how unlikely that really is. The reason why those of your friends and family and co-workers who are homosexually-oriented have never confided that information to you is that they fear that it will damage their relationship with you. Would it? Could you discover that fact about someone you know and still relate to them as a friend?

Where's the beef?

Where's the sin? If you look at what Christ condemned and what he supported, you discover that he was more concerned with relationships than laws. The law said stone to death the adulterer; Jesus said let the one who is without sin cast the first stone (it takes two to commit adultery; did the law say that both were to be killed or only the woman?)
If being in a loving relationship with someone of your own gender is a sin then you'll have to show me what harm it does to the relationship (or souls) of the couple. I understand why lying is a sin; it destroys the trust between the liar and the one lied to. Stealing is a sin because it destroys the trust between the thief and the robbed. Rape, any abuse, and harassment is a sin because it destroys the safety and peace in the relationship between the person who abuses their power over the other and the person so used. If being gifted with the ability to intimately love someone of your own gender is a sinful state, then you will need to show where the harm is to their souls in their loving.

Any sin you can name needs to be supported by the harm it does to the persons directly or indirectly involved. Hatred and bigotry against homosexually-oriented or bisexually-oriented persons is a sin because it causes fear and secrecy and pain between the differently oriented person and the one who condemns them for being who they are.

How many teenagers have killed themselves rather than face life in a family or community that seems to them to condemn who they are and the way they feel; they see no hope for a loving relationship that is natural and vital to them. Who do you picture Jesus standing with? Where would he see sin and why? What harm is being done to relationships? What love is lost?

I believe that it is not who you love but that you love which counts. As Fred Small's song goes, "The only measure of the life you have lived will be the love you leave behind when you're gone". And in Les Miserables they sing that "to love another person is to see the face of God." Regardless of the genders involved any relationship must be assessed on the basis of the love and support between the couple.

In your face

Because I believe we are taught to fear and hate, I believe that it is the responsibility of churches and parents to stand firmly against bigotry and the abuse of persons who are differently oriented or differently challenged or different in any way from the people in power. Because the feelings of revulsion at same sex expressions ("You do what?!") is based on what you have been taught is repulsive, rational arguments will do little to change those impressions.
But feelings can be changed by allowing yourself different experiences and knowledge. The ignorance and fear that keeps people hating and bashing lesbian, gay, and bisexual persons (when they are discovered or suspected) is a sinful, unloving state for anyone to live in. As more healthy and happy homosexuals and bisexuals reveal themselves to their friends, family members, and co-workers they will be putting a face - a known and loved face - on the fearsome stereotype those people have been taught to believe in. Coming out is an act of courage; it is also an act of love because it offers the person trapped in fear and hatred a chance to grow and change and be freed from fearing and hating those who are not heterosexually oriented.

The media are giving people an awareness of homosexuality that wasn't there twenty years ago. Some of it has been positive but all of it keeps people aware that lesbian, gay, and bisexual persons are a very present reality. You can't grow up today, as I did, thinking that you are the only one in the world who shares your feelings for those of your gender. Now there are publications, organizations, computer bulletin boards, phone lines, TV and radio programs, and movies that can keep anyone informed and connected.

A new heaven and a new earth

Change is occurring in every aspect of our lives and within Christianity as well. There are individual Christians, congregations and whole denominations that have changed their beliefs and teachings and regulations regarding homosexually and bisexually oriented persons in society as well as within their churches.
Metropolitan Community Churches are an international denomination of Christian churches in most major cities. They were founded by a pastor who was evicted from his church because he identified himself with the fight against discrimination of homosexually oriented persons. MCCs everywhere bless same sex couples (as do all Unitarian churches) and most of their pastors are homosexually oriented.

The United Church of Canada (UCC) has changed; it now ordains self-affirming gay and lesbian ministers (like all churches it has always ordained homosexuals but they were never allowed to declare themselves or live in loving same sex relationships). The UCC is moving toward identifying "affirming congregations" who are comfortable in calling an identified gay or lesbian ordained minister and recognizing their partner as a spouse and not just a friend or housemate.

The Anglicans, Lutherans and other denominations are moving too. Although many cannot yet bring themselves to bless same sex relationships, they are speaking out against discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Christ came to give us vision and hope for a new world and new ways of relating to each other. Loving your neighbour doesn't require that you like them; it requires that you wish them the best and work to keep from doing them harm.

We are family

When a gay, lesbian, or bisexual teenager ends their life rather than face the bigotry and discrimination they see in Alberta, some families need Christ's compassion and correction. Communicate to your children that it is natural for some men to love men and some women to love women and that your concern is that they find someone whom they can love and be loved by regardless of their gender. Use gender neutral terms like life partner to convey that you are comfortable with whomever your child chooses to love.
The struggle for justice and love is eternal. Perhaps it is a life-long struggle toward a new heaven and a new earth; certainly toward a new Alberta or Edmonton or community or family. Grow out, in Christ's unconditional love! Be blessed and be a blessing to others. Amen.

[Charles Bidwell is ordained as a minister in the Metropolitan Community Church. He maintains a website at www.ualberta.ca/~cbidwell/cmb/cmb-home.htm.]

