All of YOU (Exodus 3 & 4)

 For almost two whole chapters, after God tells Moses that he has chosen Moses for this important task, Moses tries to convince God that he, Moses, is not the right man for the job… that he’s just not good enough…. that he doesn’t have the right qualifications. Heck, he was raised in the household of Pharaoh—that alone should disqualify him!

Finally God says: “Enough! Who gives speech to mortals? Who makes them mute or deaf, seeing or blind? I made you, I know everything about you, I know your qualifications and your limitations, and YOU are exactly the one I have chosen!”

God wanted Moses. Not only that, God wanted Moses as he was. God didn’t want Moses to be anything other than who he was. 

Moses was stubborn—so stubborn—so God made some concessions; but God didn’t back down, because Moses was the one God chose for the job, to lead God’s people to freedom.

Moses didn’t know what God saw in him. He couldn’t believe it. He thought God was trying to get Moses to be something other than who Moses was. 

But God didn’t want Moses to be something other than who he was. God wanted Moses to be all of who he was created to be. God wanted Moses to be his authentic self. Because that’s who God wanted for this important task, to lead God’s people out of Egypt, and to freedom in the Promised Land, so that they all could be who God created them to be, living out their full potential.

*******

Moses isn’t unique in this. Jeremiah voiced similar protests, when God chose him.

In Jeremiah, chapter one, God said to Jeremiah: “I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

But Jeremiah didn’t think he was good enough. Jeremiah said: “I’m no prophet; I’m only a boy.” But God said, “Don’t say ‘I’m only a boy,’ because you are the one I have chosen. 

“If I wanted someone older, I would have chosen someone older. If I wanted someone who was a better speaker, I would have chosen someone who was a better speaker. But I choose you. You, just as you are, are the one I have chosen.”

*******

Sometimes, the Bible presents a story in which an individual is chosen by God, and others can’t believe it. They think that maybe God made the wrong choice.

In 1 Samuel, chapter 16, God sends the prophet Samuel to the house of Jesse, to anoint the new king.

Jesse brings his sons out and lines them up before Samuel. Samuel takes a look at Eliab, the oldest, and sees in Eliab all the qualities that Samuel thinks would make for a good king. Samuel looks at Eliab, and thinks: “he must be the one.”

I don’t know exactly what Samuel saw in Eliab, but I imagine that Eliab was strong, handsome, good-looking; that he was confident—everything that most people assume a good king should be.

But Eliab was not the one chosen by God.

So Samuel went down the line. One by one, he examined the sons of Jesse, but none of the young men before him was the one chosen by God.

Samuel asked Jesse: “Are these all your sons?”

And Jesse replied: “Well, there is the youngest. He’s out taking care of the sheep.” Apparently Jesse couldn’t imagine that this youngest son of his could be the one chosen by God. 

This youngest son’s name was David. David wasn’t a warrior, at least not in the traditional sense. Later, when all his brothers went off to war, David stayed behind. When his father sent him to check on his brothers, David saw that they were cowering in fear because of a giant of a man named Goliath. 

David said, “I’ll go out against Goliath.” David was given a warrior’s armor to wear—the king’s armor, in fact—but David said he couldn’t wear it. He wasn’t used to wearing all that armor.

No, he wasn’t going to go out and fight Goliath in the traditional way, as a warrior; he was going to fight him in his own way.

Maybe that is, in fact, why God chose David. He didn’t behave the way some in society expected him to behave, or the way others told him he was supposed to behave; he did things his own way. He was true to himself. He was true to the way God made him.

******

Last week, I preached about Jacob.

Jacob, you may recall, wasn’t like his twin brother Esau. Jacob wasn’t as strong, wasn’t as manly; and he didn’t even like to go out and hunt like all the other men. 

As I said last week, Jacob was different than all the other boys.

Jacob liked to stay by the tents, with the women.

I wonder if Jacob ever wished he was like all the other boys. Strong. Manly. With hair on his chest. I wonder if he ever thought: that’s how a man is supposed to be.

But, in this case, God didn’t want a man like all the other men. God wanted Jacob. As he was. As he was created by God. That’s who God wanted.

