National Coming Out Day: The Gospel in Motion Through Our Experiences

Scriptural Basis

Matthew 28:18-20 (NRSV)


Jesus came and said to the disciples, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

Blog Reflection

Coming out and telling other people that we are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning and/or queer is a sharing of the Gospel story in and through our lives.  Many individuals including myself have had our experiences of coming out to mean that we finally gain our peace with God about who we are and how we love others.

The Gospel for today's commemoration of St. Philip the Deacon calls not only the ordained ministers of the Church to share the story of God's salvation, but it is the baptismal duty of all who call themselves followers of Jesus Christ.

In Paul's letter to the Romans, he writes:

For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness. (Romans 12: 4-8).

The gifts that are given to each person to be used for the work of sharing the Gospel are not limited to those named in Romans, they are also found in the very nature of who we are and how we love other people.  They are also related to how we allow other people to love us. We cannot be about the work of sharing and proclaiming the salvation of God through Jesus effectively, so long as we are not honest with God, ourselves and those closest to us about who we are as LGBTQ people and how we love others, and who it is that others are loving in us.

I have faced this reality in my own life by coming out not once, but twice in the course of my life.  I have shared bits and pieces in my blog before.  But, I am all too happy to share again for the benefit that someone might read my blog and find themselves some where between the words that I am typing here.

I knew there was something different about me since I was twelve or thirteen years old.  While most of my peers were into sports, getting hard-ons looking at the girls and cars, I was just not there.  I was interested in playing the organ back at home, watching tv, getting into music, arts and eventually Christian Spirituality and at age 16 the Bible.  I also knew that I was attracted to men instead of women.  But my father one day threatened me by saying that if I were gay, he would send me to a doctor to have me fixed.  And a Pastor at the local Advent Christian Church told me that being attracted to men was not natural and could never be condoned by God or the Bible.

I lived in the fear of the possibility that I could be gay for many years.  But, I could not shake my interest in men both physically, sexually and emotionally.  I often had many best friends that I fell in love with.  Even at Eastern Nazarene College while I was there studying for a church music degree from 1988 to 1994.  As I was nearing graduation from college, I later became interested in Roman Catholicism, very possibly the Priesthood or monastic life. One year after I graduated from college, I converted to the Catholic church and for many years worked as a parish organist and music director. During that time, I seriously considered a vocation to become a Priest or a Monk, but I was turned down by many Diocese' and Monasteries.  The most common complaint was that I was "socially disordered" for my emotional intimacy with other men.

In the year 2000 after my father died, the reality of who I am met me face to face and there was no more getting away from it.  In October of 2000 after a whole summer of turmoil and chaos I came out and began telling people that I am gay.  From that day until May of 2009, my relationship with the Roman Catholic Church was forever changed.

In January of 2001 I moved from New England to live in the Minneapolis area where I continued to work as a church musician with limited success.  But the reality of who I am as a gay person, and my being very proud of being gay, led me to many disappointments and prejudice working for Catholic Parishes here.

After two failed relationships, many failed jobs and difficulties finding my place in the LGBT communities, I began attending the Catholic church's ex-gay group Courage that was begun by Cardinal Cook in New York in the early 1980's.   You can all read my experience with Courage at Beyond Ex-Gay.

In November of 2008 after some truth was revealed to me about how damaging Courage was and still is, I left attending their meetings and came back out.  I met my partner Jason on February 7, 2009 we fell in love and we now share our lives together.

In May of 2009 after my relationship with the Catholic church had been so bad since I came out, and given their support of a horrible organization called Courage, Jason and myself began attending St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral in Minneapolis, Minnesota.   On May 15, 2010 Jason was confirmed and I was received as a member of the Episcopal Church by Bishop Brian Prior, IX Bishop of Minnesota.  Among my many influences in the Episcopal Church is Bishop Gene Robinson, Bishop John Shelby Spong, Rev. Susan Russell, Rev. Canon Gray Temple and Rev. Paul Bresnahan.  Thank God for all of them.

Among the names in the LGBT community at large who inspire me is the late Harvey Milk. The living Cleve Jones, Joe Jervis, Pam Spaulding, Alvin McEwen and Jeremy Hooper. 

After I came out again and since, I have made myself a resolution that I will be the gay, Episcopalian that I believe God wants me to be.  I cannot allow who I am to be decided or dictated by an LGBT stereo type, social expectation, or church conference or leader.  I have to love people in the way God created me to love.  I cannot love another person as a man who is straight, because I am not a straight man.  I cannot allow another person to love me as a person loves another straight man.  I am not a straight man.  I love myself, my God, my partner and the people I socialize, work with and/or worship as a gay man. And I am proud of who and what God created me to be.  And very happy to serve God as a man who is gay.  After many years of struggling to understand myself, to look at myself in the mirror and no longer be ashamed to say I am a gay man, in love with another gay man, and know in my heart that God loves me that way and celebrates me that way, is a peace that the world cannot give.

I am also very proud of our Bishop who has written a response about the constitutional amendment that would ban marriage equality in Minnesota.

