Untitled

On
April 4^th several of us went to the University of Albany
to hear Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor.  Very early
in the evening she explained that she likes to be up and moving, and
she started wandering around the room while speaking.  The wandering
wasn’t random.  She systematically worked her way around the entire
room, stopping at every row of every aisle, and walking across any
front row entirely.  While talking coherently. she allowed every
person who reasonably could do so to touch her.  She just offered her
hand, and people in the outside 3-4 seats were able to physically
connect with her.

She
was clear from the outset that this is her preferred way of engaging,
but I was also aware that it was a remarkable way to fulfill the
needs of those who come to hear her speak.  She is the third woman
appointed to the Supreme Court, and the first Hispanic/Latinx.  She
is an inspiration to an enormous percentage of the population, and
her choice to let people touch her seemed like a way to take that
inspiration role seriously.  

In
all the wisdom Justice Sotomayor has, knowing the importance of touch
seems like part of it, as does taking seriously the role of being a
bearer of hope.  She offered her hand as a beacon, letting her touch
defy some of the brokenness of the world.

–
– – –

The
first gospel lesson today also centers on the power touch.  Two
women, in very different life stages are transformed by it.  The two
stories, told together, are intended to reflect on each other and
enhance the meaning of each other.  The young girl was 12, the
anticipated age of maturity.  The woman had suffered for 12 years,
emphasized as long enough for a baby to reach maturity.  The young
girl was believed dead.  The woman’s was in a living death of
isolation, poverty, and extinguished hope.

The
young girl wasn’t able to speak for herself, so her loving father
begged for Jesus’s help.  The woman
wasn’t to touch anyone, and anything she sat on or laid down on (as
well as her touch) would make others unclean.  This should have
impeded her capacity to speak for herself too.  The story seems to
suggest that she doesn’t have family to care for her, because they
refer to her dissipated wealth as her own.  No one could do it for
her.  She definitely wasn’t supposed to spend time in tight crowds.

(Two
thoughts about this.  As damaging as such a life would be for a
person, I think it makes some sense in context.  The ancient Jews
believed that blood was the life force in a body, that’s what made it
sacred.  They would be understandably concerned about continual
bloodflow.  Secondly, in an era before germ theory or antibiotics
about all people knew for sure about medicine was that you could get
sick from sick people.  In order to care for the community, you kept
people from passing along illness.  It is awful for the individuals,
but better than letting the whole community die.  I don’t want this
story to be heard as implicating ancient Jewish society as unloving.
It seems to me they were doing the best they could.)

This woman, whose 12 years of
life had been without human touch or connection, as well as without
without successful treatment, and was now without resources because
she’d tried to fix it; broke the rules.  She moved in a tight crowd,
touching others as she went.  She sought, intentionally, to touch
Jesus, EVEN THOUGH her touch would make him ritually unclean.  Some
scholars suggest that such an action made her eligible to be stoned.
No one could speak for her, the laws made it impossible for her to
speak for herself, so she broke the laws, taking a huge risk, seeking
life again.  She reached out to touch Jesus, not knowing what
would happen next, if she’d be healed or stoned, accepted or
violently rejected.

– – –

On Tuesday the Judicial Council
of The United Methodist Church met in Newark, New Jersey to hear oral
arguments about the election of Bishop Karen Oliveto.  Bishop Oliveto
was elected this past July by the Western Jurisdiction of the United
Methodist Church in an unanimous vote that was uncontested.  She’s a
gifted spiritual leader, a joy-filled human being, a natural church
leader, and a living example of grace.  The issue is very simple:
Karen is married to Robin, and both Karen and Robin are women.  The
Western Jurisdiction knew this when they elected her, Karen’s
decision to run happened after the Pulse Nightclub massacre.  She was
reminded of all of the violence done to the LGBTQIA¹
community, and thought it was important to use her ministry to
visibly change some of the narrative (in the church and the world.)

The
United Methodist Church is officially a homophobic denomination.  It
intentionally and structurally oppresses the queer community.  By
putting herself forward for election, she offered the possibility of
giving hope to the queer community in the midst of its grief and the
multitudes of harms.  This particular United Methodist Church, along
with 836 other United Methodist churches and communities, has taken
an official stance declaring that we believe that The United
Methodist Church is WRONG and that God’s love and the churches doors
should be open to people without consideration of their sexuality or
gender identity.  This church, and 836 others, advocate for the full
inclusion of LGBTQIA people in the church and the world.  The Western
Jurisdiction agrees, and they elected Bishop Oliveto because of the
gifts and graces she has for the episcopacy.

Despite the systematic
oppression of the church, as Kevin has explained in 20 page brief
(one of many filed) what they did was legal and appropriate.  (The
fact that the Judicial Council ended up sort of disagreeing doesn’t
in any way make me doubt Kevin’s analysis.)

The Judicial Council meets twice
a year, and they always have several items on their docket.  Two
other pieces this April related to the commissioning and ordination
of out queer clergy.   Unfortunately, while there are MANY in our
denomination who agree with us about God’s love extending to all
people, there are also many willing to engage in witch hunts to
prevent the church’s blessing from falling on queer people. The
conservatives wanted to invalidate the ordinations of out queer
clergy!!!

