One of my favorite funny social media sites is “Unvirtuous
Abbey”. It describes itself on Twitter by saying, “Holier than thou, but not by
much. Digital monks praying for first world problems. From our keyboard to
God's ears. This is an account for religious snark.”
And a few days ago it posted an update that said, “For preachers
struggling to write faithful sermons rather than just standing up and going off
or falling to the floor weeping, Lord we pray.”
I think there are many preachers, myself included, who have been
in need of this prayer since the shootings in Orlando a week ago.
The reality of mass murder is so devastating. And it is even
more devastating when the victims were members
of already vulnerable communities killed in places that should have been spaces of
refuge. Whether it is a group of small children in a classroom, African
American residence of a former confederate state in a prayer service, or young
brown and black members of the LGBT community at a club, it weights heavy on
your heart.
Although the shooter last week did not come from the church,
there are many people who claim to represent Christ who hold the same sort of
vitriol and hatred toward the LGBT community. And they are using this moment to
celebrate hate. Therefore as a denomination that is committed to being open and
affirming and radically welcoming to all, we must make sure that we are not
just taking these moments to make outward gestures but that we are also reflecting
inward reevaluating and recommitting ourselves fully to who we say that we are.
We are still in the midst of
the season of Pentecost. We are still in the midst of being wowed and challenged by the
movement of the Holy Spirit. We are still in the midst of this season of Holy
Spirit-inspired commitments to diversity. We are still in the midst of
remembering that prophetic declaration that God has poured out God’s spirit on
all flesh to the point that people of many ages, cultures and genders will be
able to participate actively in the ministry of Christ.
By chapter 10 of Acts
these new converts in this new Jewish sect were still being challenged by this
Holy Spirit’s imperative in chapter 2 to reach across the boundaries of language and culture
to create a church that reflects God’s radical inclusive.
The
same Peter who in chapter 2 proclaimed the words of the Prophet Joel declaring that
the Spirit would fall on all flesh, is found in chapter 10 having to be
convinced that it was ok to have a meeting with a Gentile. The same Peter who
was so passionate about Jesus and heard Jesus say in real time to “teach and
Baptized all nations”, needed a little convincing when it came to non-circumcised
Gentiles.
So just in case Peter decided not to follow his own Pentecost
directives, God sent him a vision. God got Peter at very
vulnerable time, when he was tired and hungry. He fell into a dream state where
God shows him food. And God tells Peter to kill and eat this food. But the
diligent Biblical scholar he is, he realizes that this is food that had
previously be categorized as “unclean”. And he talks back to God and says, “no
way!” I’m not eating this stuff that You God have determined to be unclean. But
God comes back telling him not to call anything unpure that God has made clean.
Peter walked away from that vision unsure what God was trying to
say. But he then walked into a situation where this vision and these words from
God became clear. Peter was being called into a meeting with Cornelius, who
would become a catalyst for Christianity going from small Jewish sect to a
culturally diverse world religion of its own.
Yet it was theoretically against religious law for Peter and Cornelius
to associate with each other because of the difference in culture and because
people like Cornelius were determined to be unclean or unpure. Yet it was God
who was setting this up. Therefore God’s words to Peter in the vision began to
make even more sense. “Don’t call anything (or ANYONE) unpure who I’ve made
clean!”
In this extremely important moment in Christian history, even
Peter, the one who declared the prophetic commitment to diversity on the Day of
Pentecost, had to have a moment where God asked him to take a deeper look in
and recommit himself to the values he professed.
In the same way, I think the tragedy in Orlando is the sort of
shock to the system that needs to be processed not just externally in the form
of vigils and rallies, but internally in the form of reflection, reevaluation
and recommitment to our covenants. As a church, during this ongoing season of
Pentecost, yes we have to be a prophetic witness to others. We have an
obligation as Christians to tell others that God is a God of love, that God has
no tolerance for violence in the name of any faith tradition or creed, that our
doors are open for all. And we also have an obligation to make sure that when
we say it to others we wholeheartedly mean what we say.
Like Peter we have to make sure that there isn’t a group that we
still aren’t sure about. The God of Acts 10 wants to make sure that we are not
just showing outward gestures towards those who died but that we are looking
inward to makes sure that if 50 living young Brown and Black LGBT bodies
entered this space right now that there would be room for all that they are.
Maybe it’s through a strange hungry sleepy vision with creepy
animals or maybe it’s just though some other means. But God is challenging us
make sure that we know that we are not consciously or unconsciously calling
anything or anyone that God created unpure. And like Peter we have to make sure
nothing that we are doing is getting in the way of those who God desires to add
to our communities. We have to make sure that when God is seeking to make a
pivot and do a new thing for the sake of not just opening but expanding the
doors of the church that we are attempting to edit God.
My prayer is that we can continue to open wide the doors of the
church in the spirit of Pentecost, in the Spirit of God’s divine reminder to
Peter. My prayer is that we keep praying, marching rallying and that we keep
looking inward to make sure that we are in line with God’s expansive love.
