CREATED IN GOD
Kelly
McFarland - MCC Portland, Portland, OR, USA
THIS
SERMON WAS PREACHED TO AN MCC CONGREGATION ON APRIL 7, 2002
SUBJECT: CREATED IN GOD’S IMAGE:
THE
INTEGRATION OF OUR SEXUALITY AND OUR
SPIRTUALITY
TITLE: CROSSING OVER
Readings: Exodus chapter 3 verses 1-10
Romans chapter 12 verses 1-2
Introduction:
At the outset
this morning I want to say to you that this is a vast
subject. To discuss this matter fully
would require much more attention and time than we have available in this
venue.
In fact, there is
a leadership conference, a cruise planned by our denomination this fall, in
which half of the group will be discussing this particular topic for the entire
four-day event. So we are just going to touch on a few things this morning. Don’t worry. I’m not going to preach for
four days.
Because of who we
are individually, and because of who we are corporately, we need to have this
theology nailed down. However, because
time is short, my intention is to share with you some thoughts this morning,
that are not being presented as the once and for all, final word on this
subject, but rather as a hypothesis that is still under construction. Perhaps one of these thoughts will become a
seed that germinates and bears fruit in your own life and spirit.
One of the most
commonly used metaphors, understood universally, describes this life as a
journey.
It is a precise
symbol of this life that we are living.
A journey has
drama, and we all know a few drama people
don’t we? Yes,
indeed a journey certainly has drama.
A journey begins
somewhere and ends somewhere.
There is
movement. There is momentum. There is
progression to a
journey. You can mark your progress
by
milestones. This life of faith is
rightly called a journey
of faith.
One of the best
allegories used to understand the
dynamics of our
journey, is the story of the exodus of the
Hebrew
children.
It is a story of
liberation. They were led out of bondage in Egypt.
It is a story of
Devine intervention.
A way was made for
them through the Red Sea.
It is a story of
perseverance. They endured the
wanderings in the wilderness.
It is a story of
courage as they made their
way over the
dangerous and muddy Jordan River.
And, it is a
story of triumph, as they entered into the promised land.
This journey
mirrors our experience as well.
I remember when I
was in bondage, a slave to the
stinking theology
of others, if you will. You may
remember
when you
courageously left that slavery behind, only
to find yourself
wandering in the dessert, round and
round and
round in circles.
You may have
found yourself several times, camped on the banks of the Jordan River. Even though you had come so far, you could
not find a way to cross over in to the promised land. You were unable to claim the blessings of God as your own.
And how you
longed for that place of promise:
That place of
plenty,
That place of joy
and fulfillment,
That place of
affirmation,
That place of
safety and peace,
The place where
you could indeed experience the abundant
life promised to
us by the Christ.
You have needed,
somehow, to find a bridge.
A bridge that
would enable you to finally cross over
that dangerous
river and get to the other side.
Many times I
started to cross, but I found myself
Overwhelmed.
The current of
that river was too swift.
The water was too
cold.
I was thrown
against the rocks.
Many times I
almost went under.
Somehow, with God’s grace, I made it back to the shore.
Where I began to realize that I would never be able to go through that river,
I needed a way to cross over.
I hear you asking
me today:
Just how do we
build this bridge?
How can I enter
that place of promise?
How can we cross
over the dangerous Jordan River?
How can I begin
to live out the blessings that are mine as
a precious and
loved child of God?
Well here is my
hypothesis.
I. THE HYPOTHESIS
Each end of the bridge that we need to build
is held up by us owning up to two aspects of our
identity.
II. THE TWO ENDS OF THE BRIDGE
First of all, one
end of the bridge is held up by
us owning up to
our spiritual identity.
We are spiritual
beings. Scripture declares in
Genesis, that you
and I are created in the image of God.
Because our minds
are limited by our humanness,
we cannot really
understand all that this means.
However we do
know that we have a spiritual
capacity. By experience we know the call and the voice
of Spirit in our
own heart and our own Soul.
When God created
us it is said that we were formed
from the dust of
the earth. God breathed into us the
breath of life
and we became living souls. Beings
with the capacity
to know God in this earthly realm.
Owning up to this
part of our identity is vital to our
crossing over
life’s dangerous Jordan River, and
moving on into
the promised land.
Now, the other
end of the bridge is held up by our owning up to a second part of our identity;
our sexual
identity.
Not only are we
spiritual beings, we are also
sexual beings.
God gave us the
capacity for sexual expression.
