11/22/20 “When the World is Wrong” by Nancy E. Petty
Ezekiel 34:11-16
Welcome and Statement of Worship
for Transgender Remembrance Day
Good morning, and welcome to all. If you have worshiped with us for years, or this is your first time, we are glad you are joining us this morning.
The renowned theologian Karl Barth is quoted as saying, “preach with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other.” Barth was reminding us that our preaching should align with the truth of our faith narrative, while, at the same time being culturally relevant. Sometimes the liturgy of the church moves into the world in hopes of ushering God’s commonwealth here on earth. And, sometimes the liturgy of the world makes its way into houses of worship bringing with it God’s love and justice in the very place that needs it most—the church.
Today is one of those moments. Today, the liturgy of the world shapes our worship as we remember our transgendered family members who lost their lives simply being and living as God created them. This past Friday was Transgender Remembrance Day. All across the nation, people gathered to read the names of those killed for no other reason than being who God created them to be. 2020 was the deadliest year for transgender and gender nonconforming people since the Human Rights Campaign first began tracking these numbers in 2013. As of Friday, at least 37 trans and gender nonconforming people have been killed this year in what the HRC called, “an epidemic of violence.”
In their own words, and as an act of worship, four brave and courageous trans and gender nonconforming Pullenites will offer reflections on their lives as part of our worship. We will also read the names of the 37 trans and gender nonconforming people who were killed in the US in 2020, lighting a candle for each person to symbolize that their light still shines in the world.
And holding the bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other, I will offer a brief meditation inviting our church to follow the shepherds “when the world is wrong.”
“When the World is Wrong”
Ezekiel 34:11-16
A Sermon offered by Nancy E. Petty
There is something inside all of us that lets us know when we hear the truth—not just a truth but rather the truth of God’s love and justice. Call it a moral compass or simply a knowing. We can deny it, ignore it, disbelieve it but in the recesses of our soul, when we hear the truth God has created within us, we know it as truth. The minute Rose spoke her words, I knew they were true. Listen again:
The true universal trans experience that binds us together is that at some point we had to look at the world and tell it it was wrong. It was wrong about who it thought we were. For a lucky few, this was gentle. They told the world it was wrong and their world went okay. For others, the experience was not gentle, their world denying that it could be wrong calling them sick and perverted. For some, to those we remember, it killed them for it.
More than anything else, my proudest moment was looking inside and looking at the world and telling it it was wrong.
When Rose spoke those words, I heard the same voice speaking that I heard nearly 35 years ago as I walked across the campus of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. That day I heard as plainly as I heard Rose speaking those same words, “Nancy, the world is wrong. You are okay. I love you just as you are with no need to be any different. Be fully yourself as I created you to be.”
While Rose calls it the “true universal trans experience” the reality is that it is a true universal human experience: every person has to look inside themselves and at the world and decide if they are going to be who God created them to be or who the world creates them to be. And here is risk in that wager: God is never wrong, and the world is often wrong. I’m not trying to say that the world is bad. There is good and bad in the world. But relying on the world to tell us who we are and to show us what is right and wrong for knowing who we are is like riding a roller coaster at the amusement park – you go up just to be dropped down and sideways. Looking inside and knowing who you are and whose you are is one of the most important works you will ever do, spiritually or otherwise. This work of looking inside often requires us to say to the world: “World you are wrong; world you are wrong, I am not the failure you say I am; world you are wrong, my self-worth is more than what is in my bank account or the house I live in or the car I drive or the job I have; world you are wrong, my dignity and respect is not dependent on your cisgender perspective and privilege and power; world, you are wrong, God loves me and celebrates me as a transgender person.
But it’s not just the world that is wrong. It is also the church—the institutional church that has from its beginning tried to tell people who they are or who they should be or who they have to be for God to love them. Like Rose, one of my proudest moments was looking inside and then looking at the church and telling it it was wrong. For far too long the church has been the biggest perpetrator in “othering” people. And transgender and gender nonconforming people have been and are at the top of the list of those the church continues to “other.” And much like how the Christian church has fueled racism in the world with its exclusive theology and colonialism ideology, it fuels genderphobia with its cisgender God and its sacred text that is grounded in patriarchy. If we love our faith heritage, and I do, it is imperative that, like Rose telling the world it is wrong, we must be willing to call out how our faith narrative has been controlled by cisgender men while silencing all others, not the least of whom are trans and nonconforming gender individuals. And we must be willing to tell the church it is wrong. The Christian church has not only stood by in silence while “an epidemic of violence” has killed 37 known trans and nonconforming people, the church has been a part of that violence.
As is often the case, in surprising ways our text from Ezekiel offers us hope. Regardless of what the world says, Ezekiel reminds us that there is a Shepherd that is in the business of gathering all the sheep into the fold. This Shepherd rescues all those that the world and the church has scattered and told they are wrong for being who they are and that they are not welcomed in God’s community. No, instead, this Shepherd says all are welcome just as you are. This Shepherd feeds them on the lush mountains, in the rich pastures and gives them rest in good grazing land. This Shepherd binds up the injured and strengthens the weak. This compassionate Shepherd doesn’t care if the sheep are cisgender, transgendered, gender nonconforming or any other gender. This Shepherd goes even further. This Shepherd searches out the ones who have been scattered by hate and prejudice and brings them into the beloved community. And sadly, it has been the church that has been most unwilling to follow their own Shepherd.
No matter that the world is wrong. No matter that the church is wrong. There is a Shepherd that includes and blesses and ordains and then sends them back out to bind up others who are broken-hearted and weary. This Shepherd and all those other shepherds who have looked inside and know that they are God’s beloved are the ones redeeming the world and the church. The world and the church needs to stop killing them and instead start following them. The transgender and gender nonconforming children of God are showing us the way to God’s heart—to God’s unconditional love, to God’s all-inclusive love, to God’s mercy, to God’s diversity, to God’s way of celebrating people living their most authentic life.
When the world is wrong, the Shepherd shows us the way in the most surprising, unexpected, and nonconforming ways. Like the transgendered and gender nonconforming community may we, the church, be brave and courageous in looking inside and telling the world when the world is wrong.
