For Righteousness’ Sake

Acts 17:22-31, John 14:15-21, 1 Peter 3:13-22

Tomorrow marks the beginning of Pride Week at Dartmouth College.  The term ‘Pride’ derives from the fuller term ‘Gay Pride’ which refers to a world wide movement and philosophy that asserts that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals should be proud of their sexual orientation and gender identity.  Long referred to now as the LGBT community, for lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, trans-gendered and trans-sexual, the moniker now often includes the letters “Q” for queer identified persons and “A” for those who would count themselves as allies of the movement and its people.

In honor of Gay Pride Week at Dartmouth College, the Tucker Foundation’s Office of Religious and Spiritual Life requested that local churches who were ‘Open & Affirming’; that is, welcoming of the GLBTQ community; sign on to participate in a public welcoming of this community into our churches.  Ads have been placed in the ‘D’ listing those congregations for whom “all are welcome…no exceptions” and, of course, the Church of Christ at Dartmouth College is listed as one of those churches.  Also on that list are The Roth Center for Jewish Life, the Hanover Friends Meeting, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Upper Valley, the Ecumenical Christian Chapel Service at Rollins Chapel, St. Thomas Episcopal Church and Our Savior Lutheran Church.

Additionally, it was suggested that those of us who would be in the pulpits this weekend find some way to lift up LGBTQA identity, concerns, ongoing struggles, history, or in some other way acknowledge that ‘Pride Week’ was happening.

Truthfully, it’s a little difficult to know how to do that here in a meaningful way.  After all, this church went through the difficult process of designating itself an Open and Affirming Church within the United Church of Christ back in 1999-2000.  You adopted the O&A covenant printed on the back of this, and every Sunday’s, bulletin in June of 2000.  Shortly thereafter, the Asst. Scout Leader of a troop that met in this very church, came out as gay and was promptly barred from his volunteer position by the Boy Scouts of America.  It was time to take your new allegiance out for a test drive, necessitating the difficult, and heart wrenching choice to dis-allow the Boy Scouts from meeting in the church.  Sometime between 2000 and 2005 you lovingly held in care a member of this church who was undergoing gender re-assignment surgery.  And then, in late 2005, the search committee for an associate pastor called me, an out lesbian, to be your associate pastor.  A culturally Jewish, former Unitarian, Harley Davidson and horseback riding out lesbian!  If there were awards given to congregations who have demonstrated the ability to stretch themselves to the hairy edge of what is ‘left’, you would all be up for first place…make no mistake about it!  Talk about radical hospitality!

So, as I began to think about bringing the whole LGBTQA thing before you, it was a little daunting to figure out how to do so in a meaningful way.  You see, like the Athenians Paul was addressing at the Areopagus in the passage Curtis read this morning from the Book of Acts, the indications of your deep convictions are already all around you.  You see, by the time Paul had reached the Areopagus, he would have already seen the many altars and icons to unnamed gods that virtually cluttered the landscape in and around Athens.  And seeing all of these altars and icons he rightly concluded that within these people there was a deep-seated desire to worship something.  Theodore Ferris, in writing an exposition on this passage for The Interpreters Bible Commentary, observed about these Athenian’s; They were not blind to the mystery of life, nor were they totally deaf to the music of the heavenly spheres.  The impulse to adore was still strong in them, and could not be successfully hidden by their intellectual coat of many colors.  Paul’s technique therefore, Ferris continues, was to begin by assuming this natural curiosity for religion, and by giving them ample credit for what they already had.  [Thus] He began: Men [sic] of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious.

Like the Athenians Paul was addressing at the Areopagus the indications of your deep convictions are already all around you.  The O&A Covenant testifies to your commitment to welcome everyone…no exceptions.  Our churches broader covenant, recited at the end of each Sunday’s service, reminds us all that we are called by God and one another to live out Christ’s ministry and build up the ‘kin-dom’ of God here on earth.  Every Spring during Lent a contingent from this congregation travels to Mississippi in an effort to make a dent in the socio-economic and racial inequality that permeates our nation.  Prior to the season of Advent we host The Christmas Market With A Difference and invite our surrounding communities to shop for the holidays in a manor that truly allows the light and hope of Jesus to be re-born in some painfully impoverished corners of our world.  You deliver flowers to our folks who have difficulty getting out of their homes, you prepare community suppers for those who are hungry, you donate clothing to folks who need it demonstrating your deep commitment to living out Christ’s Sermon on the Mount; and it would appear that your faith is catching because now even your children are getting into the act…preparing school bags for children half way around the world.

