Sonnet for Sermon "Doing The Love of Christ"

How do we love Christ? In the simplest ways.
When we honor the world as our neighbor.
We live into the light of love’s labor,
When social outcast feels our tight embrace.
To share with all the valued gift of grace
Starts to dismantle soul killing sabers--
Poverty, hatred, things used ‘gainst neighbor
To overshadow the love of Christ’s face.
Now is the time to end all human lies.
Remembering the hope of bread and grape
We feed the world with truth at any price
We are charged to love and cannot escape
Strength comes to us from cross’s sacrifice
Here ministry begins to take its shape.
-Derrick McQueen, August 29, 2009
In response to Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Sonnet #43

Liturgy for St. James Presbyterian August 30, 2009

Sermon Title "Doing the Love of Christ"

Scripture Lessons

Epistle James 1:17-27

Gospel Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

Call Worship

L: “Arise, my beloved come and give thanks for the Love of God.”

C: This is the call of Jesus, for us to worship on this and every day.

L: The roses have blossomed, see them through the window.

C: Jesus stands as one who watches over us through the lattice.

L: The voice of the turtledove is heard in the morning, see the fig tree bloom!

C: The time of singing has come, let us lift our voices unto the Lord.

L: Come let us worship God.

C: Come everyone, to the Love of God

Inspired by Song of Solomon 2:8-13

Prayer of Adoration

You are the God of the mountain, the God of the city, the God of the valley, the God of the Waters. How lovely is your presence in this place. Your promises of love for us are proven in that you gave your only Son for the forgiveness of our sins. How awesome to think on your grandeur and yet how humbling to think how close you want to be to each and every one of us. You are God now, henceforth and forever more and for that we say Hallelujah!

Call to Confession

We sing your praises, we dance to your song. And yet we still find that our hearts are troubled. Quieted, we come to understand that you yearn to hear our confessions. And so we take this time to examine our hearts. Hear the voices of our hearts as we come to you in prayer:

Confession

Loving God, we pick a rose yet complain about the thorns, we eat the bounty of the summer farms yet complain about the rains, we have the chance to worship you and yet sometimes we just want to sleep in. When we are frustrated with the ills of the world we often speak about it but seldom do we pray. We want to love the world with all the love you have put in our hearts but often hold a portion it back. We are learning, Lord, and ask humbly for your patience as we learn to walk in your grace. Amen

Silent Confession

Assurance of Pardon

God speaks to us. “Yet you picked the rose and loved me. You savored the summer bounty and loved me. In your times of struggle to do the right thing, you think of me and love me. And you still walk with me when the road seems dreary and in this act you love me.” God knows our hearts and loves us into who we are meant to be. This is the promise of Jesus Christ.

A TAMFS Prayer for the Presbyterian Church

(Offered by Derrick McQueen)

---

Dearest love my God, I had a dream about you the other day. You had prepared a banquet feast
in the middle of one of your warm and inviting fields.
Your smile shined the sun's beam upon my face
and I could not help but close my eyes
as your warmth washed over me. Looking over the horizon

there were people cresting the hill
holding hands and laughing,
embracing and inviting.

They had all come to sit at the welcome table.
As we stood behind our chairs at the table
You smiled and a tear of joy rested in the corner of Your eye.
We worshipped You because of your love for us.
We sang, we danced, we heard your word
Proclaimed from each and every heart.
What a wonderful gift you give us with life, father God.
What a powerful command to love and be well
you instill in us, mother God.
As we spoke of our joys and concerns
we turned to comfort and console one another;
it was a wonderful kind of peace.
And then there was Jesus, arms outstretched.
He said,

"I'm so glad you all could make it.
I'm so glad you all are home."

As I opened my eyes I noticed the tears had soaked my pillow.
And as my mind-place settled itself
outside of the dream world,
my voice exclaimed, "My church!"

Wonderful God we thank you for the promise
of what your church can be.
We see the open table
where the gifts of Christ are to be shared with one another.

We are grateful that we live in such a time as this

when the home of Jesus Christ is alive

and the Spirit really does open the door
for all to enter in.

We pray this and everyday that You will reveal to us, oh God,
the ways in which we can make the church of Your dreams,
the dream of our reality:
One church family of believers who love you and each other
in every healthy way.
A family where gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, straight--
where all of Your children sing together in harmony,

"We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord
And we pray that all unity will one day be restored.
And they'll know we are Christians by our love,
yes by our love.
They will know we are Christians by our love."

