Reverend Beth LaRocca-Pitts Sermon on the Transfiguration: SAY WHAT?

CORRECTION NOTE: A member of Reverend LaRocca-Pitt's church contacted me via Facebook. She has corrected the date of the sermon; it was March 3rd, not the first. I apologize to Reverend LaRocca-Pitts for that indiscretion on the date. To the right is a screenshot of the date that I used; please forgive me, friends at St. Mark UMC in Atlanta for getting that information incorrect. I have also corrected Reverend Dr. LaRocca-Pitts title. Thank you to Julie A. Arms Meeks for the correction. 

Yesterday my pastor shared with me a nine minute sermon that was preached after General Conference 2019 (#GC2019) at St. Mark UMC in Atlanta on March 1. This morning I am still stunned—that I heard all the letters in the alphabet soup that has become the LGBTQIA+ community. Don’t get me wrong, I have many fine friends who are members of the community; they know me and they know I don’t treat them any differently than I treat a heterosexual female or male that is having an illicit affair or someone who is having a sexual relationship outside of marriage. Matter of fact, let me just say that any and all sexual immorality is not compatible with the Christian faith. 

Transfiguration on the Mount by stainedglass.com

In attendance that Sunday, was Bishop Sue Haupert-Johnson and possibly a Rabbi. Reverend Dr. Beth LaRocca-Pitts sermon actually did more damage than it did good. She jokingly speaks of the transfiguration of Christ as an allegory because she is supposedly a Hebrew Bible Scholar. She took the story of the Transfiguration of Christ and replaces Christ with the members of the LGBTQIA+ community. She speaks of Jesus as the third entity that allows for inclusion; and even though she mentions that He is there with Moses and Elijah (evidently in her mind symbolic of the Law and the Prophets) Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets. He also didn’t come to abolish them.

She says in her sermon “In as much as you, members of my LGBTQIA+ family bear the image of God, the image of Christ, I see this as a story of your transfiguration, your glorification by a God, whose voice speaks from heaven to say: These are my children my chosen listen to them. I see the rest of the church as the disciples. A great many of the disciples are not present with us and have not seen you transfigured and glorified as God sees you. Those are the nine disciples who are not even close to Jesus at this time. And bear in mind that some of those disciples are not allies, some are like Judas. Still some of your allies are here with you, those people are Peter, James and John, your friends, your chosen family, we have seen you more beauty and your glorious truth. But we are tired, we are bone weary, we have to stay woke, if we are to get the rest of the disciples to see you as God sees you. Those disciples who are asleep on the mount of transfiguration or else where may not see Christ in you, because they have never seen Jesus as he truly is, dazzling, gleaming, glittering like a spinning disco ball and indescribably fabulous.  Christ knows you all, beloved, calls you all beloved, Christ calls you to ministry, to service, to witness, Christ calls you, beloved. Christ calls the narrow, religious bigots also: REPENT and believe the Gospel. Christ calls to zealot traitors in the church REPENT and learn to love your neighbor! You brood of vipers, that is what JESUS says to those who would shut you out. But Jesus wants to tell you rainbow fabulous people and allies something very important today, Jesus our ever loving Lord wants to tell you this, You are mine, you are beautiful, your suffering is reflective of mine, therefore you are holy. This is what Jesus ants to tell you. Beloved this coming Wednesday is the beginning of Lent…It is not a sin to be gay, it’s not crime to be transgender, queer, non-binary, pansexual or polyamorous. It is not a sin to be any of those things, it is however a sin to be hateful, bigoted, narrow, like those who would stand at the doors of their church to keep you out." 

Here I have given you the “meat” of her sermon. If I didn’t know better, and didn’t have a Biblical world-view then I would probably agree with this sermon; however, that being said, I am a Christian. I am a Methodist. I adhere to our discipline and if we are honest, the discipline has not changed it’s stance on homosexuality in 40+ years. Matter of fact, when I was 13 years old, a pastor friend of ours gave me a 1988 Book of Discipline (and yes, I read it word for word). When I started the candidacy process, I purchased my own 2016 Book of Discipline—the wording has changed very little in those years about our stance on marriage and homosexuality. So for those who are say “We’ve lost our church!” You’ve lost nothing. We are the same UMC we’ve been for years.

What disappoints me, however, is the hatred that is felt in the words of Rev. Dr. Beth LaRocca-Pitts. You hear it, the pride, the arrogance. It’s evidenced in the name calling of those, like me who are now called zealous traitors, narrow-minded religious bigots that would stand in the door of my church to block people from coming in. Rev. Dr. Beth LaRocca-Pitts reminds me of the priest who entered the temple to pray, lifting her eyes up to heaven and telling God “I did this and thank you for not making me like the tax-collector!” Friends, in this instance, we should be like the Tax-Collector. Humbled and seeking God, not willing to lift up our faces to Him. Jesus says in Luke 18:14 “I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” 1 Peter tells us in chapter 5:5b “Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” In addition to humility, we, Christians, yes, you who are supposedly zealous traitors, narrow and bigoted  (I include myself in this description); and yes, you who are open minded and openly welcoming of all sin into your churches without the needed benefit of repentance, should heed 1 Chronicles 7:14 “if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” 

The next thing that disappoints me is that as Rev. Dr. Beth LaRocca-Pitts named off all the LGBTQIA+ community letters including those in the “PLUS” category, her Bishop Sue Haupert-Johnson didn’t have the courage or even the integrity to stand up for the gospel. But what is the gospel? Rev. Dr. Beth LaRocca-Pitts narrowly missed it when she stated that the traditionalists didn’t have it. The gospel can be summed up in two verses. “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.” -1 Corinthians 15:3-4 (ESV) Yet, folks like Rev.  Dr. Beth LaRocca-Pitts, Bishop Sue Haupert-Johnson and the rabbi that was supposedly sitting in St. Marks are people who see themselves above God. A person who does not believe he is a sinner will see no need for a Savior.

Lastly, what bothers me is the fact that many Christians, be they Methodist, Baptist, Disciples of Christ, Quakers, Catholic, whatever have forgotten how to seek God. Isaiah 55:6 tells us to seek God while He may be found. Jeremiah 29:13 tells us to seek Him with all our hearts. Finally Amos 5:14-15 tells us 14 Seek good, and not evil, that you may live; and so the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you, as you have said. 15 Hate evil, and love good, and establish justice in the gate; it may be that the Lord, the God of hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.

Friends we are told to hate what is evil to love what is good. None of the things that Rev. Dr. Beth LaRocca-Pitts mentioned is “good or holy” in the sight of the Lord. I know this blog may reach Rev. Dr. Beth LaRocca-Pitts and it may even reach Bishop Sue Haupert-Johnson. I know it will reach 100s of people—and I know that among my friends some will be hurt, some are hurting, some will comment hateful things to me, some will email me and call me names, friends, as I said in my last blog post, Jesus did not die on the cross to have us quivering in a corner because some human being might say something mean, or stop our paychecks, or sever a relationship, or even kill us (Luke 12:4). Christ died that we would not have to take on the punishment for our sins. He was the final, and only acceptable sacrifice for our sins. He died, so that YOU didn’t have to. He took on every sin imaginable, ripped the veil to the holy of holies so that YOU could approach God and repent. And on that day that I and many others stand before God for our final judgement, Jesus Christ, our only mediator is going to look at His father and say “This one is mine. This one called upon my name, humbly, and by renouncing spiritual forces of wickedness, rejecting the evil powers of this world and repenting of their sins has become my child. This one, Father, is mine.” Can you say the same thing?