Drag as a Balm for the Soul

For a year and a half I have been exploring this text, After Jesus Before Christianity. Studying Mary Magdalene brought me from one researcher to another and I found this text about the early Christians that was lively and engaging and not just for…academic nerds.

The first point, which might be as shocking as it is essential, is that they weren’t really Christians, not like we are anyway. The truth is the word Christian isn’t really used much in the 200 years after Jesus, and when it is; it’s mostly used by Roman bureaucrats trying to figure out if they are torturing ‘Christians’ enough to satisfy the Emperor.

While a few may have used Christian, language expressing belief in Jesus as Christ, they are not a monolithic group with a creed. They are small clubs and house churches and groups mostly trying to survive in the Roman world. They self described as followers of the way, students of the way and language connecting to Anointing of Jesus as anointed one. Anointing was a central ritual of healing and value and love. Anointing was how Israel made someone a king but Rome DOES NOT anoint an emperor. So saying you are a community following the anointed puts you in with the troublesome folks Roman has always struggled to subdue in Israel; particularly Judea and Galilee.

Some small groups identified as Enslaved of God. Which sounds super awful to our ears but it was their name and their context involved a pervasive Roman campaign to conquer, oppress and enslave people near and far. Enslaved by God means you reject enslavement by Rome.

Roman violence and oppression can not be understated. And resistance is central to the identity of the early folks following Jesus. Rome ravages the world as far as they could stretch, stealing wealth and capital and culture. Rome may have begun as a beautiful Republic, holding some elements of democracy but it grows into a grotesque Empire. They have the same strategies of every empire, starting with trade and eventual total domination by force and threat. In the Roman world you are either Roman or not and if you are not, your humanity isn’t acknowledged. And when you are not human, its pretty easy for folks to torture, terrorize, starve and steal your dwelling. The empire conquers and then enslaves as a strategy; taking peoples from one territory to another, where they can’t resist as easily and can’t heal from their trauma. They are famous for their violence and they make monuments to it. In the Roman forum yet today, you can see an arch of triumph celebrating the destruction of Jerusalem and the looting of the temple. The Colosseum that Rome, yet today, attracts thousands to see was built by enslaved people brought from Jerusalem. Rome stretched north into Germanic, Celtic and Britannia tribes and when they subdued them they built monumental art, depicting Rome as a man assaulting a feminine Britannia. They rained terror and starvation, they taxed people into poverty and built walls to keep the ‘barbarians’ out.

Which is to say, as clearly as I can, Rome is terrible and they love being terrible so much they make monuments to celebrate how terrible they are. And the early followers of Jesus are just trying to survive. It’s this terror that motivates Jesus.

That’s why Paul writes to the Corinthians:

But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies. For while we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you. - 2 Corinthians 4: 7-12

They resist Rome but not by playing their game.

They are wise as serpents and gentle as doves, they are creative and funny. That's right they have fun and we miss it because we don’t really know what is hilarious in the ancient Mediterranean world but also because we have made faith so NOT FUN. They gather and share and laugh, sing and cry. They share food, to resist Rome’s starvation. They gather to heal because healing should cost you an arm and a leg. They gather to share money to meet real needs rather than holding on tightly for themselves. They gather to tell stories of courage, past and present, so when they face their own Goliath they know they are not alone.

They do not gather to write a creed, make a strategic plan or build a marble sanctuary but rather to find delight and practice life despite every reason to despair. That’s the faith we inherit. It’s not about branding or buildings or fog machines, it's about noticing people's needs and caring for one another. Jesus said he came that all might have life abundant and the folks that followed him were not waiting for someday, they were doing it.

The past six months of the Nebraska Unicameral has been heartbreaking. It was a blitz of bad bills and we watched people share their stories of harm and hurt. We organized with clergy and physicians and non-profits and even the chamber of commerce to oppose these bills. We watched doctors and world class medical organizations be dismissed and most achingly of all, we watched people tell their stories of personal heartbreak, terror, harm and hurt. Some of us in this Abbey told our stories and it didn’t seem to matter. We sang and chanted and prayed in the rotunda and the powerful rolled right over the vulnerable.

We here in this Church, this Abbey, are not new to protests and name calling. We have been protested and I have been called a witch but this session with the bill to make our story time illegal, the threat to our work was amplified. Our names, our sanctuary and our safety were threatened with death and destruction.

They want us to be silent and ashamed, they want us to be too afraid to keep going, they want to remind us we are little and to know our place. And to be honest it seemed like an option. Would anyone want to work here? Would anyone come to church here? Would people even want to get coffee here? Were the years of work, hard work going to end because of emails from a Russian Server? It was as overwhelming as it was incomprehensible.

And yet, we received so much love. And yet we gathered; to laugh and cry and work through trauma with the help of healers in the mental health field. The largest church in our Conference, Church of the Resurrection, sent us 1,000 dollars without a single string attached. They paid for our first five weeks of security and they did it knowing what it feels like to receive a bomb threat. We raised 50,000 dollars and our District Superintendents sent us a grant because they know we will grow into this new budget expense but it won’t be right away.

Last week Methodists from across the Great Plains Conference (Kansas and Nebraska) gathered in Omaha. And one of my most favorite Pastors sent me a little email with the spark of an idea, could they help us host a drag story hour as a way to start the conference? I responded, “Are you sure?” The Mercy and Justice team wanted to be in solidity with our work. So I asked Ms. Polly Pockets and she said yes…but wondered ‘would Pastors really come?’

They came, 40 registered but more and more and more came and they brought their kids and filled the room to overflowing and they loved it. We laughed as two gay bunnies got married and voted the “stink bug” out of office. Lunch came and it was like loaves and fishes all over again. They loved the stories and the readers and we shared the stories of how we have met hate with resilience; choirs of ukuleles, fundraising campaigns and a particularly amazing Glenda the Good Witch costume made just for me. As the room cleared and the 12 boxes of leftover sandwiches were packed into the fridge, I headed out to the start of the meeting thinking that was fun and it was nice that people came.

But all week long, my clergy colleagues pulled me aside, “That was spiritual.” It seemed weird at first. Was it spiritual? That was the most spiritual beginning to the conference they had ever had. They named something I knew but had not fully articulated as spiritual. It was the joy in the face of violent threats. It was delight and laughter that the world needs and they found it spiritual.

Our spiritual life at the Abbey is filled with joy, delight and laughter and that is the only way we continue through the struggles. We are a hub for resilience because we can make space to laugh just as much as cry. Every time someone tries to set us back, threaten or silence us, we find a way to laugh, sing and cry and heal. A Children’s story is powerful and brilliantly subversive on its own but sprinkle in a Drag Queen and it’s medicine for a hate-filled world. It’s a balm for the soul.

This Faith is a practice, not a test or academic trick. This faith means trying and failing and making changes and getting back up. This faith is the story of beautiful weirdos; insiders and outsiders, gathering to break bread and share what they have with each other when there is every reason to fear.

The road ahead may be a challenge. Bills passed that will hurt our community. And more bills will be brought next year. These bills made extremists seem legitimate. Until everyone is converted from violence, force and domination, we will face this potential harm.

But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies. - 2 Corinthians 4: 7-11

May we have the courage, Amen.