Proud of What? ~ Bringing The Other Home

July 25, 2010
GLBTIQQ PRIDE SUNDAY
by Rev. Emma Chattin

Proud of What? ~ Bringing The Other Home

How do we celebrate our differences?
Perhaps we begin by celebrating that we are different.

First Reading ~ Luke 19 : 1-9

Jesus entered Jericho and made his way through the town. There was a man there named Zacchaeus. He was the chief tax collector in the region, and he had become very rich. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but he was too short to see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree beside the road, for Jesus was going to pass that way.

When Jesus came by, he looked up at Zacchaeus and called him by name. “Zacchaeus!” he said. “Quick, come down! I must be a guest in your home today.” Zacchaeus quickly climbed down and welcomed Jesus with great delight. But the people were displeased. “He has gone to be the guest of a notorious sinner,” they grumbled. Zacchaeus stood his ground and said, “I will give half my wealth to the poor, and if I have cheated people on their taxes, I will give them back four times as much!” Jesus responded, “Today salvation has come to this home, for this is what it means to be a true descendant of Abraham and Sarah.”

Second Reading ~ from “Who Is Your Other”, by Eliacin Rosario-Cruz.

The children of the Enlightenment inherited the meticulous process of scientific classification. Following this process, everything was given its own place. But this process did not belong to the sciences alone—our communities of faith adopted this hard model of categorization as well. Categorization of this kind is no different from the behavior we frown upon in the Gospels when teachers of the law tried to manipulate and domesticate Jesus. While in Jesus we see the completion of the law, this truth was not accessible to the priests, Pharisees, and other religious professionals. They were neck deep into the myth of being the only ones who truly knew the right teachings, the accepted societal rules, and correct spiritual behavior. And then a callous craftsman with sawdust still in his hair, from a little town that nothing good was known to come out of, came to be the Other who would disturb the boring parade of sameness.

 

 

---

 

Proud of What? ~ Bringing The Other Home

Happy Pride Day!

PRIDE events commemorate the riots that began at the Stonewall bar in New York City, June 28, 1969 — the first instance in American history when the homosexual community stood up and stood its ground. It was not pretty, but it was in response to city laws that were not pretty… laws against things like … prohibiting same sex dancing… prohibiting alcohol from being served to a known homosexual… and a social atmosphere that shouldered and forced the LGBT community to the very margins, to the hardest bars and most dangerous places, to a handful of shabby clubs operated by organized crime and routinely raided by police in a general show of law and order, usually in quiet exchange for money (nudge nudge, wink wink).

That particular night, on June 28, someone rose up… and said…. No More. Someone stood their ground. Heads were busted, bottles thrown, and everything spiraled out of control. Crowds gathered and grew. It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t legal, it wasn’t neat, but from the descriptions of everyone who was there, it was an oddly positive chaos.

Now, reliable rumor has it, and legend has formed around it, that the riots were begun and fueled by the least among those in the club. The smallest in social stature. The hustlers. The kids. The Drag Queens. Their barricade line was not some solemn row. No, it was a linked chorus line, complete with high kicks. Many climbed up nearby lamp posts… pelting police with bottle caps, bottles, stones, and high heels.

The riots escalated and went on for three days, eventually resulting in a cohesive community, and culminating in the First Gay Rights Bill in this country codified into law in New York City. However, i would be remiss if I did not mention that, in order to make the Bill more palatable, the word “Transvestite” was removed, shouldering away from the table many of the very individuals who had begun the movement. The lesson here? Everyone has an other. And everyone is someone else’s other.

[ And who is your other? And to whom are you an other? ]

In any event, PRIDE recognizes that that moment, that night, the hairpin drop heard round the world, and is celebrated in typically queer fashion… sometime… usually summerish… from May to September… with picnics, parades, and dances… And today it will be celebrated in Harrisonburg with the 4^th annual Pride in the Park. Everyone is invited. J

Now you say… Emma…. Gays are not so oppressed now…. my response? We have pitifully few relationship rights, and even questionable protection under the law … especially when the Attorney General of my own state, the Commonwealth of Virginia, recently said that he does not believe that Gays and Lesbians are covered under the 14^th amendment… more specifically… the equal protection clause… you know… the one that requires states to provide equal protection under the law to all citizens? We must still stand up and stand our ground in 2010…. and say… No More. And good Virginians must stand with us, because I will guarantee that you don’t have to shake ANYONE’s family tree very hard… before one of us will fall out of it! We are here, we are queer… and we are family!

