Introduction
Whenever we come to the Bible, we will be interpreters. And all those before
us were interpreters also. We try to discern what the message is. We have to
understand the situation and the context we have to determine what is the
message particularly for us – in this time of ours.
Genesis 21 is set in several chapters that tell of Abraham, Sarah Hagar and
the both of two sons. The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah are in the
previous chapters. These series of events give little guidance to our dealing
with homosexuality today or gender preferences in loving relationships.
At that time as recorded in these chapters women and girls were accorded
no protection or value in the exchanges of everyday life. Abraham at one
point pretends Sarah is his sister to give her to be the wife of a powerful and
threatening chief. Lot has strangers turning up and hosts them as custom
dictated – but his neighbours hating strangers and aliens want to do harm
and rape them The same behaviour we witness in the course of wars today.
Boys were not protected and commonly used for sex by the powerful. The
prohibitions that appear in Leviticus seem to be a protection of the the boys
– ‘tamariki’. We have seen this week in New Zealand that 2 staff in ‘Oranga
Tamariki’ have abused their role with children. We need to be protective of
the young.
The verses we read are focused on the slave girl of Sarah. She had given her
slave to be a second wife to Abraham in order to bear him a son. When she
has a son herself she wants no competition and sends Hagar and her son
away. One will be the father of Arabs the other the father of the nation of
Israel. Both are blessed.
In the mess of life what is the
essential message. I think it is that
in those early times the major
concern was dealing with Holiness
that they felt awe at. The challenge
was to find a way of living that
matched their apprehension of
Holiness in their world.
The psalm has a sense of holiness
somehow touching our lives with
beneficence and compassion and
in response an awareness of God’s
magnificence which is wondrous.
In Matthew, the Jewish traditionalist with a care for the Jews who had
followed Jesus into a new way for their people, we find awareness of
needing to choose and the divisions even in families that choice of the Jesus
way will mean. Holiness has stringent expectations.
Then in Roman’s Paul put it dramatically with all the power and awe ablaze.
They are surrounded with danger because they have chosen this way. Paul
says we who choose to follow Jesus have
died and will rise again with him.
Reflection on Holiness, Awe, Wonder and
The Way
Holiness evokes awe and
wonder. I think that as a
baby we gaze out in awe.
When confronted by
mountains, oceans or a
single rose, begonia or
frangipani we have our
breath taken away and we
are filled with wonder.
Living in a world of nature
– travelling as nomad through deserts finding water and
pasture the people of the genesis time are close to the earth.
The earth demands awe, respect and the sense of the holy. The other, the
intensely powerful and awful. What is this power how do we negotiate our
relationship with this presence.
Even our name for this – what ever it is – we must make un-pronounceable.
We dare not pretend to be able to define it or name it. We dare not say it. The
four letters placed together cant be spoken together. If we try we have a
guttural sounding Y Ah W Eh “Yahweh” in the translation we Europeans boldly
write “Jehovah” – without regard for Jewish sensitivities and awe.
These nomadic families were as close to the natural world as the nomadic
small nation groups wandering their familiar routes across Australia for
60,000 years.
For generations these Genesis folk wandered the rift valley and knew it well,
but respected the holiness of their relationship with this desert and small
fertile places and its God.
How small the the were communities is difficult for us to imagine. The armies,
cities and the homes were all tiny. Coming to Nazareth in 1985 I found mostly
homes of a single room with space for the goats as well as the humans, and
a useful accessible flat roof. I remember the shock of getting to Jericho and
looking at the whole site. Tiny. I pace it out right around. The city would be no
bigger than The area taken up by the buildings of St Theresa’s and St
Ninian’s with the road in between. Not a great city you would think.
Sodom and Gomorrah were not major cities – not even sure they were not
tent cities.
The holiness they experienced could be affronted – as in the time Adam,
Noah and now Lot. The people tried to discern rules of living that respected
the holiness. They tried to work out the do’s and don’ts of their way of living.
Lot was enlightened he knew in his heart that the mores were not god in the
twin communities. He was dismayed at the hatred of the stranger that his
people would shame them turn them away even rape them – men or women.
Indeed Lot even offers his two young daughters to save the strangers whom
he regarded as holy. Even as angels. Arabs respect and honouring of the
stranger is legendary. But what is Lot thinking to be offering his own
daughters. (The offer is not taken up.)
As far as we can gauge the essential message is that from the beginning the
universe was created and developed with beauty but men and women
constantly messed up. There is an idea of a God who is one and who seeks a
collaborative relationship with humans. But God regrets giving humans such
an important place and is tempted to wipe them out, at least to pick off
communities that do not live in anything approaching his preferred way.
Racial prejudice or failure to accept diversity were wrong surely. Behaviour or
actions that devalue others attitudes and expressions that make some
humans lower and lesser than others were unacceptable to this Holy
presence.
