Karen Hollis | August 24, 2025 Pentecost 11
Psalm 103:1-8
Luke 13:10-17 (NLT) One Sabbath day as Jesus was teaching in a synagogue, he saw a woman who had been crippled by an evil spirit. She had been bent double for eighteen years and was unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Dear woman, you are healed of your sickness!” Then he touched her, and instantly she could stand straight. How she praised God! But the leader in charge of the synagogue was indignant that Jesus had healed her on the Sabbath day. “There are six days of the week for working,” he said to the crowd. “Come on those days to be healed, not on the Sabbath.” But the Lord replied, “You hypocrites! Each of you works on the Sabbath day! Don’t you untie your ox or your donkey from its stall on the Sabbath and lead it out for water? This dear woman, a daughter of Abraham, has been held in bondage by Satan for eighteen years. Isn’t it right that she be released, even on the Sabbath?” This shamed his enemies, but all the people rejoiced at the wonderful things he did.
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
The question of the day is: what does it mean to be an ally? What does the queer community need from allies? I asked some people from the queer community and here is a sampling of what they said:
- I need acceptance, a curious respectful interest in my life, and support for gay events.
- It’s important for the queer community to get together as “family”, just like it’s important to have men’s groups and women’s groups.
- Support for the queer community means support for the whole family, including extended family who are struggling with understanding and acceptance.
- We need allies to minister with us, not at us. Let’s be collaborators.
- It’s easy to fly a pride flag these days. We may need to go through fire together to build trust between us.
There’s a lot here about curiosity and learning, relationship, and behaviour, what we do. At its core, ally is a verb . . . it’s about action. But not just any action . . . action with awareness, action with knowledge.
Being an ally means to first, do no harm. Rose LeMay writes: “Allies start with enough literacy to do no harm . . . the more that you know, the more opportunity you will see to act as an ally”1 So, I suggest that the first step is to learn. This is why 4 times a year we gather around our identity as an affirming community and learn about issues important to the queer community. As we take in new information, as we hear it again and process it in our own time and our own way, hopefully it seeps in, and at some point, we begin to see differently. We begin to see a world different from our own. Because, as we know, two people can look around from their own context and see very different worlds.
This is the critical step – being able to see the world through the eyes of someone else. When our learning enables us to put on different lenses as we, we notice things we didn’t see before . . . and opportunities to be an ally might even present themselves, just from seeing in a new way.
Jesus was particularly gifted at not only seeing worlds different from his own . . . he brought the perspective of people who weren’t seen by the ruling class into the center. In this morning’s gospel, he challenges his own tradition and the norms that have become so rigid that they are life restricting, rather than affirming.
In the way the story is told, he acts as an ally to the woman in the Synagogue – I’ll call her Rachel – though doesn’t do it perfectly. Usually Jesus asks people who approach him what they want him to do, but this time he doesn’t ask Rachel if she wants to be healed. He doesn’t get her permission, he just heals her. In the process, he challenges the worldview of the people observing. He argues: “the system we live in seems to work well for you all, but it doesn’t work well for her and a lot of other people. Remember, God made the Sabbath for life!” On the one hand, Jesus is challenging norms that make life even more difficult for people who don’t fit the social standard . . . and on the other hand, Rachel may feel quite mixed about the encounter. For instance, she may feel a sense of gratitude and possibility in healing, however she wasn’t given choice and may also feel like a prop as Jesus persists to make his point with the Synagogue leader. She is healed, yet is she really seen? As allies, it matters how we do things. If someone was bold enough to give Jesus this feedback, it would be an excellent learning moment for him. Even Jesus is fully human . . . we take action, sometimes make mistakes, apologize, learn, and move forward.
Before we transition into Open Space, I’m going to share some really practical ways we can be allies (next slide).
From the left: Let the queer community speak for themselves, take care of the people in your life who need support, learn about issues important to the queer community, encourage others to be allies, be visible.
Let the LGBTQ community speak for themselves. According to ReachOut.com, “If people ask you questions about the community or for your opinion on an issue, recommend [queer] books, magazines, podcasts or social media accounts they can follow. This allows everyone to hear the people in the community speak for themselves.”
Take care of the people in your life who need support. I have a cousin who’s trans and lives in the Seattle area. Even though Seattle has a reputation for being pretty affirming of the queer community, earlier this year, when people on the other side of the border were being pressured to remove pronouns, and this wave of queer affirming laws and best practices began to be threatened on a new level, I got a text from my cousin’s mom. “This is a very scary time with so much going on in the country. Can you reach out to them so they know you’re with them?” Absolutely. I sent a quick text . . . and got one back saying, thank you so much! Just one example of simple support.
Learn about issues important to the queer community. This is a really important piece, and one that is really accessible, without burdening queer friends with questions about where to find resources. There is so much information out there. Affirm United is a great source of info and an easy place to start.
Encourage others to be allies: when allies are ready, they might use their knowledge and skills to influence others, to teach others, to help open minds and hearts.
Last but not least, Being visible: We often sell pride pins here on Sunday mornings as an invitation to be visible to the queer community and to all people. There are different levels of visibility, and we are able to move between them as we feel comfortable. (next slide)
There is actually a flag design for allies. (the design on the left with the rainbow A) This one’s pretty safe. It allows people to self-define as non-queer, also as ally.
A lot of allies wear this updated pride flag (on the right) . . . this one allows one to stand in more of a grey area. I’m going to challenge us a bit here. When we wear this flag, is it possible that someone might interpret that we are a member of the queer community . . . how does that feel? How might someone treat us if they saw our pride flag and interpreted that we are a member of the LGBTQ++ community? It might draw people toward us or cause someone to distance. Maybe you’re very comfortable in that space - it’s actually happened to me before. Or maybe that’s where you find your growing edge. I’m invite us to take a couple more steps down this path and ask: Are we willing to stand with our rainbows and open ourselves to another world, to the possibility of aggression or harassment that queer folk deal with every day? Will we not-only-be safe people for the queer community to interact with, but will we help to keep the queer community safe? That’s a big question and part of the work of an affirming church. We stand together in this space as a church – we offer an affirming space for all and are visible to the wider community. We are invited to consider how we show up as an individual, as well. We walk this path and ask these important questions together . . . so that we may continue to learn and grow and answer God’s call to gather love, cultivate love, and offer love that all of us may know we are safe and loved and celebrated as the beautiful creations God made.
Open Space:
Where is your growing edge as an ally?
When in your life have you needed an ally? In any context. What did it feel like to have one or not have one?
Light candles
Place rocks in water
Ideas for growing as an ally - some info and resources you can take home.
Making a commitment - write a brief statement on a sticky or affirm another sticky with a coloured dot.
We’ll be here for 6-8 min.