13th Sunday after Pentecost
Romans 12: 1-8
I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect. For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.
The Promises We Keep
It was the summer of 2010. I had just gotten back from a 2-month road trip around the perimeter of the United States, with my mom and my dad, and my nephew Kai. My pastor needed to talk to me. I’ve never been able to fully convey the sense of betrayal when he told me that the congregation would no longer support me in becoming a minister. It’s one of the most painful things that has ever happened to me. He said that they couldn’t support someone who took the theological stance that queer people should be included in the whole life and ministry of the church. When I turned to the presbytery to find out what I should to do, a presbytery is like an association in the UCC, I was told not to bother transferring to another church. It would be a waste of time because the presbytery would never ordain someone like me.
The choice that was presented to me was to stay with the denomination, and turn my back on God’s call to ministry, or leave the only church I had ever known. I was lost; I didn’t know what to do. As a child, the thought of not being Presbyterian had never crossed my mind. Why would it? It was the only church that I had ever belonged to; it was fully integrated into my identity, my personality. As far as I was concerned, it was a forgone conclusion that would die Presbyterian.
I had been baptized in the Presbyterian church as an infant, and as you know, part of the baptism ceremony is the congregation promising to take care of me and walk with me on my journey of faith. That congregation broke their promise to me, their promise to my parents, their promise to God. And, it’s not only during baptisms that we make promises like this. When we celebrate communion, we accept our place as a member of the family of God, brothers and sisters and non-binary siblings in Christ. By accepting that role, we are making a promise to God that we will care for the people around us, that we will spread goodness and love to the world. That we will spread peace and joy. That is what it means to be a part of God’s family. God does not take covenants and promises lightly, and we shouldn’t take them lightly either.
Thinking about this experience reminded me of a truly sobering fact. Queer youth are far more likely than other groups to run away or be rejected by their families. The 2021 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health showed that 28% of queer youth reported experiencing homelessness or housing instability at some point in their lives, and those who did reported 2 to 4 times more instances of depression, anxiety, self-harm, thoughts of suicide, and attempted suicide, compared to those with stable housing. Those numbers are significantly higher when looking at queer native and indigenous youth, and trans and non-binary youth. As a nation that claims to be Christian, the central tenet of which is to do unto others as you would have them do unto you, it seems like we haven’t been doing a very good job.
Our epistle reading today says that the Christian family is one body with many members. It goes on to say that those members have different functions and then goes on to list some of the gifts those members might have: faith, ministering, teaching, exhortation, generosity, diligence, and cheerfulness. It’s really important to note here are that people are supposed to be different. Uniformity is not the goal. And, even though we have to constantly fight our base human instinct to form tribes with people who are just like us, whether those similarities are physical characteristics, or beliefs, or other ways of thinking, it says right here in this text, “Do not be conformed to this world.” We are not supposed to conform. Jesus never told us that we were all supposed to be the same. Instead, he emphasized kindness and generosity, love your neighbor as yourself, while telling stories about how all people are our neighbors.
How we treat our neighbors is the most important thing. And, it is crucially important when they are suffering in our midst.
This week, we start our 5-week long look at Tracy Kidder’s book, Rough Sleepers, about a doctor’s efforts to provide medical care to the unsheltered population in Boston. The book raises a lot of issues, so we’ve chosen five of those issues to take a closer look at, and we’ve invited the Helena community to join us. Each week we will have a discussion about one of those topics, led by someone currently working in that field. And, each discussion will take place at a different location around town, at the home base of one of the organizations that are partnering with us in this effort.
The goal of all of this is to raise awareness. It’s part of the larger Move the Dial project, which seeks to find solutions to homelessness in our area. As bad as things have gotten in our country, in terms of homelessness, as bad as things have gotten around the world, there is hope. There are people working right now find solutions, to help our unsheltered neighbors find shelter, to have secure housing and enough food to eat. It’s going to take a lot of work, and it’s going to take time and money, but God is moving here, right in this community, to make something new. God is keeping covenant with us, to help us and protect us, to provide for us and be with us. And, to give us the strength and courage to hold up our part of the covenant.
Being a member of the family of God is a big deal. We can’t sit passively by and expect everyone else to do the work for us. Each of us has received a multitude of gifts from God. We need to learn out how to use them, so that we can do God’s work in the world. You are an integral part of all of this. Remember that everyone you see is you neighbor. Everyone you see is a part of your family. Remember your responsibility to them. Use your gifts to build and strengthen relationships, to build and strengthen community, so that every single person in this world will know that they are loved and that they belong. Amen.
~ Rev. Charles Wei
