Sermon for November 9, 2008

           Scripture: Isaiah 43: 1, Corinthians 1: 12-15, Matthew 25: 1-13

                                       Belonging – Rev. Jan Bodin

We elected a black president. We took away marriage rights for more than 18,000 gay couples in California. We elected a black president. We closed the door on same gender couples adopting children in Arkansas. We elected a black president. We amended the constitutions in Florida and Arizona to make it infinitely hard for same-sex couples to receive equal treatment under the law. We elected a black president. And folks in Oklahoma re-elected Sally Kerns who calls gays a worse threat to the U.S. than "terrorists or Islam."

We elected a black president. Many of us cried. Some cried because they were so moved. Some cried because they were so upset that their candidate lost.

The day after the election, Whoopi Goldberg said, “I realized last night that I could put my suitcase down. I didn’t even know I had been carrying it all these years. Last night, I realized that I could put my suitcase down.”

For the first time, Whoopi Goldberg, successful Hollywood celebrity, felt she belonged. Her comments make one thing perfectly clear: No one can tell another person they belong. Belonging is a feeling each of us must claim for ourselves. Voices crying out, “Go back to Africa where you belong” are stupid voices. No one can tell another person where they belong. That is for each to decide. And as our choir just sang, “There is no such beauty as where you belong.” 

I discovered the beauty of belonging more than thirty years ago while doing Bible Study. Reading through the book of Isaiah, I read the verse you heard this morning. It filled my core with light and joy and love. It erased my doubts and focused my energies to be God’s servant. It was a crystallization of my life of faith. I realized that I belonged to the Beloved. I belonged. My shortcomings did not change that. Indeed, nothing changed the fact that I belonged to the Beloved. I was so moved by this passage that it was printed on my ordination invitations. It empowered me then and now to know I belong in God’s heart.

Some in my life do not believe that I am truly in God’s heart. They see me and all lesbians as beyond the pale of God’s all-embracing, all-loving being. They come to this conclusion by their reading and understanding of a handful of scriptural passages.

I was fortunate in that I first studied these passages with thirty-two Lutheran pastors when I was a married woman. I studied them without a thought of being lesbian myself. After nine months of studying, that group of Lutheran pastors drafted a statement to the Minnesota Synod expressing our conviction that the Bible did not address homosexuality and certainly did not condemn it.

More than a year later, I told my husband of a dream I had in which I had fallen in love with a woman. He was calm, gentle, easy. Over the next months, he encouraged me to consider the possibilities that I was, in fact, lesbian. It was painful to re-identify myself. Phil was a good man. I had made a promise to him that I had fully intended to keep. Eventually, we were divorced. I felt like a failure. I had not known myself. I had acted immaturely and unwisely, and my actions had hurt someone who did not deserve to be hurt. Yet, Phil knew fully and deeply… more than anyone else in my life there is no such beauty as where you belong.”

Belonging as a lesbian was wonderful for its own sake, but it did not help me with my guilt and shame over my failed marriage. That was something that I carried until just recently. Weeks I read a book entitled, “Both Sides of the Color Line.” It is a story about a man’s childhood as he retells what it was to be “Italian” in Virginia and “Black” in Indiana. As I read the book, I began to heal the very old wounds from my marriage. I realized that I had lived with heterosexual privilege. I knew it through and through. And, as a lesbian, I know what it is to live with anxiety and fear, oppression and intolerance. Reading this book made me realize that I had been given a great gift to understand both sides of one oppression. Perhaps, I thought, it is important to have people like me in a community. Perhaps this is one of God’s redemptive acts. Instead of feeling disappointed in myself for failing at marriage, instead of feeling guilty of immaturity and stupidity for not knowing I was lesbian – I could affirm my place in community. I could be the bearer of some important piece of perspective. The awareness filled my core with light and joy and love. It erased my doubts and focused my energies to be God’s servant. It is another crystallization of my life of faith. I realize not only that I belong to the Beloved but I belong in the world! “There is no such beauty as where you belong.”

But what about belonging in the community of faith? Our second reading today from First Corinthians focused on the divisions in the early church. Paul is frustrated that people are stuck on personalities and not on the larger issues of faith. Paul, you will remember, is the one who declared “There is no Jew, no Greek, no bond, no free, no male, no female. For we are all one in Jesus Christ.” Paul reminds us that we belong to the Beloved and we belong together. 

We do belong together. We are connected with Christians around the world who are our brothers and sisters. Our belonging to them is more important than our nationality. That is why I do not like to see us co-mingle our nationhood with our faith. It is fine and good to be proud of being Americans, of working for political campaigns, of giving our country service. But our loyalty is to Jesus Christ first. When we celebrate All Saints’ Sunday, we celebrate it with millions around the world. When we break bread on World Communion, we celebrate with millions around the world. When we welcome the light of Christmas and the joy of Easter possibilities we do so with people around the world. If we are united with our sisters and brothers in faith, will we not be united in issues of justice and peace? We belong together. We come to worship to hear the message that we belong.

But we also belong with those of other faiths. We are united in our seeking, in our growing, in our questioning. We are united in our loving, in our compassion, and in our humanity. We belong with those of other faiths. And “there is no such beauty as where you belong.”

Belonging is not just a feeling of fit. It is also identifying our mission. For perspective on this we have the parable about the wise and foolish maidens. Because some did not bring enough oil, they were not allowed to join the party. It is a parable whose intent is to instruct believers to be true to their calling even if God’s second coming is delayed. The parable reminds us that we must be active in our faith even when we do not know outcomes. Our task is to tend the light, to keep going.

I submit to you that tending the light is about belonging, about finding our place, our fit, our task, our mission. It is to discover the ways we belong: the ways we belong to the Beloved, to our families and loves, to our communities and country, to our world and our universe. We will always be working on this. We will always be given help in finding our place and fit. And when we find each belonging place, our cores will be filled with light and joy and love. Our doubts will be erased and our energies focused to be God’s servants. 

That does not mean that everything is peaches and cream. It means that when we are able to declare, “I belong” we are speaking from a place of beauty and light. And that beauty and light is needed in our hearts, our lives, in this community of faith, and in the world. May we find the places, the moments, the healing to put our suitcases down. Amen.

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