#Jesus;#Spirituality; #ministry
Queerness Runs Through My Life Like a River!
The Beatitudes
5 When Jesus[a] saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2 And he began to speak and taught them, saying:
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5 “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely[b] on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Salt and Light
13 “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything but is thrown out and trampled underfoot.
The term “queer” has been uttered as a tool for the majority of my life to limit, and dehumanize, that is until I owned up to a true understanding of being queer an inclusive term for seeing the wholeness of who we all are. I am Queer! I am proud of being Queer! Queerness is embracing life from the alternative viewpoints of modern society, and seeing hope for a new society of healing and wholeness. Queerness runs through my life like a river!
Queerness became the center point of my evolving true self and is a place of my unlimited becoming, and its innate connection to God, nature, and fellow humans.
Through queerness, I have come to understand despair, it is solidarity with the state of the world in all its agony, it is a confession that our world is built on nothingness made possible by destruction and violence.
Hope is when we acknowledge that despair to fully imagine the world’s transformation. I realize now that hope’s ethic is a politics of solidarity, a way of being that holds together history and possibility, crucifixion, and resurrection, present and future.
In seminary, my theological studies were given a foundation in the theology of Professor Jurgen Moltman, a gentleman who endured the pain, the despair of prison of war camps as a Scottist soldier during World War II. In one of my favorite passages, Moltmann puts it this way,
“All human history, however much it may be determined by guilt and death, is taken up into this ‘history of God’, i.e. into the Trinity, and integrated into the future of the ‘history of God’. There is no suffering which in this history of God is not God’s suffering; no death which has not been God’s death in the history of Golgotha. Therefore there is no life, no fortune and no joy which have not been integrated by his history into eternal life, the eternal joy of God.”
I have come to an understanding of solidarity through hanging and working with the poorest of the poor, expecially homeless kids, not of who one votes for, nor of implanting my own expectations of others on them, but of walking with each person where he or she is. I do my best to “walk a mile in their moccasins”.
Mary Lathrop tells us:
..”Before you cast a stone or falsely judge his conditions.
Remember to walk a mile in his moccasins..”
Through these years of seeing much tragedy, the words of the Rev. Will Campbell ring true: “Anyone who is not as concerned with the immortal soul of the dispossessor is being something less than Christian, and in that understanding one never takes sides.”
And further, he summed up best of all the meaning of Christianity in the words: “We’re all bastards but God loves us anyway.”
Solidarity is to work with Campbell’s attitude with everyone, remembering the Great Commandment of Jesus: “You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, mind, and strength, soul, and your neighbor as yourself,” remembering the “neighbor” includes everyone.
Tony (in our photo above lives) a joyous life, he chooses to be homeless. Tony says, “It is too hard in the Bay Area to find housing,” and “I would rather use my money to help others, and to be free.” He has tried living in an apartment, but he says: “that way of life does not fit for me,”
Through the years I have seen Tony give free clothes to others, he has given me two items I wear, and know personally of him always being available when others are sick or in need. He lives a “queer” way of life compared to the expectations of others.
Samantha gave me the Amherst (above) the other day, to “relieve your stress, and bring you into calmness.” Samantha also chooses to be homeless as a way of life. She has been beaten up, raped in shelters, and professionals, etc. have expectations of her for which she does not fit. One of those expectations is to move her out of the Bay Area, an area that has been home all of her life, and she wants to stay and make her own choices. Samantha has come to appreciate living free on the streets, making crafts, and simply being who she is. Her choices are considered “queer” by others.
Jurgen Moltman says: “God is not only a divine person who we can address in prayer, but also a wide living space. We human beings are giving each other space for living when we meet each other in love and friendship.”
My ministry is one of giving people space, and I invite you to do so as well, give people space who are homeless, give others space in who they vote for, respect their differences, and give all of us space in the way we live our lives! Queerness like a river runs through my life, join me on this river! Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!
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I am sacrificing a meal a day to donate! Join Me!
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Dr. River Damien Sims, sfw, D.Min., D.S.T.
Post Office Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164
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Prayer of St. Brendan!
“Help me to journey beyond the familiar
and into the unknown.
Give me the faith to leave old ways and break fresh ground with You. Christ of the mysteries I trust in You to be stronger than each storm within me.
I will trust in the darkness and know that my times, even now, are in Your hands.
Tune my spirit to the music of heaven,
and somehow, make my obedience count for You”
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(Temenos and Dr. River seek to remain accessible to everyone. We do not endorse particular causes, political parties, or candidates, or take part in public controversies, whether religious, political or social–Our pastoral ministry is to everyone!
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TEMENOS CATHOLIC WORKER 
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