From its very origins, the Episcopal Church in Minnesota has always stood with the marginalized. Race, ethnicity, gender, gender orientation or immigrant we have embraced both the Gospel mandate of love of neighbor and the Baptismal Covenant imperative to respect the dignity of every human being. Any actions, whether sacred or secular — such as the proposed constitutional amendment to prohibit our LGBT brothers and sisters from the rights and privileges that the rest of Minnesotans enjoy - are considered to be marginalizing and contrary to the Gospel, the Baptismal Covenant and our history.

The Rt. Rev. Brian N. Prior
IX Bishop, Episcopal Church of Minnesota

I write all of this in my blog today to make several statements. To be LGBTQ and to be out, proud and doing my part for the work of justice, equality and inclusion is being faithful to the Baptismal Covenant found on pages 304-306 in the Book of Common Prayer. To be concerned about not only LGBTQ people, but all marginalized people such as African Americans, immigrants, Native Americans, women and many others is also being faithful to the Baptismal Covenant. 

I do not have to be a Bible thumping Dominionist to be a true follower of Jesus Christ, and in love with the Church, the Sacraments and the message of salvation. I also do not have to be defined by the LGBTQ community as totally untrusting of the Christian religion to some day change the hearts and minds of many people about LGBTQ people and all other marginalized persons. I also do not have to justify the Church when its leaders and communicants speak or act in a manner that is contrary to the Gospel when LGBTQ and other marginalized persons are continually marginalized and exploited.

Today's commemoration is about sharing the Gospel message through ministry and service of God's people. Coming out and being part of the movement on behalf of those who are forgotten, stigmatized and oppressed is just one way of participating in that work of sharing the Gospel. It is a part any LGBTQ person can participate at any point in time. But, it is important to begin with being honest with yourself, God and others around you. Resisting the message of Christianists and those who tell us that we are sick, pedophiles and dangerous to family and children. Being LGBTQ is wonderful, holy and beautiful. God saw all that God made about us, and said "it is very good."


Prayers

Holy God, no one is excluded from your love, and your truth transforms the minds of all who seek you: As your servant Philip was led to embrace the fullness of your salvation and to bring the stranger to Baptism, so give us all the grace to be heralds of the Gospel, proclaiming your love in Jesus Christ our Savior, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (Holy Men, Holy Women, Celebrating the Saints, page 635).


Lord, we pray that your grace may always precede and follow us, that we may continually be given to good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (Proper 23, Book of Common Prayer, page 235).

O God, you made us in your own image and redeemed us through Jesus your Son: Look with compassion on the whole human family; take away the arrogance and hatred which infect our hearts; break down the walls that separate us; unite us in bonds of love; and work through our struggle and confusion to accomplish your purposes on earth; that, in your good time, all nations and races may serve you in harmony around your heavenly throne; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Book of Common Prayer, page 815).

 

Seventeeth Sunday after Pentecost: Welcome, Eat, Celebrate, Be Inclusive

Scripture Basis

Matthew 22:1-14 (NRSV)

Once more Jesus spoke to the people in parables, saying: "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come. Again he sent other slaves, saying, `Tell those who have been invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet.' But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his slaves, mistreated them, and killed them. The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. Then he said to his slaves, `The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.' Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with guests.

"But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, and he said to him, `Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?' And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, `Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' For many are called, but few are chosen."

Blog Reflection

The Gospel for today does not come across to me as terribly encouraging.  To me the king sounds like a real jerk especially at the end of the story.  The king wants people to come to his dinner party.  The people the king invited didn't even come.  When the kings servants went to the king's farm and business his slaves were mistreated and seized.   The king invites those in the street whether good or bad.  Those are the one's that come.  Just because there was one person there who wasn't dressed right, that person gets thrown out.  What an ass!!

The heart of the story is not really the invites who did not come, nor is it about the guest who was thrown out because he wasn't dressed right.  The parable points to something much more. 

Out in Scripture suggests that the reading from Exodus, Isaiah, Philippians and the Gospel from Matthew are all about reputation.  Reputation is important.  In Exodus Moses challenges God to relent in God's desired punishment of the people who have chosen to worship a golden calf.  Moses calls upon God to be mindful of the God's reputation of having delivered the Israelites through the Red Sea, and what a tragedy it would be for God to destroy them now.   God is known as the God who saves, not the God who destroys.  God answers Moses by not destroying God's people.

God is not only concerned about God’s own street credibility. In Isaiah 25:1-9, while celebrating God’s future destruction of the unjust and unfaithful city, the prophet lauds God’s refuge for the poor and needy who now sing God’s glory. God provides a banquet for those once outcast replete with the finest of foods. Yet there is more! God not only wipes away the tears shed by the oppressed, God wipes away the disgrace of the people who have been shamed by their oppressors (verse 8). (Out in Scripture).

Philippians 4:1-9 combines a call to reconciliation with an exhortation to hope. It seems odd that Paul should tell the church in Philippi that they should rejoice and live beyond anxiety. After all, can we really choose to rejoice? Do we have control over our anxiety? Paul does not base his exhortation in our own ability to feel joyful and calm. He grounds it in the very nature of God, who is the God of peace. Paul's spirituality is not about "the power of positive thinking." It is the testimony of a prisoner who opens his spirit to the presence of God. (Out in Scripture).

