Sermon by Juliette Guth

June 25, 2006

James 4:11 & 12 is skipped over by many ministers.  Yet, it is one of the most important bible passages I have ever read.

“Speak not evil; one of another, brethren.  He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law of God.  But if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge!  There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and destroy:  Who art thou, that judgeth another?”

This was James speaking of the people who were judging his half brother – Jesus.

Jesus’ own brother’s words are skipped over in our lives today, just as they were in biblical times. 

Who are we to judge?  I am a Christian, but I am not in favor of the Christian Coalition, that chooses to choose our choices.  I believe that God created who and what we are!  And He has told us not to judge!

We have come a long way.  We are already past the procrastination period of thought.  The scarcity of the sanctity of marriage, embroils the churches of the Christians, throughout our country.

It is time that we all stop sitting at the back of the bus.  It’s time that we, as individuals, stop judging the Gays and Lesbians!  And it is time to let the partners of the future, proclaim their own destinations, without our judgments and condemnations!  Jesus says, “Thou shalt not judge!”

We must let them follow the maps of their passion and quit putting road blocks in their paths.  Welcome them into our churches and let God decide, just who needs His miracles, and who gets His judgment.

I want the Gays and Lesbians of our generation, as well as all the generations to come, to be able to sit at the front of the bus.  We need to get off the bus of prejudice and get on the bulldozer of love.

Jesus said, “Love one another, as I have loved you.” 

Our son Roy was gay.  He tried hard to be like everyone else.  Would Jesus have wanted us - to love him less?  Roy was engaged to girls three times.   When he was a young man, he cried out,

“Mom, why couldn’t I have been an alcoholic like my brother?  I don’t want to be gay.”

I don’t know the answer.  But I do know the biology of the births in our family.  My husband comes from an alcoholic background; and I have the heritage of the heterosexual as well as the homosexual in my family.  It is born in our genes.

Someone once said, “I didn’t raise my son to be gay.” And I answered, “I didn’t raise my son to be gay either.”  I don’t make Godly decisions.  God made that decision for me; for my child; and for our family.

God gave me a gay cousin – Freddy, a gay child – Roy, a gay nephew – Paul and a gay friend – Barb.  And, He gave me a chance to make a difference; in other people’s lives, by the way I live mine….Whether in the voting booth, on the bus, or in the churches of my life.   I know who’s driving the bus that takes me down the highway of life.  The “Rosa Parks” people in our family, are tired too.

They’re tired of sitting at the back of the bus of life.  They’re tired of the innuendoes and ‘slight of hand”, as the Christian Coalition, seeks to work its magic, in the bedrooms and the buses of our lives.  And I know that the road to hell is paved with good intentions…. Oh, I meant to drop some food at the food pantry, but I forgot…maybe because my stomach was full!

I meant to voice my opposition to the prejudice and hate, but I forgot…maybe because my life has seen enough of it, and I looked away, in hurt and confusion.  The road to hell is indeed paved with good intentions.  But somewhere along the way, we all have to get off the bus of the bastions of ambiguity; and fix the ruts in the road!

My husband and I have walked down the road of the Pentecostal faith.  And we have floundered in the potholes of oppression.  There seemed to be no road maps to guide their Christian walk with God.  There was no room, on the empty bus, that was going no where!  And it sat sullen and destitute in the parking lot of the prejudice of their faith.  It just couldn’t run on a tankful of judgment and hate!

We sat in silence and hurt, and anger as the minister told his congregation what the Gays and Lesbians wanted to be called.  He raised his bible, as he did his balancing act, of granting an astringent absolution for their “sins”… While forgetting about his own fornication of the commandments of the bible in his hand… The Bible that says, “Love one another, as I have loved you.  Judge not!  Lest ye be judged!”

Can we let the friction of that faction of people, wear out our welcome, as we travel the highway of life?  The road to hell is paved with good intentions.  But that minister of malignment, had the audacity of the Gestapo; to think he knew more than God… about the gestation of the gender of the child in the womb of this adversity.

He waved his Bible in the air and gestured like the Gershwin in his head.  But the music of this ‘maestro of ministry’ sings his songs of salvation slightly off key.  He composes the lyrics of the relationships of life, into a chorus of cacophony!  And he marches to a different tune, without regard to the cadence of the song.  He smiles and shouts, “Hi fag – hey faggot!  Good morning queer!”  Then he explains his repertoire of chastity and grace.

“This is what they want to be called,” he shouts.  “They want to be called queer,” he piously explains with his gratuitous aire of authority.  I feel like he is the devil in a purple robe…and I think….

“All this from a man, whose collar sits backwards on his neck?  And who seems to be ordained by the blasphemy and the bigotry of his faith, as he sits in judgment of my child?”

Jesus says, “Love one another,” and “Judge not!”  Over and over, the Bible speaks legions on love.  Page after biblical page, exalts the walk of the passion of Christ, in the faith of the pre-Darwinian slippery slopes of evolution.

Who among us will dare to wean the wayward Christian from the fertile milk of the mogul of that ministry?  Jesus chose his 12 disciples with his love; weeding out the dead wood of society, by threat of a bonfire in the hells of our lives.  Jesus loved his 12 disciples, and he walked his road with care… love in his heart – not hate!”

He came to save us from our sins.  He taught love.  He did not judge!  He came to save us from all our sins – not wash away our faith!  Who among us will choose to deactivate the deacons of the indecipherable devil of hate?  Am I to be judged by my God – solely because I have judged another human being?

Must we wrap our arms around the messengers of hate, or will we walk the path of those that were born blue eyed and blond; left handed or right; short or tall; with white skin or black; and gay or straight?

Can we not worship along side the faithful; that travel the fallopian trail of love…that unites the hearts and does not judge; the gender of my child?  Let’s vote for a variegated rainbow of love; that Jesus sent to the wharf of the wayward and the lost, while serving as the ‘fisher of men!’

At no time did Jesus love the woman at the well more, than when she admitted to the choices of her life.  The Book of James says, “Don’t speak evil against each other, my dear brothers and sisters.”  God alone… can rightly judge among us.  He alone has the power to save or destroy.

So, what right do we have, to condemn our neighbor?  Who among us will vocalize our opinions on the covenant of love, and jump into the vortex of the waters of hate and depths of human judgment? 

When we confronted the Pentecostal character of convoluted love, he expected to leave us speechless.  “They want to be called Queer,” he shouted again.  “They want to be called faggots and fags.”   “Hi Queer – Good morning Queer!  Hi fag!  How are ya?”

My husband shook in anger, as he spoke.  “We have never called our son, any of those names!”

Then this minister of the mind games of life asked haughtily, “And what do you call your son?”

Jesus wrapped his love around us as we answered, “We call him by his name.  We call him Roy.”

                                                Amen