Nomad
This homily was given at the Maryland Air Force National Guard Prayer Breakfast on December 6, 2015.
For those of you who have roots within the Christian tradition, you know that
we have entered into a time of year known as “Advent”, the season in the Christian Church Calendar that culminates in the Feast of Christmastide, or Christmas as most of us have come to know it.
Advent is a season of waiting, a season of expectation, where we, with great longing, await the day of deliverance, the day, in Christian theology, where God becomes a human being and dwells among us.
The word “advent” literally means “coming” or “culmination”. And in the Christian perspective, advent specifically is a season where we look back and stand in solidarity with the Hebrew people from thousands of years ago as they lived as an oppressed people, constantly being enslaved and dominated by the Kingdoms that surrounded their tiny nation.
We stand with them in their longing for deliverance. In their longing to be set free. In their longing for everything to be made right. For their suffering to cease, their sickness to be healed, their lives to be made complete.
We step into the shoes of the Hebrew people and feel the tension and hopeful angst as they look forward to a day where they will be free, where the darkness that surrounds them will be expelled, and where light and peace will be their inheritance.
But beyond this historic solidarity with an ancient people, Advents calls us to recognize the captivity that surrounds our world and our lives today. As we look around our world and our nation, its not hard to see just how much captivity even we are in.
Mass shootings happen daily in our nation. Terrorism strikes fear in the heart of people around the world. The racial oppression that many believed was resolved decades ago has shown itself to be more of a disease then ever. Our nation is divided by our politics, where we forfeit the real issues that effect real human lives for political talking points and party loyalty as if it’s some sort of sport.
Friends, we of all people are in need of this holy season of Advent. We are longing for deliverance from the fear and darkness that surrounds us each and every day. We are longing for things to be made right, for peace to be ours. We are longing for a new day for our lives, our nation, and our world.
There is a prophecy, out of the Hebrew tradition, that sums up the hope and expectancy that we are to feel at Advent. It comes from Chapter 9 of the Book of the Prophet Isaiah. In it, the Prophet writes:
The people walking in darkness
have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of deep darkness
a light has dawned.
You have enlarged the nation
and increased their joy;
they rejoice before you
as people rejoice at the harvest,
You have shattered
the yoke that burdens them,
the bar across their shoulders,
the rod of their oppressor.
Every warrior’s boot used in battle
and every garment rolled in blood
will be destined for burning,
will be fuel for the fire.
For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the greatness of his government and peace
there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne
and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
with justice and righteousness
from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the Lord Almighty
will accomplish this.
This is the hope of the Christmas season. It was the hope of the ancient Israelites 2000 years ago as they awaited the birth of the one who would deliver them from oppression and captivity and bring them peace at last. It is the hope of the world today, as we look at the wars and conflicts that divide humanity and provoke fear and hatred in our hearts.
The message of Advent and indeed, of this entire holiday season throughout many religious traditions, is one of hopeful expectation of a day of peace, of justice, and of equity for all people to come to us at last.
I would make a bet that for many of you, it is for this longing and hope that prompted you have enlisted in the Air National Guard, is it not? It is for these goals that I work as a minister and humanitarian.
In the heart of every human, I believe, there is a deep seated desire, a longing, to see a day like the one the Prophet Isaiah describes.
A day where bloodshed and war will be no more. A day where justice and righteousness are upheld over all of the earth. A day where there is truly goodwill between all people and peace that washes over the whole cosmos.
Oh, how we long for that day.
But one of the fundamental beliefs of Christianity and one of the fundamental beliefs that guides my life is the belief that that day is not far off. It is not merely a dream. It is a growing reality.
It’s not supernatural. It doesn’t take a miracle. The message of this season is that the same Spirit that Christians believe joined with Mary to conceive the Christ child, the same Spirit that descended upon Jesus at his baptism and that empowered and guided him throughout his lifetime, that same Spirit dwells within you and me. That Spirit has already enabled us and empowered us to give birth to the day that Isaiah prophesied about.
We have the power, the call, the commission, and the ability to bring about a world of righteousness and peace. It doesn’t come through legislation in Washington. It doesn’t come through battles or sermons. It comes through each of us working for together, through one subversive act of love at a time. One self-sacrificial act of service to another human. One act of overturning injustice in your world and setting the world to rights. Every time we engage in these seemingly small actions, we are, in reality, setting our world to rights.
We are carrying out the will of God. We are participating in the redemption and renewal of our world. We are making the hope of Advent a reality in our world.
This belief in the capability of each of us to make a true and significant difference in our world is the foundational belief that has driven me to speak, write, and work with people on the streets of San Francisco to the halls of the White House to bring about righteousness and justice for sexual and gender minorities in the Church and in society.
It is the belief that I, as a twenty-something millennial, could actually make a difference in the world and that God had in fact created me with potential and power to shape and create a world that I would love to live in is what has driven me to do everything that I have done.
You see, I am not supposed to be standing before you today, talking about what I am talking about.
I was supposed to be a statistic. I grew up in a trailer park outside of Baltimore, surrounded by drugs, alcohol and abuse. I didn’t grow up in a particularly religious family, either. By the age of twelve, after experiencing over a decade of abuse from my father who was plagued with disease of alcoholism, I found myself utterly enslaved to hopelessness.
I never dreamed of going to college. I didn’t think I would probably ever leave my trailer park. In fact, looking back today, many of the kids that I grew up with haven’t left. They’re still there. They have been taken captive by the cycles of dysfunction, addiction, and abuse that they were subjected to as children. Every day as a twelve year old boy, I remember waking up and the first thought that would emerge in my head was “Is today the day that I will end my own life?”
I didn’t see any reason to hope for my life or my world. I had no examples of it around me. I only saw bondage. Enslavement. Darkness.
