Courage and Comfort
Highland Avenue Church of the Brethren
Pastor Katie Shaw Thompson – June 4, 2023
Comfort and Courage – Matthew 6: 25-34
Jesus’ admonition in today’s scripture against worrying “about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear,” is well-known but difficult to follow, particularly if the circumstances of your life present real and justifiable reason to worry. Those of us who identify as LGBTQ may experience quite warranted worry.
According to a 2022 study by UCLA’s Williams Institute, “LGBTQ people experience four times more interpersonal violence than non-LGBTQ people.” Many members of the LGBTQ community also face discrimination and isolation from their family members, friends, employers, or schools for being open about their identity. In an NPR interview, Elena Redfield of the Williams Institute also named the policy conversations and actions happening at the state legislature level as contributing to a culture of negativity and anti-LGBTQ sentiment in our society. Many churches contribute to this culture by either implicitly or explicitly stoking the fires of discrimination and violence against members of the LGBTQ community.
As much progress as has been made on LGBTQ human rights and acceptance in recent years, there is still a long way to go in pursuit of equity and equality. Especially in a world where followers of Jesus have so often inflicted pain on LGBTQ people, this admonition of Jesus’s not to worry may ring quite hollow in many ears. Does Jesus not understand the reality of those of us who face injustice, those of us who face suffering, or those of us for whom there is real reason to worry?
While it may sound that way on the lips of a Jesus follower who refuses to acknowledge life’s hardships or who assigns hardships to a lack of God’s favor, I don’t think the original giver of this teaching trivialized human suffering, injustice, or worry. I think he knew all about it. As a member of a socio-religious group being violently subjugated by the Roman Empire and who would eventually be crucified, I think Jesus and his followers were quite in touch with suffering, injustice, and worry. Remember that his followers had left behind livelihood, home, and family. Remember that in the chapter of Matthew that comes before this one, Jesus lays out the Beatitudes, offering blessing and comfort for all who suffer and for all who seek a world where the well-being of all in our community is attended to and held valuable.
No, I think Jesus understands that worry is real. But I think Jesus also understands that worry only takes us so far, and worry will never be what heals us or makes us whole. The only thing that can do that in a real and lasting way is the holy Source of Love that moves the universe.
Jesus teaches “Can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? … Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.”
You are loved. You are as loved as the glorious, shining lilies. Grounding ourselves in that reality–in the reality of how much we are loved and cared for by God just as we are–can give us the hope and trust we need to set aside the excessive worry and overthinking that drains and depletes us.
That’s at least part of what Pride month is all about. Its history goes back to the riot of Stonewall and continues today in protests, parades, parties, and more. It’s not a time when all discrimination and violence completely disappear but it is a time to come together and to celebrate all that is wonderful about being LGBTQ. It’s a time for LGBTQ folks to take up visible space and to claim their own beauty and belovedness as they so choose.
I think that’s a vision of the kingdom of God among us that Jesus calls us in these verses to seek. I believe every time we encourage, accept, and celebrate each other as we are, we are living out a glimpse of the kingdom of God.
The Church of the Brethren has often failed LGBTQ folks but what the Church of the Brethren and this particular congregation has that may be helpful to all manner of folks experiencing injustice, is a strong tradition of living out our values even in the face of opposition. We get this ethos directly from Jesus, who in these verses and elsewhere in the gospels encourages followers not to place their faith in public opinion or full bank accounts but in the unwavering love of God.
To me God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness look like being who God made us to be and celebrating each other just as God made us, whether or not it fits someone else’s expectations. To this end, I came across a song this week by the musician corook titled “if i were a fish.” It’s sweet. It’s silly. It’s celebratory of not having to fit into someone else’s prescribed norms, and it’s a response to the very serious question, “why’s everybody on the internet so mean?”
It was inspired by a bad day. “After reading a slew of hate comments online directed at their gender identity, body shape, and how they dressed, the 28-year-old Nashville-based musician needed cheering up, so they and their partner turned to what they do best: music.”
Reports corook, "my girlfriend was supporting me and wanted to do something to make me feel better and decided: 'Let's write a song about it, let's make like a really weird song. Because you know, I love that you're weird and it's wonderful that you're weird. So what's the weirdest idea that you can come up with?'”
corook answered, “'I think if I were a fish I think that all of the weird things about me would be cool,' and she was like, 'that's weird, let's do it.'" The lyrics of the song that’s now had over 7 million streams on the music platform Spotify go like this:
If I were a fish and you caught me
You'd say, “Look at that fish”
Shimmering in the sun
Such a rare one
Can't believe that you caught one
If I were a fish and you caught me
You'd say, “Look at that fish”
Heaviest in the sea
You'd win first prize
If you caught me
Why's everybody on the internet so mean?
Why's everybody so afraid of what they've never seen?...
…How lucky are we?
Of all the fish in the sea?
You get to be you
And I get to be me
Just let 'em be mean
We're as free as can be
To be the you-est of you
And the me-est of me.
In an interview, corook reflected "I think it's an interesting thing that I wrote the song from a place of like, I don't fit in, I don't have a community, I don't feel like people get me' and then to have a response of millions of people say, 'I get you and I want more of this, and I feel this way, too.' "
I think God smiles every time you are the you-est of you and I am the me-est of me. I think when we build communities where we can practice loving each other into the fullness of who we are, that we are doing the work God yearns for us to do.
I give thanks to God for each one of you here and online. Whoever you are and wherever you are today, I pray that you take comfort and courage to be the you-est you that you can be. That’s who God made you to be.
So, as best you can, do not worry. Remember you are loved. And let that love bring the healing and the wholeness that lasts for all time.
May it be so. Amen.
