6th Sunday of Easter, Year C

    I Will Not Leave You

God not only creates humankind in God’s image but continues to care for us through all of life’s seasons!

This week's lectionary Bible passages:

Acts 17: 22-31; Psalm 66:8-20; 1 Peter 3:13-22; John 14:15-21

“Jesus’ promise of the Holy Spirit as Advocate guarantees that we will make it through all our experiences. We can declare that ‘God is good all the time.’"

Linda Thomas

“God wants the rest of the church to understand that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are God's gift to the church…”

Norman Kansfield

“In the face of hideous violence against the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community – as when an eighth-grader is killed for coming out to their friends – these passages want us to understand that God's love, God's promises, and God's calling are for us."

Valerie Bridgeman Davis

"In Paul's conversation with the Athenian, he appeals to what they know from their own experience.  This is important for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.”

Mona West

    What's Out in the Conversation
    A conversation about this week's lectionary Bible passages

In Acts 17:22-31, Paul is in Athens sharing the good news with intellectuals and philosophers in the marketplace – a setting where LGBT people might be found. He tells them that the unnamed divinity in which they believe is the creator of all life and close at hand.

Created in God's image humans are God's offspring who come to know their God-likeness through lived experience. God is as near as breath and the very animation of our bodies. This reality makes all bodies holy. We boldly declare therefore that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are created by God, holy and in God's image, imago Dei.

Paul wants the Athenians (and us) to understand that God not only creates humankind in God's image, but God continues to care for all of us -- "God gives all mortals life and breath and all things" (Acts 17:25).  Paul is so sure about this that he is willing to say to the Athenians, "I'm prepared to quote your poets, because they, too, are part of God's gift to me” (Acts 17: 28).  In the current context, God wants the rest of the church to understand that LGBT people are similarly God's gift to the church and, as with the ancient Greek poets, their insights and experience contribute truth to our conversation.

Paul appeals to what his listeners know from experience.  This is important
for LGBT people who struggle with interpretations of Scripture and religious traditions that condemn homosexuality.  In addition to Scripture and tradition, reason and experience are important for faith. LGBT people's experience of God is valid.  One does not need to choose between sexuality and spirituality

	To whom and where might God be calling you to share that the LGBT community is created by God – that they are holy and the imago Dei, image of God?

In Psalm 66:8-20, the psalmist understands both testing and deliverance to come from God.  LGBT people are encouraged to share their experiences of the holy.

Sometimes LGBT people and others feel that God is responsible for our burdens. If God isn’t responsible, then God certainly lets people lay heavy loads on us. Nevertheless, those who struggle find an uncanny ability to worship God. This is the gift most oppressed communities bring into the church: the ability to worship in the face of fear, stumbling and trials. This psalm assures that God hears prayers in such circumstances and does not withhold love.

The brave desire of so many LGBT people to be a part of the church, their willingness to be identified with the very people who vilified and shunned them, and to do this for God is the most powerful commentary on this portion of Psalm 66. 

	In the midst of tough times, tests and oppression, what can you affirm about God?  What can you declare about God to those who are “enemies”?

In 1 Peter 3:13-22, Peter’s community was suffering intense persecution for witnessing for the gospel. How do we encourage people to face persecution and perceive it as a blessing, especially when eighth graders are killed for coming out to their friends? The virulence of violence against LGBT communities cannot be understated. Members of the
LGBT community as well as their allies must struggle to keep a conscience clear of retaliation when they are being smeared, maligned and wounded, literally and figuratively.  Is suffering redemptive? 

The promise of this passage is that God seals us in baptism and saves each of us by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. On the other hand, this text is a landmine for the vulnerable. Often they have been accused of being "unrighteous," and the accuser declares “but God loves you anyway.”  This is a form of the "love the sinner, hate the sin" theology that people have effectively used against LGBT people. The antidote to this use is also contained in this passage: be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks about your hope in Christ.

	What is your answer to those who ask how you have hope especially during times of suffering and persecution?

 In John 14:15-21, Jesus promises the disciples that God will send the Holy Spirit, an advocate, who will live among them forever.  This is a comfort for the LGBT community
to know that the Holy Spirit is unconditionally present to offer comfort! This Spirit of truth is at the core of LGBT people's experience of God. Regardless of what society or the church may say about the acceptability of homosexuality, the Spirit bears witness to the holiness of LGBT lives.

LGBT people often feel as if they are orphaned, left without family or friends when they "come out" to the world. Shunned because they are accused of not "obeying the command" (John 14:21), this text lives between the tension of being judged and being accepted as a child orphaned. By the spirit, Jesus promises to come to disciples, reveal himself, and help them be fully alive as children of God.

	In what ways are LGBT people orphaned? What comfort or challenge do the words of Christ in John 14:18 (“I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you.”) bring to the LGBT community?