Jun 17 2019 2 Corinthians 5:14-20 – Marina the Monk

From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view;  even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation



What a timely commemoration today!  Today in the Morning Prayer cycle of saints and others to celebrate, we celebrate Marina the Monk. Marina was an 8^th century Byzantine Christian saint. She was born female, but identified as male. Who knew?  Upon his retirement, his father wanted to enter a monastery himself, and marry Marina off, who he knew as his daughter. He found Marina a husband, and Marina was very upset, asking to instead to accompany his father and join a monastery. Some sources claim she wanted to be a man solely to enter the monastery, others say it was because he identified as a man.



In either case, Marina lived happily as a monk, until a woman outside the monastery complained to the abbot that Marina had gotten her pregnant, a strict no-no for monks. The abbot believed her, and Marina refused to disclose his secret, and was thrown out of the monastery and was a beggar/ The woman had the baby, and Marina raised the child. Ten years passed, and the other monks convinced the abbot to readmit Marina. Soon after, Marina became ill and died. When cleaning Marina’s body, they discovered his secret, that he was born female. Again, who knew?


The appointed reading to accompany Marina is this reading from 2 Corinthians where Paul is imploring people to stop judging by human standards. If anyone is in Christ they are a new creation. Fitting, for a commemoration of possibly one of the first celebrated Christian transgender saints. The accompanying prayer for Marina reads “Teach us, Lord God, to refrain from false judgments about the sins of others, and to hold fast to our path of discipleship when we suffer unjustly because of judgments made by others.”. How simple, and yet now hard. Of course we should love people where they are. Of course we should let people be who they are, and most importantly, Of course God loves them as they are. And yet it’s hard, isn’t it? To judge as God sees, and not presume we know what that looks like?



Yesterday I marched in the Portland Pride Parade, with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer friends, many of whom were clergy. I don’t understand their world because I’m not in their world. I don’t know what it’s like to feel so disingenuous to who I am; I’ve always felt pretty comfortable in the skin and body I was born into. But I do know that I committed in my baptismal covenant that I will respect the dignity of every human being, and serve Christ in all others. I believe all Christians want to do that. It’s just that sometimes we judge with human standards, rather than God’s.

Yesterday’s parade was a sea of color and joy and beauty in all sorts of people. The highlight for me was the sincere thanks that people shouted at us church folk for showing up. Thank you for being here. Thank you for supporting us. I believe we, and other faith-based marchers, countered years or decades of judgment and condemnation that this community has heard and experienced from ‘the church’, and felt that the judgment was directly from God. How sad that was to me. How grateful to think that I played a small part in restoring anyone’s faith that God loves all. Even Marina.