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In the groundbreaking documentary 1946: The Mistranslation that Shifted Culture, filmmaker Sharon “Rocky” Roggio tells the story of how a single mistranslation of the Bible steered religious and cultural attitudes towards LGBTQ people that would persist for decades. The word “homosexual” did not appear in any English-language Bible until the 1946 Revised Standard Version (RSV). In this translation, 1 Corinthians 6:9 was edited to include the term, conflating two Greek words which more accurately referred to exploitative relationships and abusive behaviors rather than consensual same-sex relationships. Biblical scholars from the renowned Yale University were among those who worked on the translation, an attempt at the time to make the language of the Bible more accessible. What happened was the translation became a platform for condemnation of LGBTQ people, policy makers particularly in the United States using the text to marginalize and exclude lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people from public and religious institutions. 

It was a seminary student who in 1959 wrote a letter to the editors claiming that the addition of the word “homosexual” was “not rooted in historical or linguistic accuracy but rather in the cultural biases of the time.” Scholars responded acknowledging the error; theologians and advocates have worked tirelessly ever since to correct the record, to restore the original intent of the biblical passage, and to return LGBTQ persons to their rightful place in civic and religious life.

I am mindful, as are you, perhaps, of the many examples of scripture pulled out of context to discriminate against LGBTQ communities, propping up anti-gay doctrine. For a long while in my young adult years, I could hardly open the bible without coming across a passage that had been used at some point in some sermon to denounce gay people. My teen years in non-denominational and Anglican churches both formed me for ministry and left me with some heavy work undoing, deconstructing the harmful theologies that shaped my understanding of my own queer identity and those of other queer people. I can tell you that even to this day, when I hear the passage from Colossians which David read for us this morning, the words: “Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry). On account of these the wrath of God is coming on those who are disobedient. These are the ways you also once followed, when you were living that life” . . . that these words, instead of inspiring love for God and neighbour, initially spark fear. “When you were living that life” was and is for some Christians a clear reference to “the gay lifestyle”. Those who are obedient, who wish to avoid God’s wrath, will leave it behind. 

I chuckle now that I’ve been with my partner for over a decade and “out” as a queer woman for a little longer than that. The “gay lifestyle” is largely not what fundamentalists and anti-gay pundits have in mind. Don't get me wrong, it is passion and desire and outrageous fun. It's also synching calendars with your partner to make sure someone remembers to buy groceries. It's caring for your parents. It's caring for each other in really quite mundane, ordinary ways. I asked Andi's permission to share the story I'm about to share. She said "yes" and, "Are you sure you want to share that with your congregation?" And I told her yes, they need to know just how ordinary our lives really are! So, here it is: the other day, I asked Andi if she would help me apply some wart ointment to a hard to reach spot on my shoulder. She obliged, but after a few moments trying to apply the treatment I turned around to see that she had mistakenly grabbed my nasal spray. We fell into a fit of laughter! That’s really what the “gay lifestyle” is about most of the time: mistaking nasal spray for wart ointment (and hopefully not the other way round) and having the person you love dearly there to witness it.

So, yes, scripture is hard to read sometimes, and yes, there are verses that are used out of context to tear down and destroy. Scripture has for me, and I know for countless gay people, also been a source of enormous comfort and strength. In that same passage from Colossians is the line, “your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.” This for me is and has always been a promise that at the end of the day, Christians worship God who can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine. Queer lives, if they are hidden, are hidden ultimately with Christ who came to bring life and light into the dark and hidden places of our world.

Speaking of hidden places, one of my favourite childhood memories is when my mum would read to us from C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. The hours I spent building forts and portals to other worlds in my own bedroom closet was inspired in large part by Lucy Pevensie exploring her family’s new country house during a game of hide and seek only to stumble through a wardrobe filled with exquisite furs into the snowy wood of Narnia. Narnia, as you know if you’ve read the books, is filled with all kinds of adventure: Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy joining forces with the noble lion Aslan to defeat the evil White Witch. After a climactic battle and Aslan’s sacrifice and resurrection, the children become Kings and Queens of Narnia, bringing peace to the land. When it came time to consider my own hiding places, my own closet with respect to gender and sexual identity, thank goodness for C.S. Lewis’ imagining of the wardrobe as passageway. 

To you who have been allies to friends and family finding their way into their queer identity, those of you who have held back the exquisite furs in our closets so that we might find that passageway, today I want to say, “thank you.” To our queer elders who blazed a trail, paved that passageway, wore the exquisite furs out of the closet so that we would know it was okay for us to wear them, too, we owe you our very lives. And, for you who find yourself this day trapped in a closet, afraid and alone, my prayer is that your closet will be transformed into a portal to another world, where your life is hidden not with shame and condemnation, but with Christ whose love, in the end, really does win. Amen.