The Plumb line and the Good Samaritan.

Do you know what a plumb line is? For those of you who do not know, it is an ancient way of finding out if the building you are erecting is perpendicular to the ground. I am sure that there is an app for that these days.   But even in ancient days if the building you were building was not plumb—in line with gravity, it would fall down.  When we moved to TX it was right after the 1949 flood and housing was at a premium, so dad bought a house that we would

now call a “fixer-upper”.  We found out that nothing in the house was plumb and we spent the next 20 years trying to bring the house into line.  Because of our climate here in TX, the ground moves and makes it hard to keep buildings plumb.  It has always been so.  One cannot argue with gravity!  And if any of you live in older houses and have ever tried to hang wallpaper, you know what I mean.

In about 750 BCE the prophet Amos hears God telling him to go to Israel (he lived in Judah) to let the people know that God was going to leave Israel because they had not built their nation’s conscience on the plumb line of God’s law. This is what we hear in our Hebrew reading this morning.  Needless to say, Amos was not popular in Israel and they told him to go back to Judah where he came from.  According to this account, because Israel refused to listen to the prophet God permitted the Assyrians to come and capture Israel and carried off the population in slavery.  In 722 BCE Assyria dispersed 10 of the 12 Tribes of Israel and Israel was no more. 

It was a bitter lesson that Judah too would also learn some 250 years later when it

was overrun by the Babylonians and Amos’ prophecy was foremost in the minds of those who had returned to Jerusalem following the Babylonian Captivity.  

Following the law became the most important aspect of Judaism when the Babylonian empire fell and the people of Judah returned to their land. And by the time of Jesus it was understood that if they followed the law God would remain with the people and keep the nation safe.

By Jesus’ day this concept of maintaining the law was rooted in fear not in the love of God.  Jesus, who was not from Judah although he was considered a member of the tribe of  Judah,  found upon entering Jerusalem, the capital of Judah that perhaps all Jews were considered equal but some Jews were more equal than others.  And Galileans were not among them.  So we hear in Jesus’ teachings many references to the real meaning of the law.  There are those who take him to task for healing on the Sabbath, or husking wheat to eat on the Sabbath.  Finally one of the scribes comes to him and asks him how to achieve eternal life.

Now, eternal life was a relatively new concept in Judaism.  The Sadducees did not believe in a life after death—and that included most of the priests of the Temple.  So we know this scribe, described as lawyer, but was a Pharisee who was trained in Mosaic Law and was a resource to the elders of synagogues who made judgments on the people.  And this scribe asked a typical religious question of a rabbi to test him as to his orthodoxy.  But instead of answering, Jesus gets the man to tell him what the Law says:  “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself” the lawyer quotes from the Torah.  And Jesus says “do that an you will be saved.”  But then the scribe makes the mistake of asking “Who is my neighbor?”  And then we get the wonderful story of the Good Samaritan.  Even if you don’t go to Church you know the story of the Good Samaritan.  It is part of the whole of western culture—not just because it is a good story, but it so illustrates what it means to be GOOD. 

In this story Jesus confronts the exclusions that were making Judaism a mockery in his day. The Temple was supposed to be a Light to the Nations according to the Law. But only certain Jews were allowed into the Temple proper.  Jesus attacks the type of ghettoizing that had taken place in Temple that only allowed certain Jews to enter.  Jesus holds this Law of love, the central theme of Mosaic Law, up to the young scribe and

says if you do this you will be saved.  The guy is flummoxed.   Jesus is basically saying that the Law doesn’t need lawyers to find loopholes.  The Law of God is easy!  LOVE God and others; do mercy.  It is as simple as that.

The story of the Good Samaritan is an indictment of religious leadership that has shunned love in order to be RIGHT.  It is not for nothing that the 2 who pass by are a priest and a Levite—temple authorities who should have been the first to come to aid the victim of robbers.  But they too had forgotten why they observed God’s law in the first place: 

They were to observe the law as a way to give God thanks and praise for all God had given them.  The Law was a way to help people to know the presence of God among them.  But it was the unclean, unwelcome Samaritan who understood.