God wants people who are true to themselves. People who are true to the way God made them. People who use the gifts and strengths and abilities that are uniquely theirs.

Yet we often try to be someone else. We try to be someone other than who we are, someone other than who God created us to be.

******

At camp a few weeks ago, in the boys cabin just before lights out, I told the boys about some of the Biblical characters. One night I talked about Jacob. One night I talked about David. 

By the way, these were all male characters, because I was speaking to the boys at camp, but I could have just as easily picked Bible characters of other genders, including Esther, Mary, and others, to illustrate the point.

And one night, I said to the boys: “Just like each of these Bible characters, you are awesome, just as you are. Just the way God made you. And you are a blessing.”

One of the boys, when I said that, started shaking his head. He couldn’t receive the words I was sharing. 

Why? I wondered. What had he heard? What had he been told? What pressures had been placed upon him, by society, by friends, by classmates, that made him think that who he was was not worthy of the words I was saying to him? 

Had he been bullied? Had others made fun of the way he was? Had they pressured him and maybe convinced him that he needed to be someone else?

I looked directly at him. I said again: “You are awesome, just as you are.” His body jerked, which I think is the closest thing I’ve ever seen to an unclean spirit being cast out of a person. He had a physical reaction to my words! That’s how difficult they were for him to hear. It was like Moses hiding his face from God, hiding from a truth that was too powerful for him to hear.

But that didn’t stop me. I said:  “You are awesome, just as you are, and this whole camp is blessed by your presence here this week.”

That same message I gave to him, I give to you. You, as you are… the person God created you to be… are amazing. You are a blessing to this church, to this community, to the world. 

And God has chosen you to do what only you can, to love the world in a way that is uniquely yours.

Is that hard for you to hear? Is it hard for you to accept, and believe? 

The world is always trying to convince you that who you are isn’t enough. Every ad you see (and we see a lot of ads) is designed to make you feel inadequate… so that they can then play on that feeling of inadequacy by convincing you that the only way to overcome your inadequacy is by purchasing whatever it is they are trying to sell.

Listen up: You. Don’t. Need it.

You don’t need any product to become fully the person you are meant to be. You already are the person you are meant to be. 

And that person… the person who you are… is exactly what this world needs. 

This is what the Bible has taught me. And it’s what the queer community has also taught me.

The struggle that many queer people go through is the struggle to be true to one’s authentic self in a world that tries to get you to be something other than who you are. Something other than who God made you to be.

From the queer community I’ve learned the importance of taking off the mask, and being who you truly are.

And that’s important, because God doesn’t want you or me or anyone else to be anything other than who God made us to be. God wants you to be whole.

Imagine if you were God, and you created a human, a beautifully and wonderfully made human… and this human that you created decided that the way you created them wasn’t good enough.

And they went about trying to change themselves, trying to change the person you made them to be, into something else. Something someone else wanted them to be.

Yet time and time again, in scripture, God shows us that God calls us just as we are. Just as God made us.

Moses. Jeremiah. Jacob. David. They all thought they weren’t good enough, or had someone else think they weren’t good enough. 

They all thought they needed to try and be someone else, someone other than who they were… or had someone else think that they needed to be someone other than who they were.

It’s like in the movie “How to Train Your Dragon”: Young Hiccup is told: “You just gotta stop all of this!”

And Hiccup says: “You just gestured to all of me.”

And the response he receives is: “Yeah, stop being all of you.”

The point being that Hiccup will never be a good Viking unless he stops acting like himself, and starts acting the way a Viking is supposed to act.

But at the end of the movie, after he saves his village his own way, by being true to who he knew himself to be, he’s told: “Turns out all we needed was just a little more of this.”

And Hiccup says: “You just gestured to all of me.”

Yes. All of you. That’s what we needed. 

This world needs you. This world needs your gifts, your abilities, your quirks, your personality; Every unique quality of yours that was given to you by God.

This world needs all of you. Including the way you love, the way you express yourself, and the way you identify yourself.

The world needs you to be you. Because you are awesome. And you are a blessing to those around you.

