Crucified Christ
Unsplash Image by Dawn McDonald
When Jesus had received the wine, he said, “It is finished.” Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. – John 19:30
The Lenten season reaches its peak during Holy Week. Growing up in the Philippines, I remember being excited for this week because it was a school holiday! What I didn’t look forward to is the very long “Seven Last Words” service on Good Friday. It starts at noon and ends around 3PM, depending on how long the sermons are for each of the seven last words spoken by Jesus on the cross. Imagine a fully packed church of 1,000 people with no air conditioning. I remember dozing off for parts of it and waking up when the preacher for the “It is finished” sermon was almost done. I knew at that point we would go home soon.
As an adult, and a gay clergyperson of color appointed to be an organizer for LGBTQ+ inclusion in The United Methodist Church and beyond, I reflect on these words of Jesus on the cross – “It is finished” – and can’t help but think of so much unfinished business we have as the Body of Christ. The martyrdom of Jesus on the cross is an invitation for the Church to emulate his example: to stand up for justice and the least of us, even to the point of giving up his life for what he believed in.
What task or responsibility remains unfinished for us people called United Methodists? What remains undone?
Since 1972, The United Methodist Church has struggled with the full inclusion and affirmation of LGBTQ+ persons in its life and ministry. For over 50 years we have journeyed in the wilderness of sexism, homophobia, and transphobia. For a church whose first General Rule is to “do no harm” we have exacerbated the pain and exclusion of many of God’s children because of who they are and who they love. We have punished and banished persons who sought to minister to them. Many of our sanctuaries remain unsafe places for LGBTQ+ people of faith seeking refuge from a world that continues to discriminate against them and their loved ones. This has to stop. We have to fulfill our baptismal vows and end the harm and discrimination against my queer community and our allies. When can we finally say “It is finished”?
criFor those who support LGBTQ+ justice, we have more work to finish, even beyond removing all language in the UMC’s Book of Discipline that discriminates against LGBTQ+ persons. We cannot stop there because justice work is intersectional, and our struggle is against systems of oppression in which dismination based on sexual orientation, identity, and expression is just one head of this evil hydra. We need congregations to discern how they can truly open their doors to ALL God’s children.
Every time I wake up and look at myself in the mirror, I am reminded that some things will always be true: I am gay. I am an immigrant. I am a person of color. I have chronic health concerns that are unseen disabilities. These will not change. These cannot be separated. These identities make up who I am and the discrimination I continue to face. The church cannot say it only loves a part of me for I am created whole in God’s image. Radical love requires that we engage at the intersections of injustice toward liberation and affirmation. Racism and its attendant evils such as colonialism and occupation, war, and economic oppression are all unfinished business for our denomination.
When delegates to our General Conference gather next month in Charlotte, we have a historic opportunity to start getting things done – wrapping up some of our unfinished business. We can restructure our polity and create one that sheds colonial ways of being in relationships between the diverse regions of the church. We should pass and ratify Worldwide Regionalization. We will have the chance to approve a revision of our Social Principles that are more attuned to our present-day contexts. This revision is the fruit of over 4,000 United Methodists across our church working together to proclaim that we stand for justice and peace and seek God’s kindom here on earth.
I pray that at the closing of General Conference, we can declare “It is finished” and continue to seek justice and celebrate our own Easter, our own resurrection, as The United Methodist Church. Then the hard work of living into the decisions we make begins.
Izzy Alvaran 2023
The Rev. Dr. Israel (Izzy) Alvaran (Courtesy Photo)
The Rev. Dr. Izzy Alvaran is a United Methodist elder from the Philippines Annual Conference. He is a resident of Berkeley, Calif., and currently appointed to serve as an organizer for Reconciling Ministries Network.