Great sermon -- by Tobias Haller

[suzer1013]

Don't know where to post this exactly, so I ended up in general chat.

Haven't been around much lately. Just been busy, and feeling rather silent. But I just read this sermon, and it is simply fantastic. I've been reading Tobias Haller's blog "In a Godward Direction" for some time now, and I think he's one of the most eloquent, well-written ministers out there. I only wish I'd had time to visit his church while I was in NYC. I think you will enjoy his writings.

Anyway, the sermon is about same-sex relationships and is titled "Beginnings, Ends and Friends." Please go read it if you have a chance -- I think you will feel blessed if you do.

http://jintoku.blogspot.com/2007/01/beginnings-ends-and-friends.html

Susan

[Dash]

Great sermon indeed! Yes, quite!:cool:

My favorite part was... "But then, he and those who take his point of view aren’t interested in nature and whatever truth it might reveal to us; for they are quite content, upon being shown that animals do engage in such behavior, to turn around and accuse gays and lesbians of being “inhuman” for acting like animals..."

Yup...been there...argued that...

Sigh...:injured:

But...I LOVED the tone of his words. There was gentle wisdom there into which I rest my weary wit.

[Daniel]

The gentlemen in question - and he is a gentleman- is the rector of St. James in the Bronx- where my husband is the organist. :D

And I liked this part especially:


And I firmly believe that gays and lesbians — whether they have legalized their domestic partnerships, had their unions blessed, or gone off to Canada to get married — can be teachers in this new school of charity for the church and the world, to offer a teaching as powerful as what the monastery taught in the days of Aelred.

And I don’t just mean more Queer Eye for the Straight Church — we’ve been there and done that for centuries; writing the hymns, playing and singing the music, crafting and leading the liturgies, designing the buildings and generally making the church more attractive than it would have been without us. No, what I mean is far more serious and far more challenging. I’m talking about the practice of the presence of God, who in Jesus Christ commands us to love each other as he loved us, with the love that does not abide in relationships built on quid-pro-quo or cost and benefit.

For I believe with all my heart that same-sex couples not only can show forth the great mystery of mutual love as well as different-sex couples do (or fail to do), but may well be able to do it better, and with greater freedom. Free from the shackles of biological determinism by which human cultures have falsely and conventionally come to believe that men and women are naturally and separately suited only for particular roles and destined as means to particular ends, we can emphatically declare and show forth in our lives that human beings are not roles, nor are they means to an end: whether that end be the brief spasm of sexual release or the procreation of a family, the maintenance of a home, or of a society. For as long as marriage is seen primarily for what one gets out of it: as a contract for the interchange of property or the grant of rights, for the building of a family or a home, for the maintenance of the social status quo — rather than for what goes into it: as a covenant of the mutual gift of two persons to each other for no reason other than for love, as long as we see the union of two hearts and minds primarily for its extrinsic worth rather than for its intrinsic value, it will be branded with the hallmark of commerce, rather than blessed as the sign and sacrament of generosity.

Amen.