"Pride, in this context, is a stunning, glorious refusal to believe the lies the world tells about you. Pride is the claiming of your belonging in this world as you are, not as I tell you you should be. This Pride, this celebration of who God made you to be, is a rejection of shame, and an embracing of joy; a rejection of hatred and an embracing of love. This Pride is an act of grace. It's a Christian virtue."

"The first time someone I loved ever came out to me, it was the Jesus I encountered in Scriptures that taught me how to see them for who they really were, and to love them just as they were. In the years since that day, I keep coming back to the Jesus I find in the Bible. Every time I do, I'm reintroduced to the God who gives me new eyes to see Love in ways and places and people I could not previously have imagined."

"How can the Church fail time and again to recognize the prophetic nature of the LGBTQ+ witness? LGBTQ+ persons live their truth in the face of great societal pressures. Their experience of love is profound, and yet they often find themselves at odds with the normative culture. They see the truth of themselves, and they understand the magnificence of love in unique and powerful ways. And in this time and place they are standing up and speaking out at great personal expense. Will the Church listen? Will the Church acknowledge the powerful presence of God here?"

"We believe that the God that created you made you as you are on purpose. You are not a mistake. Your sexuality is not a mistake, a sin, or something to be cured, fixed, or healed. You are a blessing. Your journey to self-understanding is essential to the healing of this world. You matter tremendously to God and to the people around you. Your expression of love is even now teaching this world a deeper understanding of what love really is. When you are part of the Church community, the church is more of who God means it to be. When you are empowered, the Spirit is revealed. When you lead, we see Jesus."

"So, it's necessary to step back from time to time and say to God, "It's your church, Lord. I'm going to bed." Honestly, I should be doing it every night. And you, what would your life look like if, before going to bed each night you took note of the truth that your church, your work, your life, your love, all of it belongs utterly to God? Would you sleep better?"

And now you are emerging. Bursting forth 14 months later, rather than 17 years, you are emerging. You are in such a tender place. As ready as you are for the next chapter to begin, there is uncertainty. Your grip can feel tenuous. But the powerful inevitability of the new life God has brought forth is palpable. Joyce asks "What changes have we adopted during this past year that have been truly beneficial, life enriching? What do we want to keep?" And I know you are asking yourself these questions too. You are not saying, "Should I change? Should I make things new?" You are asking, "What changes should I cherish? What do I do with my new reality?"

You know what we do is odd, right? We who worship God in the church. One of the things we've missed the most these last months is one of the things that makes us odd: the weekly gathering for the purpose of honoring an invisible God and asking that God to care for us, to heal and reconcile us, to give us all that we need. It's not really comparable to anything else

This Sunday at 9am we will participate in Holy Eucharist inside our sanctuary for the first time since March of 2020. Registration is necessary. Seating will be limited. Distancing and masking will be required. Childcare will be available as will assistance for those with mobility issues. This 9am service will continue to be livestreamed for those who are not able to attend in person. We will continue to offer Pop-Up Church in Ault Park at 11:15, weather permitting, through the end of May.

I am pleased to be able to tell you that the Church of the Redeemer will resume worship indoors on May 16th. I want to devote the rest of this episode, and likely next week's as well, describing to you how we came to that decision and what it will look like for us to be able to do this. But before we do that, I just want to pause and sit in the realization that, after 14 months of worship that has been either remote or outdoors, we will once again have the opportunity to gather in our sanctuary and worship God together in person.

This is an overwhelming and joyous reality.

The Gospel is that Jesus Christ has made us One. Not that we should try to become One, or that, with enough hard work, we could maybe become One someday: No - we are One. That has happened. This fundamental unity, this holy interdependence is foundational to understanding Christianity. When we shift our understanding away from thinking Christianity is about what happens to my soul when I die, and towards an understanding of Christianity about our shared eternal life that is already happening here and now - we are turned outside of ourselves and we are made to recognize that participating in our own salvation is a group project.