We Are The Sowers of The Seed

These are exciting times to be gay/lesbian/bi/transgender - one of the rainbow people - in the Anglican church. For over a quarter of a century, Integrity has been around working for full membership in the church for rainbow people and, y'know, some days I think we're making progress. Recent events both inside and outside the church give hope. In New Westminster last month, the diocesan synod approved (for the third time) blessing same-sex unions in the church; and just on Friday, the Ontario supreme court ruled that denying marriage to same-sex couples is a violation of their Charter rights. More on that later.

We've just heard the parable of the sower, and that is about telling the good news, about evangelism. As Archbishop Ted Scott was fond of saying, quoting Karl Barth, "Evangelism is one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread." Every single one of us is in this building now because someone else, at some point, brought us. Somebody told us where to find bread. And that sharing of the good news is some thing we're all called upon to do.

I stay in the church because I'm still finding bread here. I feel fed in my life in Christ in my parish home. I know myself to be beloved of God: I see that in the pages of my bible, I see it in the faces of people I meet in church, I taste it in the sacrament I receive each week. I want to get along with the real task of Christians, living out my baptismal covenant -- clothing the naked, feeding the hungry, walking humbly with my God, to mix quotes -- but as long as lesbians, gays, bis, trans people - my people - are not welcomed at the table as full members of the Body of Christ, I must also work to ensure that welcome. Hence my work with Integrity. [That work takes two forms: first, inviting others in, and second, making sure the welcome from the church is better when they arrive]

I am privileged to be part of a dialogue group with the bishop of Toronto, that meets about every six weeks to talk about questions raised by rainbow people and the church. There are seven members, three from each side, plus the bishop. We talk about ways that we can all be in the same church, because we all worship the same god, we all believe the carpenter from Nazareth has some important things to say to us, and the church is home for all of us. We are all baptised, and it's part of all our birthrights.

Unlike Jacob, squabbling with Esau, I'm not interested in cheating anyone out of their birthright. I'm also not interested in being cheated out of mine; which is full membership in the Body of Christ.

I'm not interested in going to another denomination - this is my home. This is the good soil in which I am rooted, in which the seed - the word - grows in me. The Anglican church baptised me, they're stuck with me. By the same token, the Anglican church baptised more conservative people, and I'm stuck with them. It's not a question of "my church" or "your church", it's a family for all of us.

As a family, we tend to have different approaches. I think conservatives think of moves to include LGBT people in the church as the weeds, choking out the good seed - themselves, being faithful. I also get the impression when talking to conservatives from across the country that part of their uneasiness is a perception that those of us working for full inclusion are trying to pull a fast one, to sneak lgb rights in and grab the church away from them, just as Jacob pulled a fast one on Esau. Any pro-homosexual movement becomes the first step down a slippery slope, and mightily to be resisted.

I don't think it's a question of either/or; God loves you OR God loves me. I don't think love is a zero-sum where there's a finite amount of divine love to go around, and more for me means less for you. In God's grace there is enough good soil for everyone. God's love for us is there for both them and me, available in abundance for all.

It's that spirit of both/and that I see in the decisions of the New Westminster synod. The proposals call for a rite to bless same-sex unions, and provide a conscience clause, so those who really have difficulty with the concept can avoid it. I understand that through actions of this parish that Ottawa diocese will be asked to approve a similar approach. I hope that can happen here.

To listen to those opposed to change, this is a slippery slope away from God's truth, and very dangerous times for the church. As a gay man in the church, I don't feel like the downfall of western Christendom but that is how we're perceived by some.

Some feel we're just not Christian, but rather hedonists - that we are of the flesh, with minds set on things of the flesh, and hostile to God, as St Paul would put it. I believe that I - like any other gay/ lesbian/ bi/ trans person in the church - have the spirit of Christ, and that there is therefore no condemnation. I want to be part of the church, and to feel God's love here.

In my case, the intimate love of partnership will always be for another man. [I don't actually have a partner right now, though I hope someday I will] I know in the depth of my soul that God has created in me -- as in you -- the ability to love and the need to be loved. I cannot believe in a God so cruel and spiteful as to create in me those needs and abilities and say "but you can't use them." Yet, when the church says that lesbigays must remain celibate, that is exactly the picture of God that is being painted. And that has to change. Indeed, the events last month in New Westminster point to that change happening soon.

Many gays and lesbians know that that picture of a spiteful God is false. God loved us so much that Jesus became human, one of us. But let me tell you, there are huge numbers of rainbow people who have exactly that picture of a nasty, judgmental, deity that they want nothing to do with (and who can blame them?). But it is as hard for me to come out as a Christian among homosexuals as it is to come out as a gay man in Christian circles. There is vitriolic hatred of anything to do with "the church", because they have been told time and again that they are scum, that they are abominations, that God will spew them out. It doesn't matter whether that message came from the Catholics or Anglicans or Presbyterians or whoever -- all of the churches are painted with the same brush. Gays and lesbians have been actively DIS-evangelised. In the language of the Sower: many different birds have come down and stolen the seeds. But lesbigays are not lost to us.

There are thousands of lesbigays hungry to hear the good news of Jesus, but who are blocked by the conditional acceptance they perceive the churches will give them. Let me give you an example -- drawn from Toronto because that's what I know, but I'm sure there are parallels here in Ottawa. Metropolitan Community Church is a flourishing denomination with particular focus on homosexuals. Every Christmas Eve, the Toronto congregation packs Roy Thomson Hall not once, but twice for their Christmas service. That's 5000 rainbow people wanting to hear about Jesus. There are evangelistic opportunities aplenty among the rainbow people, but right now rainbow people are being DIS-evangelised by too many of the mainline churches.

I think the best way we can go about evangelising is to clean up our own house and make sure that a welcome is waiting. The saying is that "for a religion born in a barn, an open door goes without saying".

Unlike Jacob's mess of pottage, or Isaac's estate, there's an infinite supply of bread for us beggars to get from God. It isn't going to run out. We can share the news of where to find it.

Pride is an exceptional evangelical opportunity. The last few years, Integrity has been in the Pride march in Toronto with several other parishes - all of us identified, and all of us marching behind a banner that proclaims us to be Proud Anglicans. We get a great reception from the crowd. A gaggle of Anglican beggars telling others where we find bread.

I understand that St John's will be providing refreshment for the pride marchers as they walk by this afternoon, and that's wonderful. I was also very pleased to learn of your programmes through the year that serve the rainbow contingent, because there are 364 non-pride days in a year.

All this is good news. We can't stop where we are. We are the sowers of the seed, we need to be spreading the word hither and yon. The parable tells us it won't always be well received. Many times it will be ignored, or untoward things will happen to block the harvest. But we can't let that knowledge discourage us, we must, rather, continue to sow. Or to tend the young plants as they shoot up.