Last week I had a bit of a Good Samaritan experience.  I was not paying attention to that little gas pump light on my dashboard and I ran out of gas on a fairly busy street.  I am sitting there feeling like a real dunce and looking for my AAA card when a rather

scruffy guy and a bigger scruffy guy came to my window.  “Can we move you around the corner so you won’t be out here in the traffic?” he asked,   and very quickly they had pushed me out of the traffic.  He said:  “I have a gas can, I will go and get you some gas.”  I said, “I have AAA” rather lamely but by that time they had gone off in search of gas.  They were back in about 15 minutes.  While they were filling my tank the guy looked at my ‘Episcopal Church Welcomes You’ bumper sticker and said, “I see that you are a believer.  I want to tell you I have a new heart.”  And I enthused, “ And you have a really good heart.”  “No, No, that is not what I mean.  I had a heart transplant about 2 years ago.  The man who died so that I could live is always with in me.  I am so grateful that I can’t NOT stop to help others.”  I stood there knowing that I was preaching this sermon today.  The Story of the Good Samaritan is always a model for us.  He was a outcast.  Yet he witnessed to what it meant to be in love with God’s creation; he lived God’s mercy.

The plumb line of the law of God is still among us too.  It is gratitude.  I do not know

what motivated the Good Samaritan to help the battered man;  Jesus doesn't tell us.  But Jesus knew that he understood the love of God, and I would guess he knew what it meant to be stranded or left alone.  He knew that in gratitude and love for what God had done in his life, just like the guy who got me gas. 

What in your life allows you to love?  What in your life give you the kind of gratitude to go beyond social convention to love God by serving others?  What makes the law of God to love others a JOY rather than a burden?  All too often I hear people being so serious

about trying to be good.  Being good isn't what it is about!  It is about loving.  It about the abandonment to Joy that comes when you least expect it and you stand there grateful for every moment of your life, every leaf on the trees, every ray of sunshine or every drop of water that soothes our faces.  When we are intentional about living out that joy, we know that we are saved.  When we forget ourselves to help others we know the bliss of being loved more than we can ask or imagine.  And we too become a part of the fabric of love that God is weaving among us.  Gratitude is our plumb line.  AMEN. 

Galship: A rant.

This is a very tender topic for me.  I started out in ministry before women were thought to be of much value  in my family or the Church.  Consequently I didn't value my womanhood for a long time.  It was only when I entered the convent that I began to realize the real talent and intelligence that I found there.  It was there I experienced a wide ranging experience of women who lived out that wonderful Kinsey spectrum of female sexuality as celibates.  But most of all I found women who could think, not just follow the social convention of the day.  They had opinions, and wrestled with what it meant to be women in orders but who thought differently than the local hierarchy. They

were women of prayer and transformation.  We were all struggling to be what we understood God called of us.  But I did not know 'support' as we know it now. No hugs and tears comforted or pats on the back. It was prayer that was to be our support.  There were sisters who lived their lives of prayer so that it supported you.  But there were no long talks and warm fuzzy sessions with wine that so often characterize today's support.  'Galship' or 'sisterhood (as we called it) was just a compassionate smile in silence as we left chapel.  I knew I was in the prayers of my sisters and they were in mine.  An hour of meditation in the chapel at 4 am with the whole community allowed one to center ones prayer on those I lived with.

When I left the convent because it was not my vocation, I began to meet with a group of women who were lobbying their judicatories for the ordination of women in many different denominations. (1975)  It was the

height of the Feminist movement and was full of strident women.  I was strident alongside of them and  I found myself falling farther and farther away from my Roman Catholic faith.  I was looking for 'sisterhood'
but it wasn't in that group either.

 I did meet J in that group and found in her the kind of sisterhood that I imagined the convent was trying to imitate.  It was a companionship and love that centered in our ministries rather than on a 'coupled' life or making a family.  We have lived together for almost 40 years growing to know what it to live through hardship, fear, misunderstanding simply because neither the Church or 'sisterhood' could really open their eyes to what it means to live holy lives without the support of either marriage or partnership.

