God the Nonbinary
Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting
Pastor Bob Henry
June 5, 2022
Palms 139:1-18 (New Revised Standard Version)
You have searched me, Lord,
and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue
you, Lord, know it completely.
You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
How vast is the sum of them!
Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand—
when I awake, I am still with you.
Wednesday, June 1st marked the beginning of Pride Month and this morning, I want us to focus on what that means for us at First Friends. We are blessed to have many in our midst who identify as part of the LGBTQIA+ Community and find this place welcoming and their spiritual home. As well, many of us are parents, grandparents, siblings, friends, and relatives trying hard to create welcoming opportunities for those we know in the LGBTQIA+ community.
I will never forget my first day on the job at First Friends. Sue, Sam, and I attended Shawn and Brett’s wedding – the first same-sex marriage to take place in this Meetinghouse. That day I knew, with standing room only, that First Friends had opened the doors and their hearts to the LGBTQIA+ community.
Over the last several months when I have had the privilege to attend the New Attender Dinners put on by Connections, that openness has been clearly affirmed by those attending who are looking for a church. I just heard last week several of our new people exclaiming this is why they are at First Friends, and that makes me happy that we are communicating this welcoming spirit.
Now, please understand, this does not mean we at First Friends have this all figured out, and that on occasion we may stumble, or need to learn more. You and I must see this as an ongoing and evolving subject covered with a lot of humility. And that means every so often we are going to need some reminders, teachings, or even specific days to celebrate ALL of God’s family.
That is why this morning, I am considering this Pride Sunday, even though as Quakers we consider all days the same, it seems important to embrace our LGBTQIA+ Friends and Family and take a moment to teach more about it.
To focus our attention today, I am going to take a slightly different approach, not a political, social, or even activist approach – but rather as a pastor, I am going to take what comes natural – a biblical approach (or maybe I should say a “God approach”). Either way, I think the approach will include some fresh, new ideas for us to ponder.
As I was preparing this message, I came across a teaching by Rev. Whitney Bruno of the United Church of Canada. As I read and then listened to his words – the teaching seemed almost poetic and prophetic in nature. Rev. Bruno took me back to the Genesis story of creation to emphasize something I had not considered – that being the non-binary nature of God.
Not only did it open my eyes to things I had never noticed, but it also gave me a new appreciation for the great diversity that God embraces and uses to create in our world.
So, with a little help from Rev. Bruno, this morning let’s go back to the beginning, when God was creating the heavens and the earth – as in ALL that is above, and ALL that is below. ALL things.
The scriptures say that in the very beginning the Spirit of God, the wind of God, danced over the waters and God spoke – God sang – God created with a word – word and deed being one – and there was light.
God judged this new creation.
God declared it good.
Not perfect.
Not unchangeable.
Not immutable. But GOOD.
And God created more.
Now from light and darkness.
Now naming these things.
Now time itself.
You and I have heard this beautiful, wonderful, story. We know how plants and animals, waters and mountains, birds and fish are called into being by God.
But it makes one wonder, when did God make dawn and dusk? Have you ever thought about that?
It’s not specifically named, but we assume dawn and dusk are there, on that first day of creation, since light and dark, day and night, are made.
What I find interesting is that by naming opposites, a storyteller can say they include everything.
Rev. Bruno points out that, we know when Amazon offers everything A to Z, it means they also offer items beginning with BCD and WXY and all the other items that begin with the other letters in between.
When God declares “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End” We know that means God is also in the in-between times. The now times. The present.
When scripture says God made day and night, we know that means God also made the hours between day and night.
Do you see where Rev. Bruno is leading us with this thought process?
When God made humans male and female… doesn’t that mean God also made all humans who are the shades between male and female?
We in our American culture want nice, neat categories from “Macho Men” to “Dainty Ladies.” But like with many other things, we can’t put everyone in just two categories. There are all kinds of people or as Rev. Bruno states – all different shades between male and female.