God is not
against sex. God likes it.
God invented this intimate language of affirmation.
Do you know why?
Well, I was
trying to figure this part out,
and I read a
wonderful book recently entitled “Embodiment”.
It was actually written in the late Seventies.
It is an
excellent book. James B. Nelson, the
author, calls it “an approach to sexuality and Christian Theology”.
In this book Mr.
Nelson states that, “human sexuality is
not only part of God’s creation, it is also one of the clues; indeed it is the
central clue to what God is up to in this world”.
Mr. Nelson
insists over and over again, that
“our sexuality is
the basis for our capacity to enter in to relationships; relationships which are life enhancing, life
enriching, and relationships which provide the possibility for humans to become
what God would have them become,
namely,
fulfilled, integrated, sharing, and free recipients
of Devine love.”
So you are
sitting here this morning, on the corner of
Twenty-fourth and
Broadway, in Portland, Oregon,
the month of
April, daylight saving Sunday, and you
say: what in the
world does all of this mean for those of us in the
Gay-Lesbian-Bisexual-Trans-gendered community,
and I would add
the heterosexual community as
well?
III. THE PATTERN
Well,
there is a pattern here. I have seen this pattern repeated in my own life. I
have also seen it repeated in the life experience of many others.
Even clinical
psychologists have made this observation.
Carl Jung once
wrote, after observing many hundreds of
patients, that
“when people brought sexual questions to him, they invariably turned out to be
religious questions,
and when they
brought religious questions to him, they
always turned out
to be sexual ones”.
This pattern of
behavior; this way of reacting to
certain things,
has destroyed many of us. This pattern
has kept us
wandering in the wilderness. For years,
yes, even for
decades, some of us have been hindered
from crossing
over into the promised land, and this pattern
is a momentum
that is still destroying lives today.
When we are told
that we are an abomination,
When our parents
have cast us out,
When our families
have disowned us,
When society,
reflecting the attitude of the church,
Has made it OK to
discriminate against us,
When we are
constantly disaffirmed by our spiritual mentors,
When we are made
to believe that even God, our creator,
hates us, what is
our common reaction?
Well, I think,
our survival instincts kick in. We
totally
turn away from
anything spiritual. We say, “OK, if
spirituality is an impossibility, I’m not going to pursue
that at
all”. We find ourselves trying to build
a bridge
based only on our
sexuality.
This kind of a
bridge will not work.
It is out of
balance.
When you attempt
to cross over in to the promised land
on this bridge,
you end up in the dangerous Jordan River.
You find yourself
drowning in the swiftly flowing water.
The coldness
paralyzes you.
Your very life is
beaten out of you as you are dashed against the rocks.
The rocks in this
river have names that we recognize.
Things like drug
addiction.
Things like
alcoholism, sexual addictions, obsessions
of all kinds,
which the scripture calls idolatry.
There are many
others too numerous to mention.
We find that some
of us are lost to the river.
Then there is
another group. Maybe this has been your
journey. These individuals focus only on the
spirituality
end of the
bridge. They totally ignore their
sexuality.
They deny this
entire part of their God given identity.
They think they
are seeking God with their whole heart,
when in reality
they sweep half of themselves under
the carpet. Thinking that their sexuality makes them an
abomination, and
believing themselves to be evil,
they try to
substitute more spirituality for sexuality.
This model is
also flawed. It doesn’t work.
It can’t work.
I must confess to
you this morning, that I feel this was
probably my
experience. I have always loved the
church and God’s
people. I used to say that I could
not remember when
I became a Christian.
I was raised in a
Christian home.
These things have
always been with me.
I started my own
personal ministry in the fifth grade
when I became the
church pianist. I had my own
traveling gospel
group when I was in high school.
We recorded an
album when I was 17.
I went on to a
Christian college, where I was the student
body president
and valedictorian. After college I was
ordained and
found myself in full time ministry.
Oh yes, the
spiritual side of my bridge was progressing
nicely. But I had not even began to deal with my
sexuality.
I thought if I
ignored it, it would just go away.
Remember I said
that these are patterns I have observed?
In this model, I
believe that we often see people coming
to a fork in the
road. At this moment some people marry;
thinking all they
need is a spouse, a couple of kids, and
a house
payment. Others may enter seminary, or
enter a
convent or a
monastery. These may all be seen as attempts to build a bridge, enabling them
to cross over.