As we are thinking about reputation this Sunday, I think there is a lot of room to think very carefully about the reputation God gets when Christianists and arch-conservative Catholics/Episcopalians/Orthodox etc, continue their violent rhetoric towards lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning and queer people.  Contrary to what such individuals say the sexual love between two people of the same sex is not condemned by God in Scripture.  Many of the famous clobber passages (ie. Leviticus 20:13, 1 Cor. 6:9, Romans 1:27 etc) have been so badly misinterpreted to suggest God's condemnation of homsexuality and LGBT people.  Such erroneous and misleading translations are used to justify the most egregious and vicious violence and rhetoric. The reputation of God becomes falsified. God and Jesus get a bad name.

The Holy Spirit came to the Church to stretch the arms of God's unconditional love, spread by Jesus Christ on the cross and embrace every person so that they can find salvation and community.  Jesus invites everyone without exception to receive God's Presence at the Eucharist regardless of how they are dressed, what color their skin, who and how they love other people, and what their gender identity/expression is.   

Today is Coming Out Sunday.  The day we encourage people who are LGBTQ to come out and live their lives openly and honestly as they are.  The threats to LGBTQ people are very great as religious, political and social oppression continues on the basis of one's sexual orientation and/or gender identity/expression.  LGBTQ people are still denied equality and inclusion in workplaces, churches, marriage equality rights and just the opportunity to exist and be without the threat of hate crimes or total isolation.  Why should we come out?

Because when an LGBTQ person comes out, that gay joke someone likes to tell is now about us.  The remark about the fag or dyke is personal as it could be about any one close to us, or someone we know and love dearly. The news that a transgender person was beaten to death affects us and challenges us to become active in the cause for LGBTQ equality and resist the negative messages of the dominionists.  Suddenly the LGBTQ person who was the stranger, unusually dressed, acts a bit differently is just another person at God's banquet. 

So who is the individual that came to the banquet not properly dressed?  It is not the married gay couple.  It is not the child being raised by two lesbians. The improperly dressed person is not the transgender woman or man or the bisexual man who is in a relationship with both his wife and has a boyfriend, and is totally open with everyone in his life.

I think the person who is improperly dressed represents those who come to the banquet with their focus not on the enjoyment of all that God so graciously gives to all the guests, but instead is standing there passing judgement on whom she/he thinks should not be there.  Rather then celebrating the inclusion of all who is attending God's celebration, the guest's rob that lacks compassion and appreciation for diversity and community, is the one the king cannot keep in his company.  Hate and exclusion, a desire to maintain attitudes of bias and anger towards those different from ourselves, do not find good company among themselves in the presence of the God of unconditional and all-inclusive love. 

God's banquet is a community of love, justice, inclusion. In God's reign, everyone is invited to feast and celebrate God's peace and forgiving mercy. God's reputation is not one of damning everything that white, male, heterosexual, wealthy, healthy Christians constantly tell the world about. And form political parties and create capitalistic empires to dominate the world. God's reputation is love, salvation, holiness, hospitality and reconciliation. God showed God's love for all God's people when Jesus took on the form of humankind and served to the point of giving his life on the cross and rising from the dead. (See Philippians 2: 5-11).  Jesus does not have to demand dominionism. Jesus does not demand every religion to become Christianity. Jesus does not commission ex-gay groups to change gay, lesbian and bisexual people. Jesus saves all humankind through his service to all who are in need of God's compassion and gives us a place to serve along with all God's saints.   

God welcomes us to eat, celebrate and to be inclusive.  


Prayers

Lord, we pray that your grace may always precede and follow us, that we may continually be given to good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (Proper 23, Book of Common Prayer, page 234).

O God, you made us in your own image and redeemed us through Jesus your Son: Look with compassion on the whole human family; take away the arrogance and hatred which infect our hearts; break down the walls that separate us; unite us in bonds of love; and work through our struggle and confusion to accomplish your purposes on earth; that, in your good time, all nations and races may serve you in harmony around your heavenly throne; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Prayer for the Human Family, Book of Common Prayer, page 815).


Grant, O God, that your holy and life-giving Spirit may so move every human heart, that barriers which divide us may crumble, suspicions disappear, and hatreds cease; that our divisions being healed, we may live in justice and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Prayer for Social Justice, page 823).

National Coming Out Week 2010: Spreading Light in the Midst of Darkness

Matthew 5:13-16 (NRSV)

Jesus said, "You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.

"You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven."

If only all of us could grasp with our minds and hearts the idea that God loves us, what a different world we would be living in.  Susan Russell said in her recording: "It Get's Better" "God who doesn’t just want your life to get better – God wants your life to get fabulous." 