So, I am going to make a logical, but also important claim. I believe opposites are named to affirm a God that includes and makes, ALL.
And to us, human creatures, is gifted the image of God (the Imago Dei). This is not just an image, but a form. The form of God.
What is this form? Rev. Bruno says it is creativity.
You and I are being called to take part in creating the wealth of plants and animals and life.
We are gardeners. From Eden to all the earth.
We are stewards. Being wise, just, gentle, and faithful stewards of the many lives we are entrusted to by God.
What is the image of God within us? It is power…SHARED.
Creativity to make good and very good things.
It is relationships and that means it is also Love.
When God sees all of this… the opposites and all the in-between, the diversity on land, in the air, and in the ocean, and in the ground, and even in space… God over and over declares it VERY good in the scriptures.
This means that if we look really close in Genesis, we hear of a God who won’t settle for two – who won’t settle for binaries.
Instead, we hear of a God who wants every hue of color between dark and light; every creature between germ and killer whale; every human diversity between and including male and female.
Rev. Bruno then turns to the quintessential aspect of this passage from chapter 2 – that being Adam and Eve.
The story is told over and over, and this time, God makes “adamah” – the Jewish word for dust, soil, dirt.
This living dirt is lonely, and needs a co-worker. Much like God wanted a co-creator.
But the living dirt turns down every other living thing God makes and brings before it.
Finally, God separates the living dirt into two living dirts – and now, with something in its own image, the living dirt is happy.
Hawwa in Hebrew, Eve in English means breath and Adam means dirt, and combined breath and dirt make life.
This is a way of explaining how we live. We are dirt and breath combined. Breath or Spirit and the dust of the cosmos that is who we are.
· Nowhere is this a story saying who can, or cannot, get married.
· Nowhere is this a ranking of love from pure to impure.
· Nowhere is this a statement that *only* men who romantically love women, and women who romantically love men are correct.
No, this is actually a story about where we come from – God.
Who we look like — all of us — God.
Rev. Bruno says, “This is a story that we are made with intrinsic value. That we each matter. That we are worth love. Worth a good life. Worth belonging to community. Worth loving relationships. Worth shelter, food, water, health care, education, and security. We are worthy of being part of this very good creation.
This is a story about the common lot of being human. The common thread, common condition, of finding ourselves in the surprising state of being alive as us. As humans.
Why are we here? What are we supposed to do?
To create. To live together. To be good stewards. To make community.
So again, this is a story about how we are made…” which the Psalmist in our text for this morning sums up even better, he says, we are “…fearfully and wonderfully made. Knitted in our mother’s wombs, woven out of that living dirt from the depths of the earth” — those same molecules and atoms and star dust God has been breathing life into for trillions of years — and seen by God before even fully formed.
We are made with God hemming us in – being around us on all sides. Above and below. Behind and before. And all those other areas between the opposites.
Genesis is a story of how our God, who transcends gender and sexuality and IS all genders and sexualities, makes us just who we are.
Straight.
Bisexual.
Homosexual.
Asexual.
And more.
Intersexed.
Female.
Male.
Transgender.
And more.
Gay.
Lesbian.
Feminine.
Masculine.
And more.
Hemmed around on all sides, we are surrounded by the Divine who calls us, as we are wonderfully made, part of this very good earth.
Such knowledge is too wonderful not to proclaim. Our minds cannot fathom the depths of all the colors of the rainbow; nor the breadth of all the life forms on earth; nor the depth of the stars and distant galaxies.
We simply must say… how wonderful.
So today as we ponder all that God has created, the many varieties of people, plants and animals surrounding us, let us not look with binary eyes, but rather with the beautifully diverse, multifaceted, and creative eyes of the God within each of us. And just maybe we will see, acknowledge, and affirm ALL the Friends of God around us.
As we enter waiting worship, take a moment to ponder the following queries:
· In what ways am I too binary in my view of others?
· How might I more deeply see with the diverse, multifaceted, and creative eyes of God?