It’s Pride Sunday and St Bartholomew’s rejoices with those who rejoice in the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender community.
Brighton & Hove Pride Festival promotes itself as ‘a dazzling display of inclusivity’. I feel Pride-d out with family members attending the Pride in London Parade a month back, another platform, I quote ‘to raise awareness of issues and campaign for the freedoms that will allow the LGBT+ community to live their lives on a genuinely equal footing’.
St Bartholomew’s rejoices with its gay members this weekend standing by them and the wider gay community as they seek to become more fully what God has made us to be. As today’s section from the letter of Ephesians expresses it we are being equipped for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ… speaking the truth in love we must grow up in every way into him. (Ephesians 4:12-13,15)
That sort of growth - towards citizenship of heaven - comes as we grow more rooted in apostolic faith, in the soil of holy church, so we blossom not just in our humanity but in divinity, in holiness. Our sexual orientation is second to living lives oriented to Jesus Christ, loving him and aspiring to make him loved. The friendship and understanding we build among our congregation at St Bartholomew’s are vital to our mission in the secular culture of Brighton. Here is true inclusion, true life, as the Gospel affirms. The bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. (John 6:33)
To help strengthen our mission we need to build understanding across the diverse group we are so as to be ever more attractive to the people of Brighton who pass in and out of our doors.
The epistle mentions speaking the truth in love. Here are some truths of apostolic faith we might ponder in the complicated and sensitive realm opened up to us by Pride Sunday.
First all love is of God, love between friends, husbands and wives, parents and children and we all need more love in our lives so we can come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.
Second Scripture applauds same-sex friendship as for David and Jonathan in the Old Testament and those between Our Lord and his apostles, especially Saint John.
Third the Christian tradition opposes the sexualising of friendship, in particular physical sexual activity outside of marriage.
Fourth the Sacrament of Marriage is recognised as a divine ordinance in which the delight and tenderness of sexual union between husband and wife mirrors Christ’s love for the Church and the love of the Father for the Son in the Holy Spirit.
Fifth same-sex marriage has no basis in scripture or Christian tradition which affirms marriage as the foundation of family life in which children are born and nurtured. Sexual intercourse effects life-giving love with inseparable unitive and procreative aspects.
Sixth Our Lord starts his Sermon on the Mount by warning against lust. I say to you that everyone who looks at someone with lust has already committed adultery with them in their heart. (Matthew 5:28) Our sexual preferences are incidental to the great failing of treating anyone as an object even in our hearts.
It’s those principles of apostolic faith that inform the church’s pastoral ministry. That ministry of care is shared by all Christians not just the clergy. On that account I’ll earth what I’ve said in a few pastoral examples with names changed.
I think of Steve, a young man who holds to these principles who’s been an active member of a political party. The other day he told me he was thinking of a career change because his Christian views were increasingly alien to his Party making him unselectable. He needed my care.
Then Miriam in a same sex relation with twins who in talking to me informally about their baptisms, asked me whether the church could approve their parents union. In that conversation I left the door open for the delightful infants whilst affirming marriage by nature as a physical union of man and woman. I thanked God I wasn’t her parish priest!
Joe who’s gay talked to me about his possible call to the priesthood. I advised him to be honest about his state of life in the discernment process and courageously face up to the House of Bishops guidance that, I quote, on account of ‘the distinctive nature of their calling, status and consecration’ the clergy ‘cannot claim the liberty to enter into sexually active homophile relationships’.
Sally’s a Lesbian active in her Church who has to deal with a lot of hassle from friends in the LGBT community because of her faith. A new report by gay rights charity Stonewall has underlined the bullying LGBT people face from those within and outside of their community. It’s estimated one in ten gay Christians face Sally’s trauma.
On Pride Sunday we think of such folk and the Christian principles that guide them and us. I hope my examples illuminate struggles we should be sympathetic to. Many of us may be in a different place but we’ve all got a duty of care especially to those who belong with us here at St Bartholomew’s.
I can’t resist a poke at Pride as a title which we know as the chief sin. Pride’s the sin that cuts you off from God on account of determined and aloof self sufficiency. LGBT pride’s opposite though isn’t humility but shame. It’s good there’s a movement of inclusion to counter such shame about the way you are which is why we rejoice with those who rejoice this Pride Weekend. Losing shame about how you are doesn’t absolve Pride’s followers from accountability for the way they live their lives, especially for Christians, commitment to apostolic faith.
We all live in need of mercy. Our sense of our need of mercy is our strongest witness to those in our circle living without belonging, purpose, empowerment, forgiveness or direction to list qualities implied by the Lord’s prayer I mentioned two weeks ago.
As we welcome the bread of God… which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world we seek, each one of us before God’s altar this morning, a deeper sense of his mercy to serve our contribution to the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ… speaking the truth in love we must grow up in every way into him.
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