Given By Jude Johnson July 14, 2019
Happy Pride weekend! Today we celebrate action. Justice-seeking action that springs from love and courage. It all began 50 years ago at Stonewall. From our reading, the line rings out, “Do you see these women?” A woman washes Jesus’s feet with her tears, dries them with her hair, and anoints them with perfume. The disciples are concerned that she is a sinner and touching Jesus. Jesus turns it back on them, especially Simon, and teaches them a lesson about hospitality. To fully welcome someone, we need to know where you are on your journey; to truly “see” you. Today, we talk about the word queer. It could be used to describe all non-normative sexual or gender identities. It could be a transgressive action that challenges the social norms. It can also mean to erase boundaries between concepts that have been reduced to binary categories. A queer reading of scripture challenges traditional methods of reasoning. It can offer new insights into our relationship with the divine and with each other. Looking at the passage, Jesus focuses our attention on truly seeing a person as a whole, not just one aspect of them. As we celebrate resistance, it offers open and affirming congregations another chance to enact justice-seeking works. Practice what we truly preach, justice-seeking, wall-crumbling radical love.
Video: