Born-again human

John 3: 1-17
New Ark United Church of Christ, Newark, DE
March 5, 2023

Photo of a ceramic bust of Jesus, painted as a drag queen, with a rainbow crown of thorns, green and blue eyeshadow, false eyelashes, blushed cheeks in shades of purple, pink, and lilac, bronze skin, red lips, his beard painted blue, a neon rainbow colored choker, and pastel rainbow pearls of different sizes glued on and around his collarbone.  Jesus' hair is unpainted and white or perhaps a very pale pink. The bust is laying on purple cloth with a few gold sequins.  Photo by Rev. Miranda Hassett. Artist unknown.

Before I went to see the movie “Jesus Revolution” this past Friday, I already knew that two vital details of the main character had been omitted. Lonnie Frisbee, the Jesus-looking, barefoot hippie Christian to whom the Jesus revolution owes its birth, was a closeted gay man who died of the AIDS virus. Even in the epilogue at the end of the film we are told only that Lonnie died in 1993.



Knowing this going into the film, it still stung to hear Lonnie preach to a group of young people and a handful of established church members that he offered a welcome of acceptance and love, “no masks, no lies”. It’s not just a sanitized version of who Lonnie was but an attempt to erase who he really was. Even the way the culture was presented—sex, drugs, rock n’ roll, and Timothy Leary’s gospel of “turn on, tune in, and drop out”—only hinted at protests against the Vietnam War, marches for civil rights and women’s rights, and the Cold War. I know that nostalgia often wears rose-colored glasses but along with that Super Bowl ad, (and also this one) this film wants to make Christianity great again, but great for who?



Jesus was a servant to outcasts, to the poor and oppressed, and identified himself as one of them. When Jesus told Nicodemus that no one can see the kingdom, the kindom without being born from above, it is as though we cannot see this kindom unless we look from God’s vantage point which is the whole world. God so loved the world. Not just from above from within it. Not some of it but all of it. Not just people but the earth and its creatures. Not some people but all people, especially those who are hurting and systemically excluded and discriminated against, especially those who have to mask their identity or lie about who they are just to be safe.



Forget about being a born-again Christian—I’d settle for born-again human. There are legislators in some states who are using their faith as a cover for their bigotry, fear, and hatred. Hundreds of bills have been introduced and some have passed that would make it a crime to seek and to provide healthcare for transgender youth and criminalize their parents. The state of Mississippi is attempting to reinstate Jim Crow laws. In Iowa there is an effort to ban same-sex marriage. In South Carolina a bill was introduced that would seek the death penalty for anyone who had an abortion, with ambiguous language that does not differentiate for those who suffer a miscarriage. Members of the U.S. House have submitted a bill that would establish the AR-15 rifle as the national gun of the United States before doing anything to eliminate gun violence in our country. And just the other day at the CPAC convention one speaker called for “the eradication of transgenderism from public life entirely”. This is nothing less than the codification of hate and bigotry which is idolatry.



The cross and this Table remind us that human beings can be powerfully cruel, but the empty cross and this Table of betrayal and desertion remind us that we can choose another way, that we can practice incarnation and resurrection, and that cruelty has no place in the Church.



“For God so loved the world as to give the Only Begotten One, so that everyone who believes may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God sent the Only Begotten into the world, not to condemn the world, but in order that through the Only Begotten One, the world might be saved.”



If there really is to be a Jesus revolution, it would look something like this:



Believing queer people and their experience of being human and taking action to protect their rights will indeed save all of us.



Believing disabled people and their experience of being human and taking action to make all spaces truly accessible will save everyone.



Believing people of color, Asian people, and Indigenous people and their experience of being human and taking action to liberate, restore, and empower them will save everyone.



Believing children and young people and their experience of being human and taking action to safeguard their bodily autonomy will save everyone.



Believing transgender and non-binary people, genderqueer and genderfluid people and their experience of being human and taking action to ensure their healthcare and safety will indeed save the world.



Believing that making life better for the most vulnerable and marginalized among us makes life better for all of us and disrupting our lives for it is indeed eternal life, the way of Jesus, how to be a born-again human.



Benediction


God’s Word was sent into the world
So that all flesh would know:
God so loves you, yes, you
Just as you are
Go now into the world
To love, to serve,
That hope might be born again
In us
Amen.