Hello dear readers I have some cool news to share : ) I've been accepted into the 2016 Leadership Development Cohort of The Reformation Project. TRP was founded by Matthew Vines in 2013 and seeks to train Christians to support and affirm LGBTQ people through grassroots movement building. I have committed to rigorously study the most important scholarly work about the Bible and LGBTQ people. This in preparation for April when the entire cohort of 39 LGBTQ and allied reformers will gather in Atlanta for an intensive Bible training.
I have also committed to help fundraise to offset the cost of the gathering, and would be extremely grateful for anyone who would be willing to follow this link to help me reach my goal. If you desire even greater inclusion of LGBTQ people in the Christian Church, a donation to TRP is an easy way to support this movement which spans dozens of denominations. Thanks again!
"But as I had forsaken the priests, so I left the separate preachers also, and those esteemed the most experienced people; for I saw there was none among them that could speak to my condition. And when all my hopes in them and in all men were gone, so that I had nothing outwardly to help me, nor could tell what to do, then, oh, then, I heard a voice which said, "There is one, even Christ Jesus, that can speak to thy condition."; and when I heart it my heard did leap for joy"
George Fox
Those close to me know that John is my favorite gospel, and 9 out of 10 times if you ever see me with an open Bible, it would be safe to assume that it is open to a story in John.
I've heard that John is naturally a more attractive gospel to those with a more mystical framework, and that may be true, but I just find it easier to imagine myself into some of the stories.
It is January 2016, and I am in a hotel room in Chicago. The Hilton that I am in is currently hosting a weeklong conference for LGBTQ activists called Creating Change. Alone in my room, I pull a small New Testament out of my luggage, open to John, and read the story of the Samaritan woman at the well.
I continue through the conference program, workshops, conversations over meals, new connections and old friends. I can't help but think through all of it, how pleasing this all must be in the eyes of God.
During the annual sessions of Northwest Yearly Meeting one summer, our superintendent was speaking during evening worship and said something that really stuck with me. She said that God loves each of us better than the best parent. I grew up hearing God spoken about with parent metaphors of course, God as Father, as Mother etc. However I never heard the metaphor said quite that way before, maybe it hit me more that day because I am at the point in my life where I have encountered many great parents.
I know parents who work long hours at backbreaking jobs to provide for their children. I know parents who come back home after emotionally exhausting jobs and find it within themselves to read to their children in bed and kiss them on their foreheads as they fall asleep. I know parents who would sacrifice their lives in an instant if it was needed to save their child, and who's hearts break in the worst way whenever they see their children sad.
I know so many queer people who have very poor excuses for parents. That is the kindest way I can type what I mean to say. Stories of my friends being kicked out of their homes after coming out to their parents as queer is not even the slightest bit uncommon in my friend group. The monsters called parents who rejected and forcibly removed their own flesh and blood from their families...I did mention that 95% percent of those stories are from Christian homes right? I pray soul sickening conviction on the hearts of parents who have made that choice.
I believe that God loves God's queer children. I believe that God loves God's queer children better than the best parent. I believe that the imprint, the divine spark of God, shines at the center of each of God's queer children. I believe that God desires for God's queer children to be celebrated, known, and respected on Earth as it is in Heaven.
I feel that the new things that God is doing through the queer community is why a hotel filled with activists is pleasing in God's eyes. I feel like God sees the people in this hotel that have never rejected others, and whose heart's doors of generosity have only opened wider throughout their lifetimes. I feel like I can see the magical sparkle of God's hope in the eyes of a community that has prioritized compassion and acceptance. I feel like God sees how much some of the people in that hotel have lived through, and God sees that they carry on living to make a better world for generations they will never meet.
This community is full of so many gifts that I see it pouring into the world, gifts that I believe come from God, being springs of living water onto earth that has been scorched by hatred, discrimination, and violence in God's name.
I think it would be incomprehensibly offensive to the minds of many in upper echelons of Christian hierarchy to hear that God is now revealing something new about Godself to and through queer people before themselves...as offensive as a Samaritan encountering the Messiah before a Jew. Thankfully, not being able to comprehend or understand a thing, has no bearing whatsoever on whether a thing is true or not. Praise God.
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