On this day when we remember and celebrate our congregation’s bold and courageous decision 30 years ago this week to offer public welcome to gays and lesbians, let’s explore the intersections between our momentous commitment and today’s lectionary readings. Because this day’s bible stories lay a solid foundation for our commitments to generous and radical welcome and inclusion.
In today’s first reading, the Prophet Jonah was angry at God for not destroying the city of Nineveh. Jonah thought that the people there deserved God’s annihilating wrath.
In terms of our time, I hear echoes of the prophet Jonah and his self-righteous indignation when, 25 years ago, the TV evangelist, Pat Robertson, blamed gays and lesbians for the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Remember that? We sinful people are like that. We want God on our side to punish our enemies.
Yet, what do we hear about God in the passage from Jonah? Even Jonah acknowledged that God is a God of generosity and mercy. Jonah confessed: “For I knew that you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from punishment.” (Jonah 3:2b)
And so it came to pass that Nineveh was spared even as Jonah remained angry about God’s love and mercy and how God’s mind changed to spare the people.
Note that when we think God is unchangeable, God’s mind changed in this story. And it’s also true that many of us over the years have changed our minds about full inclusion of those in the LGBTQIA+ communities. Many have traveled on the continuum from at first wanting to exclude our siblings in Christ and at last to offering full embrace and welcome.
The “God hates fags” folk who protested here at Faith-La Fe a few years ago can stay mad like Jonah. But we will continue to celebrate our gracious God of radical welcome. Amen? Amen….
Then in today’s Gospel reading we see how those first on the job early in the morning are resentful that those who showed up at quitting time got the same amount of pay.
Those who worked all day thought they deserved more. They thought it was unfair that late comers were treated equally.
Yet, what do we see in today’s gospel passage? We see a generous God who chooses to give the same gifts to everyone regardless of when they showed up. Listen again to the words of the parable that suggest God’s generosity: “I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?” Or, “Do you begrudge me my generosity?” Or in Greek: “do you give me the evil eye because I’m good?”
The parable suggests that the landowner, whom we may see as God, has done “whatever is right,” whatever is just, according to divine judgment. God’s justice is not fair by a human standard which clamors for equal pay for equal work. God’s justice, in contrast to human sensibilities about justice, is about being merciful, gracious and welcoming, leveling the playing field in equality.
We might see members of the LGBTQIA+ communities as relative latecomers in being given welcome by the church, ones at first deemed unequal. Inspired by God’s generous and merciful and inclusive and welcoming justice suggested by today’s gospel parable, our congregation chose welcome over exclusion before many did, but still later than what was just in God’s eyes. We were in the minority in 1996 and many congregations today still struggle with how welcoming they are willing to be.
Again, many people don’t like a generous God. There are always those who oppose God’s gracious generosity. We continue to hear about those who want to exclude those from the LGBTQIA+ communities, but also any number of people deemed unworthy by the majority, by the dominant and the powerful. Immigrants. Persons of color. Anyone excluded and marginalized and hated by those who hold power.
In fact, in Jesus’ day, angry, resentful people crucified our Lord Jesus Christ because Jesus put into action God’s generous, equitable love that welcomed the people others wanted to exclude and banish. But God had the last laugh and the last word when he raised Jesus from the dead. Amen? Amen….
Let’s cut to chase in our lives. Here’s the good news: we all experience the generosity and welcome of God when we are baptized and included in God’s family no matter who we are. We are all equal in God’s eyes.
We all experience the generosity and welcome of God here at this table when Christ feeds us with his abundant love. We all are invited here, no matter where we stand in the hierarchies of the wider society. This table levels the playing field.
In baptism, we are washed, and at this table, we are, thus, fed to go out and welcome others just as Jesus did.
This is the God whom we worship today as we also celebrate the effects of God’s love that inspires us to welcome others.
Again, thirty years ago this week, Faith Evangelical Lutheran Church made the decision to publicly welcome gay and lesbian persons. That was a bold decision then which risked discipline from our wider church. And, steadfast to this day, we remain committed to extending God’s welcome to include anyone and everyone, especially those whom the rest of the world seeks to exclude.
Great gains have been made in these thirty years. But now we see powerful backlash. There’s a great deal of energy deployed in the current climate to completely undo and eradicate the gains made in recent decades.
But we will not be deterred, for it is the generous God whom we see in today’s scripture readings that inspired our members thirty years ago to welcome gays and lesbians. And it is that same generous, welcoming God who motivates us today to continue to extend our welcome to anyone and everyone.
Our work is not done. Our welcome is not as complete as it might be. What about young adults in the LGBTQIA+ communities? They have not found their way here… What about our fuller embrace of those who have no shelter? What about other young adults who seek genuine community apart from the screens on their devices? What about the fuller embrace in our own congregation between our Spanish-speaking and English-speaking members? Again, our work for full welcome and inclusion is not complete. And the wider culture puts many obstacles in our way.
But, like our forebears thirty years ago, we are inspired by Paul’s ancient wisdom as we heard in today’s second reading: “Live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ…. Stand… firm in one spirit, striving side by side with one mind for the faith of the gospel, and in no way frightened by those opposing you. For them, this is evidence of their destruction but of your salvation. And this is God’s doing. For he has graciously granted you the privilege not only of believing in Christ but of suffering for him as well….” (Philippians 1:27-30)
Therefore, may God inspire us to be still more welcoming even if it involves our suffering with Christ and with those to whom we reach out. And may the witness of members of Faith Church thirty years ago show us that we can do it with God’s help.
On this day of celebration and recommitment, thanks be to our Trinitarian God of abounding love and radical welcome, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
