What's Out in the Conversation
A conversation about this week's lectionary Bible passages written for LGBTQIA+ people
When we live and love unconventionally, we‘re often accused of ignoring God‘s clear commands. Sometimes it‘s said that everything went wrong the moment Adam and Eve started asking questions. Because God‘s welcome, lived among us in Jesus, outweighs any fear of expulsion – God calls us to live open lives.
According to Matthew, when Jesus was baptized, the Spirit of God outed him as God‘s own beloved. This week‘s gospel reading, Matthew 4:1-11, shows Jesus struggling to discern how to live with that knowledge. Like Adam and Eve, says Charles Allen, Jesus considers whether it is enough to be the fragile creature that he is. Holly Hearon sees Jesus wrestling with whether he will let a hostile other (the tempter of verse 3) define his identity for him, or whether he will define for himself what it means to be a child of God. Likewise, Michael Miller wonders if Jesus is being tempted by the very idea that he should be expected to prove his ―belongingness‖ to anybody else. Who among any of God‘s creatures has the authority to question Jesus‘ standing with God — or yours or mine? Helene Russell focuses on issues of power. Jesus is tempted to see God‘s reign in terms of controlling everything — making the world and himself pain-free by taking all power to himself, and thus making a sham of any genuine love.
When has God called you ―Beloved? How do others‘ doubts tempt you to question God‘s words of unconditional welcome? Who says you have to prove anything to anybody?
It is no surprise that stories of Jesus‘ temptation would be linked to the story of the first temptation in Genesis 2. A talking snake tells Eve the truth. She and Adam won‘t drop dead when they eat the forbidden fruit; instead they will become more God-like. Their eyes will be opened to know good and evil. And that, even God observes (Genesis 3:22), is more or less what happened.
Yet ironically, says Charles Allen, once Adam and Eve knew the difference between good and evil they misjudged their own nakedness as somehow ―not good.‖ They grew ashamed of their fragility as creatures and ―closeted themselves with fig leaves. They hid from God, and in so doing, expelled themselves from God‘s presence even before they were expelled from Eden.
Michael Miller cautions that we can‘t always tell the difference between disobedience to God and a legitimate questioning of established boundaries, though either way those who push at boundaries are going to feel exposed and vulnerable. Holly Hearon questions whether nakedness was the issue when the couple‘s eyes were opened. Maybe it was their awareness of how easily they could be tricked, their potential for sin. In that, they were still a far cry from being God-like.
How do you tell good from evil? To whom do you listen? When is it good to challenge established rules? When are you tempted to hide who you are?
In Romans 5: 12-19, Paul uses the Genesis story to set up a contrast with the story of Jesus. Eve drops out of the story, and Adam gets all the blame. Adam prefigures Jesus, in that both figures‘ actions have an effect on all of humanity. Both are universal, Helene Russell observes. But for Paul, Jesus‘ faithfulness (or God‘s faithfulness in Jesus) outweighs Adam‘s trespass.
God‘s unconditional welcome in the life, death and risen life of Jesus is the final truth about God, and about us. Indeed, says Holly Hearon, God in a sense ―transgresses‖ our sense of what is just and right because God‘s desire is that all might have life. This ever-increasing, ―transgressive‖ gift of grace provides a safe space, says Michael Miller, in which we can struggle honestly with all that is entailed by the explorations, adventures and discoveries of our lives, including our challenging of established boundaries. In fact, Charles Allen suggest, we‘re invited to bring even our most skeptical moments into God‘s very presence, without fear of expulsion. We don‘t have to closet any part of ourselves.
Do you feel welcomed by God, welcomed unconditionally? What do you allow to get in the way of God‘s welcome? What are you hiding?
Psalm 32 celebrates the joy of living without pretense. ―Happy are those … in whose spirit there is no deceit‖ (verse 2). Living without pretense does require confessing our wrongdoing. We need forgiveness, suggests Holly Hearon, not for our same-gender relationships, but for any failing to embody God‘s unconditional welcome even in our most life-giving relationships. We lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender folk should never hesitate to admit that we are sinners just as much as anybody else, Charles Allen insists. We fail to love extravagantly, transgressively, the way God has loved us. And perhaps the gravest failure is hiding our failures. Confession is the moment when we realize that God is the true ―hiding place‖ (verse 8), the safe space wherewe can live in full openness.
How do you feel about naming yourself as a sinner? Does it feel demeaning, or can it feel liberating?
Prayerfully Out in Scripture Ever-welcoming God, you invite us to bring all that we are, our questions and our failures, into your life-giving presence; Give us courage to live before you without pretense, that we may know the joy of forgiveness and renewal without fear of expulsion. Amen.
Out in Scripture
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