It is with this love that we come to you
with a request upon our lips:
We ask you for courage, strength, dignity
and that the blessed assurance of your call
will allow all of your LBGTQII candidates
to continue to want to share Our God-given ministry
with the church.

Help us to stand strong as we journey along the path
of Inquirer to Candidate,
from Candidate to Certified,
and from Certified to Called.

We know that in your Wisdom, Sophia, all is possible.
So we ask You to prepare Your children for service
in the surety that our time has come.
And while we are readied, prepare your church.
Allow the votes as they proceed from Presbytery to Presbytery
to speak your truth.
Let all see that the tide of conversation has changed
and so the time has come. We are ready to serve, let it be your will. We ask all of this because you love us.
We ask you for a whole church
because we know that you heal brokenness.
We ask you all of this because we love you and our neighbors--
even those that would knock us down--
as you have commanded.
We love them because we love the fullness of creation
in which you have formed each and every one of us.
Because we love ourselves as you have made us,
we give the purest honor to you Oh God our blessed Creator. I dreamed of you the other day... In your precious Holy names we pray now and forever. Amen.

Poverty Initiative Immersion Blog

If We Go Backwards, Is It Time To Start Over?

It has been said that a society can be judged by how it treats its people that are assumed to have the least in life. During this Poverty Initiative Immersion Course I have once again been reminded of a forgotten root in the degradation of our society; how we treat one another. Growing up at about 8 years old I remember feeling a twinge of shame when I found out that my Auntie’s job was as a domestic worker for the “Judge” in my hometown. And when I found out in my early teens that my great-grandmother had been a domestic worker for one of the most powerful men in the transportation world, it was a final step in the realization of how pervasive domestic work was in my family’s history.

By the way that shame didn’t last for long because when Auntie came home, she came home from work like anybody else. She was good at what she did and was a sought after employee in town, so the Judge did whatever it took to keep her in his employ. Auntie owned the home she lived in and shared so freely with all of our family. Auntie always had food in the cupboard and refrigerator. Auntie always gave one tenth of her earnings to the church. Auntie always had dignity enough to love me like I was a child of God’s promise.

My great-grandmother had retired by the time we visited her in New York City. She had followed her employer to New York City. She was so valued that she had an apartment in New York, a home and property in Jacksonville, Florida. She was considered a member of the family with much to contribute not only to the household affairs but the upbringing of socially active rich children. I remember her telling me the story of how those adult 30 something children cried for scores of minutes in the train station as she made her way back to Jacksonville. At least in New York they visited her up in Harlem every week.

These two women in my life taught me at an early age that a job well done is a respectable job. They taught me how to walk out the front door to work with dignity and back into the home with that dignity still intact. I have cleaned the toilet bowls of a bed and breakfast. As an actor I have done living history tours of the African American input to the history of a tourist Victorian seaside resort. I have seen how many children have acquired a college education on the work of household management.

So how does that relate to Poverty in the US in 2009? Well, let’s put it in perspective. My Auntie and great-grandmother were given a fair wage. They had contracted hours that were respected by their employers. They had incredible health care. They had paid vacation. They were considered valued and vital to smooth operations of the households in which they worked. For both of them, I remember how they asserted that their families came first. And they always, always had Sunday off to go to church.

So why is it that in the year 2009 Domestic Workers United has to fight for these basic rights? What happened in our society that experience of my Aunt and great-grandmother became the freakish exception rather than the norm? Is it because although Black, they were born in this country? Has prejudice made it alright to mistreat people who serve in positions of domesticity today? Is it outright racism? Is it the devaluation of a person because they work for people rather than this corporate entity most people think they work for? A corporate entity in which a few gross the top dollars? So who exactly do those who hire service and domestic workers actually think they are working for?!

I have been moved by the struggles we have linked with during this immersion. But my heart aches because at the root of so much of what we have seen is the disrespect of the value another human being’s life. From the lack of clean air spaces in the Bronx to remembering the attack on the homeless village in Thomkins Square Park in 1988—why is it still okay to sacrifice so many for the well being of a few? Yes, it’s time to stop all this talk about lowering poverty, thereby putting value on who deserves to eat, drink water, have basic rights for proper working conditions. The only paradigm that will work is a new one. The social movement must be to end poverty, period. Each immersion, rather each day I walk out into the world I see this more clearly.

