Come Out

Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are

Leviticus 20:7-26 and Matthew 23:1-4, 13-17, 23-32

Robert Moore

October 9, 2005

What if I told you that there was a condition that afflicted any where from three to ten percent of the human population which caused them to use certain body parts in an unusual way and to behave exactly the opposite of most everyone else? What if this condition afflicted both women and men from every social class and ethnic group, and was shown to be remarkably stable across cultures and found in some form in every society on the face of the earth? Let's make it a little more interesting: What if I told you that most young children became aware that they were suffering from this condition at a very early age? And that they were aware that having this condition put them at a tremendous disadvantage, so that they often tried to fit in by masking or hiding this condition? What if I told you that most societies had at one time or another actively discouraged individuals from admitting to having this condition? That in some societies, people with this condition were actually forced into doing things the dominant way, even at great psychological costs? And that people who were forced to function in the more dominant, acceptable way developed sometimes severe nervous conditions as a result? And let's makes this even more interesting: What if I told you that this condition was actually somewhat variable?

That a huge majority of people had actually experienced this condition at one time or another in their lives? That the number of people who had done this came to the easy conclusion that this condition was simply not for them, and that the dominant way of doing things actually worked best for them? And then, of course, that there were some people who remain conflicted over this. That, at various times in history, they were afraid that this condition might somehow take hold of them, as if people were left to their own devices, suddenly everyone might choose this condition. And so in the name of God and religion they had made it their personal crusade to stamp out this condition, and to persecute everyone who had it, labeling them as sinister and a threat to our way of life? Now the final "what if"? What if I told you that I had personal knowledge that there were a number of people in this very congregation who had this condition? What if I told you that most of them lived quiet, rather ordinary lives, and wished that people did not make such a big deal over the fact that they were "suffering" from this condition? And what if I told you that I as a pastor thought it was time to bring this whole tiresome game to an end, and was going to ask everyone who had been afflicted with this condition to stand up in Church and say so? Are you with me on this? I'm ready to do it! Drum roll, please? Here we go. Are you nervous about this? I am, too. But we'll get through this together. Here goes:

Will everyone in this congregation who admits to and engages in the continuous practice of left-handedness please stand up?

Will everyone who is actually able to use their left or right hand to do certain tasks depending on the situation please stand up?

Will everyone in this congregation who has ever experimented with using their left hand to write or to draw please stand up?

Will everyone who has ever had to temporarily substitute their left hand for their right, but went back to using their right hand when they could, please stand up?

Will everyone who has ever lived with somebody who is left-handed please stand up?

Will everyone who has a friend or acquaintance who is left-handed please stand up?

Will anyone who has ever had their hair cut by someone who is left-handed please stand up?

If you are not standing up by now, you are: 1) lying, 2) blissfully unaware of reality, or 3) too embarrassed to express yourself. No matter what the reason, you are hereby granted a plenary indulgence.

We've been having a little bit of fun this morning, playing with the idea of left-handedness as a metaphor for understanding homosexuality. You may think this is a little far-fetched, but you have to remember that left-handedness, which we now know to be an entirely natural variation, was once considered evil and sinister. The term "sinister" itself comes from the Latin word for left hand. In the days

before toilet paper, decent people used their left hands for-you know-and the use of the left hand for other activities was considered obscene. Historically, left-handed people were seen to be morally depraved, in league with the devil, or sick. They were forced to use their right hands, often at considerable cost. Children who were forced to do this developed tics and stuttering. Fortunately, over the last century, we have seen the error of our ways, and lefties are not treated that way any more. We've been able to accommodate them and the sky has not fallen in on us.

If only it were that easy when it came to homosexuality and other naturally occurring sexual variations. Despite years of scientific inquiry and public discussion, the issue of sexual left-handedness, continues to be a problem for us as a society, and especially for us as a church. How on earth did this happen?

For most of us reared in the Judeo-Christian tradition, it goes way back into the dim recesses of history, when our faith tradition was being forged. There has been included, from the earliest days of our

religion, an antipathy toward life, and a general hatred of the human body, that has been elevated at times to dogma. This anti-life strain, and general fear of our natural condition, has been stronger in our

religion at some times more than others, but it has been a persistent theme.

Perhaps the high water mark of this approach to faith can be found in the Book of Leviticus. Though this Book sets itself as one of Israel's foundational documents, setting itself in the period of the

Exodus in order to lend more authority to its injunctions, we now know that this particular book could not have become a part of Scripture until something like 500BC, when the Second Temple was built.

The book itself is an astounding catalog of taboos and superstitions, marked by a general disgust of bodily functioning, and an insane desire to become and remain ritually clean. It includes detailed instructions for ripping the guts out of animals in an effort to maintain this ritual cleanliness. If anyone tried to follow this book to the letter today, they would be diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive

disorder or worse. And yet, there are people who routinely appeal to this book as a source of God's Law for us. Never mind that those who support this engage in a selective literalism. Most of them still eat

pork or shellfish. Did you know that if the Levitical laws were rigorously enforced everyone who had ever touched a football would have to be put to death? No doubt there is a tortured soul out there somewhere who lays awake at night wondering if they are right with God because they played high school football.

How does religion like this happen? It happens only when a group has been under severe pressure and dislocation. At the times the Levitical code became popular, Israel has been to hell and back. They had been decimated and nearly all the survivors deported from their own country. There they had been forced to engage in customs and practices they found offensive. Then, by some miracle, they had been repatriated to their native land, and they became fanatical about maintaining their purity a way that became delusional and obsessional. They mistrusted everyone who was challenged this purity, and ruthlessly set out to destroy them because they thought the very safety of their people depended on it. Nice way to run a religion, heh? I don't think any of us would be here today if that's all there were for us to live by in the Bible.

