So glad this morning to find this flag flying at church. This was timely and also necessary. The current regime's vicious attempt to erase trans people from public life led the National Park Service, which maintains the website of the National Register of Historic Places, to replace "LGBT" and "LGBTQ" with the stunted "LGB" across its pages - including the page dedicated to our church. We will not be party to this cruel inhumanity, and are indeed called by our faith to denounce it. Nobody, certainly not a would-be king who thinks he can name and remake reality by fiat, can erase the divine image in every human being. Trans people are among the most authentic people I have ever known, and the attempt to deny their very existence bespeaks a dangerous fear of the reality of our embodiment and our diversity. A friend quipped: you can't do imago dei without dei.
By coincidence, today's Gospel reading included the words which inspired Bishop Budde's appeal to the newly inaugurated president last month: "Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful" (Luke 6:36). They come after a formulation of the golden rule:
Jesus said, “I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you. ..." (Luke 27-30)
This is a hard teaching, especially in a time of hatred, curses and abuse, and our preacher (a seminarian from Union Theological Seminary) reminded us that Jesus' words do not say that injustice is not injustice or not to be fought. Rather, they explain that the only way to bring an end to hatred is through love.
The Old Testament reading offered an example of such forgiving love in Joseph (he of the amazing technicolor dreamcoat), whom his jealous brothers had sold into slavery, now an advisor to the Pharaoh. As he reveals himself to them when they come to Egypt pleading for help as their land is in famine, he says
He said, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years; and there are five more years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors...." (Gen 45:4-7)
I'd not heard, or noticed, this as an illustration of the call to love those who persecute us but it's a doozy. The ultimate aim must be not just justice but reconciliation. With those who would define us out of existence! Hard as it is even to imagine, may such a day come soon... But this passage was also a sobering reminder that our troubles have only begun: "there are five more years of famine to come" (45:11).
How important, in such times as these, are communities like this one, affirming the God-given dignity of all God's creations, and giving us a place from which to live that affirmation.
