15th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Proper 10), Year A

    Queer Belonging

The desire to belong is so foundational to us. Yet at what cost? For what benefits? How would this "belonging" function in one's life? Boundary-drawing or boundary-transgressing?

This week's lectionary Bible passages:

Genesis 25:19-34& Psalm 119:105-12 or Isaiah 55:10-13 & Psalm 65 (1-8) 9-13; Romans 8:1-11; Matthew 13:3-9, 18-23

“ Believing in God for me is to cherish the down-to-earth affirmation of the dignity of the human being, regardless of who or what one is."

Namsoon Kang

“Loving the Queer God is about being unafraid to be exactly who we are.  It is about learning to trust the worth of our own experiences of the divine.”

Steve Sprinkle

“Participating in God’s good and gracious and life-giving purposes for all people involves belonging to and living out of a welcoming and inclusive community.”

Warren Carter

	No permanent enemies?  Is this true in your own situation?  What does it mean to “love our enemies”?

Isaiah 55:10-13 engages the experience of Israel’s exile under Babylonian imperial power. Like Jacob’s situation, issues of belonging, identity and struggle pervade the scene. God, previously seen as oppressive in allowing the exile, is now presented as the one who liberates from it. Here God’s purposes expressed through God’s word center on life and hope. The exiles are challenged to hold on. They are promised return to their land and the abundant, extravagant, flourishing of all creation. There are no boundaries to God’s goodness, including LGBT communities.  No matter what, all belong in God’s life-giving purposes. The affirmation of God’s faithfulness emerges from their lived experience.

	Is the Bible a source of hope and help for you? If so, how so?

Romans 8:1-11 contains some potentially misleading vocabulary, notably Paul’s language of “spirit” and “flesh.” Paul does not use the language of “spirit” to refer to disembodied existence where human “souls” are separated from bodies. Nor does the language of “flesh” refer to “bodies” and condemn physicality. Rather, “spirit” refers to the Spirit of God and of Christ who indwells communities of believers and the bodies of believers – affirming the significance of relationships and daily life (8:4-11).  “Flesh,” as Paul defines it in verses 7-8, is not physicality but refers to a way of life hostile to God. Life in God’s Spirit means belonging to God who frees people from all condemnations, and affirms the significance of embodied life. Life in the Spirit means belonging to God’s purposes and people. Such belonging mandates that others not be excluded from that life.   

Matthew 13:3-9, 18-23 urges readers to have “understanding” or discerning “ears.” Crucial to the parable is hearing or discerning what God is like and how God acts. The parable describes God’s indiscriminate sowing or reaching out to all people, as well as the abundant, extravagant, fruitful life that follows for those who continue in relationship with God. Often distorted hearing or “closed ears” hatefully try to restrict God’s sowing by declaring exclusions from God’s work. But the parable’s reference to “hundredfold” yield offers a much bigger and more beautiful vision.

For LGBT communities, the parable points not just to “coming out” but to an abundant and fruitful life marked by, among other things, a radical inclusivity that transcends all boundaries, as well as by joy and celebration. Seeds need to be resilient to grow. But they have to move beyond survival to fruitfulness or flourishing. Discerning ears participate with wonder and awe in the goodness of God’s abundant ways.    

	How might LGBT communities live in the midst of often difficult circumstances seekang not just to survive, but to flourish and to celebrate God’s goodness with wonder and awe?