In honor of Black History Month, in our Queer Theology Discussion Group meeting, we discussed the short story “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin alongside the lectionary for the week, through the complementary lenses of Black Liberation Theology and Queer Theology.
These theologies share the common root of Liberation Theology that arose in Latin America in the 1960s, which focuses on Jesus’s preferential treatment and concern for the poor, oppressed, enslaved, imprisoned, despised, and marginalized communities as the guiding light by which Christianity should be practiced and understood. Both Black Liberation Theology and Queer Theology build from this to focus specifically on their own communities.
“…as the son of a pastor, and one of America’s premier intellectuals and writers, the short story is rich with Christian imagery…”
“Sonny’s Blues” clearly engages with race but doesn’t overtly engage with James Baldwin’s identity as a queer man, nor does it explicitly name itself as a Christian story. But as the son of a pastor, and one of America’s premier intellectuals and writers, the short story is rich with Christian imagery, both explicit and not. Written in 1957, it tells the story of two brothers in Harlem in the 1950s. The narrator is the older brother who became a teacher and a married man and father, and his younger brother, Sonny, is a jazz pianist and struggles with a heroin addiction.
In discussing the story, it is also important to remember that Queer Theology not only looks through the marginalizing lens of LGBTQ identity and experience, but also through the queer lens that pushes against essentialism and the false idol that ideas of humanity and God can be simplified. In keeping with this, James Baldwin bristled at the term “homosexual”; in an interview with Maya Angelou, (timestamp 11:18 – 13:00), pointing out that, “Homosexual is not a noun . . . it certainly is an adjective, but not a noun.” We are more than just one term – homosexual, queer, trans, etc., is one part of who we are – an essential part – a part that if we deny it, we die, but also, we are more than that one part.
Baldwin begins the story on the subway, where the narrator learns from the paper that his brother has been arrested; the story then jumps forward to Sonny’s release, when Sonny comes to live with his brother. The story also takes us into the past, into the narrator’s memory of childhood, and of his struggles to understand his brother and to keep him safe, until the story arrives at a pivotal moment, where Sonny invites his brother to come hear him play. The narrator “sensed, I don’t know how, that I couldn’t possibly say no,” and because of his willingness to show up, he is then present to witness Sonny channel grace and God through his performance, so that the audience:
All gathered around Sonny and Sonny played. Every now and again one of them seemed to say, amen. Sonny’s fingers filled the air with life, his life. But that life contained so many others. . . . I seemed to hear with what burning he had made it his, with what burning we had yet to make it ours, how we could cease lamenting. Freedom lurked around us and I understood, at last, that he could help us to be free if we would listen, that he would never be free until we did. Yet, there was no battle in his face now. I heard what he had gone through, and would continue to go through until he came to rest in earth. He had made it his: that long line, of which we knew only Mama and Daddy. And he was giving it back, as everything must be given back, so that, passing through death, it can live forever. . . . . And I was yet aware that this was only a moment; that the world waited outside, as hungry as a tiger, and that trouble stretched above us, longer than the sky.
JAMES BALDWIN, “SONNY’S BLUES.”
In this performance, Sonny is transfigured, and so too is the brother in witnessing that moment, just as the disciples, and all Christians, are transformed through Christ’s transfiguration, love, and sacrifice for us.
Our Queer Theology group is composed of both people who identify as LGBTQ+ and people who identify as allies, which enriches the lens through which we discussed the story, especially since, no matter what aspects of identity we each have, all of us can be allies in liberation to others who are suffering. This showing up that the narrator did is an apt model for what we all should aspire to in being Christian and in being allies and is in line with Christ & St. Luke’s theme this year, to “Come, See, Go, Be.” The first step in being transformed by God is to show up and be open to see, hear, and experience God, and to do the same with those we wish to help, seeing them not just as someone to be saved, but also as someone who is likewise God’s own, and has gifts to offer us, if we open ourselves to them.
This story also reflected the other parts of the lectionary as well, especially the Old Testament reading, from Exodus 24, in which:
Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. The glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days; on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the cloud. Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. Moses entered the cloud and went up on the mountain. Moses was on the mountain for forty days and forty nights.
ExODUS 24
What we often forget is that before Moses saw the light on the mountain, there was darkness. And this darkness was necessary to see the light; darkness is necessary to see light. Sonny’s music stems from a life of pain and suffering. His song was a song of liberation from racism, poverty, and addiction. He subverts the easy categories for dark = bad and light = good, and this struggle in darkness, through the pain and fear of discrimination and oppression, is something that LGBTQ+ people can likewise connect with.
The story ends as Sonny finishes playing, and the narrator sends drinks to the musicians, and:
the girl put a Scotch and milk on top of the piano for Sonny. He didn’t seem to notice it, but just before they started playing again, he sipped from it and looked toward me and nodded. Then he put it back on top of the piano. For me, then, as they began to play again, it glowed and shook above my brother’s head like the very cup of trembling.
JAMES BALDWIN, “SONNY’S BLUES.”
This reference to the “cup of trembling” is from Isaiah 51:17-23 and Jeremiah 25:15-31. Isaiah reads:
Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of his fury; thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling, and wrung them out. There is none to guide her among all the sons whom she hath brought forth; neither is there any that taketh her by the hand of all the sons that she hath brought up. These two things are come unto thee; who shall be sorry for thee? desolation, and destruction, and the famine, and the sword: by whom shall I comfort thee? Thy sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, as a wild bull in a net: they are full of the fury of the Lord, the rebuke of thy God. Therefore hear now this, thou afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine: Thus saith thy Lord the Lord, and thy God that pleadeth the cause of his people, Behold,I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury; thou shalt no more drink it again: But I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee; which have said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over: and thou hast laid thy body as the ground, and as the street, to them that went over.
Isaiah 51:17-23
While in the Old Testament, God passes the suffering onto those that afflicted his people, in Christianity, we believe Christ Jesus took up this cup of trembling for us; he took on our sins and suffering so that we may be saved, and in this story, Sonny is likewise presented as a savior. He is a poor, black, ex-convict, heroin addict, but he also has the power to transform the notes of a piano into music that transports, teaches, inspires, and saves people, if even just for that moment.
Father Noah’s sermon ended this week by challenging us to go out and bring the church into the world. One way of doing this, if we use “Sonny’s Blues” as our guide, is by seeking out those who are hurting, who are marganilized and despised, and yes, to look to help where we can help, but also, to see the person in front of us, for all of who they are, and all of the gifts that they bring to the world.
Being an ally is standing alongside of, not standing apart. We need to be willing to be transfigured and saved by those whom we perceive to need saving. The LGBTQ+ people in this church have found a home at Christ & St. Luke’s by being welcomed in for all that we are – not because of, or in spite of, one aspect of our identity, but as children of God. We need allies to stand beside us when we are under attack by legislation and demonization, but we also need to be welcomed for all the gifts that we bring to the world, and to this church. And for those who are part of the Queer Thelogy group, we affirm that in Christ & St. Luke’s, we find exactly that.
Interested in Queer Theology? For more information on our Queer Theology Discussion Group contact Anders Nolan. All LGBTQIA+ people and allies are welcome.
