"They" are Here: The Coming Out of Christ

Good morning, Riverside. Now I am from Texas, if they have told

you, and I'm a recovering Baptist, so I'm gonna try this again.

Good morning, Riverside, there we go. Thank you again for this this

moment, to minister to you, and to this wonderful music ministry that has

just blessed my soul this morning, and to Reverent Thorne in her absence,

and to our foot warriors who are taking their prayers down to the parade to

represent Riverside this morning. To all of you, A hearty thank you and

a God bless you from my grandmother who is here in spirit this morning,

Miss Lizzie, May I come to you bringing you greetings from my family,

from myself, from Union Theological Seminary Center for Community Engagement and Social Justice,

and from all of the spiritual leaders and teachers and guides and ancestors who have

propelled me to this moment. Good morning, welcome, and I greet you

with Jesus Joy. Now I did say I'm a recovering Baptist, and so

I've been practicing. I won't hold you long. Some of y'all get fat.

Another recovering Baptist. Let us pray Dear God, remove me out of

the way and let them hear your words. You control the hearts and minds

of men and women. Let them feel you. Let your word go in

and transform, renew and restore. Now, God, let the words of

my mouth and the meditations of my heart be wholly and acceptable in thy sight.

O Lord, my Strength and my Redeemer, let us all say amen.

Good morning, online community. I come to you with a word today

because on this Pride Sunday, people are gathering to celebrate rightfully. So they've

come to celebrate their going down to the parade. Some are already there to

see Billy Porter kick off the parade this morning, Minister Billy Porter. They

are going to go to brunch after this message, of course, to break

bread and have wine. And some will celebrate from the comfort or the isolation

of their own homes today for this Pride Sunday, some as allies who are

in relationship and cooperation while affirming and sometimes acting on behalf of the LGBTQ plus

community, are celebrating this Pride Sunday. Guests, we're celebrating, and no

matter how diverse the celebration, the one thing we all have in common is

suffering in the midst of our joy. Yeah, we're all familiar pride born

out of the resistance to oppression of police brutality. These declarations today live as

a proclamation of life, as God has made us of radical joy to the

world. In the midst of our joy? Is this suffering? And we

all know about suffering? For the Supreme Court is set to decide this term

on affirmative action. We all know about suffering. As some are worried about

the weight of student loan repayments are they are set to resume very soon.

We all know suffering because brown and black bodies are still being criminalized. Teachers

are not being paid a salary commissary to the work they do. Writers are

on strike for a decent way. Women do not have equal pay. Still,

black women are still carrying the weight of families and communities. More than

four hundred pieces of anti drag and trans legislation have been proposed around the country.

Black trans women are being murdered at alarming rates. Black trans women are

being murdered at alarming rates. Inflation is high, salaries are low, rent

is up, hearts are broken, and if I'm being honest, our mental

health is touch and go. Moment to moment. We're doing the best we

can, but it leads some of us to ask the question, where is

God? Why have they forsaken us here in this place? Where is God?

Well, I'll wait. I'm happy to wait for the answer from God

as we say, I got time today? Where is God? I'm glad

you asked, because I've stopped by riverside this morning, on this Pride Sunday

in New York City, to do three things, to anoint you, to

do something for God, to prophesy to you, to bring light into the

darkness, and to prepare you for the transition and the service and the joy,

because we all need a little joy. I've come to you with the

word from the Lord, with an answer to your question where is God?

To give you these three words that I heard, they are here here in

Isaiah sixty one eleven. The text was written at a time when Israel had

experienced a tumultuous period of political upheaval, foreign invaders, and eventually exile.

We all know a little something about political upheople When the rules of engagement and

elections are tossed out for one's personal game, when the facts are replaced with

fake news and tyranny Trump's democracy. And we know stuff about foreign invaders as

well. We've witnessed foreign invaders, not just an insurrection at our nation's capital,

but those who have infiltrated our governments with the sole purpose of making whiteness

supreme. Yet we know about political evil and these foreign invaders, and all

of this is exiled so many of us. It has created other and criminalized,

criminalized them, legislated women's bodies, and has created nearly a centuries long

campaign against the LGBTQ plus community. It has told us that we are not

worthy, We are not worthy to be in society, kicked out of society,

out of the center, and marginalized, pushed to the margins. Oh,

yes, we are familiar. And this is where our text finds the

Israelites, who were an oppressed community, marginalized, pushed from the center,

exile to Babylon. And they too were asking where is God? Why has

God forsaken us to be under the rule of these people? And God heard

them and sent a message, a message from the Lord, a prophecy.

