Karen Hollis | March 10, 2024
Lent 4
Mark 9:38-41 John said to Jesus, “Teacher, we saw someone using your name to cast out demons, but we told him to stop because he wasn’t in our group.” “Don’t stop him!” Jesus said. “No one who performs a miracle in my name will soon be able to speak evil of me. Anyone who is not against us is for us. If anyone gives you even a cup of water because you belong to the Messiah, I tell you the truth, that person will surely be rewarded."
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be reflections of your word to us today, in Christ’s name we pray. Amen
Anyone who is not against us is for us. Knowing how human we can be, it’s quite a radical teaching that Jesus has for us this morning. It challenges us to continue practicing this posture of openness and openheartedness to all who follow the way of Jesus. In every generation and in every place, we are challenged. We struggle in part because while Christianity is a global movement, it has always been practiced locally . . . and it takes on values, priorities, and context of the people in each place. In the first century there were probably as many ways of following Jesus as there were individual communities. Each one had their own unique spin. . . and this text is a bit of a reflection of the struggle between the communities, as illustrated by John trying to set limits on someone over there emulating the healing ministry that Jesus’ own disciples haven’t yet mastered. There’s maybe some jealousy, maybe some competition . . . distracting them from the more important fact that someone’s suffering has been relieved. And Jesus offers this correction: “anyone who is not against us is for us. We are all about the work of God to liberate, heal, and make whole. When we are in the spirit of this work, we don’t worry if someone is with us, or like us, or serving differently or better than us . . . when our hearts of flesh are aligned with this work, there is only collaboration.”
And . . . we are still working at it. For a long time, the church has looked at the queer community as unfit to be welcomed in to the body of Christ, let alone offer leadership and ministry alongside those who look right, behave properly, and are about the correct things.
Isaac Simmons has received a lot of media attention in the past few years as a drag queen and candidate for ministry in a mainline denomination. Isaac, aka Ms. Penny Cost (Pentecost), feels called “to break down the false duality which, for too long, has stated that Queerness and Faith can not be combined.”1
Many people who identify as Christians stand with the disciple John and tell Penny to stop because she isn’t in our group and doesn’t belong.
Jesus offers a correction.
Penny is called by God to do this crucially important ministry of love and inclusion; we give thanks for it and for our collective ministry with the queer community.
On Wednesday evening this week we will be hearing the story of Bishop Gene Robinson, the first Out gay bishop of the Episcopal church. He says, "There have been a lot of us, let's just be clear . . . I'm just the first openly-gay one.’”2
At the time he was elected in 2003, he was labelled the most dangerous man in the Anglican Church. His election provoked immediate threats, the first of which he received before he got home that day.3
Bishop Robinson was not invited by the Archbishop of Canterbury to the 2008 Lambeth Conference, a gathering of all Anglican bishops that takes place once every 10 years.
Some fellow bishops stood with the disciple John and said, he’s not one of us, he doesn’t belong here.
Jesus offers a correction. Bishop Robinson is called to be out and proud and to serve in leadership and ministry within the body of Christ.
Episcopal priest and political strategist, Liz Edman, created a body of work she calls Queer Virtue. Here is the fundamental premise: Christianity persistently calls the followers of Jesus to break apart, or queer, human made binaries that pit people against each other. Like the idea that only Jesus’ immediate followers can heal in his name – this is a story they made up, it isn’t true. Jesus queers this story when he challenges John to see a healer and outsider as a fellow disciple, and call all of his followers to hit a reset button on their assumptions about who “we” are, who “they” are, and how we are supposed to treat one another.4
In the words of Liz Edman: “Queer people navigate this kind of rupturing every day. Queer people must: Discern an identity, Tell the truth about it even in the face of material, Find others who share this identity, and Build community.”
“LGBTQ community persistently looks to the margins to see who isn’t yet included and decide what to do about it. This “path” bears remarkable similarity to the path that Christians are called to walk.”5
The queer experience is a lens that can help Christians better understand and navigate an authentic Christian path. We need queer leadership. We need queer voices and queer experience to help us as a collective be more of who Jesus calls us to be. So, we lean into openness, we continue learning, and affirm the ministry of anyone whose heart is after Jesus . . . and come together for the good of this beautiful and aching world. Thanks be to God for the one who loves us and loves us and loves us into wholeness. Thanks be to God
1 https://www.mspennycost.com/
2 https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bishop-gene-robinson-on-why-god-called-me-out-of-the-closet/
3 https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bishop-gene-robinson-on-why-god-called-me-out-of-the-closet/
4 https://www.queervirtue.com/about-qv
5 https://www.queervirtue.com/about-q