Scripture Reading: Genesis 9:8-16
God said to Noah and his sons, “I am now making my covenant with you and with your descendants, and with all living beings—all birds and all animals—everything that came out of the boat with you. With these words I make my covenant with you: I promise that never again will all living beings be destroyed by a flood; never again will a flood destroy the earth. As a sign of this everlasting covenant which I am making with you and with all living beings, I am putting my bow in the clouds. It will be the sign of my covenant with the world. Whenever I cover the sky with clouds and the rainbow appears, I will remember my promise to you and to all the animals that a flood will never again destroy all living beings. When the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between me and all living beings on earth. That is the sign of the promise which I am making to all living beings.”
Sermon
Today is my first Pride Fest in Minneapolis! In the 80’s, I lived in San Francisco and was lucky to be able to attend one of the early pride parades there. I was young and shy and straight, I was by myself, but I wanted to be there. It was a pretty rowdy crowd and I definitely felt like an outsider among the Dikes on Bikes and the drag queens.
But after watching the colorful groups going by in the parade for a while, I saw one group I would never have expected: a little group of Christians. I think they were Catholics; one was wearing a Franciscan robe. They were carrying the Christian flag. I wasn’t sure why they were there, but someone had allowed them to march IN the parade. Also, I was familiar with the Christian flag, because the Methodist church I went to had a Christian flag in their chancel, and they had a very progressive pastor. So that Christian flag made me feel like maybe there was a place for people like me in the parade.
At that time the gay parades were pretty free-flowing, there was no security; so I made a split second decision and jumped out in the street and walked behind those strangers carrying the Christian flag for a while. I remember being so excited that I had found a place in the parade where I fit.
We didn’t have the word “ally” in those days, but I think that was my first moment of realizing I could be not just as an ally, but a specifically Christian ally. I didn’t really understand what it meant to be an ally; and I’m still learning. But it was a beginning.
When did you first experience stepping out and claiming your little or big place in the struggle for LGBTQ inclusion or another cause where you had to made your opinion public?
I doubt if anyone brings the Christian flag to Pride parades these days. But now, 40 years later, there’s the UCC banners, the Presbyterians, the Disciples of Christ, the ELCA Lutherans, and some new Methodists all waving their flags.
Now we have the rainbow flag. The rainbow flag is everywhere in Minneapolis, especially during pride month. And I read recently that some Christians are angry because they think LGBTQ people have “appropriated” the rainbow. They see the rainbow as a Christian symbol that’s been taken from them by Queer people.
I find this hilarious, that people could see rainbows as being specifically Christian, just because there are rainbows in the bible. Do they realize God invented the rainbow before God even invented Christians? Do we have a copyright on rainbows? What about other natural phenomena like lightening? Or wind? Do those belong to Christians too?
What do you think about rainbow flags? Are they it still a useful symbol for the movement? Has it become all about attracting consumers? Do you love or hate rainbows?
It seems to me that if you listen to the story of God sending the rainbow after the flood, the rainbow can be seen as a sign of God’s promised peace. So, the Christians who are offended by its use in the Queer community might want to examine the story a little more closely.
I don’t know if peace is what the artist Gilbert Baker had in mind when he first designed the rainbow flag back in the 70’s. But I think the symbolism works for Christians who work and pray for peace between Queer and straight communities.
I do have a question about the rainbow flag, however.
Researching for today, I learned about all the other rainbow flags out there these days. You will probably see some if you go to Pride Festival. They include:
- Queer people of color (with a brown fist)
- A pink and blue and white transgender flag
- A “progress” pride flag with a triangle on one side
- A bisexual flag
- A lesbian flag and more
I’m not sure what to make of all these flags! Do you think the Queer community needs those different flags?
I don’t want to criticize something I don’t understand. But all these flags remind me of something we’ve done in the Church over time: split ourselves into smaller and smaller affinity groups, in order to belong and feel safe. Especially in the times we’re in now, we keep looking for smaller circles of belonging, maybe even in the Queer community.
This is a human, tribal tendency. Straight people do the same thing.
And we do this in the Church. We all call ourselves Christian, but clearly we don’t feel that we really belong with THOSE Christians. We keep making smaller and smaller circles of belonging, to experience the unity we yearn for.
Do you think it’s necessary to have these smaller groups? Or is it just human nature? Lastly, I want to talk about real rainbows:
Have you noticed that, in real rainbows, the colors blur together so that it’s not really a set of stripes, but a continuum of color. And this is a useful part of the symbolism, because it speaks to both diversity and the unity of the whole color wheel,
Our differences are real; but the lines between us are blurry, which make it possible for us to find points of merging with each other to form some kind of unity, even if it’s just now and then, like at a parade. We can have boundaries, but not be bound by them. Maybe, like a rainbow, we can find ways to be different but also unified
And the continuum of color also helps me visualize (and I think Queer theology has helped us with this) a world where things are not as clearly black or white, Queer or straight, male or female, red or blue, as we imagine; the world is more non-binary.
Real rainbows, and the real world, have shades and perspectives that change constantly.
The beauty of the blurry color continuum is that it gives each person a place to step into the colorful parade and find a place in their particular shade where they belong.
There is a lot of unrest, fear, dis-ease, bigotry and violence out there, some of it aimed at the Queer community, whether in unjust policies or just plain meanness.
But the rainbow points to God’s promise and hope: a time is coming when we can all be truly who we are, alongside others who are different from us and we can still find the common humanity and oneness God dreams of for us.
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