"ONE OF US"

In a recent issue of Time magazine, there was an article on four new shows starting in the fall television season. They reflect this phenomenon and may well serve to bring back painful schooldays memories for many folks. One is called "Manchester Prep" where "the tormentors are the rich preppies in a secret society whose weapon is psychological cruelty." Then there's "Popular": where outsiders are alienated by social castes and beauty-magazine standards. There's "Freaks and Geeks": where "pencil-necked" nerds scurry from gym-class bullies wielding dodge balls. And, of course, for the children of"X-Files" lovers: "Roswell" - where U.F.O.-crash orphans are alienated for being...well, aliens.

The descriptive labels we use for people automatically imply whether they are "one of us" or not. Think about how we openly separate people into one oftwo groups: young or old...black or white...gay or straight...rich or poor...Americans or foreigners...attractive or unattractive...thin or fat...smart or dumb...Christians or non-Christians...friend or enemy. Think further about the unspoken separations our labels imply: insider or outsider...cool or uncool...haves or havenots...right or wrong...blessed or cursed...worthy or unworthy...acceptable or unacceptable...beloved or unloveable.

A lot of us here have suffered because, by fitting under one of the categories, gay or straight, we have been also labeled, by people we have loved the most, as cursed, unworthy, unacceptable, unlovable. But before we get too ready to condemn how they have behaved and treated us, I have to share another side to this "us and them" story with you from my life. It's not always a "them" who make us feel unwelcomed. Sometimes "we" do that to "us," too.

I got a call just this past week from a woman I haven't seen in over 15 years. We went to college together and she tracked me down...guess where? On the Internet! Yikes! But it was good to talk with her. She's in the Army and has been stationed for a year in Kansas City so we're going to get together and catch up. We knew each other from the large marching band at our university. She was majoring in music and I had a partial music scholarship.

Now when I went away to college, I had known and accepted my own sexual orientation for, well...however long one can have a sexual orientation, I guess. But...when I got there and met some of these 300 other people in the band (big marching band), it was the first time I had known with certainty that I wasn't "the only one." I mean between the guys who twirled the rifles and batons...and the women in the brass section, wow! There was a bunch of "us." And I really wanted to fit in. I wanted to be an insider among this fun, outrageous crowd.

Today, of course, I know that the worst mistake you can make in trying to become a part of any existing community is to try too hard. And that, I probably did. But it is amusing to me now how difficult it was for me to be accepted in that circle. I guess I just didn't have that certain "something" that is required by the sons and daughters of chicken plant workers in central Alabama!

In fact, it was not until I got involved in a Metropolitan Community Church at age 30 that I began to experience what it was like to really be "one of us." I never felt like an insider in the gay community. And I now realize that it wasn't a gay church community who made it possible for me to belong, either. It was Christ.

"For Christ is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of hostility that kept us apart." We heard the heart of the truth and the hope for all "outsiders" read this morning. In the 2nd chapter of Ephesians, verse 14. Wherever human beings make the rules, there will be barriers of separation. But where Christ is in control, the barriers will fall and all can belong and be embraced.

That passage we heard read alludes back to the first "us" and "them" situation the early Christian church dealt with. Converted Jews -- who believed that their Jewish traditions, including circumcision for males, must be included in their new faith - versus the long hated and unacceptable Gentiles, the non-Jews. Now up until this time, everyone knew the rules and they knew where the lines were. Gentiles could not associate with Jews. It was unimaginable that they might worship together; Gentiles, everyone knew, had no hope of God in their lives. They were sinners of the worst possible kind, and God wanted nothing to do with them.

That is until Christ reveled to Peter and to Paul and gradually to others that, guess what, the rules are changing! We're no longer going to function under human rules...because now CHRIST RULES! And things changed. Not quickly...not always easily. But they changed. And the words from the letter to the Ephesian church that we heard celebrate that "Christ came and announced the Good News of peace to you who were far away and to those who were near; for through Christ, we all have access in one Spirit to our God."

You see, Jesus was a rule changer and a barrier-breaker. And the Spirit of the Risen Christ continues to work in the world today...still changing the rules and removing the barriers that we have made along the way. Some people find that our message in this church - that God loves and can accept all people, including gays and lesbians - to be "scandalous": offensive to religious and moral sensibilities. And many folks here are still struggling with that possibility themselves. But we all sometimes forget that Jesus' person, message and ministry were scandalous and offensive to the religious authorities and institutions of his time, so offensive and scandalous that he was executed. But in Christ, those who are on one path and those who are on a seeminly conflicting path can find a point of intersection...at the cross.

