The Church calendar today invites us to consider St. Andrew the Apostle. If you look at the order of Collects (the prayers used at the beginning of Eucharistic Liturgies and at the end of Morning or Evening Prayers) you will find something very odd. The date of November 30th and feast of St. Andrew is at the beginningof the list of Holy Days in the Book of Common Prayer on Page 237. Now why do you suppose that is? Author James Kiefer wrote in today's commentary for Morning Prayer: "Just as Andrew was the first of the Apostles, so his feast is taken to be the beginning of the Church Year. The First Sunday of Advent is defined to be the Sunday on or nearest his feast (although it could equivalently be defined as the fourth Sunday before Christmas Day)."
Earlier in the Commentary James Kiefer wrote: "Most references to Andrew in the New Testament simply include him on a list of the Twelve Apostles, or group him with his brother, Simon Peter. But he appears acting as an individual three times in the Gospel of John. When a number of Greeks (perhaps simply Greek-speeking Jews) wish to speak with Jesus, they approach Philip, who tells Andrew, and the two of them tell Jesus (Jn 12:20-22). (It may be relevant here that both "Philip" and "Andrew" are Greek names.) Before Jesus feeds the Five Thousand, it is Andrew who says, "Here is a lad with five barley loaves and two fish." (Jn 6:8f) And the first two disciples whom John reports as attaching themselves to Jesus (Jn 1:35-42) are Andrew and another disciple (whom John does not name, but who is commonly supposed to be John himself -- John never mentions himself by name, a widespread literary convention). Having met Jesus, Andrew then finds his brother Simon and brings him to Jesus. Thus, on each occasion when he is mentioned as an individual, it is because he is instrumental in bringing others to meet the Saviour. In the Episcopal Church, the Fellowship of Saint Andrew is devoted to encouraging personal evangelism, and the bringing of one's friends and colleagues to a knowledge of the Gospel of Christ."
If we were to attend Eucharist today, the Gospel for today's Liturgy would be taken from Matthew chapter 4:18 to 22. This is the story of Jesus calling on Simeon Peter and Andrew as well as James and John to leave their nets and trade their fishing business and "Fish for people". (Matthew 4:19). In today's Speaking to the Soul we read: "Someone may wonder: At the Lord’s beckoning, what or how much did these two fishermen, who scarcely had anything, leave behind? On this, my beloved, we should attend to one’s intention rather than one’s wealth."
This is a great place to talk about the full inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people in the Church and society. I am choosing this because this is one of those places where the religious right especially evangelistic preachers just loves to pick on gay people. It is a full demonstration of spiritual violence and pastoral abuse for sure, but one that LGBT individuals will do well to learn how to answer. Evangelistic preachers with their hell, fire and brimstone love to attempt to say: "Your sinful life of homosexuality is the net that is keeping you from following Jesus Christ and therefore you are selling your soul to the devil." This is especially a tactic that preachers in Christian college chapels enjoy using on LGBT and Questioning youth. For that reason it is very important here to employ and use a good spirituality that affirms LGBT people and does not shame or make us feel guilty.
Let's take a look at something shall we? All Andrew really had was a net and a business with which to feed and care for his family. He was living in the time of the Roman oppression of the Israeli Nation. The amount of fish he and his brother Peter caught would often cause them to owe a tax on the fish to the local tax collector. It was a difficult time to work and live in. So, when Jesus called Andrew, he did not call some man who had all the right theology. Jesus did not call upon Andrew because he was a wealthy pastor who got his money out of pushing his agenda and deciding who should be excluded from the Church. No, Jesus saw a simple fisherman with a hungry soul looking for God to come and give Andrew some peace in his life. Jesus called out to Andrew and invited him, his brother Peter, James and John into a new way of life, a new business and one that was not about who could be excluded. In fact, Jesus was about to build a new community where everyone was to be welcomed. It was to be a Church where sinners of all kinds were welcomed and given an opportunity to be reconciled with God, without sacrificing who they were. In Andrew's situation he really did not have much to loose, yet he gave everything. Once Andrew knew that he had found everything he needed in God's perfect revelation in Jesus Christ, what did Andrew do? He brought others along to meet and be touched by the God who had changed his life.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people come to the Church with as much or as little to give as anyone else. We come with our lives broken by prejudice and discrimination because we are "different." We come to God with our wounds, our hurts, our confusions and questions. When LGBT people are told my Church leaders that they cannot participate in the Church as members or leaders because of their sexual orientation and/or gender expression and/or identities, unless they "change" what they are in fact doing is spiritual violence and pastoral abuse. When I came out to one Priest I worked with as an organist, I was told: "Everyone has their weakness, this one just happens to be yours." Again, an example of spiritual violence and pastoral abuse, no matter how "loving" the Priest thought he was. Within a persons sexual orientation and/or gender identity and/or expression whether gay, straight, bisexual or transgendered is the soul of an individual whom God is madly in love with. How do we know this? Because every individual is created in the image and likeness of the Holy Trinity. I would like to call everyone's attention to Genesis chapter 1 verse 24: "And God said, "Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness,,," Notice here that my quote here has written in bold the plural words us and we. These are very important. When we say that we and all people are created in the image and likeness of God, we are correct. God exists though in a Community of Love in the Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit: Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier. All of us including LGBT people were created as we are by that Communion of Love known as God the Most Holy Trinity. Just that knowledge in and of itself means that LGBT people are not "intrinsically disordered" as the Catechism of the Catholic Church suggests. What is in the soul of LGBT people are people created and redeemed and are being sanctified by God in that Community of Love and no Priest, Bishop, Pope or Minister has any business taking that dignity away from us. God does not ask that we surrender the very soul of who we are to be in a relationship with God. As one of the most wisest Priests once told me: "You have to love people in the way God created you to love them." Our love for our same-sex partner, boyfriend, girlfriend, spouse and best friend is just as blessed and honored by God as the love between heterosexual people.
What God is asking of us though is to become people who lead others to God through our giving of ourselves on behalf of others. Same-sex relationships are relationships of self sacrifice and a total giving of ourselves for the benefit of someone else. As an individual who once lived a very promiscuous sexual life, who went into an ex-gay ministry for 17 months and came back out and into a very fulfilling committed gay relationship, I can say that giving up my life for the man I love is a life so much more meaningful than spending it in bars, sex parties and on the web reading porn all day. Having been through all that, I cannot and will not pass judgment on anyone else and their relationships or experiences. Everyone has to find their own path to happiness and wholeness. But, I can say that when God does not call on us to give up who we are, God does call us to give of ourselves in service to others beyond ourselves. God does want us to invite others to come into God's presence and experience healing and wholeness in a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. God does want us to experience that unconditional love and share it with others. As we go through this season of Advent, God calls on us to prepare for the coming of Christ by helping others to find their path to God and to be instruments of service and healing for those in need. LGBT people can often be "Wounded Healers" as Henry Nouwen once wrote. We are people who are wounded by hatred, oppression and prejudice. God can and does wish to heal us and make us ready to serve others. Yet we can hear the call of Jesus to be Apostles and evangelists, leading others to Christ as Andrew once did.
In what ways are we allowing the religious oppression we experience to keep us from a relationship with God? How are we answering God's call to leave everything and follow Jesus? How are we leading other people to God through our lives, our loving and our service?
Almighty God, who gave such grace to your Apostle Andrew that he readily obeyed the call of your Son Jesus Christ, and brought his brother with him: Give us, who are called by your holy Word, grace to follow him without delay, and to bring those near to us into his gracious presence; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (Book of Common Prayer, Page 237, Collect for November 30 Feast of St. Andrew.)
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