In thinking about celebrating PRIDE, I had to think about a few things. First of all, what am I proud of? And second, the nuances of how we authentically celebrate our differences without inadvertently creating divisions. The first thing that came to mind for the latter was a line from the U2 Song, ONE: We’re one, but we’re not the same. We get to carry each other…

It expresses the thought that Unity is not uniformity, and Diversity is not Division. It’s a paradox of sorts, but I think the best parts of our world are expressed as paradox and as mystery.

I think Harrisonburg UU is a place like that … where there is less certainty… and more wonder… forming a space for conversation… celebrating the uniqueness and the diversity of humanity and human beliefs, without passing judgment, and at the same time, creating a space for the multiplicity of human expressions of divinity. Or Humanity. Or Unity.

A new concept? Like all good concepts, perhaps a very old one.

This from the poem One Song, by Rumi, a 13^th century Muslim Sufi poet :

All religions, all this singing

One Song.

The differences are just

Illusion and vanity.

The Sun’s light looks

A little different on this wall than

It does on that wall,

And a lot different on this other one,

But it’s still one light.

It looks a lot different on this other one. The Other one.

The other. The other is different, foreign, frightening, strange, the one in whom you cannot see yourself.

In the book, “Mighty Stories, Dangerous Rituals: Weaving Together the Human and the Divine”, the authors put it this way: “The Other is our future waiting to happen. The Other is the parable and myth that looms on our horizon. They are sources of anxiety, fear, and sometimes violence. They are also necessary, for without the other, without the stranger, we are bereft of the distance we need to discover the God who is wholly other, and even to glimpse ourselves more clearly.”

Now, when we human beings encounter the other (any kind of other), there are generally three paths that can be taken. The first is to attack and destroy the other. This behavior is manifested in violence, prejudice, genocide, hate crimes. The second it to wall ourselves off from the other, pretend the other is not even there, does not even exist. That’s denial. Or, we can engage the other, and perhaps discover ourselves in the process.

Two Jewish philosophers who I greatly admire, Martin Buber, and Emmanuel Levinas, even suggest THAT LOVE IS LEARNED in the encounter with the other.

Love

Love looks A little different on this wall than It does on that wall,

And a lot different on this other one wall,

But it’s still… Love. It’s still Love.

One love, but we’re not the same.

At some point in my life I became aware of the other … within myself. The Other I met within me was the Queer Other, the other that made me a part of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Trans, Intersex, Queer, and Questioning community.

I tried as best as I could to wall off that other within me.

Yet had that other not been within me, I would have grown up living a life less aware of most of the world around me, and with a sense of white privilege so ingrained I would not have been able to even see it without the distance of perspective that the Other provides. Because I would have believed that I was right by birthright. That I knew everything that mattered- and if I didn’t know it, then it didn’t matter. I would have been completely unaware of the privilege I possessed, Neck deep in knowing that I was right. I would never have known any other way.

I am so grateful that didn’t happen. Because encountering the other within me truly and wholly made me a different person from who I was…. and made me the person that I was made to be…. the person I was meant to be.

I am so very grateful for that encounter, and that the other within me looked me in the eye, took my hand, and led me home.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Anyone who knows me knows that I love a good story. In fact, I believe it is the stories of our lives, the narratives we form, that help to shape us, our lives… who we are… and who we become. And I believe they are powerful, because, with just a small shift of perspective, we suddenly see things differently, and then everything changes …. and nothing is ever the same again.

In a moment. In an instant. In the span of a breath… Pivotal precedents, when we finally see something, catch a glimpse of something. We are moved, we look at it differently; the only thing that changes is our perspective — and that changes everything!

The Bible is filled with such good stories. Stories with meaning stories with relevance. Stories that teach us about ourselves… by showing us OTHERS. By letting us see others. Every story in the Bible has an assortment of trees by the side of the road that we can climb to get a better perspective, a better glimpse of Wisdom… of the Divinity that is a part of all of us.

Sadly, I think that aspect of the Bible is largely overlooked in today’s world. People want a rule book, they want a law, they want something they can use to enforce their views on others. In order to force the other to change. When, in truth, the change the Bible brings about is the change within our own hearts, not the hearts of the others. It changes US. That’s what good stories do.

Our first reading today is from the Gospel of Luke.

And Luke sure can tell a good story.