We haven't always managed to do that, though. Since the days of the conflict over Jews and Gentiles together in the church, Christianity has dealt with barrier after barrier through the years. How long did it take (is it still taking) for women to be a full part of ministry? I'm fortunate to have been called into M.C.C.; in many churches I might be allowed to type up this message but that's all. And that viewpoint can be, supposedly, validated Scripturally!

Look at the way Scripture was once used to condone slavery and race separation; still is by some. And yet Scripture simultaneously makes it quite clear that Christ was - is - and will be working to break down the barriers we've constructed until all are joined together in a unified, living body as a dwelling-place for the spirit of God.

Through the history of the church, people have said some really interesting...and very contradictory...things. Like "we're saved by grace not by works"...but "what you're doing is going to send you to hell." "God is love" but "you are hereby excommunicated from this church." "Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight"...but "no God-fearing preacher is gonna let my daughter many one of them!" You see, we people have used the Good Book to make some really bad rules along the way. And sometimes even the most trivial things have kept us from joining together.

There were two congregations located only a few blocks from each other in a small community. They thought it might be better if they merged and became one united body, larger and more effective, rather than two struggling churches. Good idea...but they weren't able to pull it off. The problem? They couldn't agree on how they should recite the Lord's Prayer. One group wanted, "forgive us our trespasses," while the other demanded "forgive us our debts." A local newspaper reported that one church went back to its trespasses while the other returned to its debts.

Yet through it all, Christ continues to work in the world...through an on-going revelation in the hearts of people - to change our bad rules and remove our fences and open up doors that we have declared to be locked. And in the midst of all the Scripture-slinging and dueling traditions, the heart of the Gospel keeps beating: "For Christ is our peace, who made (and continues to work on making) both groups into one and broke (and breaks and will break) down the barrier of hostility that kept (and keeps) us apart.

If, this morning, in your pain over how one particular barrier may have separated you from a former church or your family or your own sense of peace with God, you feel yourself living under the label of unworthy, unaccepted or unloved, I want to remind you that those are the words and attitudes and barriers of human beings, not of God. I want you to know, also, that I believe with all my heart that Christ is working in our world right now to remove that barrier, too...just like barriers have been breaking down since the days of the Jew and Gentile struggle.

I don't know if you saw this on the news Thursday night or have heard anything about it...but on Oct. 23rd and 24th, an historic and important meeting is going to take place. Rev. Dr. Mel White, leader of an organization called "Soulforce" will be meeting in Lynchburg, Virginia with Rev. Jerry Falwell and 200 of Rev. Falwell's followers. Mel White, if you don't know his story, was once a ghostwriter for Falwell, Pat Robertson and other conservative Christian leaders. Several years ago he came out, after a long and painful struggle. Today, through Soulforce, he is advocating proactive, non- violent confrontation - in the traditions of Jesus, Ghandi and Martin Luther King, Jr. - to bring understanding and break down barriers for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people.

Now Mel says he knows that Jerry will be honor-bound to lecture the Soulforce contingent on Scripture and its supposed (but erroneous) statements about homosexuality but there may still be a step of progress made between them. Mel White has been in communication with Falwell for some time and their first point of agreement has been that the escalating hate crimes against gays and, for that matter any people, is not an answer to our differences and must not be tolerated. For the first time, "us" and "them" may find a common ground: regardless of our differing beliefs, violence against one another is not the way and must stop.

That first, major, step gives me so much hope. Because don't you know that, somewhere in the first century, individual people had to have started speaking to one another and saying, "I don't understand those Jews - or those Gentiles - either...but Christ has spoken to my heart that this barrier between us must come down." And slowly, stone by stone, the Spirit of Christ removed that barrier. And I believe that slowly, stone by stone, Christ will remove this barrier - the barrier of sexual orientation - from the body of Christ as well.

Please pray for Mel White and for Jerry Falwell. Both represent "sides" that have done right and done wrong and neither is a demon...only both of them and all of us need to heed these words of Scripture, found in Ephesians 4, verses 3-6: "Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bonds of peace. There is one body and one Spirit - just as you were called to one hope when you were called - one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Creator of all, who is over all and through all and in all." We Christians need to remember: Christ rules! And Christ is making one of us all...to be a place where the Spirit of God can truly dwell. And in that place...everyone belongs! Amen.

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