Do you ever try to hide who you are, how you feel, even what you believe? God asked Elijah, several times when he was running for his life, after he defeated the prophets of Baal, “What are you doing here Elijah? (1 Kgs 19:9,13). Well, he was hiding. As all of us tend to do when we feel some threat, real or imagined, to our lives.
The followers of Jesus are not immune to this flight response to life challenges. Peter hid his knowledge of Jesus. Moses hid on the backside of the desert. David hid from Saul. Even Jesus tried to get away from the press of the crowds (Matt 5:1, 8:18, 14:22).
Sometimes hiding can be healthy, indeed a gift of God. God hides us under the shadow of His wings (Ps 17:8), lifts us up upon a rock of refuge (Ps 27:5), and hides us from the strife of tongues (Ps 31:20). And even the Sabbath can be seen as a place to hide and rest up from the daily rigors of life.
But we sometimes hide out of shame. We learned well the response of our mythical ancestors to hide behind our various fig leaves to cover who we really are. Certainly my alcoholism, which robbed me of life for years, was a way of hiding from a world in which I felt continually flawed, shamed. And our work, or money, or food, or church, or sex, or sports, or religion…virtually any of the good things of life can also be a place to hide away—from our families, from ourselves, even from God.
We sometimes also hide elements of our faith that we feel would bring us disapproval. I was rather embarrassed as a youth that Jesus Christ was becoming a very palpable, real presence in my life. And then I felt afraid, with some good reason, to express my advocacy of African American Civil Rights while growing into my teens in Birmingham, Alabama in the 1950’s and 1960’s. And I hid until recently my deeply held belief that God welcomes the LGBTQ+ Christians just as Jesus and the Apostles welcomed the Gentile Christians to full inclusion, including marriage and ordination, among the people of God. God invites us to confess honestly the elements of our faith that the Spirit has shaped in us, to say with Paul, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel” (Rom. 1:16).
There can be freedom and joy when we come out of dysfunctional hiding. Members of the gay community have taught us, if we will listen, the relief in “coming out.” And I will never forget both the abject terror and freedom I felt on Oct 10, 1976 when I first said, “I’m Madoc, and I’m an alcoholic.” And in spite of some negative response I have felt relieved, that I was being honest with myself, others, and God in affirming the full inclusion of gay Christians in the body of Christ.
There’s an ironic dynamic in Christian hiding: if we allow ourselves to find safe refuge in God’s love in Jesus Christ, then we can be openly and faithfully who God created us to be and calls us to share with the world around us. If we experience our lives as “…hid with Christ in God” (Col 3:3), then we can find the courage to come out to those who need us. Coming out can open doors to follow Christ openly, without fear, as God’s beloved, faithfully showing “…compassion, kindness, meekness, patience, and … above all love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony” (Col 3:12,14).
“Boldness” is the New Testament word for such authentic courage to be who God made us to be and to love as He loves. Paul wrote, even from prison, “I will continue to rejoice, for I know … I will not be put to shame in any way, but that by my speaking with all boldness, Christ will be exalted now as always in my body. For to me living is Christ…” (Phil 1:18b-21). That is coming out of our closets into the light of God’s love. If we will listen, those who have coined the phrase “coming out” can be used of God to call each of us to rise up from hiding and to witness to the inclusive love of God, with boldness.
So let’s come out! To the authenticity and bold freedom and love that is ours in Christ.