And see, the Israelites were familiar with prophecies and profits they relied on them

for warnings, for divine messages, and for hope, for the good news,

as we like to call it. You see, the good news challenges

the status quo. It disrupts a system that would have you here only what

is bad in the world. You've watched the news because it seeks to show

us only the killing and the stilling, and the calamity and the destruction in

the world. It seeks to instill fear and a sense of lack within all

of us. It seeks to make the hopeless hope even less. That's what

it does because it knows that hope is dangerous if it's used right. Hope

is dangerous. Remember, Second Corinthians ten four tells us that the weapons of

our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God for the pulling down of strongholds.

Yes, hope as a weapon, as a weapon that the prophets can

use, not because we have power or that we have money, and not

because we seek to be a threat, but just hope. Hope in itself

is a weapon that prophets can use because it invites you, all of you,

to re evaluate your allegiance to the status quo, so to the anointing

this morning anointing. Now I'm reading the King James version, and I asked

them to print the King James version for a specific reason, because we are

here on Pride Sunday, and as known in all of the text as the

most prominent homosexual of his day. King James translated these texts and set in

the room with the translators and said, I like that, but I don't

like that. So I thought it was only apropos on Pride Sunday to read

the words of a out and proud King James now to anoint us to set

apart, to set apart by God, to do something for God. And

I am asking you today to be an ambassador for God, to set yourselves

apart, accept this anointing and do something for God. Because Jesus even said

the same text, the spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord

hath anointed me. And I tell you the spirit of the Lord, if

you will receive it today, is upon you because the Lord is anointing each

of you. That's what Jesus read and looked for. And this spirit that

is descending upon you, as John says, like a dove, soft,

comforting, peaceful, This is the feminine spirit. This is a male body

Jesus with the feminine spirit descending upon him. As other traditions called two spirited

and as part of the original African worship call one worship. That's why we

call it one God, two spirits in one working collaboratively, collaboratively together.

This is the one God, the one worship, the two becoming one.

It's an old English word called by union. We don't use it much anymore,

but we use non binary and non gender conforming. But this is what

Jesus is talking about, both the male and the female working together for God

to do something for God. But there's a responsibility with this anointing because when

the spirit comes upon you and two are working as one, they come together

to serve. And the responsibility I'm asking you to take upon this morning,

it's to buying the broken hearted. See the text don't say much about gender

and sexuality, but in this day, it was the women in the LGBTQ

plus community that were marginalized in a marginalized society, just as today, and

so their hearts were broken to be in a community with people who were also

being oppressed, but to have their friends and family members also say a man

when a pastor says you're an abomination that breaks hearts. It was the women

who sat there when and were told that you had to be silent and do

what a man tells you to do. And you know that God has a

word in your heart and a calling on your life, but you have to

submit that breaks hearts. So your first task is to buying up the broken

hearted. And then your second task is to proclaim freedom to the captives,

because there are many men and women serving virtual life sentences in jail for marijuana

that is now legal, but they still are serving life sentences because no one

has come to proclaim freedom for them. So I ask you to also proclaim

freedom this morning to the captives. Third, I ask you to release prisoners

from darkness. Darkness is what the israel Lights often referred to as sin,

but not sin in your actions, but sin is to be without the absence

of love. So to insert some love into this world, to release the

prisoners of darkness into the marvelous light of love. And forth, I ask

that you comfort those who mourn, because mourning allows us to release energy that

is necessary part of our mental health. And I told you it's already touch

and go out here. But we don't want to just get stuck in the

anger stage of grief. We want to mourn, to complete the fullness of

it so that we can continue to help others. We want to be able

to let go of that energy of watching a man put his neck on George

Floyd's neck. We want to release that energy of police brutality. We want

to release that memory of having people stepped over in this city because they were

gay and had gay disease or HIV or AIDS, and so we let people

die because Reagan would even say the word. We want to release that because

it still lives inside. We want to release being locked down in our own

homes, not being able to have funerals for our family members during a global

pandemic. It still resides, and we have yet to have a collective mourning.

