“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”\u00a0 <\/i>\u2014 Mary Oliver<\/p>\n
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We could debate the issue all day\u2026 and I have done so on occasion.\u00a0 But honestly, when people believe, deep down in their hearts that homosexuality is a sin, I\u2019ve learned that the debate goes nowhere.\u00a0 When we already have our minds made up, that\u2019s that.\u00a0 End of story.<\/p>\n
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When the conversation hits that wall, when conversation breaks down, that\u2019s when I most want to invite people to the church I pastor so they could meet some of our members face to face.\u00a0 Let\u2019s not talk about issues; let\u2019s meet real people.\u00a0 Let\u2019s invite God\u2019s children to look each other in the eye, to behold someone made in God\u2019s own image.\u00a0 Let\u2019s invite everyone to the Table, or any table for that matter, to break bread with one another and pray, just as the early church did.\u00a0 See, I pastor a Christian church which prayerfully discerned in the 1990s that they were called to a profound outreach ministry:\u00a0 to declare themselves a church open to and affirming of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people.\u00a0 For nearly two decades, the folks of this little church have extended an extravagant welcome to people who have been rejected at other churches, told they were going to hell, sent away to rehabilitation camps, rejected by their families and communities of faith\u2026 or at best, told they were welcome, but must come to terms with their sinful ways and change.<\/p>\n
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That \u201cbest\u201d option isn\u2019t better at all, by the way.\u00a0 There\u2019s a confusing, internalized, self-hatred that grows when you\u2019re told, repeatedly, that you are damaged goods, while simultaneously being told you are created in God\u2019s image.\u00a0 I\u2019ve sat in our sanctuary with sobbing men and women who wandered in off the street because the rainbow pride flags hanging from our building beckoned them in.\u00a0 For so many, they sit there and sob, awash in mercy, amazed by God\u2019s grace, astounded that there is a church where the promise of their baptism is affirmed \u2014 you, yes, YOU are God\u2019s child and God is well pleased with you \u2014 for that matter, we\u2019re all well pleased with you.\u00a0 They\u2019re shocked to find a church that will not closet nor condemn them all the more.<\/p>\n
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When I think of inviting some of these folks I\u2019ve debated with (or stopped debating with)<\/i> to church, I can\u2019t help but think of the Gospel text about Jesus and the disciples walking through a field on the Sabbath.\u00a0 Both Mark\u2019s and Matthew\u2019s version come to mind, for differing reasons.<\/p>\n
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In Mark, Jesus responds to the letter-of-the-law keepers by helping them understand how laws ought, and ought not, to be used: the Sabbath was made for people, not the other way around.\u00a0 The people were hungry and we are not supposed to work on the Sabbath \u2014 these two things are true.\u00a0 For Jesus, it comes down to people\u2019s need.\u00a0 Hunger trumps rule following.\u00a0 Human necessity trumps the letter of the law.\u00a0 I can\u2019t help but think, if folks who are so wedded to their interpretation of the letter of law regarding homosexuality would come spend a Sunday at my church, for them, then, it could be like walking through the field with Jesus.\u00a0 Meeting the lesbian couple that\u2019s been together for 43 years, talking with the gay man who\u2019s rediscovered his faith again because he\u2019s affirmed instead of shunned, listening to the young female couple make plans for their wedding at the church, standing side by side with straight allies who make up over half the congregation \u2014 I can\u2019t help but think this could be a revelation: human need trumps the letter of the law here, too.<\/p>\n
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And for folks for whom this particular walk with Jesus through the fields falls flat, maybe Matthew\u2019s version of the story would come alive.\u00a0 Here, Jesus surmises that mercy should rule.\u00a0 Don\u2019t sacrifice the guiltless, the guiltless who are judged by some to be guilty.\u00a0 Let mercy rule.<\/p>\n
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But, who knows, really.\u00a0 Who knows what would happen?\u00a0 This blog post is, after all, more talk.\u00a0 And as I said in the beginning, talk doesn\u2019t go very far when we\u2019ve shut the doors.\u00a0 The God who couldn\u2019t stay away from us, the God who couldn\u2019t be aloof, but had to come to earth, walk around in our skin, know what it was like to hold a hand, wipe a tear, laugh, and feel his heart break, that God, the God we know in Jesus the Christ, comes knocking on the shuttered doors of our hearts, and beckons us to be in relationship with each other \u2014 real, human, relationship.\u00a0 After all, when we love somebody, we see the face of God.\u00a0 Maybe if we got to know each other, we might find a way to love each other and God\u2019s face would be revealed.\u00a0 So, know that you are welcome any time.\u00a0 If you are one of those folks who just can\u2019t fathom how gay people could be created good as gay, come to church.\u00a0 Any time.<\/p>\n
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Respectfully,<\/p>\n
LRM<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”\u00a0 \u2014 Mary Oliver We could debate the issue all day\u2026 and I have done so on occasion.\u00a0 But honestly, when people believe, deep down in their hearts that homosexuality is a sin, I\u2019ve learned that the debate goes … <\/p>\n