The First United Methodist Church of Napa, CA
June 13, 2010 – Reconciling Sunday
A Day in Celebration of LGBTQ People among Us

Scripture Readings:

Acts 2: 39

³⁹For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.”

John 16: 12-13

¹²“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. ¹³When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

“All Are Welcome Here!”

Somewhere in the middle of last week I decided to bring back the red paraments to grace our communion table this Sunday – alongside the exuberant and wonderful shout that is the unofficial banner of the gay community: the rainbow flag. I made that decision because I believe that today, of all days, is also a Pentecost-moment! That powerful Spirit that swept into the lives of those first disciples and gripped their hearts and lives with renewed purpose, is still breathing a breath of fresh air into the church that has confined too many brothers and sisters to the closet for far, far too long! Pentecost, then, at least for the people of The First United Methodist Church of Napa, is a shout of acclimation that “All are welcome here!” that no one is denied the grace, love and acceptance of God – no one. What’s more, you don’t have to change your sexuality to deserve such a welcome and to receive that love and acceptance – by us or by God!

For far, far too long the traditional church has declared that there’s only one way to understand that gospel reality. And yet Pentecost never was meant to be confined to one kind of people; Pentecost never was meant to be about “who’s in” and “who’s out.” It’s always been about the unleashed welcome of the Spirit that’s still saying today, in those words of Peter’s: “…the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls….”¹

All over the world, inside and outside of the Christian church, the Spirit has long been saying to us that gay and lesbian people are part of God’s good creation. But we haven’t been listening. The Holy Spirit has been proclaiming that one aspect of that good creation is the possibility of lifelong, faithful partnerships, and that gay people are, in fact, good and healthy examples of gifted human beings, more than capable of leadership within the Church – as baptized lay members and leaders as well as ordained ones. It causes me a deep sense of anger, frustration, and sadness, then, that my own denomination continues to perpetuate the archaic notion that to be something other than a heterosexual means that you’re a deeply flawed human being, a pariah, with only two choices: either be re-sexualized or expelled.

I do not deny that many, if not most, United Methodists (along with quite a few Christians of other persuasions) still fervently hold traditional views about human sexuality. What many of us within this same church have been saying, though, is that we ought to be open, welcoming and inclusive enough to be able to hold a variety of different understandings about our sexuality. Believe it or not, even John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, had something to say about how we should be accepting of one another in the midst of our differences. Commenting on what “the character of a Methodist,” really ought to be like, he said this:

…I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, that we be in no wise divided among ourselves. Is thy heart right, as my heart is with thine? I ask no farther question. If it be, give me thy hand. For opinions, or terms, let us not destroy the work of God. Dost thou love and serve God? It is enough. I give thee the right hand of fellowship. If there be any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, …let us strive together for the faith of the Gospel; walking worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called; with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace; remembering, there is one body, and one Spirit, even as we are called with one hope of our calling; “one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.”²

So I would submit that the willingness to live in tension over our differences has been a hallmark of Methodism, from its very beginning in the roots of Anglicanism, and as far back as the expressions of Roman Christianity in the fourth century. As much as the human community has been trying to pound people into conformity, I believe that the ever-present push-back of the Spirit has been calling us to a celebration of diversity! The Spirit is speaking to all of us now in ways that, at the moment, make it seem as if we’re not only no longer united we’ve even ceased to be Methodists! But this is the way of the Holy Spirit: it blows where it will and in ways we never would’ve imagined. As Jesus was thought to have said to his disciples as he left them to make up their own minds and follow their own hearts:

I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.³

Our denomination has spent almost 140 years in debate – and often hot debate – about just what it means to be a Christian and a Methodist. I used to be hopeful that we were at least listening to and for the inspiration of the Holy Spirit through it all. I am not as hopeful as I once was. It is clear that not everybody in the Church has been hearing the same message, but current developments (most apparent in the secular world, oddly enough) have begun to present a wider understanding of what it means to be a fully human being made “in the image and likeness of God.”⁴

I’ve never sought to impose my own understanding of the revelations of God upon others; but neither do I want theirs imposed upon me. I’ve fervently hoped for ways in which we can continue to dialogue over our differences and remain within the same church, because I do believe that the Spirit of creation itself is always calling us to a greater love and understanding of each other in the midst of those differences.

And yet just as the missionaries of the early church did come to impose their own will upon indigenous peoples, and destroyed whole cultures in favor of an Anglo-European view of the world, I despair that the church may be going backward as it seeks to centralize its authority and speak with one – and only one – voice. Standing right behind Martin Luther, it’s the very reason why we raised our voices in protest⁵ against the Roman Catholic Church to begin with.⁶ Singular control over all things religious has never been the best character of any church. A celebration of our diversity in the midst of a unity that we hold in common, however, is the best way to be a people of faith. The real “Body of Christ” – which is the original meaning of the concept of the Church – will only be found when that kind of diversity isn’t shunned, but welcomed with the most radical kind of hospitality we can deliver!

What do you think? How has your experience of all that is Holy – that is to say, your own understanding of Pentecost – informed you of what it means to be a human being and, at the same time, a child of God? I’ll be listening.⁷

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