Early in women's ordination movement there was a figment of 'sisterhood' because we were all working for the same thing.  We had many different ways of addressing the common goal.  But it was not long before the women embraced the same hierarchical thinking as the men.  It was this characteristic that I hoped women would be able to show a different way of living in the Church with Women's Ordination.  I had hoped to find the kind of sisterhood that I had known in the convent, but the ordained ministry is just as cutthroat as finance, banking, academics or any other secular job.  I believe that the Christian message says something about the commonness of our lives--the same level of our lives where ideas and hearts were supported, personalities were respected, and even dumb ideas shared and enjoyed.

I must admit that I do not trust 'galship' much.  I have met many in revgals that I have come to know and cherish just as I do members of parishes and those who do not even believe in God.  I have been iced by women colleagues just as surly as I have been men.  Maybe I am a horrible person but I really think I am just 'odd.'  I am different, not fitting into anyone's pigeonhole .  I don't mind being in that spot.  It is how I have been called to live my life--but is not one where there is a lot of support and friendship.  I speak my mind.  I resent being excluded.  I work hard to make sure that people are accepted as they are.  I am also very short on those who 'pee on my leg and tell me it's raining.'  I have a hard time accepting insincerity from colleagues.  I can tolerate a bit more from parishioners--but not from those who have sworn to live the Truth of Christ.

I find younger women incredible dense when it comes to us older ones. They want everything the way they invision it without having had to pay their dues by working for it.  They do not realize they will be where we are in the future and they are scared pissless of it.  The thought of being stoggy doesn't even cross their minds.  They too will become what we are--what I am becoming simply because we are being excluded from the ministry, society and shuffled off into age 'appropriate' residents rather than accepting and listening to us.

So much for "Galship".  It may work for some but do not count on it.  The time will come when all will be just those who are smiled at, called 'Sweetie' and ignored.  

If we were about real sisterhood, we would be trying to organize what is particular to women's gifts for the ministry and highlighting those particular gifts even if the 'boys' don't like it.  If we were about real sisterhood we could sit quietly in prayer with one another and not play one upmanship simply because we cannot abide someone else getting ahead or the silence of real togetherness.  If we were about real sisterhood we could tolerate the wide ranging differences among us rather than dwelling on the samenesses that make us look like the male-imaged priesthood/pastorhood that we seem to emulate.

Ok, now that I have shot off my mouth, I would invite you to agree or disagree.  You are welcome always.

Friday Five: A Day of Independence

The Rev Pat has posted a  Friday Five that has a belated Fourth of July theme.  But since we cover many other countries we need to open the idea of Independence. 


In honor of the 237th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence  I invite you to participate in today's Independence Day edition of the Friday Five! We'll be looking at all kinds of "independence," so please join in!

1. How does one typically celebrate your native /adopted land's Big National Holiday?

Since I was small, the Fourth of July meant gathering with neighbors for a cook out and watching fireworks or setting off one's own.  This continues to be the way that people celebrate the Fourth in small town USA. There is usually a parade in which local residents and vets get to parade. But in the city we generally don't know our neighbors and we have been here too short of time to to be able to invite them for a BBQ.  Picnics are the general theme for July 4th but in TX it is a bit too warm to really enjoy being outside all day. Then there are usually fireworks in the evening.

2. How do you personally celebrate the holiday described in #1? Any unusual twists on the typical celebration? Is it something you enjoy or endure?

Yesterday J and I enjoyed reading, gardening and having a steak grilled outside and POTATO SALAD--a

necessary component for a Fourth celebration. It was quite quiet in our neighborhood.  After sundown I did hear some fireworks going off.  J watched the fireworks on TV but fireworks are quite hazardous in TX due to drought conditions.  The police patrol pretty carefully to keep the possibility of fires down.  

3. What does the word "independence" mean to you, whether in a political or personal mood? How has that understanding changed throughout your life?

Independence and freedom go pretty much together for me.  I grew up after WWII and knew the cost of freedom from the vets who lived in our neighborhood.  My father had been a bit too old for the draft and had worked for a business that supported the war and did not have to serve.  But many of the fathers of my playmates had served in the Pacific.  They never talked about their experiences but every Christmas we joined one family to drink to his buddies who never returned.  He was the only one in his group that returned from the battles in jungles of the Pacific.  The 'unsaid' spoke volumes about the cost of freedom.  