Suggested Reading

Christianity and Sexuality Boyd, Malcolm. Take Off The Masks. New York: Doubleday, 1978. Goss, Robert Jesus Acted Up: A Gay and Lesbian Manifesto San Francisco, CA: HarperCollins, 1993 Fortunato, John. Embracing the Exile: Healing Journeys of Gay Christians. New York: Seabury-Winston Press, 1982. Woods, Richard Another Kind of Love: Homosexuality and Spirituality Chicago: Thomas More Press, 1977.
The Bible and Homosexuality

Specific verses in various translations have been researched in recent years by theological scholars and biblical researchers. The insights from the contemporary literature of the biblical times and other analytical approaches have given new understandings to all of these passages.
Representative explorations of how these new understandings have been arrived at, and what they are, can be found in these references:

Boswell, John. Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980.
This Yale historian has covered the sources of thinking and believing that homosexual orientation is not desirable. His Chapter 4 on The Scriptures [Old Testament over pages 91 to 106 and the New Testament over pages 106 to 117] gives a thorough coverage of the results of Biblical scholarship in the 1970's that points to the fact that these passages are not directed at the 10% of our population that are created with a sexual orientation that is not heterosexual, but that these passages point to errors in relationships (sins) that all persons are capable of committing.

Edwards, George R. Gay and Lesbian Liberation: A Biblical Perspective. New York: Pilgrim Press, 1984.
Chapter two presents Sodom revisited and chapter four discusses homosexuality in Paul's theology.

England, Michael E. The Bible and Homosexuality. Silver Spring, Maryland: Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches (UFMCC), Department of Christian Social Action, 1983.
A small book that reviews inspiration and critical interpretation (textual, historical, source, and form criticisms) before exploring the eight verses in the Bible that have most commonly been cited as prooftexts of condemnation of homosexual activity. It reconsiders the creation accounts and how they relate to human sexuality and concludes with Christ's reinforcement of the great commandments to love God, to love others, and to love ourselves.

Macourt, Malcolm. (Editor) Towards a Theology of Gay Liberation. London: SCM Press, 1977.
In the section on The Biblical Material, Rictor Norton claims that 'The Biblical Roots of Homophobia' can be traced directly from the Judaeo-Christian tradition and traditional interpretations of Bible verses (pages 39-46). Then James Martin 'An Old Testament Scholar Replies' that in only two passages does the Old Testament condemn homosexual acts and that the matter of sexual expression is extremely peripheral to the Old Testament (pages 47-56). In 'A Rejoinder', Norton raises the heterosexual bias and the need to assess the cultural context in any study of biblical material (pages 57-60). "Particularly, we must remember that in the past few other statements in the Bible have been treated as literally as those that touch on homosexuality by people who have found more flexible or non-literal interpretations for every other topic" (page 37).

McNeill, John J. The Church and the Homosexual Kansas City: Sheed & Ward, 1976. Reprinted New York: Next Year Pubs., 1985.
This Jesuit priest gives a profoundly Christian study of the scriptures in Chapter 2 covering the use of scripture, the need for a definition of homosexuality, the Sodom and Gomorrah story, the problems of translation, the interpretation of Romans 1:26, the Old Testament context and the creation account in Genesis.

Nelson, James B. Embodiment: An Approach to Sexuality and Christian Theology. Minneapolis: Augsburgh, 1978.
Nelson, Professor of Christian Ethics, United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities, addresses the Biblical passages that have been understood to condemn love between two people of the same gender/sex. See especially Chapter 8 on 'Gayness and Homosexuality: Issues for the Church' over pages 181 to 188.

Pennington, Sylvia Good News for Modern Gays; A Pro-Gay Biblical Approach Hawthorn, California: Lambda Christian Fellowship Press, 1986.
Reverend Pennington reviews the biblical texts in context in an effort to help gay people know that God's Word does not condemn them and to enable heterosexual Christians to see more clearly what God has to say to the Church about homosexuality today; to rectify the error and consequent injustice with which well-meaning Christians are inadvertently persecuting innocent people.

Pittenger, Norman Time For Consent: A Christian's Approach to Homosexuality London: SCM Press, 1976.
This senior member of King's College, Cambridge briefly addresses 'The Biblical Material and Changing Religious Attitudes' in Chapter 9 over pages 81 to 87.

Scroggs, Robin. The New Testament and Homosexuality: Contextual Background for Contemporary Debate. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1983.

Spong, John Shelby. Living in Sin?: A Bishop Rethinks Human Sexuality. San Francisco, CA: HarperCollins, 1988.
This Episcopal bishop has reviewed the biblical material and placed it in our 20th Century context to reveal many challenging insights. Chapter 2 is a biblical call to inclusiveness; chapter 5 describes homosexuality as a natural part of life and not a curse in and of itself; chapter 9 deals with the Bible and homosexuality; and chapter 14 recommends blessing same sex couples in life-long committed relationships.

Wink, Walter Biblical Perspectives on Homosexuality in The Christian Century Nov. 7, 1979.
This scholar addresses the topic in the light of the fundamental biblical commandment to love (pages 1082-1086).