The stories that we read are remembered, retold, retold, become mythic oral
history down generations, gathered and written with a purpose in mind for
that time and a particular people. We read now thousands of years on. I have
little knowledge or awareness of my ancestors. My maternal Great Grand
Mother in my female line and my paternal Great Grand Father in my male
line. I know a little not much. My father’s Grand-father was a tug skipper. My
mother spoke of her mother’s mother with great pride – she was a suffragette
and my mother loved and was so proud. No other grand parent of hers ever
spoken about.
At school I learned of the West End Suffragettes who chained themselves to
the iron fence of Parliament. When I saw the movie marking their centenary in
2013 It follows the East End Suffragettes like my great grandmother. The
stories in my mind of demonstrators chasing themselves for a sunny
afternoon, is suddenly a much harsher reality. Houses and families divided
down the middle. Women sacked and imprisoned. Women blamed by
husbands. Treated as out casts by former friends. Principles and standing for
them can be costly.
In 1953 the British Council of churches led the churches to count over four
Sundaes church attendance. The government census showed about 90%
Christian mostly “C of E”. The churches own count showed 2% which was
exactly the same for Christian’s in India. At that time my wife Gwen as a
teenager was influenced by her – twenty something – older woman who
introduced her to her church and her relationship with Jesus. Gwen converted
to Christianity to the dismay of her family. They were “C of E” – which meant
Babies baptised, adults wedded and end of life a funeral. Enough church for
anyone.
Worse – she took a boyfriend who intended to be a Minister. Then she did the
even worse thing. She applied to the Royal London Hospital to train as a
nurse. “If you go ahead with your plan to go above your station because of
your religious notions I will not speak with you ever again. Leave nursing to
the upper classes.”
He kept his word for three months. Then
he could keep it up no longer. Back to
normal without comment.
I recall another family. I came to know a
man as a senior friend who was kind
and supportive of me. He was
“conservative”. I was radical and
explorative. He was generous to me.
Later I met a younger man. An
experienced social worker and
counsellor – who worked with both those
who suffered sexual abuse and also with
perpetrators – from teen age up. He was
one of a group to be safe and to help
them to change and develop. He came
to me for further training and supervision
for his work. Gwen and I became friends
and exchanged visits, hosted meals. One
night he said you know my father.
The man was the senior minister who had befriended me – by then retired. He
told of the estrangement with his father – the cold cautious relationship. Of the
strained strings between them of love and the obedience to Matthews divided
house rules.
The main thrust must be the that the whole Bible message rest on Holiness
and love of neighbour. From the beginning was the meaning of everything
being expressed. In the end only love and neighbourliness really matters.
Jesus stood uncompromisingly for that. Jesus Taught that unceasingly.
Our relationship with the Gay or Queer community shall be lovingly
neighbourly. There is no justification for condemnation. We should be aware
of the extreme pain and severe persecution they have suffered at the
Christendom’s teaching and failure obey the edicts of love and
neighbourliness.
“When I needed a neighbour were you there?”
[PS. I decided when I awoke Wednesday to not leave the print in eleven font.
And to comment on use of “Gay or Queer” which I had written in my script but
said on Sunday “LGBTQ and Rainbow community”.
Names adopted by communities change and become dated. In the “nineties
and oughts”. TV One had their own programme “Queer Nation” – late evening
TV in the nineties which Gwen and I watched. In 1986 I supported the
homosexuality law reform. As school boy 1949 my aunts husband returned
from the war in Egypt and Europe a front line stretcher carrier as
conscientious objector. Arrested in a public lavatory – the only place
homosexuals safely met then. I was proud of my Mother supporting and
speaking for him in court. Therapy was followed by a happy life with his wife.
He had a close relationship with me supporting my love of art and
encouraging my evening studies in a thoroughly safe and natural manner. I
also had a friend who I treated cautiously as a sixteen year old. He gathered
a group of guys Sunday afternoons. We met in a cafe and discussed
philosophy and Christian values. Seven or eight of us late teens. He was a
social worker and went to Canada to work at a centre for autistic children – I
never knew whether his natural loving preference would have been
homosexual. He married had a good life. I visited them in Toronto 1969, and
went to the United Church of Canada with them. I was flying across Canada
returning to my work on Niue. I remember an Anglican Priest and his wife with
six children who eventually took his own life because he was not able to meet
the balancing struggle of his natural orientation, his family, his vocation and
his work. I have so many friends in the rainbow community and know the
struggles and pressures they face – even now in this easier climate. We have
to be there for all our neighbours. We must be there for them. Meanwhile our
National Church has a stance to not accept marriage of same gender couples
and it place unreasonable restraints on Gay Ministers. May it return to its
former position of graciousness and neighbourliness sooner rather than later.
I fear it may be later rather than sooner.]

Rev Don Reekie