Independence meant that we were our own country.  It wasn't until I

worked as a missionary in Mexico in the early 70's that I found about the reality of the US involvement in the government of other nations.  It was when Allende was murdered in Chile that my 'red-white-blue' patriotism began to shift.  It was also during the Vietnam war when we were so badly led that I began to stand in the hermenutic of suspicion that I continue to stand in today.  This does not mean that I am not patriotic--I still cry when they play the Star-Spangled Banner at the Olympics.  But I am much more uncomfortable with the type of jingoism that has been used of late and most of all, the co-option of religious principles by those who have conflated faith and patriotism.


4. When did you first feel that you, personally, had gained independence? Was there a 'rite of passage' you would like to share?

Perhaps the first time was when I moved away from home and to the college dorm (which was perhaps more restrictive that my home had ever been.)  But I had to make my own decisions and that was the most liberating thing I had ever done.  But the most liberation I have ever known was when I finally surrendered to Christ.  THAT changed my life so radically that patriotism isn't that important to me.  The globalism of faith is much more important.  I am much more interested in what I have in common with people from other countries through faith.  The other

time was when I was outed by a colleague in 2003.  I refused to deny my being lesbian even though it cost me my parish. I figured that if Bishop Robinson had to wear a flack jacket in order to be consecrated bishop, I could damned well claim who I was.   

5. Tell us about your favorite "indie" film, music label, book store...

I had to look up what 'indie' meant.  I don't listen to popular music.  I am a classical music buff so I listen to classical all the time.  If the classical music station is not available to me I will sometimes listen to a little country and

western but I don't know what is 'indie' and what isn't.  I don't buy tunes.  

I don't go to enough movies to know what is 'indie' and what isn't.  I do like documentaries that I watch on PBS.  







Bonus Question: Is there a time you remember going "against the tide" of advice or precedent, or in some other way? Or perhaps a time you wish you had done so? Share it here!

My whole life!!  I am a priest in an unchurched family.  I am a lesbian that isn't 'in the life' and have lived with a straight gal for almost 40 years!  I have supported civil rights for persons of color since I was a child refusing to drink at 'white' drinking fountains during Jim Crow days.  I went to Selma but did not march because I was afraid. J. went to Selma and did march.  Her boyfriend, Jonathan Daniels, was murdered there for doing voter's registration in Alabama.  Freedom is not just something abstract to us.  That the Voter Registration Act has been overturned in our lifetimes means that Freedom is still just for certain people--not all.  Discrimination is still  alive and well.  But the young no longer listen to us.  We are experiencing the most dastardly discrimination of our whole lives these days.  The discrimination of older people.  It is quite disturbing.  

Ding, Dong DOMA is Dead!

What am I to think of the Supreme Court this week? The failure of DOMA is so wonderful for all of the country.  Personally I think that the Church should get out of the marrying business because so much of marriage has to do with 'rights' that come with being married rather than the love and commitment that I believe that faithful marriage means.  The government involvement in the whole structure of marriage make the pastoral act of witnessing the vows of two people to each other a sham anyway.

But with that said, what the dashing of DOMA does is say that LGBTQ folk have a place in todays society just as surly as other minorities in our nation.  Our world is so coupled.  There is a reason that the Noah story talks about the ark being filled two by two.  It is the way that human beings seem to relate.  Being

single I have lived with this 'coupled' mentality my whole adult life.  It gets irritating that many people cannot stand alone.  It is hard to deal with people who always have to consult their spouse on even the most trivial issues.  But that is blog post.

For almost 40 years J and I have lived together.  We are not espoused and unless the benefits to our Social Security could change (our pension would not), we will not be.  We are not a couple in that sense.  We love each other so very much, but we are not an espoused couple.  We stay together because we know that we don't do well apart.

I really understood why Pope Francis has chosen to take his meals with a group of colleagues rather than alone.  He said it was for his mental health.  I understand that.  Human beings don't really do well alone.  We are herd creatures.  And for an extrovert to be without others is suicide.