So this morning, I'm asking you to do something for God. Be

God in the world, help those who mourn, and they God has promised

us in this text that they will transform our suffering, giving us beauty for

those burned out ashes, the oil of joy for our morning, the garment

of praise for a spirit of heaviness. And it says that they will call

us trees of righteousness, trees of righteousness because we are doing something good for

God. We have taken on the role of the Bayoune, the two spirits

working collaborative, collaboratively together for God. Because when this spirit comes together,

it comes to serve. So your next thing you do with this anointing is

that you serve. You bind up the broken hearted, You proclaim the freedom

to the captives, you release the prisoners from darkness, and you comfort those

who mourn. Because this service is what you are anointed for. So I

tell you that today God is looking for a few good theys not He's not,

she's not singular. I can save. I'm the ruler. But these

working together collaboratively. Are you looking for a few good things? Because the

world is. And let me tell you this is a job you want to

sign up for because the benefits are good. There's a competitive salary. You

have full, unfettered access to the kingdom where we'll feast on milk and honey.

No more dark clouds. Everyday sunny is what the text says. You

have remote work options. You can work from anywhere in the world as an

ambassador for God. You have good healthcare, good healthcare, because Jesus says

I come that you may have life and life more abundant. You have mental

health support because he says, my peace I leave with you, you will

have perfect peace. And for those of you who didn't go to get your

associates or doctor or masters or even your ged there is no degree require this

morning, because it is O jt is My uncle Zach would say, on

the job training. As you move about the world on your remote work and

your peace and your good benefits, you will learn what you need to do

in the moment, speaking to the conditions of this moment. And the best

benefit all is that there's profit sharing. The joy is contagious. The joy

you pass on, the peace you give to others, they pass on to

others, creating the joy and the world. So I don't know if you

heard me, but God is looking for a few good things. Our scriptures

tells us that in verse ten and eleven, I will greatly rejoice in the

Lord. My soul shall be joyful in God. He has clothed me with

the garments of salvation. He has covered me with the robe of righteousness,

as a bridegroom decketh himself in ornaments, and as a bride adorn herself with

jewels. Don't he look good to serve God? For the earth bringeth forth

her bud and the garden causes things that are sown to spring forth. Causes

things that are sown to spring forth. I'm sowing into you this morning that

you will spring forth joy this morning, so that the Lord God will cause

righteousness and praise to spring forth in all the nations. Do something for God

today, Accept your anointing, Walk in your joy. Come out of the

closet of oppression as Christ, the bioume, the male boded and female spirited,

both working together, collaborative, collaboratively for God. This morning. Do

something for God. Show up so that the world may see your true colors

shining through. Show up so that righteousness will reign amidst a world of suffering.

Do it for God. Usher in the kingdom, so that your walls

shall be called salvation and your gates shall be called praise. Do it for

God, be ye anointed this morning. This is why when Jesus proclaimed this

word, I imagine that he set I can sort of crossed his leg like

I said that. But he did it with the full knowledge knowing that the

Kingdom is at hand. What did that mean? He said, because the

ambassadors of God, the full representation of God on earth is here. And

where God is, there is love. This is why Jesus proclaimed that,

This is why the kingdom is at hand, and this is why the scripture,

he said, is fulfilled this day. Because if we were to all

be honest, we all want to go to heaven. And some says to

see our loved ones, some says to walk the streets of gold. But

if we were to be honest, we want to go to heaven because of

the fullness and unencumbered presence of love. You are that, as ambassadors of

God in the world, the presence of love that those suffering need to have

this morning, So do it. Do it for God. And like Jesus

and Isaiah were prophesying to an impressed and suffering and marginalized people, these three

words I say to you, they are here.