The ‘mother of a movement’ addresses the National Queer Presbyterian Gathering

LOUISVILLE — The “mother of a movement,” Bishop Yvette A. Flunder, who founded the Fellowship of Affirming Ministries and is an ordained pastor in the United Church of Christ, brought the people attending the National Queer Presbyterian Gathering to their feet Wednesday with a talk that drew inspiration from the faith of the Syrophoenician woman.

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The biblical text, Mark 7:24-30, finds Jesus “in a place of transition” where “his culture is now at war with his purpose.” He’s “on the down low” in Tyre, a Greek city, which “is not where his people are. He was being talked about by his people because he was healing the wrong folks.” Jesus is “a God/man with a man struggle,” she said.

Along came this woman, and her baby was sick, Flunder said. As Mark’s gospel makes clear here, “Jesus was not truly ready to be radically inclusive. He is not ready for this woman to be on equal terms with his people.”

“But it was time to lay the foundation of Pentecost. The ‘whosoever’ was coming,” Flunder said. “This woman, this dog, was going to break things open. There was something Jesus needed to have as an experience, and wouldn’t it be a woman?”

“Dog” was a contemptuous name the Jews had for Gentiles at the time, Flunder said. The Syrophoenician woman wasn’t a dog because she was a lowlife. Instead, her message was, “I understand you’re Jesus, but my daughter is sick. I came to see you because I need a healing to happen in my family.”

“She was determined to get what she needed from him,” Flunder said. “The church today needs some dogs to move it to its true purpose in this complicated time.”

So while on vacation in Greece, Jesus was exposed to the faith of the Gentiles, according to Flunder. “He could not be the savior of the world and not know there was a group of people so different,” she said. “She was not leaving without the blessing she came for. Insults and religion and ethnicity would not stop her.”

When Jesus saw her faith, he healed the woman’s daughter from a distance, and the direction of his ministry changed completely, Flunder said. “I need that human Jesus sometimes,” she said. “I need to know that he’s been through something important, that when he went to the wilderness to be tempted, he was really tempted.”

Jesus’ direction “became universal,” she said. “His love poured out on this woman who had been called a dog. This Greek woman helped him reach beyond his people alone. She helped make his upcoming crucifixion universal. It wasn’t just for his people — it was for all people.”

It's high time for the dogs, Flunder said — those who “are pushed to take the dirty leftover bread thrown on the floor. It’s time for people who have been in closeted places to stand up, speak up and move up to the table.”

“We the church desperately need to expand our reach — not just go where people like us feel comfortable, but to get in uncomfortable situations and say, ‘I’m here. I know who I am and whose I am.’”

Queer people “need to take our power to places where people don’t want us to be,” she said. “Our freedom won’t be cloistered.” The Syrophoenician woman needed something from Jesus, but he needed something from her, too. “The dogs change the direction of the church by bringing us back to what matters — taking away the ritualistic junk that keeps people from Jesus.”

It's the responsibility of people of faith to help usher in the new Pentecost, Flunder said, and “the future belongs to the dogs.”

“We are far greater than what we have ever imagined,” she said. “God bless you,” she said to close her presentation, and those gathered stood and applauded.

After her talk, Flunder said she felt “a holy self-affirmation” in the Chapel at the Presbyterian Center.

“It’s important to debunk the idea that [queer people] are grafted in so that denominations can appear to be open — to women, to people of color and to same-gender and other realities,” she said. “We are not a thing. We are a people, and we’re not all the same.”

“This time, we’re stronger than we’ve ever been,” she said. “Every time we have a big wave, we get stronger.”

Flunder, herself a renowned gospel singer, is married to Shirley Miller, who recorded “Oh Happy Day” as a member of the Edwin Hawkins Singers. Listen to Miller sing “Oh Happy Day” here or here.