But I wish with DOMA's being struck down that the world would re-evaluate the meaning of marriage altogether.  I know that the Episcopal Church, when we passed the Blessing of Same-Sex Unions, chose to ask for a full study of the meaning of marriage by the Standing Commission of Liturgy and Music.  We assume that marriage as it stands today is the way that it has always been.  But that is not true.  Marriage has

not always been a sacrament of the Church.  And marriage in many cultures was merely a ways of securing the family fortune or power, not an image "of Christ and the Church."   (If a marriage looked like the relationship between Christ and the Church, I would send them off to a counselor pretty quick!)

I do think that the relationship between people who are married is often something of the mystical.  And I can understand why the Church has been willing to be a part of

this mysterious union between two person.  I must admit I seldom see this mystical union in the newly married, but I do see it in those couples who have been together for a long time.  It is a grace that comes with the burnishing of joy, sadness, hard work, and a degree of holiness.  It is a relationship that is filled with integrity and unvarnished truth.

Throughout the month of June one of the announcers on WRR, the local classical music station, has been playing various selections that could be used for weddings.  As one who has done too many weddings to count and am tired of Purcell, Mendelssohn, or the current sloppy tune too, she went through a good bit of the literature to show what kind of music could be used for weddings.  It was quite informative.  But the emphasis on the romantic was a bit over the top.  It was mit Schlag (with whipped cream).  And this type of  understanding of marriage sets up the wrong expectation of marriage.  And added to the "magic" often expected of sacraments, some young people really believe that the sacrament will make their rather ragged relationship into something of storybooks.  More than half of the weddings  have officiated at have ended up in divorce.  Did I do a bad job?  I don't think so because I don't marry a couple in the first place.  They make the marriage themselves.  All I do is give the Church's Good Housekeeping seal of approval.

The striking down of DOMA will not affect my life except that I may be doing a bit more Same-sex blessings than I have.  I will need to use 'spouse' more often than I have.  But that is a good thing.  But what this does is allow LGBTQ people who are called to coupled lives to live with the same benefits that others receive by virtue of them being coupled.  I am thankful more than I can say for this decision because it was an exclusionary law.  It was a way to marginalize about 10% of the population which is contrary to the Constitution.  But what the defeat of DOMA does say is that LGBTQ people have a voice and it is being heard in DC.  And perhaps it will be heard in other parts of the world such as in Africa or even TX.

Those of us who are different have a right to be different.  We don't have to go through life with the Ark

mentality that everyone has to be alike.  Now I have to figure out what I can call J.  I have always called her my 'roommate' but at almost 70 that sounds a bit frivolous for what has grown between us.  I may have to make up a new phrase--'significant other' is a bit obtuse.  But there is no legal term and when I go to the hospital and I have to answer the 'next of kin' question it has significance.  Guess it is time to get a lawyer.

Now we are still waiting to find out if the Episcopal Church will considered an hierarchical church in the state of Texas.  Go figure...

Friday Five: Prayer of Silence (or not)

Jan posted a very interesting  Friday Five:

At the beginning of this past week, I attended a conference on contemplative prayer entitled "Turning to the Mystics" at the 2013 Summer Institute at the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, TX. The speakers were James Finley, author and former novice of Thomas Merton; Mirabai Starr, author, translator, and speaker; and Father Ronald Rolheiser, author and president of OST. We were encouraged to regularly sit in quiet to come to realize our union with the Divine, who continually loves us into being.
So for this Friday Five, let us share about our prayer practices, whether silent or not:

1. How do you pray?   Praying is loving. It is that being in the presence of the Holy One. We have spent way too much time and effort on prayer techniques.  When you read the mystics--everyone from Teresa of Avila to Hildegard to the Desert Mothers they all come down to centering on loving--loving God, loving Creation, loving the people who are in that Creation.

2. How has your idea of prayer changed over time?  Of course when I first started to pray in my 20's I spent a lot of time with words.  I read my prayers, the Office, reading Scripture, talking to God.  But after my 30 day retreat when I was a novice, I realized that prayer is just being present to God.