Like the Athenians Paul was addressing the indications of your deep convictions are already all around you.  As Theodore Ferris noted about those gathered at the Areopagus, your impulse to adore is strong and can not be hidden by your intellectual coat of many colors.  So it is a little daunting to stand up here before you all this morning and presume to enlighten you about matters concerning social justice in general, or about the LGBTQA community more specifically without first borrowing a technique from Paul and assuming your natural curiosity for, and appreciation of, progressive concerns and social justice.  I want to begin, in other words, by crediting you for all that you already do, inspired by the life and ministry of Jesus our Christ and for the glory of God.

So Paul came to the Areopagus; which was likely a council that had general supervision over religious and/or educational affairs, (as opposed to the mountain of the same name,); and spoke his appreciation for their obvious concern for matters of religion.  And then he gently challenged them.  Paul pointed out that their alters were erected ‘To an unknown God’ (Acts 17:23b).  In Acts chapter seventeen, verses twenty-three and four Paul says to those gathered:

What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.  The God
who made the world and everything in it, He who is LORD of heaven and
earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is He served by
human hands…

In other words, good people of Athens, do not worship your shrines and alters for God does not dwell there.  Look up, look around you, and see that the LORD of heaven and earth dwells within all creation!  Look beyond the objects of your worship, and encounter the living God.

This was an important message in Paul’s day, for the people of Greece were distracted by idol worship.  But it is an equally important message for us in our own day, for while we are not likely to be found bowed down before an ‘Alter to an unknown God’, our attention, time, energy, talent, and finances are all too easily consumed at the alters of education, career, consumerism, household, recreation, cultural expectation…and matters of faith development become less and less of a priority for us or for our children.

In Paul’s day the Greeks had actually inscribed the words “To an unknown God” on their alters.  We would likely never do such a thing. For, while most of us would concede that the God we worship cannot be known in whole, through Jesus our Christ we are able to discern at least a part of this God.  And because of the life and ministry of Jesus, and our commitment to follow that life and ministry, we may profess a relationship with this still living, still speaking God.  In fact, I would go so far as to suggest that those of you who have engaged in various ministries of social justice have probably met this still living, still speaking God in and among the people you were working with and for.  And so we have an experience of this God of ours, and somewhere in the midst of that experience there is a sense, at least, of familiarity.

But can we flesh out the face of God?  Can we articulate our experience and various theologies with clarity and distinction?  Are we reading scripture regularly and engaging it such that it can reveal something of itself to us? 

There is a reason that I bring this up for consideration today; and that is because ‘word’ creates ‘world’.  In other words, reality is first created in language.  Helen Keller discovered this fact at the well with her teacher when suddenly she realized that the cool something flowing over one of her hands was somehow connected to the pressure she was feeling in her other hand as her teacher signed the letters w-a-t-e-r.  At that moment Keller got language and the dark void that she was living in, if it could even be called living, suddenly burst wide open and an entirely new world became available to her.  ‘Word’ creates ‘world’…reality is first created in language.

So, if we have an experience of God, or some vague idea of what God is, but we lack the language to flesh God out, are we, like the Athenians Paul was preaching to, at risk of worshipping an unknown god?  And, furthermore, what are the potential implications or consequences of worshipping an unknown god?

Let’s jump back to the issue of Gay Pride week here for a moment and use that as an example of the potential consequences of worshipping an unknown God – but let us keep in mind that the issue could just as easily be classism, racism, nationalism, misogyny, reproductive rights, or environmentalism, to name just a few of the options.  The point is, concerning the matter of gay rights in America, that religion has been, and is being, used to justify the ongoing oppression of GLBTQA persons.  You know this.  I know you know this.  And what’s more, I know that a great many of you do not approve of it.  But religiously, theologically, we are being very quiet about our disagreement.  We have been turned off, and turned away by the shrill and often fanatical ravings of those who have staked a claim to Christianities high ground and gradually, over time, we have become silent on the matter from the place of our faith.