Male & Female in the Image of God (Genesis 1:26-27)

 Almost every Wednesday since the beginning of this year, I have had the great pleasure of having a member of our congregation pick me up here at the church, and taking me to visit some of our homebound members. I’ve greatly enjoyed the opportunity to get to know some of our homebound members better, and also to get to know better those who have gone with me on these visits.

I’ve also had the opportunity to observe your different driving styles…and you all who have driven me places have had the opportunity to observe how well I play the role of “passenger.”

You know how, when you’re in the driver’s seat, and someone is riding with you, sometimes that person will offer helpful advice to you while you drive. Things like, “Watch out for that pedestrian.” Or, “There’s a stop sign.” Or, “I think you want to turn here…”

And drivers tend to react to this type of helpful advice in one of two ways. The first is to say, “I see it, you don’t need to tell me! I know how to drive!”

And the other is to politely say, “thank you.”

When I’m the driver, I try my best to react positively, and express my gratitude. Some of the time, I actually succeed at this. All my passenger really wants to do is help me get to my destination, and to get there safely. And God knows that when it comes to driving, I can use all the help I can get!

The same is true when it comes to following Jesus, or understanding scripture: I can use all the help I can get.

So I am always seeking out those who can help guide me on my faith journey, and help me understand scripture a little better. I try to listen to their voices, even when they challenge me in some way. Even when they correct me in some way.

This is what the prophet Micah meant when he said we should “walk humbly with God.” Walking humbly with God means admitting you don’t know all there is to know. It means seeking out, and listening to, other, more knowledgeable voices, voices that can help you grow in faith and understanding.

Throughout my ministry, I have sought out the voices of scholars who know more about scripture than I do. And in the past year alone, I’ve read articles and essays by dozens of Jewish and Christian scholars on what the Bible says about gender. 

I want to share with you what I’ve learned, what these scholars and rabbis and pastors have taught me. 

I couldn’t fit it all into one sermon, so I’ve made it into a 3-week sermon series, which I’m starting today. I hope you find it as fascinating and as enlightening as I have.

When it comes to gender, many of us have been taught that there are only two, and that you are either one, or the other. You are either male, or female. I grew up with this assumption, and you probably did, too.

And I brought this assumption with me to my reading of scripture, and allowed it to influence how I read scripture.

We ALL do this. We all bring our assumptions and our preconceived notions with us when we read scripture. There’s no escaping it. The only thing you can do is work to be AWARE of the assumptions you make, and the PREJUDICES you bring with you when you try to interpret and understand scripture.

👈The scripture from Genesis 1 presents a great starting point to examine all this.

In the updated NRSV—one of the best translations out there, and the one we use in worship—God says “let us make humans in our image.”

Let us make humans in our image.

There are several interesting things about that.

First, God uses a plural pronoun to refer to himself. “Let US make humans.” 

Scholars have written a lot about this, about the idea of a heavenly council of supreme beings, and it’s all very fascinating… but that’s not what I want to talk about today.

What I want to talk about today is how this verse then refers to what God created.

The updated NRSV is the only translation I could find that refers to what God created in a plural form. Let us make HUMANS. 

In the King James Version, and in the New International Version, God says, “Let us make MAN in our own image.” The reference is to a singular being: the first human. The first MAN.

The NRSV, in an attempt to be more inclusive, changed that singular MAN into the plural HUMANS… so that what comes next flows a little more smoothly.

Because what comes next is God saying, “let THEM have dominion.” 

And then it says “God created THEM in his image.”

And then it says, “God created them male and female.”

And it’s all so awkward, to use the pronoun THEM to refer to the first MAN.

But as far as I can tell, that’s how it is in Hebrew: a mix of singular and plural. God made MAN, and made THEM in his image, male and female.

That mix of singular and plural, and having that first created individual being both male and female… that doesn’t fit our preconceived notions, our assumptions, about things; and it is awkward grammar.

We want to fix it. We feel this urge to make it “right.” We want to make it conform to the way WE think things are, or the way we think things should be, instead of letting the scripture be itself–instead of letting scripture be its messy, beautiful self.

So instead of translating that word with a singular MAN, or HUMAN, the translators of the updated NRSV made it plural, to match the plural pronouns that follow, and isn’t that nice and neat?