Fortunately, the story did not end with Leviticus. Over the next few hundred years, the Jews had to learn how to relax. Foreign influences continued to come and go. New ideas took root in Jewish

culture. Many folks learned that they did not have to be so anal about obeying the purity code. A fresh appreciation for nature, and nature's ways developed in the traditions of Sophia, Divine Wisdom. This hopeful trend reached its zenith in the turning of the ages and the arrival of one Jesus of Nazareth, whose teachings were the best and highest articulation of this life-giving approach to religion. In Jesus' day,

there were still some individuals who were struggling with the Levitical code, deciding how much of it observe, and how much to not, for it had become literally impossible by that time to observe it in its entirety.

There were great debates about how much of the law still applied, and the rabbis, in a desperate attempt to create relevant observances of it, had created a whole other set of laws which were constricting and life denying. And Jesus, sweet Jesus, came and set the whole matter to rest by doing away with the Law altogether. He argued against trying to live by the letter of the Law, and asked people to live by its Spirit instead. He made fun of their pretensions, and assured people that they could live simply and well. That they could love their bodies and not be afraid of them. That they could experience a freedom and a lightness of being that they never dreamed possible. And, of course, we know that

the beautiful sanity expressed by Jesus took immediate root, and that everyone immediately saw the innate Wisdom of this way of being in the world, were suddenly freed from their compulsions, and were able to live happily ever after.

My friends, we know that the story did not end that way. We know that the religious leaders of Israel cooperated with the Romans in securing his demise. We know that some of his followers attempted to keep his message alive, but that they still had struggles of their own about how much of the Law they needed to keep in order to stay right with God. We know that by the end of the first century, there was a certain group of these followers, who were now known by the name Christian, who had succumbed to fairly repressive practices of their own, and who were submitting to structures of authority that made them feel safe. We know that in time, Christians of this particular ilkseized control of the Christian community. We know that in time, the Roman emperors themselves saw the utility of this approach, and adopted the Church and its authority structures as a way of getting a grip on their faltering Empire. We know that this bid to stabilize their grip on power failed, and that the Empire was overrun by barbarians. It was in another time of dislocation and disruption that a new theology came into vogue, one which denigrated human life and became very negative toward human sexuality in general. This negative approach, which took the tack that sexual pleasure was the means by which original sin was communicated from one generation to the next, was the work of St. Augustine, and it became enshrined in Church teaching, where it remains to this very day.

And it goes on from there. The Leviticus Project has continued across the centuries, leaving devastation in its wake. It reared its head in the most ugly way possible only sixty some years ago, in a

modern industrialized nation, one well schooled in science and the arts, when the religious establishment joined cause with a brutal dictator who espoused a vision of racial and ethnic purity. Good Church people stood by, and even said prayers in support of, the ruthless destruction of not only the Jews, but the feeble and the infirm, and yes, even homosexuals.

And, my friends, knowing all of this, we have a choice. We have our moment to decide. Will we support the Leviticus Project by our silence? We will stand by and let that particular form of insanity grow and assert itself. Because it will. The problem with that particular form of insanity is that it must keep reaching for new definitions, new people to hate, new sins to persecute, because in the final analysis it just can never work. We can never feel completely pure and right with God. And we will only destroy ourselves if we keep trying. That's what Jesus tried to tell and show us.

So, there you have it, my friends, this is the life and death struggle in which we are currently engaged, and its against this background that these days of coming out for the gentle and sane

approach to life modeled and taught by Jesus becomes nothing short of crucial. Each of us will be faced with opportunities to embrace our living and to stand up against the insanity of those who set themselves

up to live a life against nature. Of course, they'll try to convince you that their way is founded in nature, and that you are unnatural and dirty if you try to live differently than they say you should. But in the end, it is they who will suffer and they who will destroy themselves by trying to complete a Project that can never be completed!

So what can we do for one another in times like these? Well, we can be there for one another. We can be honest. And we can have some fun. I know I made some of you a little bit nervous when I had some fun with you at the beginning of this sermon. But that, my friends, is the part of gay culture that I love the best. Our light hearted way of exploding pretensions and just being real with one another. Hello! That's why it is called "gay"!

Many of you will remember the movie "In and Out" in which a small town English teacher is outed to his friends and family, and even to himself, on national television. Near the end of the movie, he

attends the high school graduation for the students he has been teaching. It is revealed during the ceremony that he has been dismissed from his position because the principal thought the townspeople would not want a gay teacher to "influence" their children. Then a beautiful thing happens. One by one, his students, and his friends, and his family all stand up to announce that they have been influenced by him, and that they now too are "gay". We know, of course that this cannot be true. The natural distribution of sexual preference just doesn't fall that way. But in a very profound way, it is entirely true. For in standing up to say they are "gay", they are standing up to say "we are human beings, too". We have foibles and struggles of our own, and they just don't matter. What matters is that we are family. That we are in this project of living together. And we will not let anyone or anything get in the way of that affirmation.

So I end this sermon, dear friends in Christ, with the same question I began. "What if?" What if you stood up to say enough is enough. What if you stood up for the vision of life taught to us by

Jesus? What if you went on record against the Leviticus Project? What if you had the courage to out yourself as just another fragile human being just trying to get through life? This Tuesday is National Coming Out day, and it's a day not only for sexual lefties to show their true colors. It's a day for the church of Jesus Christ to show its true colors. Are we a community that celebrates life? Are we a community that trusts the Creator to create human beings of every variety and to cherish them as good? Are we a community that resists the Leviticus Project and every project that supports human self-hatred? If that's who we are. Let's be that! Today and always! Now to the one at work within us Who is able to do far more than all we can ask or think:

To this one be glory in Christ Jesus and in the church From generation to generation, now and always. Amen.