3. Do you ever sit in silent prayer? How does it go?  All the time.  I love my quiet time.  While a novice we were guaranteed an hours of mental prayer a day.  I loved that time.  And I still look forward to having time to just be quiet with the Holy One. But making myself available to God is not always easy.  It often has to do with how well I am able to love, how well I am willing to allow God to be present to me.  Having God present ALWAYS means that I am being called to change and sometimes I don't want to face that.  When I find myself running away from prayer, I have to sit myself down and ask myself what  is it that I don't want to admit is a failing, or sinful, or whatever.  But over the years I have gotten so accustomed to finding God at the center of my silence that it sometimes is difficult to stay present to God when I want comfort and God wants change.

4. Do you have any difficulties and/or pleasures in prayer?  The pleasure of prayer is just being there--I am seldom aware of time or any effort at those moments. I can't think of anything I would rather do. Difficulties see # 3.

5. What is the best advice that helped you with prayer?  PRACTICE!  PERSEVERANCE!  Recently I have been reading Richard Rohr's The Naked Now, a splendid description of the mystical life.   

Bonus: Share something about prayer or an example of a prayer you like.  I still love the Divine Office, the

prayers of the Church.  I like them especially when they can be sung.  I especially love the musical settings of the ELCA.  There is nothing that tells me that I have been at prayer than when I have used my whole body to pray--singing does that and singing in community does that.

One of the problems I have with Church is that it has NOT taught this transformative form of prayer to the rank and file of the membership.  I do not understand religion that is not transformative.  But with so much of the past 20 years having been devoted to 'church growth' or doctrinal dispute, it is has been hard to find those even in my own denomination, especially in the hierarchy who understand mental prayer or the mystical life.  And now that I am back in the Bible Belt, I have even been told by some conservatives that this mental prayer is 'demonic'.   The problem is that they have put so much emphasis on belief that they do not understand the unitive experience.  

Living Fearlessly

I watched PBS’s POV last night and saw “Live Free or Die” the award-winning documentary on the life and work of +Gene Robinson’s ministry as the first partnered, out, LGBT bishop of the Anglican Communion.  It was powerful and wonderful and freeing all in the same moment.  Aired just before it was another POV documentary on a Navajo boy who had been murdered for being “Two Spirited”, the age-old tradition of people within Indian cultured to accept people who presented as both male and female, or presented opposite from their physical genitalia. 

The combination put before me a great conundrum as a churchperson and as a lesbian of how I had been conformed as a child to think of myself as ‘different’, ‘not right’, somehow not up to par with those girls who I thought were ‘boy crazy’ in elementary school and stupid in jr. high and high school.  It has been fun to get to know those ‘girls’ now as senior women and talk about those views.  We can knowingly look at our stupidity on either side of the sexual continuum and laugh.  But knowing that the fear of gay folk still is still rampant here and much of that fear is still being promoted by those who call themselves ‘Christian’, ‘Jewish’ or ‘Muslim’ makes me more than a bit ill. I have not thought of myself as a 'gay activist'.  I kept it quiet for years so that I could minister to the larger community.  If I had been out all that time, I would have been forced to be a single-issue pastor.  It is what we do when we want to lump people into the same pigeon-hole. 

In “Live Free or Die” +Gene has the temerity to say “the Church has been wrong”.  Certainly as a church historian I know that the Church has promoted ‘wrong doctrine’ at various times.  And ever since my bout with Roman Catholicism I know that the Church is not infallible.  No pope, no Scripture, nothing in this created world is infallible.  To be flawed is to recognized that we are created.  It is the uniqueness of the flaws that makes the world interesting and blessed.

But as a priest and teacher in the Church how do I deal with one of her bishops saying: “The Church didn’t initially get it right”?  Personally I can call to mind many things that the Church didn’t get right in history.  I don’t think that the Church got the Trinity right—it was valiant attempt to bring together our Jewish monotheism and the unique presence of a man who made present God who had been sacrificed to the powers of

the day and that ubiquitous sense of the HOLY that touches that we call Spirit.  I don’t have a problem with that yet many were killed in the name of the Trinity in the name of uniformity. And I could go on 'substitutionary atonement theory.' It was the way that governmental powers used such theology to bring ‘order’ or ‘subjection’ to their realms.  (I would recommend the incredible Christianity: The First 3,000 years by Diarmaid MacCullough if one doubts that statement.) 