And now we have the male and female image of God spread out among HUMANS, rather than being in one MAN, which is also very convenient, and easier for us to imagine.

It was just too difficult to imagine how that first MAN could be made, male and female, in the image of God.

Scientists have long had similar issues, similar problems, similar challenges, when they have studied animals in the natural world that don’t fit into our distinct categories of male and female. 

When I taught at Catalina School Adventures, a science camp on Catalina Island in California, one of the native fish species we introduced to our students was the sheephead. All California sheephead are protogynous (or sequential) hermaphrodites. That means that they are all born female but transition into their male form later in life. 

Sea hares, on the other hand, are simultaneous hermaphrodites; every sea hare has both male and female characteristics at the same time. 

There are many other hermaphrodite species, including banana slugs, snails, clownfish, and frogs.

I read that Sigmund Freud got really frustrated when he was studying eels and couldn’t find sexual organs that would definitely define them as “male” or “female.” He, like many other scientists, scholars, and theologians, approached his studies with a bias toward heteronormativity, and when that bias was not easily confirmed, he and other scientists panicked.

Well, ancient Jewish commentaries on this passage from Genesis were not afraid to imagine that the first human defied our gender categories. Some of the ancient rabbis said that when God first created MAN, and made them male and female, that the creation known as Adam was one creature with both male and female characteristics. That’s according to these ancient rabbis.

⬛ And the Talmud, a huge, ancient, and authoritative compendium of Jewish legal traditions, allowed for even greater gender diversity among all the humans God created; those early rabbis and teachers in ancient times recognized at least six or seven or even eight different genders, depending on how you break them down, which you can see on the screen.

• Zachar: male

• Nekevah: female

• Androgynos: both male and female

• Tumtum: lacking sexual characteristics

• Aylonit: identified female at birth without developing secondary female sexual characteristics at puberty

• Saris hamah: identified male at birth without developing secondary male sexual characteristics at puberty

• Saris adam: identified male at birth without developing secondary male sexual characteristics because of castration

At one point Jesus himself actually talks about several of these genders, but that deserves a whole sermon by itself, so you’re going to have to wait a week or two for that.

And I should point out that those ancient rabbis were strictly concerned with biological sex traits; the idea that gender is more than that wasn’t yet a part of their understanding.

So what’s the point of all this? Why does it matter that the Bible has a more complex view of gender than we’d been led to believe?

Well, first of all, when we read the Bible, we need to let the Bible speak for itself. We shouldn’t let our preconceived notions, our biases and prejudices have much influence over how we read the Bible. We want to be faithful in our interpretation and in our understanding, as much as possible.

Another, perhaps even more important, reason, is that there is a lot of hate and condemnation these days, directed toward individuals who do not fit into mainstream society’s strict gender categories… and that hate is often presented as biblical. 

Well, hate is never biblical. Hate is never true to the gospel. God didn’t send Jesus into the world to condemn the world, but to give the world life, to restore the world to wholeness, to set people free from hate and oppression and the ways that lead to death.

A few weeks ago, Dream Johnson—a 28 year-old Black trans woman, was murdered in Washington, D.C. Black trans women have perhaps the highest murder rate of any demographic group, many times the average for the general population. And the hate that inspires this violence is often inspired by the way many people have interpreted the Bible.

So, understanding what the Bible really says about gender is a life-and-death issue.

Here at First Christian Church, our commitment to grow in love, to grow in welcome, to grow in the full affirmation of ALL God’s children, including those who do not fit society’s strict gender categories, is not a commitment we’ve made in spite of the gospel, or in spite of what the Bible says. 

I’ve been asked: “Do you welcome gay people? Do you accept transgender people? Or, do you follow the Bible?”

It’s not an either/or.

The Bible commands us to love. The Bible commands us to embrace, to welcome, and to celebrate all people, just as Jesus did. 

And the Bible itself acknowledges and celebrates the full spectrum of human gender and sexuality.

Genesis 1 is just the beginning.

And my views on this, and the views of all those many pastors and rabbis and scholars I read, is based on intense Biblical study and prayer.