But when I was twelve, something else happened to me that broke me out of this cycle.
In the same way that Isaiah wrote about the coming day for the Hebrew people, a light dawned in my young life.
And like in Isaiah’s prophecy, it came from the most unexpected places.
My “weird religious” neighbors invited me to church. These were the people that our whole neighborhood made fun of and yet simultaneously respected. They hosted neighborhood bible studies for kids, went to church like three days a week, were home schooled. And they might as well have been from a different planet compared to the lives of most of us in our neighborhood.
But these strange people invited me to church. And, as an excuse to get out of the house on Sundays, I went with them.
Little did I know that after attending for a few months, I would have a powerful encounter with God that would change my life. In almost an instant, the hopelessness that plagued my young soul evaporated as I heard of a Creator who had endowed me with potential and purpose.
A Heavenly Father who loved me more than my earthly father ever could and who desired to guide my path and provide for me beyond my wildest imagination. A God who was calling me to dare to dream of a better world and who would grant me everything I needed to make that a reality. A God who could redeem all of the broken pieces of my young life and weave them back together to create a beautiful mosaic that could be used to bring hope to the world.
You see, like the people in Isaiah’s prophecy, I was walking in a land of great darkness. Like many people in our world today, who are caught in circumstances and situations that enslave their minds and make them believe that the life that they have is the best that they can ever do.
Unless a light is shone on those people. Unless those of us who have been liberated stand up and speak hope, then they can never even hope to believe in another way, a better world.
My light came through strange neighbors and a loving church community. The light of liberation most often comes from the most unexpected and unwanted places.
After having my encounter with God, I felt called to be a pastor, to be someone who helped other people find healing, liberation, and hope. So I went off to college to pursue this path.
After graduating Bible-college, where I went to pursue a degree in Pastoral Ministry, the door was opened through my writing and speaking ministry, where I had begun to focus of issues of sexuality and gender as I became aware that my own sexuality was not “straight”, to become a national spokesperson for a new organization called “Evangelicals for Marriage Equality”.
Within a period of 4 months, my ministry went from a few thousand followers on my blog, to millions of people hearing my story as it was broadcast on NPR, MSNBC, and many other unexpected and influential places. I stepped in to a full time job working with evangelical Christians, my people, to help them understand and work to ensure the equality of LGBT people in their communities, in their country, and around the world.
In a period of a year, my life was completely transformed. I have had the great honor of getting to work with some of the religious leaders who shaped my spiritual life throughout my teenage years, to help them move forward on issues of equality and acceptance of sexual and gender minorities.
This whole path was unexpected. I didn’t pursue it, but I am so honored to have the ability to work to make the Church and the world a place where righteousness flows forth and equality is known by all.
But my story isn’t all that unique. My story, I bet, is also many of your stories.
I bet many of you never expected, necessarily, that you would serve our country in the Air National Guard. I bet many of you too came from circumstances similar to mine.
And I bet many of you experienced the powerful and mysterious hand of God guiding your path and leading your life in ways you never could have expected or imagined.
No matter what your background or what has led you to be in this room this morning, one thing I can guarantee is this: you’re all hear because we at some level, like the Hebrew people thousands of years ago, are filled with a holy longing, a nagging hope, that we can help make our world a better place.
That liberation and freedom should belong to all people, of every race, culture, religion, or sexuality.
That is why I write and advocate. That is why you protect and serve our state and our country. This is the longing that ties all human beings together. A longing for a better world. For the dawning of a new day. For the renewal of all things.
This is what the season of Advent is meant to be. A season of longing. Of remembering of where we came from. Remembering the journey that we have had. And looking forward in hopeful expectation to a better day. A day when our lives and world experience the shalom, or wholeness and peace, that God desires for it.
Jesus came to reveal to us was that this dream of a renewed world is not far off. It is not unachievable. It is growing. It is welling up from within us. Each of us, when we dare to believe in our created potential to make a difference in this world, will become channels of divine healing and restoration in our world.
We become agents of redemption through the power of the Spirit within us.
Through one act of love. One act of self-sacrifice. One act of charity. One act of encouragement at a time.
We all know this to be true at some deep level in our souls.
The world is not transformed from the halls of congress or from the White House. The message of Christmas, of God coming to be with us as one of us, is to remind us that each one of us have the Spirit of God within us that beckons us to believe that through our acts of love and service, we, in reality, work alongside God in the healing and renewal of our world.
I have seen it as I lean into my created purpose. When I write, counsel, and speak to people of diverse faith backgrounds and sexual orientations, encouraging them to find healing and reconciliation, I see the world being transformed before my eyes, one life at a time.
Last night, I gathered with my church in Washington D.C. and served cookies and hot chocolate to our neighborhood and I saw people who have been so divided for so long, rich and poor, black and white, Christian and Muslim, coming together in a common celebration of joy. And in that small act, I saw healing and restoration extended to our world.
The hope of advent, indeed, the hope of our world, lies in our ability to see beyond our circumstances and to believe that we can truly make an impact with our lives. It lies in our ability to believe that we can be the channels through which God works to bring liberation and healing to our world.
May we, in this Advent seasons, stop trivializing our desire for righteousness and peace. May we refuse to believe the narrative that it’s unachievable or that everything must get worse before anything can get better.
And may we come to at last believe the message of the Christmas story. That God is truly with us. That God is in us. Empowering us each and every day to overturn injustice through one simple act of righteousness at a time.
When we all put our collective energy into doing this, then we will at last taste of the world that we have been dreaming of. We will at last experience the answer to Jesus’ prayer for the Kingdom of God to come and for God’s will to be done in our lives and on this earth as in heaven.
Again, I want to say thank you to each and every one of your for your service to our country and for being here this morning to reflect on the message of this season with me.
May the peace of God be with you all. Amen.
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