I am preaching at Bridgeport UCC (one block north of 76th and Glisan in Portland, Oregon) on PRIDE SUNDAY! I am in fits trying to think of ways to be both funny and poignant, because I want it to be a service that people will remember for a long time afterward. Preliminary ideas include staying in the back until it’s time for me to preach and coming out dressed like Boy George. My dad did that once for his youth group back in the ’80s, and there are still people recovering, I assure you.
There are so many people that will read this article and their cheeks will start flaming (as it were). When steam starts coming out of their ears, you know what’s coming next. What could gay pride possibly have in common with the Bible? I can see the conservatives lining up around the blog to tell me what a horrible idea this is (speaking of which, “around the blog” is a typo, and I thought it was so funny I left it in).
Here’s what I have to say to people who will argue with me that gay pride and Christianity are incompatible. Strap in:
You don’t know the first thing about the God of love, the God of promise, and the Son, through which all people on earth are bound together. If you are as giving as you say you are, that includes non-Christians and gasp, queers. Here is my go-to Bible verse, taken from Galatians:
We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that a person is justified not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law.
Do you see what I did there? Look at it closely… “because no one will be justified by the works of the law.” Where is homosexuality mentioned most often as sin in the Bible? It was an old Jewish law, designed to keep Jews making more Jews. There was a similar law banning masturbation, again because sex needed to lead to procreation. The Jews were a small group, trying to multiply.
Jesus freed us from strict rabbinical exegesis. Our task is to be Christ in the world, not to harp on laws that people have broken. If people become that nit-picky, no one, gay or straight, will deem themselves worthy of doing so.
What does it mean to be Christ in the world? Mostly it means noticing things. Notice when people need help, notice when there’s something that needs to be done, and try to live in a community where you receive those opportunities to see people in need. For some people, this is church. For others, it is brunch (it’s Pride Sunday. HELLOOOOO).
Go ahead and live dangerously. Be more giving than you can imagine, and let that feeling wash over you, as cool as a fine silk pillow. When you’ve given all you can, give some more. But at the same time, find a way to fill yourself back up. You won’t be able to give to anyone if you’re so strung out you can’t see that far.
What will happen is that you will create a network of generosity that begins and ends with you.
May it be so.
Amen.
Stories That Are All True 