God’s Coming Out

(and wants the world to know.)

"God specializes in coming out," Rev. Dr. Carey Anderson said in a Bible Study.

He was teaching about the Exodus and how God is known as the God who brings us, literally, from the narrow way, from tight spaces, from the causes of distress. From closets.

God specializes in coming out.

Dr. Anderson meant that God brings us out. That God makes it safe for us to be out. That God prepares the path through seas and deserts, through wilderness and cities, through our own fears and our own pasts ... and brings us out. Out to safety. Out to freedom. Out to peace. Out to joy. God brings us out.

What he said, though, and what I heard: God specializes in coming out.

Coming. Out.

Because it is true. God brings us from narrow spaces and tight places, from straight paths that never quite fit right onto queer paths that make sense. But God specializes in coming out. The whole of the Christian faith, the Christian story is dependent upon God coming out. It's God's specialty.

God makes God's self known. God shows up and declares, "this is who I am."

God demands to be seen fully, for who God really is. God puts that word in the mouths of prophets like Isaiah: "HERE is your God," not that image you had that was acceptable to your senses.
Here. "This God is your God," Moses said.
"Be still and know that God is God!"
God has always sought to make God's whole self, God's real self known. God comes out.

In the first chapter of the Gospel of John, the writer describes the process of coming out. In the beginning, God was. The Word was. And the Word was Light. A man named John came to tell about the Light. The Light was in the world, God was with us. But even those who belonged to God did not know God. So God, this Word that was Light, became flesh. John says, in verse 18: “No one has ever seen God. The only one, himself God, who is in closest fellowship with the Father, has made God known."

Did you catch it? Did you recognize God's coming out story? God was with humanity, begging to be known and recognized for who God really is. God said so, time and time again, coming out to prophets, through prophets. God showed God's self, time and time again. People named God. Hagar first. People saw God. But they did not recognize God for who God is ... until God came out.

Theologues say God emptied God's self. Old preachers say God stepped down out of glory. John said, "the word became flesh." Revelation. Incarnation. All of it the same thing: God said THIS is who I am. THIS is the real me. THIS is my true nature. THIS is how I wish to be known. THIS is my identity. THIS is how I am.

God came out.

It's important to note this because God SPECIALIZES in coming out. It's what God has always done. Time and time again. God knows how to do it. God knows the risks.

God knows that it's not always safe. Jesus was real careful about who knew who he was. He even made sure the disciples - ahem, Peter - did not out him. "Tell no one who I am." Because coming out in the wrong places to the wrong people isn't safe.

But God also provides people - like John, like Elizabeth, like Mary Magdalene, like Mary, Jesus' mother - to delight in the truth of who we are even before we speak it, even before we emerge from the closet into our truths for ourselves. God makes sure there are those who have always loved us and always known us and are ready and waiting to usher us into the truth of ourselves.

Because God specializes in coming out.

It's what God does. It's who God is. It is, quite literally, how God is with us: God came out.

So on this Coming Out Day, whether you're coming out the first time or the 5000th, whether you're coming out in community or only to God, whether you are comfortable and secure in your closet, whether you're out in some spaces but fully aware where it is not safe to be out: God specializes in your story. God specializes in your story. God is with you - holding you in tight, narrow spaces.

God is with you - bringing you out, preparing the way.
God is with you - protecting you, showing you that you're not alone.
God came out ... no. God comes out over and over and over again just so God can be with you.

So speak. Or don't. Share. Or don't. Walk confidently knowing that however you are on today, wherever you are, whatever part of you that you seek to acknowledge to whomever you choose to acknowledge it: God comes out for you.

You good, family. God specializes in Coming Out!

Happy Coming Out Day!!

#NationalComingOutDay2021 #BiblicalLiteracy #GodRevealsGod #OutOnlyYourself