The bottom line is this: every human on earth is created in the image of God: whether they are male, female, a mixture of male and female, or not really fitting into those categories at all, they—we—are all made in the image of God.

And we are all loved by God. And God declares each one of us to be beautiful, and precious.

And all I want to do is share that message with the world: that you, whoever you are, are worthy of love; that you, just as you are, are made in God’s image; and that you are beautiful and precious in God’s eyes.

That’s the most biblical message I know.

Crying Out of the Depths (Psalm 130)

 Sermon “Crying Out of the Depths”

This psalm begins in despair. There is hope at the end, but you can tell that the psalmist is going through some tough stuff.

This is not the only psalm like this; many of the psalms are psalms of lament. They are expressions of pain. Anguish. Sorrow. Despair.

I have heard cries of despair, similar to the cries of the psalmists, from folks struggling with their sexuality or gender identity. I have heard them cry out of the depths to God, longing to be heard, begging to be accepted, to be known, to be loved… or, in some cases, they have begged for God to change them, because they hadn’t yet learned to love and accept themselves as they are.

And they, like the psalmist, waited for God to answer. And they waited for change to come. Their souls waited for the Lord.

And they waited for the church to offer them a word of hope. But the church offered only condemnation, or silence.

The church has been a source of pain and anguish for so many. It breaks my heart to say that. 

When it comes to sexuality, the church has allowed its own fears, prejudices and biases to taint how it presents the gospel, and how it presents scripture. 

As many of you are well aware, the church has taken a few randomly scattered Bible verses, misinterpreted them, and has blown them up in prominence way out of proportion in relation to the overall gospel message, with devastating results.

You know the verses I’m talking about. If you were a part of the Open and Affirming process here a few years ago, you studied them in depth. 

There are several in the Old Testament, and several in the New Testament, and I don’t have time in this sermon to examine each one of them in detail, but simply put, they don’t say what people often think they say.

Generally speaking, the Old Testament scriptures are about rape. The story of Sodom, for example, is about rape. It’s about the unwanted abuse inflicted on two people from another region, in violation of the ancient code of hospitality. 

The gender of the people in this story really doesn’t matter. If you’re raped and abused by someone, it’s horrible whether that person is of the same gender as you or not. If the perpetrators in this story were of the opposite sex of the victims, would this rape and abuse be acceptable? No! So to say that these verses are about homosexuality completely misses the point.

Likewise, in the New Testament, the actions condemned are, generally, acts between two people who are not equal in status. An adult male and a young boy, for example; or a master and a slave. Situations where the person of lower status had no ability or power to refuse or say no.

And again, that’s something that is offensive and deplorable, regardless of the gender of the people involved. Whether the sexual act is between people of the same gender or people of opposite genders doesn’t matter: rape and coercion and abuse are always wrong, regardless of gender.

These verses are about the abuse and misuse of power. They are about failing to protect the vulnerable. To say that these verses condemn homosexuality as we understand it completely misses the point.

And yet, so many Christians have said and still say that homosexuality is what these verses are about. It’s just one example of people misinterpreting, twisting the meaning of scripture in order to justify their own prejudice and bigotry. 

It’s the same thing that slave owners did in the first half of the 19th century: Find some verses that appear to support their own opinions, ignore the context of those verses, and slap them on to a modern situation that those verses really weren’t intended to address and that they really don’t apply to.

And the pain and trauma caused by such Biblical misinterpretation is why it’s so important that we celebrate Pride in worship. The pain and trauma caused by such Biblical misinterpretation is why it’s important that we boldly state that we are an Open and Affirming congregation.

Because, as I said, there are many who, like the psalmist, are right now crying out of the depths, crying out in despair, crying out to God, wondering how God could have possibly made them the way they are. They’ve been told, repeatedly, by people they trust, by people in positions of authority, that God condemns them for being who God made them to be. 

And they’re trying to love God, and they’re trying to love Jesus… but the church has told them NO. You are not acceptable. You are not loved. God hates you. God condemns you. God is sending you to hell.

And I can’t imagine what it must be like, growing up, hearing that message, wanting with all my heart to love Jesus, to follow Jesus, yet believing that Jesus doesn’t love me. Not unless I change who I am. Not unless I become something other than the person God created me to be.

