Inclusiveness All Year Through

by Rev Father Paul Gibson, BA
June 10, 2006

Let us pray: Lord, as we are acceptable to you, make us acceptable to ourselves and to each other. Help us to dare to be who we are in the knowledge that it is our faith that is making us whole. Amen.

This is the time of year - June, July, August - when people from the LGBT communities are invited to gather together to celebrate Pride. From all walks of life and from all parts of the country 'queer' people join together in shows of solidarity in places like Brighton, London and Birmingham, Moscow, Maspalomas, America . . . . .

They join together to have fun, to make a statement; they join together as a sign of unity, waving flags of freedom in the face of a world that does not know how to accept the diversity of humanity - a humanity in which the world would rather tear down the colourful body of Christ than rejoice in the multi-faceted complexity of God's creation.

Once a year we are invited to belong. Once a year we are encouraged to celebrate who we are. Once a year we are allowed to prove our existence.

Well, I don't know about you, but I don't think once a year is enough! And I'm very sure that once a year isn't enough for God either!

Do you know why? Because we are God's people, we are God's creation and God wants us to be ourselves and to be proud of who and what we are in any given time or situation.

God wants us to come out from under the rocks of oppression we have hidden under and to claim our rightful place in this world. It doesn't matter if we regard ourselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered or straight - or if we prefer to avoid any of these labels - what does matter is that we let our light shine.

Let your light shine: Jesus gave us this instruction. (Matthew 5:16)

So that means we have permission to be free and not hide ourselves in the closet. It means that when we discover who we are we can genuinely be ourselves and can stop beating ourselves up because society has been trying to tell us that we don't fit the norm.

For many of us the road to finding ourselves has been difficult and perhaps still is. Robyn Shanor in 'Finding Common Ground', writes from a transgender perspective: From an early age, we are told that we are not who we perceive ourselves to be, who we know we are. In many ways, our very existence seems in conflict with 'reality' itself. Since one's gender role is so relentlessly defined and reinforced by others, it may take years for us to even realise what we are experiencing. Like many who are gay or lesbian, transgendered people often spend years in self-denial and suppression, struggling to fit in and be 'normal'.

There's that word again - normal. Let me tell you something - there is no such thing as the norm. My norm is not necessarily Mark's norm. John's norm is not necessarily Steve's norm.

What there is, is authenticity - simply the divine right to be.

There comes a time for most of us when we reach a point where our denials, our masks - the things we hide behind - fail us, and we set out on the search for our true selves. This is when we are called to present ourselves before God in our full authenticity.

There is the sense that fighting battles against ourselves has meant us moving further away from God, rather than closer to God.

The moment that we acknowledge what is true about ourselves is powerful in ways that are both frightening and uplifting. I believe that moment is one of great spiritual power and importance because it signals the time when we choose the search for our authentic selves over the other issues in our lives. The spiritual focus goes inward to discover who we were created to be and who we are.

It is impossible to know just how many gay, lesbian or bisexual people throughout the generations have prayed at some time or other to be made 'straight'; or how many have prayed for the burden of gender dysphoria to be taken away; or how many people have prayed to change an intrinsic part of themselves in order to fit a mould prescribed by others. I have learnt, as so many have learnt, that those sometimes desperate prayers were a waste of time. They were a waste of time because God is hardly likely to answer prayers that assist us in the process of self-rejection. The prayers that God wants to hear from us are not prayers of self-denigration, of self-annihilation, but prayers that help us search for a path that leads to true authenticity and the ability to be what we are.

Many of us, because of experiences through the traditional church, our family of origin and/or society, have faced, like the Exodus Hebrews, the challenge of journeying into the wilderness - seeking a place free from oppression. Our places of wilderness can be both positive and negative for it is here where we hunger and thirst, where we fear, where we struggle with who we are but, on the other hand, it is also the place of covenant, the place of God's sustaining power, the place of self-revelation, of spiritual renewal and transformation.

The Exodus story reminds us that we are all on a life-long journey that is both dangerous and exciting. What is more it directs us to visionaries and prophets of our own age who have worked most of their life trying to bring freedom to others. None of us would be part of the Inclusive Community of St Sebastians if God hadn't called us to create a new, welcoming and vibrant fellowship.

God, through each of us and many others, has established a Community that is truly meant for all people; for those who are deemed different by virtue of their sexuality or their gender; for those who find it impossible to hear God's word in their lives because of marginalisation by church and society.

I have always believed that God 'doesn't make things up'; he has always believed that it is the right of all of God's people to have access to God through church; he has always believed in liberating people to be who God intended them to be.

If we look around us now, what do we notice? What do we think and how do we react? Do we, as a people of faith, look around and observe in the ordinary things of life, the wonders of God's creation?

Imagine if we as a people of faith declared: 'This is better than we thought!People come in even more varieties than we thought, many more than we were told there were - many colours, gay, straight, lesbian, bisexual, men, women, those who see themselves as no gender, those who cross genders, transsexuals, monogamous, polygamous, nonmonogamous, people with many ways of loving, people who are celibate, old, young, ageless. God must be even greater than we dreamed!'

And God is greater than we dream - because God don't make misfits!

We all have various and varying perceptions of ourselves - but I don't see no misfits within the community today. What I do see is a group of God's chosen people who are all on a journey both collectively and individually, who are all seeking to be their authentic selves and who are all engaging in a process of transformation.

I see a group of people striving to be the people they are meant to be; I see people who are focused on bringing health to their lives and to the lives of others; I see some who have found healing and wholeness and others who are on the brink of discovering the truth. I see people who have been hurt by the unenlightened and who are fearful of what may be around the next corner. And to all of these people - to you - I would like to say - remember that you are loved by a God who transcends all your problems, fears, quirks and difficulties. You should never, ever be ashamed of who and what you are and indeed, you can hold your heads up high because of, not in spite of, who you are. It is better to be yourself even if that self is sometimes bad, than to be artificially good, because God loves you just as you are.

Those who dare to be themselves, who work at being themselves, are accompanied by Jesus every step of the way. Therefore, do not be afraid of being who you are.. Accept the glory and the grime, giving thanks to God for your fear and your courage, for your tears and your laughter, your frailty and your strength and for all the things that make you the unique person that you are.

I'm amazed at how much has changed in our world over the past few decades - all because so many people have refused to deny our own existence in exchange for peace and quiet. If you are serious about living a liberated life, one of the most important things you can do with your life is to be yourself and to live your life with openness and authenticity. All external change in our world begins first with internal change and internal acceptance. And we will never end the external oppression in our world until we first end our internal oppressions.

Suppressing, or oppressing, who we are causes great psychological and spiritual suffering. Acceptance of who we are, on the other hand, is a truer and much easier path to take. Each one of us is sacred because we are created in the image and likeness of God.

Each one of us is special and unique. Each one of us is made different in some way because that is the way God intended it to be. This world is not a place we should have to hide in. God's church is not a place where we have to hide our differences in.

Do not be invisible - do not be silent.

Be proud of who you are - not just once a year but for every day of your life.

As a part of this community let us be proud of our diversity - for many colours, many designs make an intricate and beautiful pattern.

As an individual let us each be proud of being a child of God - a unique being created for God's purpose and pleasure.

As a church let us ensure that our light shines like a beacon so that others may be welcomed into God's house.

As individuals let us ensure that our light shines so that others may know they do not travel alone.

Let each one of us rise up and declare, 'I am what I am' in the sure knowledge that God has chosen and created us to be this way.

Finally then, with the understanding that we cannot love God unless we love God's creation, including ourselves,

If you love the Lord say Amen. Amen!