Third Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 6)

I’ll invite you to look up the readings; there are too many choices now!

Here’s the link:  http://www.satucket.com/lectionary

Today I need to write about something else.

Last week the New York Times reported on the “historic” occasion of the Roman Catholic Cardinal of Newark receiving a pilgrimage of LGBT Catholics and welcoming them as a “brother,” a “disciple,” and a “sinner who has found mercy in the Lord.”  People cried with relief and joy.  Others have written hate letters to the Cardinal.  As an appointee of Francis, Cardinal Tobin signaled the possibility of a real shift in the Roman Catholic Church.

Among the Companions this generated some conversation.  The key question is, on what terms are LGBT people being welcomed?  As brothers and sisters?  As disciples?  Or as sinners?

I don’t mean the sin that is common to us all.  What concerns me is the residual thinking that suggests that queer desire is “intrinsically disordered,” and that “homosexual acts” are sinful.  It may be progress to say that they are no more sinful than, say, polluting the environment or getting rich exploiting others, but it’s not where I live.

I am a lesbian.  My vow of celibacy does not change that.  Sexuality is not an “act," but a way of being, a cluster of responses and sensibilities.  I’m as much a lesbian today, writing and teaching about God, as I was when I wrote and taught and spoke about queer politics.  And my desire is not sinful.  My relationship with my partner was not sinful.  It was part of my deepest human need for connection, expressed in that way.

Sex can be sinful, of course.  If in our sex we deny the dignity of the other, if we make the other into a tool for our own desire, if we ignore our relational obligations in the pursuit of pleasure, sex can be sinful.  But it is no more sinful for being between men or between women than it is for other encounters.

Our covenant says this about sexual relationships: “We hold love for others to be a window into God's love.  We see incarnation as a gift, and acknowledge our sexuality as holy.   For those called to it, celibacy is a gift from God rather than a deprivation, a doorway into deeper relationships of loving and being loved.  Those of us in sexual relationships endeavor to honor our beloved with body, mind, and heart.”

I’m pleased to say that many other branches of the Christian body already get this.  If you aren’t sure where your denomination stands, go find out.  If you aren’t LGBT but want to be an ally, ask questions.

Thank you, Cardinal Tobin, for a beginning.  I welcome you as a brother, as a disciple, as a sinner.  Now let’s move on to growing together into the stature of Christ.