Many of the stories found ONLY in this Gospel are among the Bible biggies… … the greatest hits and most memorable… the Prodigal Son… the Good Samaritan…. (which is the consummate story of The Other!)…. And this little story today… the story of Zacceaus.

A wee story about a wee little man…

Now, back in the day, tax collectors were not viewed very favorably. And not a lot has changed, has it? But back then, it was even worse. Tax collectors were seen as traitors, colluding with the enemy occupier, cheaters, sinners, crooks. So Zacceaus was an outcast, an Other in many ways. Life for a wealthy short tax collector in Jericho could not have been a very easy social existence.

And so when people lined the streets to get a glimpse of Jesus, this teacher whom they had heard of, on his way to Jerusalem, it is no wonder that Zacceaus was cut out. They were standing in the way, and no one there moved aside for him. You can even imagine him being shouldered away, intentionally pushed back… by those who were simply born taller.

But Zacchaeus would not take no for an answer.

He went down the parade route and climbed up a sycamore-fig tree.

The type of tree is significant. It bore fruit that was fed to pigs, and as such, it was considered to be a “dirty” tree, a tree that Jews avoided. Yet here was Zacchaeus, audaciously climbing this tree… to get a better view of Jesus. Not only that, but it gave Jesus a better view of Zacceaus.

And Jesus called Zacceaus out.

What can we say about that moment?

Something connected in them?

They recognized the other…. in each other?

Lloyd Douglas, a writer and preacher’s kid,

wrote in his classic “The Mirror” in 1945, as he imagined this exchange….

“Zacchaeus,” said the carpenter gently, “What did you see that made you desire such peace?” “Good teacher — I saw mirrored in your eyes — the face of the Zacchaeus I was meant to be.”

Now who is the other here, and who took the other home to family? Zacceaus, whom Jesus affirmed as being a part of the family of Abraham and Sarah? Or Jesus, the stranger in whom Zacceaus saw the other, and who Zaceaus invited into his home? The other often offers us such reciprocity. Because we are sometimes the other’s other as well.

I brought the other home to my family in the form of me.

Suddenly, my family was one with an “other” in it.

No one can pretend that’s easy, and my “otherness” was quite complex.

But I kept showing up, I kept climbing that tree.

I kept going out on a limb. And in time, my family changed.

They came to see me above the grumbling crowds. They called my name.

They eventually became an advocate, standing up for the GLBT community, standing ground for others. My otherness changed my family …. like a good story can change a person.

I brought the other home to my church in the form of me… home to my community… home to my work place…

Our GLBT community brings The Other home… to our families … to our society… to our work places… to our churchs … in unexpected places, and in unexpected ways.

But don’t expect a celebration, people.

What did the people do in the story of Zaccreas? Did they cheer? Were they happy? No. They grumbled. They grumbled when they saw Love coming alive right before their very eyes! They grumbled! We may bring the other home, but do not expect a parade. Except on Pride Day. J

I encountered the other within myself, the other, looking for a way up and out. And just as Zacceaus climbed up a tree to see Jesus, to see Wisdom more clearly…. so my very complex queerness enabled me to see much more clearly.

Many grow up with a domesticated Jesus, one who has been sanitized for their comfort and protection. But because of my experience as an outsider, that is not the Jesus of my experience. The Jesus of my experience is one who makes the crowds grumble. Makes people uncomfortable. Looks around, finds the other, and calls the other home to family.

So I am grateful to the other within me for opening my eyes

For teaching me how to live, and how to love

This is what I am most proud of.

I am proud of our community’s ability not to take no for an answer, to extend ourselves, to climb up, to climb out… with the courage to go out on a limb… to see who we really are. I am proud of each and every soul that seeks to find, to face, and to see their true self clearly above the grumbling crowds that surround us. I am proud of those who stand their ground. I am proud of those who look the other in the eye, and see themselves there, and see there the divinity within.

I am proud of those who take the other by the hand,

and take them home to family… to community…

to society… to work….

to church…. to self…

and home… to the very Heart of Divinity… to Love.

Zacceaus?

Zacceaus went on to become the first Bishop of Caesarea, located midway between modern-day tel-aviv and Haifa in Israel. And according to reliable legend, Zacceaus was given the name Mattias, which means “Gift From God”, and took the place of Judas among the apostles.

My thought for the world today?

Stand and rise on the side of love… or sit to the side…

But please… don’t stand in the way.

And may we here never be afraid to go out on a limb

to bring the other home… to our human family.