Not Equality in ALL Things (Equality under the Law)

Philemon 15-16 and Galatians 3.23-38(29)

As you may know, it has been more than two years since I became “the respondent” to complaints about my United Methodist ordination credentials because of my marriage to Jim Schlachter, my life companion for 31 years. The reactions to challenging unjust church law enshrined in the United Methodist Book of Discipline were expected and anticipated. I was prepared for most of the emotional roller coaster.

Then, this past March, the North Central Jurisdiction Court of Appeals heard the appeal of the Church’s Counsel (think Prosecuting Attorney). They appealed the faithful dismissal by the West Ohio Committee on Investigation (think Grand Jury) of two of the three charges. They appealed the dismissals. In the hearing at the Jurisdictional Court of Appeals, both I and my counsel were refused voice or standing in the matters directly affecting my sexuality, marriage, ordination, and ministry.

They justified it by the policies and practices that flowed out of the Book of Discipline. They denied me fair process. I was betrayed by UM leaders, disciples of Jesus, and reasonable people. I felt betrayed by the book and by the church. You know it, too, through T.C.’s experience and those who’ve gone before her.

It has been made clear there is no equality for me or same gender loving people in denominational law.

Betrayal is a sad, all-too-frequent, human reality. Filmmaker Ava DuVernay, in her documentary 13TH, explores the history of race and the criminal justice system in the United States. The film's title refers to the 13th  Amendment which freed those held in slavery in the U.S. and prohibited slavery except as punishment for a crime. In other words, it granted freedom to all Americans, except criminals.

There's the loophole, written into the 13th Amendment, embedded in the Constitution. It has been used in the historic criminalization of black people and the incarceration patterns that flow from it and the extremist white supremacist activism that leans on it. The betrayal of African-Americans was laid once again in the exception and then entrenched in policies and practices. That’s not equality, that’s criminal!

We, United Methodists, also know the implications of fine print!! As long as homosexuality is defined in our church law as “incompatible with Christian teaching,” elected church representatives will concoct demeaning definitions of same gender loving people, establish harmful unjust policies, and develop practices of enforcement to sustain them. As long as homosexuality is described as “incompatible with Christian teaching,” same-gender loving disciples will be betrayed by the book, the church, its leaders, its systems, its pastors, and its congregations. There is NO EQUALITY as long as it remains.

In Tony Kushner’s script and Steven Spielberg’s movie, Lincoln, Thaddeus Stevens, who is played by Tommy Lee Jones, was part of a concerted radical strategy to get the Thirteenth Amendment passed and thus abolish slavery in the United States in 1865. The radicals of the day strategized to avoid inflammatory questions about racial equality (namely the full-enfranchisement of voting rights for African-Americans). In order to secure much needed moderate and conservative votes, they withheld that position from the discussion. The vigorous debate in the House of Representatives was transcribed in the Congressional Record. With the poetic license of the movie’s author and director, the key moment was captured like this.

Stevens is challenged on the floor of the House to answer the accusation of Representative George Pendleton that supporters of the Thirteenth Amendment believe in equality of African-Americans, slaves and free, in all things including voting. Stevens responds with sarcastic vigor, then thunders at his accuser, “Even you, Mr. Pendleton, deserve equality under the law.” And then to the entire House, “Therefore, again, and again, and again, I say, ‘I do not hold in equality in all things, only equality under the law.’” The House erupts with cheers and jeers.

This speech prompts Mary Todd Lincoln who is observing from the balcony in the House gallery to indicate her concurrence with Steven’s point in a remark to her black dressmaker, Elizabeth Keckley. Keckley abruptly excuses herself and angrily leaves. For Keckley, anything less than equality in all things, was equality with an exception. Both Stevens and Mrs. Lincoln betrayed her that day. History shows us Keckley was right. We, United Methodists, know the same when friends and allies stop short of full inclusion and fall short of justice for queer persons, their families, congregations, and pastors. Despite a variety of lived experiences and a diversity of practice across the connection, especially as you experience it here at Foundry United Methodist Church and among other Reconciling United Methodists, all of us are tempted to excuse ourselves angrily and leave!!!

Yet we stay. And we fight. And we do what some call “Biblical Obedience” which others call “Ecclesial Disobedience and Covenant Breaking.” Today, we, United Methodists are fighting for and about PEOPLE, no dismissive issue! We are fighting about whether LGBTQ+ people should, on the basis of human dignity and worth, have full rights, responsibilities and respect in our church communities. We, lgbtq+ United Methodists, 1) know only second class citizenship as baptized members. We may not marry our loves in our own sanctuaries. 2) We know only diminished access as called leaders and clergy. We are denied lay and clergy leadership roles, OR encouraged to seek our calling elsewhere OR counseled to live in a closet. 3) We know the personal judgmental assault on our humanity and sexuality. We are the topic of debate without participation, the object of punishment without voice.

Yes, we beat our breasts. Yes, we cry out “How long, O Lord?” The book and institution have become an imprisoning force. Where is our Christ?

But our greatest betrayal lies beyond us and is even deeper than our own. For us, we know in our bones and in our spirit, that it is the gospel that the United Methodist denomination has betrayed!

Into this 50 year struggle for United Methodists, especially in our unique historical context in the United States, ancient and Biblical Philemon has given me vision and courage. Despite its brevity, twenty-five verses on a single page of the Bible, this letter is a profoundly human gift in scripture.