I’ve met too many people who do believe that, or who have believed that at one point in their lives. I’ve had too many people come to me and tell me that they just can’t let go of the guilt and the shame.

I do my best to assure them that God loves them, that God loves all of who they are, that God has no intention of sending them to hell, but it’s hard to undo a lifetime of them hearing other voices, other pastors, teachers, politicians, and parents, all telling them otherwise. That message of condemnation has penetrated too deeply into them. 

So they need to hear, not just once, not just twice, but over and over and over again, that God does love them. They need to hear it from us, over and over and over again, that God does love them.

They need to hear it from people who love Jesus and who love them. They need to hear it over and over and over again, until they finally are able to believe what is actually true: that God does love them, and God does accept them, and that God does affirm the person who they are.

—----------------

The word gospel literally means “good news.” Many of you know that. So any message the church preaches should be good news. It should be good news especially to those who have been hurt, to those who have been traumatized, to those who have had very little good news preached to them in their lives.

But for too many, the version of the gospel that has been preached to them has been nothing but bad news. 

—---------------

I don’t know what the exact situation of the psalmist was, that he was in such despair. In some of the other psalms of lament, the psalmist speaks of being thrown into a pit, sinking in the mud, in the mire, in the muck, with the water coming up to their chest, their neck, over their head. They are drowning in their suffering, in their sorrow, and they can’t hold on much longer.

And I know that there are people in our world today, who have been tossed into that pit, with the mud, the muck, the mire, rising up over their heads.

There are people who are no longer with us, because the words of prejudice and hate turned into actions of hate and violence.

And there are people who are no longer  with us because of the harassment and the condemnation they received; it was all too much, and they couldn’t go on another day.

There are people who are no longer with us because of the harassment and condemnation they received from the church. 

They were made to feel shame, and that shame was too much. It was too great a burden. And all those words of condemnation came up, rose up to their chest, to their neck, and over their head, and they couldn’t keep their head above the surface, because the weight, the burden, was just too much.

And I mourn and I grieve over each and every one. And I lament the role the church has played in all this.

But I also know that there are people who ARE here today, because someone said IT’S OKAY. IT gets better. I’M WITH YOU. I AFFIRM YOU. I’LL FIGHT FOR YOU. I love you. 

There are people who are here today who thought they wouldn’t be, people who saw no future for themselves, until someone said: Hey! You are a beloved child of God, beautiful and precious in God’s sight. God loves everything about you, just as you are. … and so do I.

And, praise God! They came to believe that these words of affirmation were true. And they chose to live another day.

And there are people who are here today because they heard in church a message of love, of affirmation, of hope, and that was enough to make them decide to stick around for another day. 

And that is a miracle! If you are one of those people, YOU are a miracle. And I am so glad you are here. Your presence is a blessing. YOU are a blessing. Everything about you is a blessing. And I am so thankful for you.

—---------------

This is why it’s important for us to have a Pride Sunday, a Pride worship, because the gospel that is good news has been turned into bad news for too many, and we need to reclaim the true gospel and proclaim that good news. 

We need to let the world know that God does rescue, God does redeem, God does save; and that the hope people cling to is not a false hope. 

—--------------

In the 2nd chapter of Philippians, there’s a verse that says: “In the midst of your enemies, shine like stars.” Shine like stars! This brings glory to God. Let the light in you shine brightly. Don’t let anyone dim your sparkle. 

When God created you, God put God’s own image within you. That sparkle in you is holy. It is divine. It is sacred. 

As the psalmist says: You are “fearfully and wonderfully made.”

As Zephaniah says: the one who created you will rejoice over you with gladness and with singing. That’s incredible! We gather every Sunday to sing God’s praises, but, according to Zephaniah, God is also singing your praises. God is also rejoicing over you. You bring joy to God, just by being you; just by being who God created you to be.

This is the heart of the gospel: God loves you. You are loved.

It's all about love. A love that is complete. Whole. Unconditional. Radically inclusive. Affirming. All-encompassing.

It’s all about love.

And that’s the gospel truth.