Sunday I learned more on the hot button topic, gay marriage. I attended a worship service with More Light Presbyterians. They are all about including LGBTQ people in the work of the church. It stretched me a little, and I grew a little. I want to apologize for my naive understanding of LGBTQ and if I use terms incorrectly please tell me to change them, as I'm not well versed in sex terms. But this isn't about sex, it's about compassion.
Compassion. A word that reminds me of the unique perspective of a former colleague, Alex Zuercher. Alex's example and message reflecting compassion along with Gus doing the same for honesty, made my last year's summer home of a bunk house full of rowdy boy campers a tame place. A word which these fine men shaped into my own character. A word I would have said described me until Sunday.
Compassion. That's what I heard about from More Light Presbyterians. Compassion they said is having a heart for someone else. Back to the Latin roots it comes from compati, meaning to sympathize with: com (with) + pati (to suffer). It means to share, sypmpathize and really know what someone is struggling with. The preacher used the story of Joseph's brothers selling him into slavery as an example of apathy, the opposite of compassion. Not until they saw their father weep for days at Joseph's bloody coat did they understand their father's compassion. If you have a few minutes please read or watch Anna Barclay's sermon here.
She told about the many times we create, "the other." Someone different than us, like Joseph's brothers did to him. For us it may be the poor, the homeless, the hungry, maybe those on welfare, those on food stamps. Maybe those who wear the rainbow scarfs at GA, those who use these letters LGBTQ to identify themselves. People we cast out. People we are tired of hearing from that we want to throw into the pit like Joseph and get back to "normal life." But if we have compassion would we make them "the other"?
Honesty moment. LGBTQ is weird to me. I'm a little uncomfortable around these people, I tend to make them "the other". I consider myself sheltered, but becoming more open-minded, sometimes old fashioned. I was called a grandpa just today. I like females, I think that's normal, and I don't understand homosexuality. I know sexuality is part of ourselves that we discover growing up. I know and believe we need safe people in our lives to explore and understand this about ourselves. I think our sexual drives can get us in big trouble and I associate these letters with being promiscuous, lustful and and wrong. If I stop there, like I sometimes do, I create "the other" and throw out the letters LGBTQ like I understand what that means.
But I can't stop there. We can't stop there and say we know.......Not if we have compassion. So I'm sorry for the times I do.
I know there are parts of myself most people don't know, there are parts of myself even my closest friends don't know, and there are parts of myself that even I don't know. So there is plenty of room for other people to have parts of their lives I don't know or understand. And that's ok with me to a degree. I don't know everything about the world. I know the world is bigger than me. The church is bigger than me. God is bigger than what I think God is. Compassion, is recognizing that it's more than me, my own thoughts, and what my great uncle is thinking right now as he rolls over in his grave hearing me breaching this subject. Compassion is listening, hearing, truly understanding, and loving someone. Loving someone so much that they aren't an "other" they are one with you, with all of us, with Christ.
In Anna's sermon she mentioned several other problems that exist in the LGBTQ and Ally community like poverty among queers, racism toward people of color in the LGBTQ community. The fact that Anna herself feels more comfortable as an openly queer woman of color in a white crowd than she does in a black crowd. That doesn't even scratch the surface of injustice, apathy, and lack of compassion among this group. All this stuff we people privileged, "normal," "non-other," or maybe just too uncomfortable to bring up don't know about because we make them "the other" we get uncomfortable, scared, and don't talk about it. We deny compassion and ignore them in the pit, or like Joseph's brother Reuben, we feel compassion but we don't speak loud enough against the injustice and apathy.
I work for "Food Justice" it's a loaded term, two trendy words put together. It's Justice (read Isaiah, Amos, Micah, and listen to Jesus. You'll get it) and we do that through work with food. My work shows me that God want's justice, and compassion, and we do it through the church so people know that God's church does too. Christ knows those parts of ourselves that we don't tell everyone about, the parts we may not have explored yet. Christ went as far as to feel compassion and empathy with us by living, struggling alongside us and dying as a human. But even further he rose from death and freed us from it. That's compassion.
If the hungry, the poor, the broken, the widows, the orphans, the oppressed, the racially-discriminated, the LGBTQs "the others" can't find compassion in the church, what good is the church? And there are some pretty stern warnings in the scriptures on what happens when you don't show compassion...
These issues are hard. They ask sheltered, privleged guys like me to change the way things have always been, they get old fashioned people like me who like the status quo a little worried. But I'm learning it's about improvement, not change. Look at the Bible and honestly tell me things never change. Look at the people in the last year in your life who have died, moved away, had kids, gotten married, divorced, incarcerated, employed, laid off, and tell me things don't change. Things will change, and we need to get over it. But through compassion we can change things for the better. Lets understand the people we make "the other" in our life, truly understand what they struggle with, and share what we struggle with. Let's not throw them in a pit and sell them into slavery, but see the good, the value, the imago Dei (image of God) in them. Lets create a system that makes compassion and understanding among different groups easier, better, and more loving.
May we all find compassion in our lives from those around us, and extend that to others who we encounter who may seem different, scary and make us uncomfortable. God has compassion for them, why don't we? Sunday I learned I don't have a clue about the LGBTQ community, but I hope compassion will get me to some understanding, and I hope GA and churches considering these tough issues start with compassion. Compassion is as old-fashioned as it gets!
Very well said. Life is growth, and we all grow. Love ya! Mom
ReplyDelete