When Paul is imprisoned in Ephesus, he is held in custody with Onesimus who becomes more than just another prisoner to Paul. He becomes Paul’s spiritual companion during their shared incarceration which shapes and forms them both. After a time, Paul sends free Onesimus home to Philemon. Now Philemon was the former master of Onesimus who had been enslaved because of indebtedness. Philemon had slammed the door behind Onesimus when he ran away. Upon release from prison, Onesimus was reluctant and afraid to return to that environment. So, Paul writes a letter carried, delivered, and presented by Timothy to Philemon in early faith community in Colossae as a means of re-introduction between Onesimus, Philemon, and the community.

This original letter is relevant today because it brings to the center one who has been marginalized. It is the living expression of marginalized and otherwise invisible Onesimus. In this narrative, he stands bravely, freely, and willingly next to Timothy as the letter is read to the congregation in public meeting. During the reading, Onesimus stands as emissary with the letter and watches the faces of those in the congregation who are cheering or jeering his life and faith. This is not Joseph of the Multi-colored Coat standing alone in prison, sensing the presence of the Holy in quiet, desperate isolation. This is not Paul or Silas together in a jail in Philippi, energized by their activist experience, arrest, and singing. No, this is Onesimus, the freed prisoner, returned runaway, now disciple of Christ who is the lead character in his own proclamation of the gospel.

Here is the gospel in Paul’s answer to inequality: Onesimus. “No longer a slave, but brother.” That’s the Christian answer to inequality. Onesimus. No longer separated, second-class, diminished, or criminalized!

In Christ, each one of us becomes a sibling of Christ in the household of God. In baptism, we are named as Beloved Children of God, siblings to one another. In conversion and confirmation, we claim Christ as our own and are claimed as Christ’s very own. Not equality in all things, EQUALITY IN THIS! Equality in Christ! Freedom and liberation in this Beloved Community!

It is not about the charity, patronage, or inclusiveness of Paul OR the transformation, conversion, repentance of Philemon BUT about the particular person, gifts, graces, call, mission, and ministry of Onesimus! When we see it in our queer selves, when others stand with us, we rise! Not just for our lives and loves, not just for ALL people, but freely for Christ and for the Gospel.

As Galatians 3:28 interprets, “In Christ there is no division, Jew and non-Jew, slave and free, male and female, among us all are equal.” With, in, and through baptism “in Christ”, you are equal to one another within that community. We are no longer under a custodian, but equal!

Philemon, the person, is a perfect test case. As we have seen, Paul sent Onesimus back to Philemon so that Philemon might – that is, must – freely recognize Onesimus by voluntarily fulfilling his own baptismal commitment. Christians cannot be equal and unequal to one another at the same time. Philemon is directed by Paul to live in a completely new kind of relationship with Onesimus in all aspects of their lives. The former habits of their relationship and the power imbalances of it must now change in the house, in the congregation, in the economics of the market, and in the politics of the square.

That’s what the General Conference in February 2019 has before it. When the people called-Methodist and its elected representatives freely recognize the equality granted by Christ to lgbtq+ disciples and voluntarily fulfill their baptismal covenant to them, they will and must remove “the incompatibility” clause! Equality under the law!

As of old, it is still today, with this radical good news. This gospel is so radical that the church at large has as yet refused to pay it any attention.

Therefore, we are called to see ourselves not only as Onesimus but also as privileged and powerful Philemon. There are those among us today and within the United Methodist Church and our Reconciling traditions we do not treat as equal and free. They stand like Onesimus before us. Therefore, we must also face our privilege and power. We are Philemon and have betrayed our own baptismal promises 1) in relationship to women and People of Color, (We have not kept the promises we professed.), 2) in relationship to UM’s from across the continent of Africa in all their diversity (We have minimized their agency, dishonored their faith, and judged the “colonialized” gospel that “we” taught.), and 3) in relationship to lgbtq+ (We have not stopped the harm or held to the full equality and freedom of the gospel we profess.).

For our own integrity and credibility, we are invited to make the necessary changes in ourselves for equality and freedom. Paul calls Philemon to renounce his privilege and be willing to suffer loss, both socially and economically. To give up his rights to collect a debt and punish an estranged runaway slave, Philemon must imitate Christ’s own willingness to give up his equality with God. It is personal, not private. It is a public matter, and everyone is watching.

Which pushes us to the last challenge? We are also called to be Paul who wrote this missive while in prison for the gospel in Rome when he sent Onesimus back with his letter to Philemon. Paul declared freedom for all while in prison. Was Paul in chains because of the gospel or did the gospel itself put Paul in chains? You see even in freedom we are in chains. So the question is, “Has the UMC put us in chains because of the gospel or has the gospel put us in chains because of the UMC?” Will our love of Christ and practice of love and equality toward all persons bring the UMC to constrain us? It may try. Will the UMC constrain us because of our brave commitment to Equality for ALL? It may try. But we stay and bear witness, not for equality in all things, but boldly for EQUALITY in the Gospel. That’s what makes the church whole and that’s the mission of the church. It is about us, because it is about the GOSPEL!

And it’s a pretty good gift for the 23rd anniversary of becoming a Reconciling Congregation. Here’s to another year, and another, and another . . .