Many of us have a problem with that don't we?  Our Christian Church has folks who have unfortunately taken hold of teachings and philosophies that are erroneous.  Particularly about lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning and queer people.  Even without the issue of bias towards being straight and single gender minded vs. being LGBTQ, life is harsh.  The economy right now is really bad.  Our politicians and those who have promised through their campaigns to support the middle class are letting the middle class down again and again.  For the LGBTQ communities the news that President Obama is going to appeal the order to end Don't Ask, Don't Tell immediately feels like such a betrayal.  How can so many of us think, write or pray with the attitude of "God wants our lives to be fabulous"?   As one responder on Facebook wrote: "What if their lives do not get fabulous?" 

We tend as a society and a Church to base the value of our accomplishments and/or how or whether we are loved by God on whether we succeed at something or fail.  Failure eats at our personal pride.   In the Book of Common Prayer on page 836 we pray: "We also thank you for those disappointments and failures that lead us to acknowledge our dependence on you alone."  I personally thank Dean Spenser Simrill of St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral in Minneapolis for bringing that to my attention.  When we as a Church who claim to be believers in Jesus Christ take on a spirituality that suggests that we see ourselves as loved by God if we succeed, but hated by God if we fail, we are deceiving ourselves and the world around us.   When any Christianist group: Focus on the Family, The Family Research Council, the American Family Council, the National Organization for Marriage and other such groups, including the hierarchy of the Catholic church, suggest that God sees LGBTQ people as "intrinsically disordered" or "only loved if we change," they are deceiving Christians and the world around us. 

The Gospel reading for today's commemoration of St. Teresa of Avila tells us that we are the light of the world and the salt of the earth.  I don't know about you, but when I hear Christianists and arch-conservative Catholics suggesting that LGBTQ people cannot have a vibrant relationship with Jesus Christ unless we submit to an ex-gay ministry or agree to change, I think they wants us to be that dim light that cannot shine too brightly.  Or perhaps they want LGBTQ people to be regarded as salt that has lost it's flavor.  Salt may be considered a seasoning, but last I heard variety is the spice of life.  There is granulated salt, sea salt and kosher salt.  All unique, but each adds a flavor that brings delight to those who taste them.  LGBTQ people are a "brand" of salt that adds joy to God's heart when through our sexual orientation and/or gender identity/expression we others around us.  When we call the Church and society to justice, equality and a change of heart and behavior towards sexual and gender diversity, we bring joy to the heart of God.    When we unite our cause to those of other races, religions, and other sexual orientations such as asexual people, pan sexual and other forms, languages, abilities, challenges physical, mental or psychological, rich or poor we delight God.

We are reaching the end of National Coming Out Week 2010.  If there is one thing I could say about coming out, justice, equality for sexual orientations and gender diversity/expression/identity, is that we need to come out, so that we can be the persons God made us to be.  We need to learn to bask in the Son Light of Jesus Christ.  Coming out is taking hold of the opportunity to learn to see ourselves through God's eyes and not those of the anti-LGBTQ rhetoric that is used towards us.  Even if our coming out results in a lot of pain for a lot of people around us and it does, I have been there too, it is an opportunity to grow closer to God through it and realize that there is nothing about us that God does not know or love.  In Jesus Christ, our sins are forgiven, we are redeemed and are given to new life through his Name.  We have nothing to be ashamed of, embarrassed about and there is no reason we cannot also be the salt of the earth and the light of the world.

Lord, we pray that your grace may always precede and follow us, that we may continually be given to good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (Proper 23, Book of Common Prayer, page 234-235).

O God, by your Holy Spirit you moved Teresa of Avila to manifest to your Church the way of perfection: Grant us, we pray, to be nourished by her excellent teaching, and enkindle within us a keen and unquenchable longing for true holiness; through Jesus Christ, the joy of loving hearts, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Collect for Teresa of Avila, Holy Women, Holy Men, Celebrating the Saints, page 639).

National Coming Out Day 2010-God Wants Your Life to Be Fabulous

The title of this blog post: "God Wants Your Life to Be Fabulous" comes from a post by Rev. Susan Russell in the LA Diocesan Program Group on LGBT Programs.  In the post is Susan Russell's "It Gets Better" in response to the tragedies of the last few weeks.  In the post Rev. Russell said:

God who doesn’t just want your life to get better – God wants your life to get fabulous!

It is by no accident that this National Coming Out Day falls on the Episcopal Church's commemoration of St. Philip the Deacon and Evangelist.  Today's reading from Acts gives us the episode of Philip's life and ministry.

Acts 8:26-40 (NRSV)

An angel of the Lord said to Philip, "Get up and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza." (This is a wilderness road.) So he got up and went. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. Then the Spirit said to Philip, "Go over to this chariot and join it." So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, "Do you understand what you are reading?" He replied, "How can I, unless someone guides me?" And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him. Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this:

"Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter,

and like a lamb silent before its shearer,

so he does not open his mouth.

In his humiliation justice was denied him.

Who can describe his generation?

For his life is taken away from the earth."

The eunuch asked Philip, "About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?" Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus. As they were going along the road, they came to some water; and the eunuch said, "Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?" He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he was passing through the region, he proclaimed the good news to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.

The eunuch in Biblical times can very easily be interpreted as the homosexuals.  There are numerous references to the eunuchs in the Bible.