Note to a Friend on the Eve of Inauguration

I hope this time of American symbolism of hope rocks your world and lights a fire in your soul. Even though there is much work to be done it is so nice to be able to ride on this crest of truly American joy and goodwill for the most part.

I hope this inauguration inspires you and that you can take a quiet moment to close your eyes and dream a dream that you never think will come true. For that's what's happening tomorrow. Dreams that people dared to dream against all possibility are happening beyond their wildest expectation. The slaves that built the White House can finally rest in peace. For into each piece of wood, each stone hewn for that home they put the dreams of their children, and children's children. That's the kind of belief in hope we have to find in ourselves.It is a good time to love you my friend, for "We are the ones we have watied for."

The love and peace of a thousand dreams to you,

Derrick

To clarifiy

The entry below is in response to a friend of mine truly trying to understand why the defeat of Prop 8 in CA drew such notice. He asked in all sincerity, "Why do they want to be married?" He mentioned that even he wasn't so sure if this marriage thing, esp. via the church was truly a valid idea. Especially since most Prostestant churches reject marriage as a sacrament (the only two being communion and baptism.).

After an initial conversation, these thoughts ensued.

Peace

Answer to "Why do they want to marry?" 11/21/08

As I said, just wanted to pass along a few thoughts about this marriage thing.
I think the very real need to be "married" goes beyond the concept of equal rights under the law or from another perspective forcing same sex marriages on a society that might not be ready for it. Your question was why do some feel they want or even need this so badly? Dealing with the politics and church political ramifications of it are very real but I feel they are a smoke screen for the real discussion as to "why?"
I can tell you that in realizing and/or one's "orientation" there is a struggle no matter who you are. It is a psychological process that isolates and one cannot imagine that anyone else has ever gone through what you are going through at that moment. Things to face are rejection of parents-either lovingly or violently (lovingly="we understand and love you but what did we do wrong, we will never have grandkids, our lives are forever changed now, etc." while violently=how could you do this to us, if you can live the right way get out, why did God have this abomination come from me, that is a disgusting, depraved community and deserve whatever it gives you, etc".)
Despite the ultimate reactions, the truth of the matter is that the training and ideals of family (mostly heteronormative ideals) are ingrained into LGBTQ folk just as they are into hetero folk. We've all been groomed to find partnership in life, become family with that person and that the final true public/spiritual testament to that love is to be married in the eyes of God and a company assembled. Heterosexuals have a choice of whether or not this is necessary for their lives. Heteros have the privelege (damn Union word slipped out) of whether or not to be married, whether or whether or not to have children, etc. The point is that the common starting point for us all is that ideal ingrained into us from childhood-marriage.

LGBTQ life at least in regards to these proscribed ideals, is full of personal loss. Identity has to be reformed and all of those cultural/religious aspirations either must be given up or somehow redefined to match the identity that has been shaped for you with the identity that has been shaped by you in no small part by your sexual affinity. It is here where I think the question "why marriage" can be answered. It seems to me that identity is, especially once we realize that we have some say in our own identity formation, something we cling to for dear psychological and spiritual life. The less we have to shed from those core years of identity formation the more secure we are in growing into our own person. Our choices become clearer because our foundation is strong.

In LGBTQ identity formation, those building blocks that are cultural, familial, and societal are the hardest to reframe because our input on their importance in our lives has been so limited. It is like the game Jenga-trying to build an identity while with each round of life you realize the pieces of your identity that culture and society takes away from your foundation. You can still grow and be strong and find where the new pieces fit but you are forever aware of the precarious nature of your identity because those foundational pieces like marriage, civil rights, human rights-all the things we grow up expecting-- are slowly being removed because of your sexual affinity/orientation. It's not even that it is a malicious thing. It's just the way things are set up. I think marriage represents much of this foundational identity formation. Now that there is even the remotest of possibilities of putting this foundational piece of identity formation back in place, people are reclaiming the piece.

Of course, there is the issue of whether or not these social constructs cause more damage than good. But at this stage of the game it doesn't matter, that debate will go on much ad infinitum. The fact is that these constructs are in place and until equality exists the place of conversation is not a level playing field. Strangely enough it seems to me the fight for marriage equality is more of a fight for a place of privelege from which one can choose whether or not to marry. That's my personal opinion, but it seems to me a perverse use of luxury. But then again, isn't so much of what we fight for a perverse pursuit of luxury?