On
Tuesday, as I woke up, people had already gathered in Newark.  Bishop
Oliveto, her wife and her mother, queer clergy from across the
denomination, queer laity, and allies of all sorts were present,
visible, singing, and connecting to each other.  I watched it on live
feed.  Tickets were given to two rooms: one the room in which the
Judicial Council sat and the arguments would be made, and one for
overflow connected via a live stream.  Laity and allies exchanged
tickets with queer clergy so that they could be together, sitting in
solidarity with Bishop Oliveto.

As I watched the live stream, I
saw the Queer Clergy Caucus²
enter the Judicial Council room, and kneel to pray.  It took my
breath away.  It looked like the hemorrhaging woman reaching her hand
toward Jesus.  That group of beloved and beautiful people of God have
stayed in a denomination that has called them names and declared
their lives “incompatible with Christian teaching.”  They have
courageously refused to leave, refused to be silent or invisible, and
continued to ask for the church’s blessing on their whole lives and
ministries.  They have reached out to touch Jesus, knowing that the
laws stand in the way, that the crowd will judge them, that the
disciples would try to stop them, and needing to touch Jesus anyway.

They knelt to pray, to reach out
and touch Jesus and hoped the church wouldn’t stop them this time.
They’ve done it before.  They’ll do it again.  But every time it is
an act of courage.  So far, every time they reach out, the church has
TRIED to stop them.  

– – – –

In the Gospel, Jesus’s response
is grace-filled.  He calls out the woman (who must have been
TERRIFIED), and by doing so publicly he is able acknowledge her
healing and restore her relationship with the community at large.
She was able to touch others again, she was able to connect, she was
able to be a part of the whole.  She was afraid that by touching him
she’d bring him shame, but she took the risk anyway, and instead all
that separated her from the community was lifted from her.

That’s
what the queer clergy caucus was hoping the church could replicate.

The young girl brought back to
life when Jesus grabbed her hand becomes a metaphor for the life that
Jesus has to offer, and gave as well the hemorrhaging woman.  The
touch of Jesus brings life – and hope – as well as healing.

– – –

In our second Gospel lesson,
people are also walking with Jesus, and their lives are also changed
by it.  The story ends with people more alive than when they began.
The theologian John Dominic Crossan³
often says, “Emmaus never happened.  Emmaus always happens.”
That is, he doesn’t think that it is a story reflecting actual
historical events, but instead reflecting deep Christian realities.
This year it occurs to me to wonder how literally the story is
intending to indicate that a third person actually showed up.

Perhaps, instead, the Holy
Spirit was with the two walking together, and together they started
piecing together the teachings of Jesus and the meanings offered.
Perhaps the collective (even of two) felt so much more than one and
one that it was as if there was another one leading their
conversation.  I’ve had conversations like that.  (I’ve had
conversations like that this week at the “Change Leaders Summit”
hosted by the General Commission on Religion and Race as we dreamed a
less racist church).  I could metaphorically say that the some
moments of talking to another have been so sacred and eye-opening
that it was as if Jesus was the third person in the dialogue.  

If that is one of the
metaphorical meanings of the gospel lesson, the it is potent.  The
disciples are running away!  They’re going in the wrong direction,
and even then Jesus is with them and guiding them.  In the end they
turn back and return to the place they’d been frightened away from.
They move from fear back to life.  In connecting with Jesus they
connect with their hope, their meaning, and the purposes of their
lives.  They were reconnected to Jesus, and perhaps via the power of
the Holy Spirit to guide sacred conversations.

– – –

Returning
to face the fears is part of the inherent Easter story.  So is the
transformation of the Body of Christ from the historical Jesus to his
followers throughout time.  We are now expected to respond to the
world with his courage and grace, to respond to all the ways he
responded to the hemorrhaging women, the powerless girl, and –
however it happened – the frightened disciples

Those Queer Clergy praying in
the Judical Council hearing room were living out the Easter story.
They faced the fears of rejection, and went anyway.  Others may want
to cut them out of the Body of Christ, but they believe that Jesus
responds to them with grace. They know enough to reach out for Jesus
and know that Jesus will see them and bless them, even if the church
will not.

It turns out that today Bishop
Karen Oliveto IS still a Bishop.  Thanks be to God.  Furthermore,
none of the commissionings or ordinations of our out queer clergy
siblings were overturned.  Thanks be to God.  Unfortunately, there is
also a lot of bad news that came from the decisions.  The church has
attempted to crack down to gain control offer the resistances
movements that seek to include ALL of God’s people fully in the
church.  (They seem to forget that their methods NEVER work over the
long run.)  There are many in our church who are hurting and there
are many in our world who are hearing from our denomination that they
are not worthy of love.  

– – – –

The denomination is wrong.  It
can’t control or limit God’s love.  Nor can it control or limit the
queer community and its allies.  The people of God will keep reaching
for God, whether the church tries to stop them or not.  When people
reach out, Jesus responds with grace.  When people reach out we can
follow the lead of the Spirit who will guide us to bring hope and
grace to each other.  God is faithful, whether the church is or not.
For that, I am mightily thankful to God.  Amen

1 Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual

2 https://www.facebook.com/UMQClergy/

3 Coming
to First UMC Schenectady on September 23-24.  SQUEAL.

Rev. Sara E. Baron

First United Methodist Church of Schenectady

603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305

Pronouns: she/her/hers

http://fumcschenectady.org/
https://www.facebook.com/FUMCSchenectady

April 30, 2017