Yes, we got that whole thing of human sexuality wrong!  Unlike the very dualistic thinking of our Jewish roots, we are as a human species by far more diverse than just male and female.  The First Nations understood this.  The Native American cultures often saw among those who the Western mind calls homosexual or androgynous those who were specifically endowed with spiritual abilities. 

They could bridge the gap between the sexs in ways that helped the life of the whole community.  They were often seen as shamans, holy men and women who were drawn to the spirit world or for healing.  It was only when Indians were subjected to Christianity that they began to become disgusted with those they thought to be ‘queer’ in white society.

Even though Christianity and Judaism stems from the freeing of a people in slavery, Judaism and Christianity got it wrong about slavery too.  Christianity has gotten it wrong about human perfection—a Platonic concept that was embraced by the Greek speaking converts to Judaism who followed Christian teachings.

I have no problem with these historic issues.  They were what they were in a particular time.  What I don’t understand is where my place is in the Church today.  I am an out lesbian priest who understands my gayness to be as part of my spiritual journey toward God as is my brother/sister priests experience in their marriage or their celibacy.  God loves me.  It isn’t because the Bible told me so.  It was Christians loving in the name of Jesus who loved me into being.  I know that as God’s love for me.  Every time I celebrate the Eucharist I know that I am where I am supposed to be for the good of, not just my life, but for the goodness of the whole world.  (Or as I experience it, the small part of creation that I touch.)

Can I support a Church that is still struggling with the LGBTQ issue?  Can I still speak for a Church that is still fearful of losing members because they are gay-friendly?  Because even with all the positive things that have passed General Convention, I still live in a world where LGBTQ folks can still be murdered just for being, can be denied the basic rights of being human (the option to adopt children, marriage, normal benefits that straight folk get because they are married.)  Can I be a part of the LGBTQ community as an ordained person and speak of the love of the Church when we are still dicey on the subject? How do I speak to straight folk who as yet cannot accept that the Church or Scripture got it wrong?  I can speak only of the fearlessness of Christ to be about what is good and wholesome.  The lives that still hunger for a relationship with the Holy One need to know that God makes them good, makes their instincts to love sacred and makes love the center of what they do and live.

I cannot speak for or to a group that hides behind cultural  norms to avoid embracing their own sexuality.  I can only speak for and to a people if I know that we need not fear anything.  But many of our leaders still want to ignore this part of the Church—those who have that unique giftedness that Native cultures recognized as being in touch with the HOLY.  I cannot become a single issue person at this point in my life.  I must continue to present to those who are unafraid the love that God has blessed me with so that this 'wrongness' can be healed.  I will not see it in my lifetime, but it will continue because love continues.

Friday Five: Favorites Old and New

Mary Beth posted another good one:


You know how sometimes you just want to have a hymn sing?

Well, today is that day.

Share with the group five favorite hymns or praise songs or songs that bring you close to the Spirit (that's a pretty wide net!) and why they are special to you.

Bonus if you can share Youtube videos or audio files of one or two or more.

Here's one that I love, to get you started. Take Our Bread, by Joe Wise. It reminds me of growing up in the charismatic renewal movement in the 70's.




1. Praise to the Lord. Love this hymn. It was played at J's ordination on Jan. 6 1977, the fors and the line "see what the Almighty can do" popped out at me. I was RC at the time and it made my day. It also said something about vocation and my way to the Episcopal Church to be the priest that I was supposed to be.


2. Like MB, I come up with a number of the old guitar things when I played at College Church at St. Louis University in the early 70's: Here Am I, Lord, from the St. Louis Jesuits.


3. I heard the voice of Jesus say, the Thomas Tallis tune still draws me to prayer.


4. My Song is Love Unknown is another one that I go to when I want to enter prayer. http://youtu.be/HMart4wXsI0


5. When I was at Taize back in 1995 Nada Te Turbe was being sung. I fell in love with it.http://youtu.be/go1-BoDD7CI


I don't know how to attach a youtube but here are the addresses. There was another Taize tune that I love that was also in Spanish that was from Santa Teresa of Avila but I can't remember the name of it. It was about Light--Luz that also moved me to tears.

And for some reason the links to pictures are being problematic for me today.