Isaiah 56: 1-8

Thus says the Lord:
   Maintain justice, and do what is right,
for soon my salvation will come,
   and my deliverance be revealed.

² Happy is the mortal who does this,
   the one who holds it fast,
who keeps the sabbath, not profaning it,
   and refrains from doing any evil.

³ Do not let the foreigner joined to the Lord say,
   ‘The Lord will surely separate me from his people’;
and do not let the eunuch say,
   ‘I am just a dry tree.’
⁴ For thus says the Lord:
To the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths,
   who choose the things that please me
   and hold fast my covenant,
⁵ I will give, in my house and within my walls,
   a monument and a name
   better than sons and daughters;
I will give them an everlasting name
   that shall not be cut off.

⁶ And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord,
   to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord,
   and to be his servants,
all who keep the sabbath, and do not profane it,
   and hold fast my covenant—
⁷ these I will bring to my holy mountain,
   and make them joyful in my house of prayer;
their burnt-offerings and their sacrifices
   will be accepted on my altar;
for my house shall be called a house of prayer
   for all peoples.
⁸ Thus says the Lord God,
   who gathers the outcasts of Israel,
I will gather others to them
   besides those already gathered.^*

Here we see God saying that the eunuch will be be given a monument and a wall of honor by the new Covenant.  This appears to be what Jesus did in Matthew 19: 11-12: 

"Not everyone can accept this teaching, but only those to whom it is given.  For there are eunuchs who have been made so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.  Let anyone accept this who can."

In a previous blog post I wrote using the story of Philip and the eunuch I wrote:

What is this?  A story about an Apostle of the early Church associating with a eunuch?  A (gulp) homosexual? Not only a gay person, but a gay person from Ethiopia.  This just cannot be!  There it is right in the Acts of the Apostles.  A narrative about Philip the Apostle sharing the Gospel with a eunuch who would have been someone who is gay in Biblical times.  Keep in mind that the age in which the Bible was written the words heterosexual and homosexual were not part of the vocabulary of the day.  Sexuality was about the strong vs the weak.  Gray Temple addresses this at length in his book Gay Unions In Light of Scripture, Tradition and Reason.  The Bible does tell us a lot about what sexuality was like in the time in which it was written.  

In the same blog post written by Susan Russell she wrote:

And as a priest and pastor I want you to know that anybody who tells you that God condemns you is wrong.

And if anybody says to you “But the Bible says …” I want you to remember this: God gave us the Bible as a tool for us to live our lives -- not as a weapon to beat up other people – and history is full of people who were wrong about what the Bible says … using it to support slavery, to oppress women and to condemn Galileo for discovering that the earth revolved around the sun instead other way around.

And it turns out that the same people who were wrong about what the Bible said about slavery, about women’s equality and about astronomy are wrong about what the Bible says about homosexuality.

Jesus said love your neighbor – not love you neighbor unless your neighbor is gay.

Homosexuality doesn’t grieve the heart of God – homophobia does. Bullying does. Violence against any beloved child of God does.

And you are a beloved child of God. Created in God’s image exactly as God intended you to be.

Today's Gospel for this commemoration is the ever famous commissioning of the Church after Jesus' resurrection, just before his ascension in Matthew 28: 18-20.

Jesus came and said to the disciples, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

Jesus does not say in this Gospel: "Only do not baptize LGBTQ people."  Jesus tells the disciples to make disciples of all nations, which means all people, including LGBTQ.

What Susan Russell said in her blog post that "God wants your life to become fabulous" is totally true.  Coming out is about learning to love ourselves and others exactly as we are.  When we come out as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning and/or queer people we are telling God, ourselves and others around us that we are created in the image of God's graciousness and love for all people.  We carry within the beauty of who we are, the very stamp of God's approval.  Within each of us is a person so precious to God that God gave God's Son for each of us to find our way back to God, being none other than who God created and redeemed us to be.  "Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another." (1 John 4:11).

Yesterday, Dean Spenser Simrill of St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral remarked about the recent tragedies of the youths who have taken their own lives due to bullying.  Dean Spenser so correctly stated that these young people and all LGBTQ people are victims of "spiritual malpractice and doctrinal abuse".  Whenever any Christianist group or arch-conservative Catholic Bishop or anyone else for that matter makes use of the Bible to suggest that LGBTQ people are "intrinsically disordered", they are making LGBTQ people victims of "spiritual malpractice and doctrinal abuse".  Jesus certainly does not see us that way.  Jesus sees us as God's children with whom God is well-pleased.  When we come out as LGBTQ people, we are saying we will not accept "spiritual malpractice or doctrinal abuse" to denigrate who we are, or who and how we love.  We are saying we are proud of who we are, who and how we love other people including our partners.  When we come out, we empower ourselves to depend upon God for the reality of who we are and who we love.  When we come out, we live our lives in thanksgiving to God for making us who we are and for making so many wonderful people for us to love and work besides as we work towards equality.  


I really love the Collect for the Commemoration of Philip the Deacon and Evangelist.  For today, it is the only prayer I am going to use.  I want us to both listen to the words and make them our prayer for today.

