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This Week's Homily

May 11, 2008
Pentecost Sunday - Cycle A

Sing a Gay Song Unto The Lord
A Homily for Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgendered People

In the late 1950's, when I was a child, our family took an extended vacation by car. We listened to the radio a lot while driving. At that time the Everly Brothers were popular. I recall that, when an "Ev's Boys" song came on, our father would usually say, "Turn that trash off. I can't stand that so-called music!" However, in the 1980's, when listening to an "oldies" radio station, every once in a while "All I Have To Do Is Dream" or "Cathy's Clown" by the Everly Brothers would be played. And Dad would say, "That's a good old song." It's amazing that what was once cacophony is now a "good old song," even to the same set of ears.

The Christian feast of Pentecost celebrates the birthday of the Christian Church. How have we fared since our "birth?" It is clear from our 2nd reading and from many other texts that the Christian Community, though it has grown in numbers, has been plagued with division and a lack of harmony almost from its very beginning.

I like to use symphonic music as a metaphor for the Church's inner relationships. In the early days of symphonic music there was much harmony and little dissonance. But, over the centuries, as composers became more daring, more expressive and more responsive to the changes in their respective cultures, they used dissonance more and more to create musical tension and make a stronger statement and then resolve it in harmony. There are even modern compositions that have little or no harmony at all.

The Christian Church is similar. From its very beginning there have been people with different "visions" and theologies and agendas, who have caused much dissension. And it seems that "dissonance" has increased over the last 300 years. These tensions are not bad, for they are part of the normal growth of an institution. In fact, they are a sign that the Spirit if God is active among the people. Over the centuries there has been much needed growth due to these "dissonant voices."

One of the voices crying to be heard recently is that of the GLBT members of the various Christian Churches. We are convinced by our experience of God and people in our life that we can be GLBT persons and express our love, even sexually, in ways that are "harmonious" with the teachings and Spirit of Jesus. Of course, official leaders of the Christian Churches currently deny that this is so.

But, we have been baptized. We are members. We are essential parts of the "Body of Christ." We are "speaking under the influence of the Holy Spirit (2nd reading)." We are part of "the variety of gifts...working in all sorts of different ways in different people (2nd reading)." And we will not go away, though many of us have left the mainline churches.

And so, for the good of the Churches as well as for our own good, we will keep on singing a dissonant, but essential, sound. Since it is from God, it will sound, in the words of our 1st reading, "...like a powerful wind from heaven, the noise of which filled the entire house..." And one day, soon, we hope, Christian leaders and members will grow in accepting us among them. Then they will say to us GLBT Christians, "Your part in the music is essential to the harmony of the whole. It does not sound dissonant at all, for you truly are one with us."

I will let St. Paul close this homily with the last part of today's 2nd reading. "Just as a human body, though it is made up of many parts, is a single unit because all these parts, though many, make one body, so it is with Christ. In the one Spirit we were all baptized, Jews as well as Greeks, slaves as well as citizens, (I am confident to add - straight as well as GLBT people) and one Spirit was given to us all to drink." On this birthday of the Christian Church(es), pray for unity and work for unity. And In time, like the Everly Brothers, our GLBT "songs", which seemed so dissonant and outrageous, will be accepted as an integral part of the Church and social culture.

Background for Today's Scripture Readings

(If you want to get the readings from the Internet, click on this link: www.nccbuscc.org/nab and the date you want.)

Acts 2:1-11
Pentecost, which means 50th in Greek, was originally an agricultural feast celebrating the 50th day after the first harvest. In Jesus' time it had become the Jews' celebration of Moses bestowing on them the Law and the Covenant from God. Our reading tells of the coming of the Holy Spirit on the Church at its beginning. As the Spirit came on Jesus at the beginning of his ministry, now the same Spirit comes on the Church. The Church is consecrated to bring the New Law and New Covenant, not only to the Jews, but to all peoples, here symbolized by having Jews present from all over the world. The event of Babel is reversed as people from all nations hear the Apostles speaking in their own language. The "tongues, as of fire" symbolize the Word, the Good News that is to be preached to the whole world.

1 Corinthians 12:3-7, 12-13
Paul wants to bring unity to the Corinthian Church that is in dissension over Charismatic gifts. There is competition and envy over the more sought after charisms. Paul's message is that the Spirit gives a variety of gifts and they are for service to the community, not to build reputations for individual people. They, therefore, should bring unity and not dissension. He reminds us that Baptism has made us all one.

John 20:19-23
This reading is John's version of the "birth of the Church." (We heard Luke's version in the first reading.) Jesus gives the Holy Spirit and gives a mission to the new Church. He comes to the disciples, who are full of fear, and gives peace and joy. He breathes on them (breath and spirit are the same word in both Hebrew and Greek) as a sign that they are a new creation - reminiscent of the breath of God in the 2nd Creation Story and the spirit of God over the waters in the 1st Creation Story. And he gives the Church power over sin.

Copyright (c) 1999  Don Becker, Revised 2005

Copyright © 2004 by Don Becker