Still growing up

Yesterday--for the first time--I directly addressed the issue of homosexuality from the pulpit. I have been at this place for two years; I figured we know each other well enough for me to speak honestly and openly (one member even thanked me for it!). I told them that I disagree with some our current UMC language that continues to exclude lesbian and gay sisters and brothers in our midst. They are our neighbors and, after all, we are called to love our neighbors . . . we don't get to choose which ones. "They" (I hesitate to even frame it like this) are also our friends, our colleagues, our parishioners and our family members. In fact, from what I read in the bible about such things, our neighbors are especially the ones who are beaten down and oppressed. I know/have known GLBTQ folks who have been beaten down--literally many of them--by good righteous folks like ourselves. We need to stop beating up our neighbors, and we need to change our Discipline language, and we need to truly see everyone as our neighbors. We need to stop playing word games with Scripture and we need to allow full inclusion in every sense of the word to all persons regardless of sexual orientation. We will all be the better for it.

I am not as active as I once was in things but preaching about this issue was scary. Previously, I hurled verbal grenades via the op/ed section of a small-town newspaper; that was easy (and quite fun). But it was different doing it in front of people and, to make matters worse, our A/C went out (as did the lights) in the chapel at the start of the service. I was literally sweating. In the end, no one seemed to be angry. I couldn't read faces well enough to know some thoughts. Hopefully my folks in this place have grown to love me enough--as I have grown to love them--and sometimes we just need to be honest with each other. I had suspected that I would eventually 'come out' on this issue (pun intended), I just didn't know when. A text about loving our neighbors seemed a good time to do it.

I think I grew up a bit more yesterday. I think I will continue to grow and mature. And hopefully we will keep working on this thing about loving our neighbors until we--all of us--will get it right, and we'll be able to "go and do likewise." Thus endeth the lesson.