Holy God, no one is excluded from your love, and your truth transforms the minds of all who seek you: As your servant Philip was led to embrace the fullness of your salvation and to bring the stranger to Baptism, so give us all the grace to be heralds of the Gospel, proclaiming your love in Jesus Christ our Savior, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (Collect for Philip, Holy Women, Holy Men, Celebrating the Saints, page 635).

   Before my blog is completely finished, let us all remember today Matthew Shepard on the anniversary of his death.  Today, may we remember his family, friends as well as those who still commit acts of violence towards LGBTQ people.

20th Sunday After Pentecost: National Coming Out Week. Let Us Be Thankful

Have you ever had the experience of having a problem that needs to be solved and the answer comes from the most unlikely place or person?  In the movie The Lord of the Rings; The Fellowship of the Ring, the Ring was picked up by "the most unlikely creature.  Bilbo Baggins of the Shire."  Later it is Frodo Baggins that takes the Ring and goes on the long journey with his friend Samwise Gamgee to destroy the Ring in the sea of fire.  Attitudes such as someone is too small, too feminine, too gay, too manly or too anything in said movies and events happen in life because of preconceived notions and stereotypes.

This upcoming weekend the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning and queer communities celebrate National Coming Out Day.  This weeks blog writings from me will be about coming out and how we can relate coming out with our call as disciples and followers of Jesus Christ.  LGBTQ people have been experiencing some real tragedies over these past weeks.  It is time for us to begin to look at ourselves and our communities in positive ways.  We need to see the many positive ways that God views our sexual and gender diversity.

The readings for this Sunday detail for us the experiences of people that have been stereotyped and pushed aside by the communities they are in.  In the case of 2 Kings 5:1-3, 7-15c Naaman is told by the Prophet Elisha to go wash himself seven times in the Jordan to be cleansed of his leprosy.  Interestingly enough, the Jordan is the same river that Jesus was baptized in through which he claimed water as the means through which we would share in Christ's death and resurrection.  Naaman was cut off from his community because he was a foreigner and because he had leprosy.  How many gay and bisexual men are cut off from their home communities because of their sexual orientation, and cut off from the LGBTQ communities because they live with HIV/AIDS or any other STD for that matter?  It is a double-edged sword of stigmatization and rejection.  It really does not matter how they got the diseases or what they did or did not do.  They are still human beings with fragile hearts.   The guilt that often comes with any STD including HIV/AIDS is bad enough.  The isolation and rejection is another layer of bad icing for the cake.

As LGBTQ people, we have a blessed gift to be able to love uniquely.  Our sexual and gender diversity is our gift, not our condemnation.  Not only do our communities need to work to establish equality through the laws of our Nation, State and local Governments and churches, but also among ourselves and each other.  We all know how difficult yet wonderful coming out is.  But we also know how scary it can be.  We do the greatest damage to our communities and to ourselves when we behave carelessly without concern for those with whom we come into contact.

In the Gospel of Luke 17: 11-19, we read.

On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!" When he saw them, he said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were made clean. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, "Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" Then he said to him, "Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well."

Here Jesus does a miraculous cure for every one.  Yet it is the foreigner who comes back to give thanks to God.  A "foreigner" can be translated in many ways.  There are those who think that LGBTQ people are the "foreigners" to the Christian Church.  Yet, when we come out and embrace the life that God has created for us to live, to love openly and freely as we are, our excitement is so great it is quite contagious.  So it is no wonder that we might find someone from some Christianist or arch-conservative Catholic group who has to be the party popper.  Yet, what is so interesting about the response of Christianists and conservative Catholics to the issue of homosexuality and transgender people, is how obsessed they are with the subject of sex.

Last March, Jason and I were in the Minnesota Senate Hearing Room for a hearing on a Marriage Equality bill.  All of the Christianists and Catholics who came forward to oppose the bill, spoke only and mostly about homosexuality.  The Senate Hearing Chairperson called them out and reminded them that the bill we were there to talk about was about marriage and giving same-sex couples the opportunity to share in that institution and that the opposition made the bill mostly about sex.

Coming out as LGBTQ people is about so much more than our sexuality.  It is about how we love other people and about who we love. Our ability to love other's in platonic and physically active ways is an expression of our thanksgiving to God for the awesome opportunity and responsibility to love another person.  Our lives and our love is an expression of God through us for every person in wonderful, holy and wholesome ways.

The healing of the lepers and the one who came back to say thank you is all of us who are LGBTQ.  When we return with the gift of our sexual and/or gender diversity to love other people, we are giving thanks and glory to God.  When through the gift of our sexuality and gender identity/expression we express sorrow and anger about the terrible events of these last two weeks and call upon churches, school boards, our Governments and all to help create safe environments we are giving thanks to God.

Our thanks expressed to God needs to be shown as we help LGBTQ youth and all within our communities know that the sacred place that is the place of intimacy,  is one that we must challenge everyone including ourselves to respect and protect from all any and all predators.  Bishop Beckwith called our attention to such in the blog I posted yesterday.   

