Dear Westwood Family,
I pray this email finds you all doing well. June is Pride month, and the sermon series in The Loft reflects the joy and power of Pride – We Have Always Been Here. The purpose of the series is to help us continue developing a “queer hermeneutic” so that, as we read the Bible, we can learn to see what has always been there. Human beings are ceaseless interpreters by nature. We look for and give meaning to everything we encounter. In this way, our reading of the Bible is filtered through the lens of our experience and the cultural stories and mythologies that are approved by those in power. Our interpretive lens determines what we do and what we do not see. This fact became more obvious to me as I developed this series.
A few weeks ago, I met with the members of our Queer Group to help design our current series. I wanted to create a series that wasn’t just about them, but one that was also for them, one that spoke to the truth that, as long as there have been human beings, there have been LGBTQ human beings. During the hour-long conversation, the stories, topics, and ideas they suggested I discuss were based on stories I had read before, but I had failed to read them with a queer perspective in mind – I had failed to see what had always been there.
The failure to see the “other” as you see yourself, the failure to consider and value their experience as you would your own, is the root of human sinfulness. The human failure to bother to love, which is how I define sin, begins when we explicitly choose selfishness over empathy, or implicitly fail to learn to see the world from the perspective of those we claim to love. Pride is a necessary celebration of queer life and love because, without an intentional pause in our day-to-day life, we might not see the love and the suffering that the dominant US culture places upon them. The same could be said about Juneteenth, Black History Month, Disability Awareness Month, Indigenous Peoples’ Day, or any holiday that moves us to center the experiences of marginalized and oppressed people.
All liberation movements are movements toward empathy, compassion, and love for all life. As Christians, we best express this movement during the Eucharist celebration. Here are the closing words that I share during each celebration of Holy Communion:
In the very act of nourishing our bodies with the bread of life, in quenching our thirst for love with the cup of salvation, we are made new in Christ.
We are empowered to surrender position and privilege, power and wealth, to abolish all claims to supremacist thinking; race, gender, class, sexual orientation, ability, and citizenship.
We recognize that if someone isn’t allowed at the table, if someone’s particular expression of humanness must be obscured, and they are not able to be the full expression of who they are, then we are not transformed in Christ; we are not faithfully engaging in table fellowship.
We are called to embody the solidaristic love of Jesus as demonstrated throughout his ministry. This is a love that can take us all in and preserve our authentic identity, while also drawing us toward a common understanding of love rooted in justice and compassion.
The cup of salvation represents our deliverance from the bondage of individualism and selfishness. Salvation is a communal event, and in taking this cup, we are reminded that our liberation is interconnected and that none of us are free until all of us are free.
May Pride Month be the moment you begin, or are reminded, to internalize the essence of Jesus’ greatest commandment, to love God and neighbor as we love ourselves. Or stated differently, none of us are free until all of us are free.
Love & Solidarity
Rev. Dr. Carter
