Jesus said, "Take away the stone." – John 11:39
This past Sunday, many of us celebrated the Autumn Triduum of All Hallows, All Saints, and All Souls. The veil between the living and the dead is thin in these days, and we are grateful for that great cloud of witnesses who stand here beside us, as some of our All Saints litanies repeated. We need the strength of that communal cloud as election day unfolds across the United States today.
As trans and nonbinary people, together with our closest companions, today’s election feels especially fraught and downright dangerous for our community. Truly, the stakes have never been higher. We have watched, grieved, and raged as at least 662 pieces of anti-trans legislation have been filed in this country thus far in 2024. These efforts seek to take away our access to gender affirming care and constrain our bodily autonomy; to block our legal protections and our ability to change our legal documents; to erode our access to education and to gender specific activities and spaces in educational settings; to increasingly erase us from public life.
The Trump presidential campaign has also exploited anti-trans sentiment in the electorate with an advertising campaign that is viciously transphobic and trans misogynistic. Just yesterday the Daily Podcast discussed this strategy in an analysis of both major party campaigns’ advertising. Sporting events broadcast on live TV have been a favorite venue for these commercials. We grieve this dehumanization and exploitation of trans people for political gain. It is a pattern of political violence that has built over several years and is now surging, as the Trans Legislation Tracker documents. Regardless of the election results, we recognize that this pattern of rhetorical and legislative violence against trans people is a deathly strategy that will continue.
In the gospel passage assigned for the Feast of All Saints this year, we heard a portion of the raising of Lazarus (John 11:32-44). The scene is one of grief, anger, stench, and decay out of which a new chapter begins to emerge. Jesus stands with Mary and Martha outside the tomb and tells the crowd to roll away the stone. It seems ill-advised. What could possibly emerge but more death, given all that had already unfolded? And death does emerge at first. Lazarus, whom Jesus had called to “come out” (our queered ears appreciate), is still “the dead man.” He remains bound by grave clothes. As our new Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe preached at his investiture on Saturday, Lazarus needed the community to “unbind him and let him go,” which is exactly what Jesus called them to do.
In a very real sense, the political rhetoric has left us for dead, treating us as things and not people. In the Lazarus story, it is indeed God who raises Lazarus from the dead, but humans who are given the task of rolling away the stone and unbinding him. We put our trust in our liberating God who, as the womanist theologians say, makes a way out of no way, but we call upon those who would aspire to be allies to actively seek out opportunities to roll away the stones and unbind those of us rhetorically (and sometimes far worse than rhetorically) slain by policy and discourse.
We pray that this election will help roll back and unbind obscene oppression stoked against so many marginalized communities in this country – immigrants, Black and Brown people, women, poor people, incarcerated people, trans and nonbinary people, including and especially in intersectional combination. We do not imagine that the violence against these communities will stop on a dime, regardless of election results. In the meantime, we long for the Word of life to meet us where we are, to begin to lead us forward, collectively unwinding the structures of death. As Presiding Bishop Rowe imagined, “we will stand together, sometimes afraid, sometimes bewildered, looking for life, hoping for wholeness in all things.”
To do just that, next Monday, November 11 we will hold a Zoom space for trans and nonbinary people and our allies, to gather in prayer and support, to begin to process what results of this election are known to us at that point. We will hold the space from 5:30-7 PM pacific / 8:30-10 PM eastern. You can register to attend here.
We also encourage you to access the emerging spaces around the church that are affirming and equipping our lives, such as the Gender Justice Jam series organized by Aaron Scott, the Gender Justice Officer for the Episcopal Church (which Episcopal News Service reported on today). Its next session will take place right before ours. We are inspired by the rich offerings and communal support being shared in that space.
Another opportunity is coming this evening, as the Episcopal Public Policy Network will host a virtual space for prayer from 5-7 PM pacific / 8-10 PM eastern, led by leaders from around the church, including our own steering committee member Sarah Lawton.
Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Today that charge is our prayer.
This past Sunday, many of us celebrated the Autumn Triduum of All Hallows, All Saints, and All Souls. The veil between the living and the dead is thin in these days, and we are grateful for that great cloud of witnesses who stand here beside us, as some of our All Saints litanies repeated. We need the strength of that communal cloud as election day unfolds across the United States today.
As trans and nonbinary people, together with our closest companions, today’s election feels especially fraught and downright dangerous for our community. Truly, the stakes have never been higher. We have watched, grieved, and raged as at least 662 pieces of anti-trans legislation have been filed in this country thus far in 2024. These efforts seek to take away our access to gender affirming care and constrain our bodily autonomy; to block our legal protections and our ability to change our legal documents; to erode our access to education and to gender specific activities and spaces in educational settings; to increasingly erase us from public life.
The Trump presidential campaign has also exploited anti-trans sentiment in the electorate with an advertising campaign that is viciously transphobic and trans misogynistic. Just yesterday the Daily Podcast discussed this strategy in an analysis of both major party campaigns’ advertising. Sporting events broadcast on live TV have been a favorite venue for these commercials. We grieve this dehumanization and exploitation of trans people for political gain. It is a pattern of political violence that has built over several years and is now surging, as the Trans Legislation Tracker documents. Regardless of the election results, we recognize that this pattern of rhetorical and legislative violence against trans people is a deathly strategy that will continue.
In the gospel passage assigned for the Feast of All Saints this year, we heard a portion of the raising of Lazarus (John 11:32-44). The scene is one of grief, anger, stench, and decay out of which a new chapter begins to emerge. Jesus stands with Mary and Martha outside the tomb and tells the crowd to roll away the stone. It seems ill-advised. What could possibly emerge but more death, given all that had already unfolded? And death does emerge at first. Lazarus, whom Jesus had called to “come out” (our queered ears appreciate), is still “the dead man.” He remains bound by grave clothes. As our new Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe preached at his investiture on Saturday, Lazarus needed the community to “unbind him and let him go,” which is exactly what Jesus called them to do.
In a very real sense, the political rhetoric has left us for dead, treating us as things and not people. In the Lazarus story, it is indeed God who raises Lazarus from the dead, but humans who are given the task of rolling away the stone and unbinding him. We put our trust in our liberating God who, as the womanist theologians say, makes a way out of no way, but we call upon those who would aspire to be allies to actively seek out opportunities to roll away the stones and unbind those of us rhetorically (and sometimes far worse than rhetorically) slain by policy and discourse.
We pray that this election will help roll back and unbind obscene oppression stoked against so many marginalized communities in this country – immigrants, Black and Brown people, women, poor people, incarcerated people, trans and nonbinary people, including and especially in intersectional combination. We do not imagine that the violence against these communities will stop on a dime, regardless of election results. In the meantime, we long for the Word of life to meet us where we are, to begin to lead us forward, collectively unwinding the structures of death. As Presiding Bishop Rowe imagined, “we will stand together, sometimes afraid, sometimes bewildered, looking for life, hoping for wholeness in all things.”
To do just that, next Monday, November 11 we will hold a Zoom space for trans and nonbinary people and our allies, to gather in prayer and support, to begin to process what results of this election are known to us at that point. We will hold the space from 5:30-7 PM pacific / 8:30-10 PM eastern. You can register to attend here.
We also encourage you to access the emerging spaces around the church that are affirming and equipping our lives, such as the Gender Justice Jam series organized by Aaron Scott, the Gender Justice Officer for the Episcopal Church (which Episcopal News Service reported on today). Its next session will take place right before ours. We are inspired by the rich offerings and communal support being shared in that space.
Another opportunity is coming this evening, as the Episcopal Public Policy Network will host a virtual space for prayer from 5-7 PM pacific / 8-10 PM eastern, led by leaders from around the church, including our own steering committee member Sarah Lawton.
Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Today that charge is our prayer.
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