We want to call attention to another, potentially deeper, issue here. It is the invasion of intimacy. Intimacy is a holy place within every human being; an innermost sanctuary where we develop our ultimate beliefs and values, nurture our closest relationships and maintain our deepest commitments. No one has the right to disclose that intimacy for someone else without consent. Such a violation is tantamount to the desecration of a sacred space. It is, in fact, a sacred space. It is the territory of the soul.

Technology, however, now provides tools to record, seize and disclose the most intimate matters of our lives without our consent. Identities can be stolen, hearts broken and lives shattered. Technology has placed powerful tools in human hands. Will they be used for building-up or for breaking down our neighbor? Tyler Clementi’s death certainly poses some important legal issues, but it also raises some critical moral concerns. Hubris has outstripped humility. And that is a serious problem. We can do better. We must do better, with God’s help.

In our Episcopal tradition, whenever we reaffirm our faith in worship, we are given a challenging question: “will you respect the dignity of every human being?” And we answer, “I will, with God’s help.” It is an important commitment. Whatever our religious tradition, we can agree on the need to respect one another’s dignity. With God’s help, we can stand together and stand up against bullies who would damage and destroy the lives of LGBT persons, their partners and families and friends. With God’s help, we can offer safety, support and sanctuary to all LGBT persons who are at risk. With God’s help, we can remind our society that every LGBT person is made in the image of God. The world needs our witness.

When we come out we affirm the sacred space that is in each of us where God and our souls communicate through our intimacy with God and our partner whom we love most deeply.  As Bishop Beckwith has stated, we must work towards LGBT equality so that the sacred space of LGBTQ people may be regarded as just that: sacred space.  It is the place where we and God commune, and it is there that God communes with us through committed loving relationships.  It really is not the business of any Christianist person or group or any Catholic hierarchy to be doing all they can to vandalize the sacred space that is the place of intimacy for LGBTQ people.  If we can just take seriously the opportunity and necessity of working toward that goal, we will be returning to Jesus to give thanks to God for the mighty and powerful witness of God's Holy Spirit in our lives, the Church and the world.  Amen.

Lord, we pray that your grace may always precede and follow us, that we may continually be given to good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (Proper 23, Book of Common Prayer, pages 234 and 235.)

O God, you made us in your own image and redeemed us through Jesus your Son: Look with compassion on the whole human family; take away the arrogance and hatred which infect our hearts; break down the walls that separate us; unite us in bonds of love; and work through our struggle and confusion to accomplish your purposes on earth; that, in your good time, all nations and races may serve you in harmony around your heavenly throne; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Prayer for the Human Family, Book of Common Prayer, page 815).

O God of peace, who has taught us that in returning and rest we will be saved, in quietness and confidence will be our strength: By the might of your Spirit lift us, we pray, to your presence, where we may be still and know that you are God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Prayer for Quiet Confidence, Book of Common Prayer, page 832).

Our Creator beyond us,
    Yet you dwell among us,
    We praise you.
    We pray for the home of promise
        (which we've never fully known)
        as we work to be your welcome in the world.
    Grant us this day abundant life.
    And forgive us our exiling
        as we pray for the peace
        to forgive those who exile us.
    Lead us out of our need to create boundaries,
        and delight us in the diversity of life!
    For you are the Keeper of Community,
        the Source behind our deepest longing,
        and the One who provides an eternal Home.
    Amen. (Prayerfully Out in Scripture). 

National Coming Out Day: How Do We Define Riches?

This weekend there is a group of people participating in Washington, DC for the National Equality March. Among the individuals who chairs this event is Cleve Jones who was an activist along slain Gay Civil Rights leader: Harvey Milk who was City Supervisor in San Francisco in the late 1970's early 80's. This past week Cleve Jones appeared on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 to talk about why he and others are marching in Washington tomorrow. The march is taking place because people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered want people to know that they are concerned with where the country is going. LGBT individuals, families and couples have experienced one law being passed, while three more are revoked. In many states across the country States have passed adoption laws for same-sex parents only to see them revoked some years later. Parents and families are brought together and torn apart. Last year, we saw the Supreme Court of the State of California pass laws allowing same sex couples to legally marry. In less than a year, anti-gay activists took up the cause of Proposition 8 and with a vote of the State, the gay marriage laws were removed. This is why the National Equality March is such an important activity this weekend.

Tomorrow is what is called: "National Coming Out Day." It is a day in the lives of LGBT individuals that we recognize and celebrate our sexuality and our identity as vital and equal individual members of society. We come out, because to stay in our closets is to deny the very essence of ourselves by wearing a mask, saying we are one kind of person when in fact we are another. Coming out of our shells and saying that we are lesbian women, gay men, bisexual women or men, or men who have become women, or women who have become men, we stand before God, before each other and before our family, friends, churches, work places, politicians and even our enemies as real people. Some of us come out to find that people knew we were gay all along, but wondered why we waited so long to be ourselves. Others come out only to find that those we thought or hoped would love us, suddenly show their true colors of prejudice and hate.

