By now, you should have heard that on January 29, 2000 in Singapore, the Archbishops of the Province of Rwanda and the Province of South East Asia, along with two retired bishops from the Episcopal Church of the United States of America, ordained two priests from the United States as bishops. [See related accounts. --LC] And what do these bishops intend to do? They intend to return to the United States and "provide pastoral assistance and nurture to faithful individuals and congregations." They claim that "the boundaries of Christian and Anglican Faith have been notoriously breached" and they are "resolved to uphold the Lambeth Resolutions."
You may remember that the gathering of the Anglican Communion Bishops in Lambeth resulted in a battle over human sexuality. From that gathering, a resolution was passed saying that homosexual practice is incompatible with Scripture, in other words, the Anglican Communion condemned those in our church in a loving and committed relationship with a partner of the same sex, a relationship that neither partner truly can have with a member of the opposite sex. Some bishops in the United States have rejected the Lambeth condemnation with some bishops recognizing that the church needs to calmly discern the movement of the Holy Spirit because there are different interpretations of scripture on this issue.
So who are these "faithful individuals and congregations" the two bishops want to nourish? Why, those who are willing to close their hearts and minds to their homosexual brothers and sisters because these individuals and congregations are faithful to those passages in the Bible that they and a majority of Bishops at Lambeth read as condemning homosexuality. What are those "boundaries of Christian and Anglican Faith that have been notoriously breached?" Those boundaries that seek to keep openly homosexual men and women outside of our church while allowing into our church those who are willing to live the closeted lie.
You all are aware of the debate as to the how the Bible should be read as to homosexuality. You know that several passages in the old and new testament are used by the biblical literalists to condemn it. You also know that there is no reference to homosexuality in the sayings of Jesus and that references to loving God and your neighbor as yourself and the inclusiveness of God's love are the central themes of the New Testament.
You also know that throughout history, a literalist interpretation of the Bible has been used to justify behavior that the passage of time, or, the movement of the Holy Spirit, has proven to be wrong. Perhaps the prime example of that to us as Americans was the justification of slavery, or silence in the face of slavery, from the pulpits of certain American churches prior to the Civil War. Well, my fellow parishioners, this is the slavery issue of our time. Passages of the Bible used to inflict pain and suffering on those who cannot change their sexuality and passages of the Bible used to limit any person's access to the fellowship of this church and the table of Jesus Christ because one is gay or lesbian must be rejected. They must be rejected in favor of those passages that show God's arms are open to all who come hungering and thirsting for God's love. I propose to you that there is no more room for a middle ground on this than there was on the issue of slavery. This is a defining moment for God's people and I am so glad that our last Bishop, Jack Spong, and our new Bishop, Jack Croneberger are here to lead us to the right side of this conflict. Unlike the majority of bishops at Lambeth, they are not deaf to the oppressed. They have taken the Bible from the bigots to open our church to all of God's children without regard to their ethnicity, gender or sexuality.
Look at the words from today's gospel reading. "Now John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting; and people came and said to him, 'Why do John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?' Jesus said to them, 'The wedding guests cannot fast while the bridegroom is with them, can they? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day. No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak; otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost, and so are the skins; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.'" The author and Catholic priest Father Andrew Greeley reads this passage to say that something so new had appeared with the teaching of Jesus, something that so demonstrated God's love that old religious practices were unimportant. Only the good news of Jesus was important. Paul knew this and said so in the selection this morning. "What once had glory has lost its glory because of the greater glory."
That good news is heard, in different voices by different people, at key points in human history. That good news is being heard today by gay and lesbian people and those who love them. Votes at Lambeth won't silence that good news. Those sections of the Bible used to justify discrimination against homosexuals are the old just as those sections of the Bible used to justify slavery were the old. They are unimportant in the face of the good news of Jesus Christ. God loves us all and calls us to serve and be served at the Lord's table, no matter if, as men and women, we are in a loving relationship with another man or a woman. Listen to what the Spirit is saying to the church. Anything else is the old wineskin.
So, who are these bishops whose consecrations have been criticized almost uniformly within the Anglican Communion? Archbishop Peers of Canada says, "Bishops are not intercontinental ballistic missiles, manufactured on one continent and fired into another as an act of aggression." But that's what these bishops are, an act of aggression. They are the ballistic missiles of darkness and fear, of limits and narrow-mindedness, of slavery, prejudice and discrimination. They want to bring our church back within the boundaries of their limited old testament law-oriented interpretation of the Bible that leaves them deaf both to the cries of those they hurt and the tears of the living Christ for those gay and lesbian church members who are punished in his Father's name. They are the old wineskin.
One hundred and fifty years ago, I believe these bishops would have been deaf to the voices of oppression so let me use another analogy to slavery. In the 1850's, this nation passed the fugitive slave law that authorized agents to go into the north, find slaves who had escaped their oppression, and use the law to bring them back to a slave state. Are these bishops any better than those slave agents? They are not. Are these bishops sent from Singapore to bring the missionary's message of love and reconciliation? They are not. Are these bishops comprehending the cries of the voiceless gay and lesbian Christians in our church and our country? They are not. They have been returned to our shores for one reason only, to minister to and support those who use the Bible to justify their prejudice and to close our church to gay and lesbian bishops and priests, mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, and our friends. They are the old wineskins.
The psalmist said this morning, "The Lord executes righteousness and judgment for all who are oppressed." The history of God's people will judge these two bishops as the last gasp in this church of oppression based on sexuality. As Jack Spong wrote after Lambeth, "Once prejudice is examined publicly it is never able to be suppressed or denied again and homophobia and destructive stereotypes about gay and lesbian people are doomed. Please rejoice in that." To that I add, the new wine is here. Come, join the feast. In our parish and in our diocese, it is open to all! Through God's grace, may it ever be so.
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