Timing is everything.
Over the past year I have found myself avoiding the news. Emotionally I have shut down from the 24/7 onslaught of “being informed.”
Once upon a time I prided myself on being a political junkie. I prided myself on being aware of the ins and outs of what is happening in our country and around the world, but as the rhetoric and angst has become so divided, I have found that my soul has needed to disconnect and pray.
It is almost as if I find myself emotionally in a fetal position, just waiting eagerly for something new, some fresh inspiration of the Holy Spirit to breeze into the world and save us from our current reality.
But it doesn’t.
About a week ago, right after the final primary, I peaked out of my huddled position and decided to publish a prayer of lament over the current state of the Presidential Campaign. I sent it in and tucked myself back into my posture of prayer, trying as best I can to not to be overcome by despair.
And then Sunday morning happened.
The first word I received just before church started was from a 95 year old matriarch of the church, telling me another mass shooting happened at a nightclub in Orlando. There were no details, just 20-some dead, 50-some wounded. As I shared this news during the prayer time at church, I could tell by the looks on people’s faces they hadn’t heard about it either.
But then it just got worse.
The worst mass shooting in American history…oh, and the shooting was at a gay nightclub.
And suddenly the profundity of what just happened hit. How can the Church speak with any kind of credibility into this tragedy when in so many ways we have paved the road for this to happen?
I know, I know, you say: “NOT ME! I’m not homophobic! I don’t hate gay people, I just hate their sin.”
I am speaking as a heterosexual woman of European ancestry and a “traditionally” tribally recognized last name (Schrock). I have an “in” into the places of power within the Mennonite Church just by being all of those things, and I haven’t had to “earn” any of these markers of power.
But the only problem with being people of power is that we do not have the privilege of nuancing others’ perceptions of us. And perception is reality. And the perception of the church is that we are homophobic and that we hate gay people who do not behave the way we think they should behave.
The problem is that we are perceived as anything but loving towards the LGBTQ community, and by continuing to demonize everything they are, we have normalized hatred of them. We have paved the way for angry, isolated, and sick individuals such as Omar Mateen to mow them down with an AR-15.
And what is worse is that we have to qualify why this shooting is so horrible. And the fact that Christians are having to qualify why they think this is an evil act is the very reason why we need to lament of everything we have become as a Church.
Brothers and sisters, we should not have to have a disclaimer as to why we think a tragedy is a tragedy. Yes, I can say I am not homophobic and I did not contribute to the mass murder of LGBTQ individuals, but I have participated in making them a subgroup of humanity.
Just as we have to work at undoing racism and all of the historically violent implications of pushing those not of our traditional European descent, or of “our tribe,” out of the circle, we equally have to work at undoing all of the historically violent implications of pushing those in the LGBTQ community out of our church.
We don’t get the luxury of nuancing the watching world’s perception of what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. And right now, because so many Christians have to explain why they are appalled that human beings were ruthlessly killed means that we have a lot of undoing to be done.
Timing is everything. Neither The Mennonite or I planned on the poor timing of my call to lament, written with the presidential election in mind, and scheduled to be published days after the Orlando massacre, with no mention of the LGBTQ community. It was an example of how quickly something can become dated in our 24/7-informed world.
Timing is everything and at this time the Church, is becoming quickly outdated and irrelevant when we can no longer speak with credibility over something that would no doubt have made Jesus weep.
The Church as we know it is being undone. The Church as a tribe of insiders judiciously letting people in or out, mostly depending on markers of power of which they did not have to earn, is over. Thanks be to God.
The Church going forward will be known by its ability to speak with credibility into moments of great human despair, moments in which the watching world will know without a doubt that we look like the Jesus we say we follow.
The Church going forward will be known by its discipleship, not just someone’s last name.
If love is a verb and we are to be love as God is love, then the Church going forward will be known by its passionate followers who actually do something besides consuming religious goods and services.
True disciples of Jesus Christ should look and act like Jesus. We should love like Jesus. Weep like Jesus. Welcome like Jesus.
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