What A Difference a (Few) Day(s) Make (updated)

Another opportunity to be with many folks of my denomination presented itself this week. This time I was in a small group with four men, all of whom held to a "biblical" belief about homosexuality and the church/ ordination/ marriage.

I (Closeted Lesbian Pastor) proceeded to share with them how my views on this subject have been shaped.

They have been shaped by scripture, by the word, and most especially by the Word. They have been shaped by the Jesus who stood in his hometown synagogue and said something along the lines of:

Here I am. I'm standing right in front of you. Can you see me?

The Holy One has poured out the Spirit of Life upon me... I can feel it. This is what s/he bids me say:

It's time.

Those who are oppressed? It's time to tell them some good news for a change.

Those whose hearts are bruised and battered? It's time to bind up their wounds and tenderly mend them.

Those who are penned in, chained up, locked down, shut out? It's time to open all their doors and locks and let them have the freedom to go from here to there.

Those who are weeping? It's time to take them in our arms and let them know it will be alright.

It's time. The time is now. Today, it is time.

Here I am. I'm standing right in front of you. Can you see me?

This is what constitutes the scriptural foundation of my belief about what really matters, and how we should expect church and society to deal with us.

Know what? They heard me. They listened. I would even say they listened with love. And I listened to them with love... I could actually feel the love of Christ pulsating in the room.

No one called me (or any LGBTQ person) an agent of Satan. No one said we were trying to destroy the church. I left the gathering, sat in my car and called Beloved. I was soaring. Not because I changed anyone's mind. But for the first time in a long time I have hope around this issue, that we are all capable of listening to one another and loving one another into wholeness, perhaps.

Wow.