I sold everything
I had and went on a missionary trip to
Calcutta,
India. I have a wonderful picture of
myself
arm in arm with
Mother Teresa. I headed up a team that
fed 30,000
Bangladesh refugees at the city dump every
single day. Our kitchens were never shutdown. The stoves
and ovens went
round the clock, twenty-four hours a day.
But, my friend, I
know from experience, that even the most dramatic attempts to build a bridge
which ignores one entire half of your identity will not be adequate enough to
allow you to cross over. And, I found
myself plunging into the dangerous river, dashed like so many others, against
those same rocks of addictions, obsessions, idolatry and despair.
IV. THE STORY OF MOSES
Our
reading, a moment ago, was the story of Moses.
The movie: “The
10 Commandments”, was on again recently. I ask you to recall a few things with
me.
Moses mother hid
him in a basket down at the river
to save his
life. Pharo’s daughter, miraculously
found the young child and took him to the palace. Moses was adopted and
raised as a member of the royal family.
He was Hebrew, but was raised as an Egyptian prince.
Later on, it
seems he was confused about his identity. Because of his reactions to the
ambiguous expectations of his conflicting loyalties, Moses found himself exiled
to the backside of the desert. There,
he spent forty years tending sheep.
Then, one day, Moses noticed something off in the distance, something
astonishing and it caught his eye.
It was a bush
that was burning, but the bush was not consumed. The story goes on to say that Moses turned aside to see this
great sight. As he made his way to the
bush there was this voice. It was the
voice of the almighty speaking, and the words were directed to him.
God said, “Moses, take off
your shoes, for
you are standing on holy ground”.
In that moment
with God, Moses answered the call.
In that moment
Moses found out what he was supposed to do with the rest if his life. In that moment it became clear to Moses
what the journey had been about all along.
He was to be a liberator. Moses
understood that hundreds of years of slavery and bondage made no difference
now.
Freedom was at
hand for the Hebrew nation, the nation of his birth. He would lead them out of Egypt, and get them ready to enter the
promised land.
Do
you know what was really happening at that burning bush?
It was this: Moses finally owned up to both sides of his
identity. No one was as equipped as Moses for this
particular call. He was the only Hebrew
person in the land
who had any
standing at all in the palace. He was
in a position, because of who he was, an adopted son, to boldly walk into the Egyptian palace and demand that an entire
nation be set free. Anyone else would
have been apprehended, incarcerated, and executed long before they ever reached
the throne room.
But Moses was
able to go in time after time.
When Moses owned
up fully to both sides of his identity,
he discovered
God’s purpose for his life, and everything fell into place.
All the years of
questions, all years of wondering why, even
the years of
exile on the back side of the dessert, and all the emotions of that experience,
were redeemed at the burning bush, when he owned up to both sides of his
identity.
I believe that
the same thing is true for you and I.
We are spiritual
beings. You and I know the voice of
God.
You and I have
seen the hand of God at work, and I pray
that we would
embrace that reality fully. You and I
are also
sexual
beings. We have a wonderful capacity to
express
and receive affirmation, and I pray that we would embrace that reality, and all that it
means fully.
Owning up to both
of your identity, will open up your
understanding to the dreams God has for you, and will allow you to
miraculously pursue the call of God.
And, yes, you too
will be able to finally cross over into the
promise land, the
land of peace and fulfillment, the land of
the abundant
life.
V. CONCLUSION:
THE CALL OF THIS SERMON
And so, I ask
you: What is the call of this sermon today?
The call of this
sermon is about the will to make a journey towards wholeness. It is about a
core value of this
community of
faith. This sermon is about this church
supporting you as you journey through the wilderness of
life. It is about our commitment to help you find
a way to cross over. And it also about
you turning aside from the way you have
always done things in order to see a burning bush that is not
consumed. The call of this sermon is
about
you taking off
your shoes because you are on holy ground,
even in the
presence of the almighty. It is about
your
willingness to
make a personal commitment to own up to
your sexual
identity and your spiritual identity.
It is about
you and I
crossing over the Jordan river , and entering
the promised
land, the land of the abundant life, the land
that is your
inheritance as a precious and loved child of God.
May God help us
to help you, in making this journey.
Would you pray
with me a moment.
I thank you oh,
God for each one that hears the voice of Spirit this morning. I pray that you would help us to have
I ask you to help us to pursue the call of God, whatever that might be, and I ask you to help this church in supporting each one that comes our way as they seek your presence and your will in their own life. In thy name we pray, Amen