Trinity Metropolitan Community Church of Gainesville (Trinity MCC)

Proudly Reflecting God’s Glory

Trinity MCC Gainesville

October 4, 2009

Pride Sunday

Children’s Moment:

Would all the children come up and join me here this morning?

(Reading from And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell)

Two penguins in the penguin house were a little bit different. One was named Roy and the other was named Silo. Roy and Silo were both boys. But they did everything together. They bowed to each other, and walked together. They sang to each other, and swam together. Wherever Roy went, Silo went, too. They didn’t spend much time with the girl penguins, and the girl penguins didn’t spend much time with them. Instead, Roy and Silo wound their necks around each other Their keeper, Mr. Gramzay noticed the two penguins and thought to himself, “They must be in love.” Roy and Silo watched how the other penguins made a home. So they build a nest of stones for themselves. Every night Roy and Silo slept there together, just like the other penguin couples. And every morning Roy and Silo woke up together. But one day Roy and Silo saw that the other couples could do something they could not. The mama penguin would lay an egg. She and the papa penguin would take turns keeping the egg warm until finally, it would hatch. And then there would be a baby penguin. Roy and Silo had no egg to sit on and keep warm. They had no baby chick to feed and cuddle and love. Their next was nice, but it was a little empty… Then Mr. Gramzay got an idea. He found an egg that needed to be cared for, and he brought it to Roy and Silo’s nest. Roy and Silo knew just what to do. They moved the egg to the center of their nest. Every day they turned it, so each side stayed warm. Some days Roy sat while Silo went for food. Other days it was Silo’s turn to take care of their egg. They sat in the morning, and they sat at night. They sat through lunchtime and swim time and supper. They sat at the beginning of the month, and they sat at the end of the month, and they set all of the days in between. Until one day they heard a sound coming from inside their egg. Peep, peep. Peep, peep, it said. Roy and Silo called back, Squawk, squawk. Peep, peep, answered the egg. Suddenly a time hole appeared in the egg’s shell and then…CRAAAK! Out came their very own baby! She had fuzzy while feathers and a funny black beak. Now Rou and Silo were fathers. “We’ll call her Tango,” Mr. Gramzay decided, “Because it takes tw^¹o to make a Tango.” Roy and Silo taught Tango how to sing for them when she was hungry. They fed her food from their beaks. They snuggled her in their nest at night. Tango was the very first penguin in the zoo to have two daddies. Soon Tango grew strong enough to leave the nest. Roy and Silo took her for a swim just like all the other penguin families. And all the children who came to the zoo could see Tango and her two father playing in the penguin house with the other penguins. “Hooray, Roy!” “Hooray, Silo!” “Welcome Tango!” they cheered. And at night the three penguins returned to their nest. There they snuggled together, and, like the other penguins in the penguin house, and all the other animals in the zoo, and all the families in the big city around them, they went to sleep.”

Thanks for reading with me today. You keep coming and we’ll keep doing this, cool? Cool.

Introduction and The Reading from Hebrews

Happy Pride! I hope you’ve enjoyed this weekend as much as I have. I want us to think together for a few minutes on the subject of Pride. It fits perfectly with our sermon title for today, PROUDLY Reflecting God’s Glory, so let’s look at this reading from Hebrews.

It’s helpful to us that Hebrews 2:5-12 alludes to Psalm 8, our other reading for this morning. It does that as a way to continue making the extravagant claims begun in Hebrews 1:1-4 about Jesus. The author speaks so extravagantly because of a conviction that the end of all history was at hand (Hebrews 1:2). You see, they had no idea that the second coming might happen so much later in history. They honestly believed that Jesus would come back tomorrow, or maybe next week or next month. They certainly did not expect that it would take thousands of years. As a note to ourselves, After 2,000 years, Christians should be careful not to use these claims about Jesus as excuses to ignore what God has been doing in other faith communities, some of which are much different from ours. God comes to us in our flesh, on our terms, "in many and various ways" (Hebrews 1:1). We Christians have found the shape of Jesus' life, death and risen life to be definitive even of the way we think of God (Hebrews 2:8-12). We do not need to apologize for that, AND we should not expect others to apologize for putting things differently — not if we mean what we say about the shape of Jesus' life and the love that Jesus shared with all of creation.

Think with me about this part of the reading,

“¹⁰It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings. ¹¹For the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Parent. For this reason Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters, ¹²saying, “I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters, in the midst of the congregation I will praise you.”

I want to remind us this morning on this 41^st Anniversary of the founding of Metropolitan Community Churches, that our beloved founder, Rev. Elder Troy Perry refers to us as saints. That’s right; you and I are the saints of God called together for a purpose in this time and place. And we know that in the struggles of our lives much progress has been made. And we can honor that because the writer of Hebrews tells us that Jesus, the child of God, the son of Humankind is not ashamed to call us brothers and sisters. Hebrews tells us that we are family members of Jesus and that means Jesus is proud of us and we can be proud of each other, too.

Proud of

On this Pride Sunday 2009, I’m proud of this church called Trinity MCC in Gainesville. I’m proud that this church has reached out with the light and love of an inclusive gospel of love for this entire community, including those who come against us, for over 26 years.

I’m proud of Metropolitan Community Churches and the open doors of welcome that it has showed tens of thousands of spiritual refugees like me over the past 41 years. I’ll never forget the day Troy Perry sent me a one line email that simply said, “Dear Jim, I believe God has a place for you in our church.” It was a lifeline to me like it has been to so many of you gathered here. It meant that I could finally live out the calling God had place on me over half my life ago, honestly, openly, freely, with all that I am and all that God will make out of me. And my friends that’s what it means to you, too.

I’m proud to live in Gainesville where this community has led the way toward equality and justice for queer people in our State. I was proud to work with leaders from this community during my years of party activism. I was proud to refer to this community during the years that we worked for an inclusive amendment in the City of Sarasota, and I am so proud to be here with you today still speaking, still calling, still standing for equality and justice for all of this community.

I’m proud to be a part of the University of Florida Campus Ministry Cooperative where faith leaders from a wide variety of backgrounds come together to offer encouragement and the love of God to the students who come here to study. I’m proud every time I sit at that table with Catholics and Methodists and Episcopalians, and Mormons, and Hare Krishna’s and Jews and others who do it different from us and still know the love of a God that reaches out across all boundaries.

I’m proud that we can reach out to children with the message that Jesus loves them, too. I’m so honored that you feel safe bringing your children here and I promise you with God as my witness we will always insure that this is the safest place it can be for them. We will work to make sure our children are happy and well cared for because we know that when our children are happy, we will be happy too. I tell you one way to get on my very bad side is to harm one of these children. Look out! Don’t ever think about it. This is a place that loves and honors children and we will grow into that in even greater ways.

And in closing because I know it’s getting late, I’m so proud to serve with you. I thank God every day that I received this call to be a minister of the gospel of liberation. I thank God that I serve in Metropolitan Community Church. And I thank God that I am here with you for such a time as this. My sisters and brothers, we have suffered in ways that many minority communities have suffered. We’ve been patient and we’ve been faithful and we have come so far. And still we know we still have a long way to go. Will you commit with me on this Pride Sunday to go all the way with Jesus? Will you commit with me to do the very best you can do to always Proudly reflect God’s glory? Can you hear it? “Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, ²but in these days God has spoken to us by a Son, whom God appointed heir of all things, through whom God also created the worlds. ³Jesus is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and Jesus sustains all things by his powerful word. Be a Proud my sisters and brothers and be a reflection of God’s Glory living in you.

God bless you. AMEN.

1 Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell. And Tango makes Three. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005.

Contact: - Search - Log On