Blessed by queerness

 

Luke 8: 26-39
New Ark United Church of Christ, Newark, DE
June 22, 2025

Photo of an apartment building with multiple red bi-fold doors. Above the doors are large capital letters painted in yellow with black shading that read "Love is the running towards".

Maybe you’ve heard the one about how most stories begin with “Once upon a time”, but a story from the American South begins with “Y’all ain’t gonna believe this one!” Well, believe this story. Because we’re all in it.



Most stories have a beginning, a middle, and an end. This story of Jesus and the Gerasene man who had demons is only the middle of the story. We don’t know how this man came to be living in the tombs, naked and isolated. We don’t really know what became of him after he was healed. We don’t even know which came first: the demons or the isolation? Was he banished because demons lived in him or was he shunned for some other reason and after so many years of solitary confinement the demons took up residence?



Or was he demonized? Those who are demonized are isolated, and those who are isolated are often led to believe they are the problem and thus demonize themselves. When the Gerasene man sees Jesus, he cries out in a loud voice to him, as if he wants Jesus to heal him, to be seen by Jesus, and thus, by God, but he also says, “don’t torment me”, as in “don’t taunt me with healing and then leave me here, don’t cause me more pain”. “Don’t treat me like I’m human and then abandon me.”



Jesus then asks the man his name and the man responds with “Legion”, and the text says, “because many demons had entered him”. But it doesn’t just mean “many”. Legion is the Latin word for a regiment of Roman soldiers numbering in the thousands. In today’s terms he could’ve said “the police” or “Immigration and Customs Enforcement” or “the National Guard” – any of the ways we weaponize human beings against one another. We keep forgetting that hate is a cover for fear and bigotry is a cover for naked self-interest. Denigrating empathy, demonizing “the other”, isolating them, and controlling them with violence of one kind or another is what empire does. Iran and the Kurds. China and the Uyghurs. Israel and Palestinians. Sudan and non-Arab ethnic groups. And in the United States pretty much since its inception? Everyone who isn’t a straight non-disabled White cisgender male.



Everyone who isn’t a straight non-disabled White cisgender male has had to fight for their rights and continues to do so now that the current administration is stripping away many of those rights and identities. Pregnant people no longer have the federally protected right to an abortion. Immigrants are being stripped of their right to due process and their temporary protected status and sent to overcrowded detention centers or flown to prison hellholes in other countries. Transgender youth are being stripped of their right to gender-affirming healthcare. Transgender adults are being stripped of their right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.



And in what felt like a particularly cruel move during Pride month, the current administration announced it will be removing the national suicide LGBTQ+ lifeline on July 17th. Actually, it said it would "no longer silo LGB+ youth services", removing the T representing the trans community.



Demonized, stripped, naked, isolated, and sent to live with the dead. Because once power keeps people down, as it does, it must continue to do so for fear of reprisal. Because God forbid the people rise up in solidarity and do the same to their oppressors. Because power knows that violence breeds violence.



Which is why I don’t know how someone can call themselves a Christian and support the current administration and its actions. Jesus didn’t take healthcare away from marginalized people, he gave it freely. Jesus didn’t take away free lunches, he provided them. Jesus didn’t strip people of their dignity and humanity; he clothed them with mercy. Jesus didn’t kick people out; he welcomed them into the kin-dom of God.



But then I remembered that the Church is not a museum for saints but a hospital for sinners, that Jesus came not for the healthy but for those in need of healing. Not only that, Jesus came for the lost so that we might be found. He came for the dead so that we might come alive again. None of us are without sin. All are in need of grace.

Jesus came for the demonized and the isolated that they might have community, belonging, and not only that, but also know that their uniqueness is their calling. After the man is healed, Jesus sends him out to tell everyone what God has done for him.



Rev. Jenn Macy at First Church in Somerville, MA says, “Being told that it’s okay to be gay or lesbian or bi or pan or ace or trans, that God made you that way, doesn’t go far enough. It is discipleship to be queerer. Being queer is our calling from God and our birthright. It is a way to make ourselves and our communities more like Jesus. We are called to be a people without shame…to lead the system into a new reality where everyone, everyone, everyone is safer and has what they need. That is why God needs you in the world.”

Photo of small adobe brick church on a hill of red earth, rock, scrub, and flowers, with a blue sky and wispy clouds behind it.  Caption: Pride month reminder: your queerness makes the church a better place.

I follow a woman on Twitter named Billie who is transgender. She writes these lovely empowering tweets that begin with the words “Queerness is a blessing”. “Queerness is a blessing which reminds us that joy is bound up in community and that flourishing relies on defying injustice and bigotry.” “Queerness is a blessing rooted in the exuberant joy of being fully ourselves in relation to the gloriously unique other.” “Queerness is a blessing that shines with furious defiance in the face of rising fascism.”



Queerness, uniqueness, diversity, collective thriving is a blessing. Queerness is community in the face of isolation and oppression. Queerness is relationship and connection in the face of individualism. Queerness is creativity and imagination in the face of despair. Queerness is joy and resistance and resilience. Queerness is real, authentic, lived experience. Queerness is what it means to be human because being human is complex and multi-faceted.



Being a Christian means standing close to queerness, being queer, called to queerness. So I will say this: we can’t have it both ways. We can’t stand close to this current administration and stand close to our queer kindred. We are either blessed by queerness or we’re not.



Jesus was blessed by queerness. From our friends at First Church Somerville: “Jesus is God in human drag. God took a human form in Jesus to reveal something about the nature of God and humanity. By putting on human drag, Jesus transgressed the boundaries of human and divine, teaching us to see the divine spark in one another.” To be blessed by queerness is a calling from God: to take on the struggles of others, to disrupt our lives, until all are free, until all are safe, until all have what they need to live. Amen.

Benediction – enfleshed.com

Riverbeds can be restored.
Communities can meet each other’s needs.
Demons can be cast out of our hearts and our systems.
Queerness can guide us towards abundant life.
It can happen. Remember it can happen.
Go in Radical Hope.