As I have read through the Scripture readings for this weekends Liturgy, I am struck with how much they speak to the experiences of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered people. Almost all of us have suffered in one capacity or another because of our sexual orientation or gender identity or expression. As with the Psalmist who cries out in agony in Psalm 22 we wonder where is God in the midst of what we are experiencing. In both Psalm 22 and the Old Testament Reading Job and the Psalmist are searching for God in the midst of pain and suffering only to feel as if God is totally absent. LGBT individuals know this experience all too well. We come out of our closets happy and looking for love. If we don't experience some Christian right winger trying to tell us that we are going to hell for the "choices" we make, someone else ignorant about the issues of LGBT people asks the question: "Well, why do you have to be out, how is what you do in your bed anyone else's business?" How many of us turn to God in prayer, looking for the right wing to leave us alone? How many individuals such as a Lesbian woman who's partner died in the intensive care unit in the hospital and was not allowed to see here before she died, and a Supreme Court judge won't even hear the case, feel like God has just abandoned them? How about a gay couple that has a wonderful young girl who they've been loving and raising, spending all kinds of money on in a custody battle, only to have the little girl ripped out of their lives by some discriminatory judge and legal system? I am sure such individuals feel sometimes that God is against them, or just not interested. Where is God in the midst of our suffering?

We must remember that the Bible is not only full of stories of Salvation through joys and victories, but that the people of ancient Israel often cried in lament to God. The Psalms are Israels Liturgical hymnal. In the Psalms are songs of Israel praising God, but also crying out in absolute agony and abandonment to God. A broken Psalmist in Psalm 22 wants to know where is God while their bodies are being broken and their spirits crushed? When LGBT individuals experience bigotry and hatred and it appears to win, we have every reason to cry out to God and say: Where are you? And believe that even when we don't know where God is, the Lord is closer to us than we are to ourselves.

The writer of the Hebrews gives us a look at the word of God. It tells us that the word of God pierces our thoughts and emotions. The word is "living and active". The word of God interacts with us where we are, as we are, not as others would have us be. The word of God is not interested in making us into what other members of the Christian community wants us to be. Jesus did not experience what we know all too well, just so that we can be made someone different than who we are. Jesus is the high Priest who knows that we experience temptations and disappointments and even death, because of who we are. And God in Jesus loves us as we are, and identifies with our human experience. That is why when we experience discrimination and pain because of family members, the church, political agendas and even our place of work, we should "turn boldly to the throne of grace" and seek God's will for our lives. God longs to love us and affirm who we are, by participating and interacting with us. What we might find is that God wants us to gain a healthier and happier picture of ourselves, and through God's redemptive graces in Jesus, God wants to set us free, and work for the freedom of others.

In our Gospel lesson today, we are faced with following the Commandments, those who are privileged whether LGBT or not. All of us have riches that are placed in our hands. And for many young men and women who are faced with the decision to come out or not, they are faced with what they can keep or loose. If they stay in their closets and pretend to be someone they are not, they can keep the family business, or the big will that is left to their name when their parents pass on and even their parents paying their college tuition. If they only look like they are straight and pretend to be happy, they can keep all their treasures. Yet in all that they keep, they loose so much. They loose their identity, their self esteem. They give up their hope for happiness and love for a future filled with lies, confusion and for many constant despair. All in the name of protecting themselves and their families from the truth of who they are.

Yet, if they give it all up and be who they are, they could loose their inheritance to their parent's business. Some have even been kicked out of the family home, church, school or even their own country. In giving up their closets, they have often given up treasures for a whole lot of hell. Others who have accepted what they've lost, have found someone to love them, cherish them, a church home where they are accepted and affirmed. Many who have given up their families by coming out, have started very successful businesses of their own. Others have become counselors to LGBT youth and individuals, others have become ministers. Others have become activists who have helped their communities fight for equality on any number of levels.

Submission to God's will is essential to finding salvation. While we might find some minimal comfort in the closets where no one knows our true identity, what we are in fact doing is stifling God's will. Yet, when we truly give up those things that hinder us, no matter how much we treasure them, and surrender to God's will, we find so much more to be thankful for. We can find a true path to following God in our lives when we let go of those things that weigh us down, and follow God as God has created us. We can find true happiness in God's happiness with who and how we have been created.

In closing, I want to share a story from my coming out. I was a Catholic for many years and spent a significant amount of time in my own closet. During that time, I was privileged to know a great and wonderful Priest. As I started to come out, I was so afraid of what that Priest would tell me when I told him I was gay. His response to me was one of love and affirmation. He told me: "You have to love people the way God created you to love them." In giving up our closets, we gain being able to love people in the way God created us to love them. Our closets may seem like a treasure chest, but they hold us down and keep us from going forward. Only when we open up and come out, do we gain a sense of who we really are and why our rights are so important to us.

To that end, though I am not able to join the National Equality March in person, you can bet I am there in spirit and in prayer. Because it is past time to cut the hate speech and wait rhetoric. It is time for all people including LGBT individuals to be recognized by political leaders, churches, families, social groups, schools, and many more people and places as individuals and couples seeking to love as God created us to. Amen.

Scripture References: Job 23: 1-9, 16-17. Psalm 22: 1-15. Hebrews 4: 12-16. Mark 10: 17 -31.