When God spoke to the prophet Habakkuk, God instructed him to communicate clearly:
Then the Lord answered me and said:
Write the vision;
   make it plain on tablets,
   so that a runner may read it. (Habakkuk 2:2)
If you’re holding up a sign for a loved one to see as she zips by while running in the Boston Marathon you don’t print it on a 3×5 card in 10-point print.  You stretch out a bedsheet with huge letters so a ‘runner may read it’ as she races by.

Last week I expressed my dismay that judgmental voices in the wider church defame Jesus’ Gospel of love. I cited Anita Bryant’s 1977 crusade opposing equal rights for gay people as an example.  Let me make it plain so a runner can read it.  I didn’t choose this example arbitrarily.  I wanted to state clearly that regarding gay people as defective or disordered is contrary to the Gospel and contrary to the spirit of the Christ who I love and serve. 

Paul’s letter to the Galatians says that no difference of birth or circumstance can compromise our unity in the family of those redeemed by Christ:

There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise. (Galatians 3:28-29)

All our differences of birth and station evaporate in the light of Christ’s love that has made us all one.  Our identity is not defined by being a Jew or a Gentile, male or female, slave or free, gay or straight, privileged or poor, native born or immigrant…  Divisions based on ethnicity, or race, or gender, or orientation, or wealth, or status are worldly and sinful.  We are identified with Christ who died for us and that makes us part of one family.

It is contrary to the Gospel to condemn and exclude gay people.  Christ’s love for the church is revealed by all people everywhere, gay or straight, who commit themselves in faithful, sacrificial love to one another.

Prayer:  Encompassing God, your beloved Son spread his arms against the hard wood of the cross to embrace every child of Adam and Eve.  Grant us grace to rejoice as we are gathered into your bosom with all whom you seek to embrace.  Amen.