St. Andrew

"Almighty God, who gave such grace to your apostle Andrew that he readily obeyed the call of your Son Jesus Christ, and brought his brother with him: Give unto us, who are called by your Word, grace to follow him without delay, and to bring those near to us into his gracious presence; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever."--Collect for St. Andrew, apostle and patron saint of Scotland

It happened again at the noon day service at St. John's. Words from the service caught me by surprise, and left me thinking about them hours later. The above collect was just one example. "Give unto us, who are called by your Word, grace to follow him without delay, and to bring those near to us into his gracious presence."

Our homilist emphasized the idea of "call" and what God may be "calling" us to do. She noted that Andrew, like Peter and the others, immediately dropped their fishing nets to follow after Christ. Maybe we are all called to drop something, whatever might be the routine or what we think is the expected role we are to fill, and follow a path to Christ?

I also heard the part of our Post Communion Prayer, again, that I have talked about before on this blog: "Send us now into the world in peace, and grant us strength and courage to love and serve you." I thought back on my late good friend, Fr. Lee, and what he did in his lifetime. I thought about what it means to have the strength and courage to love God... and serve as a witness to that Love of God which is enormous and unlike any other. That love that holds you up as you stare injustice, inequality, and stubborn resistance to change in the face.

Is this my call?

Advent Brings A New Rite (for some)...

From the Boston Business Journal

 There is excitement in the air for this Advent, and it's not just because it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

The long-awaited rite for blessing same-sex relationships has arrived, and is going into effect this Sunday in those dioceses where they are permitting the rite's trial usuage.  Called, "I Will Bless You and You Will Be a Blessing," the rite tracks much the same liturgy that exists for straight couples in the church, with Scripture readings, presentation of the couple before the presider, vows and rings.  I posted a link to the rite on Facebook and the overwhelming reviews from my Christian, and non-Christian, straight friends has been "beautiful."

It is well-written.  It is a right and good and joyful thing.  And it is not available in all dioceses of the church.

I'm beginning to feel a little bit like I live on the Island of Misfit Toys.  I see the postings from friends celebrating this momentous occasion in the history of our church, and yet I know this Advent will be no different than the ones from previous years when it comes to the place of the LGBT faithful in this diocese.  We are to give our time, our treasure, our talent (up to a point), but there is no will power to really live into that final statement of our Baptismal Covenant:

"Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?"

There is no out-clause of, "Well, except for those queers!"  And there is nothing that excuses the rest of the Church, the larger body living in enlightenment, from keeping their laterns safely ensconced in their own dioceses when there are still large pockets of darkness that exist in the Church as a whole.  LGBT people in Florida live in a state where the civil authorities have been stepping on our necks for decades, and the church has chosen to keep its prophetic voice silent on such matters.  Refusing to even discuss the new rite, and issuing the edict that there will be no blessing of same-sex unions even before there was a vote at General Convention, was just business as usual.

Some have talked to me about how it was in the days of women's ordination.  Heck, they can't seem to get over the gender issue in England, not to mention those places in this country where parishoners still will cross to the other side of the rail rather than receive the Eucharist from a woman.  I know my sisters in Christ have endured much pain and hardship in the face of such anti-Christian behavior and dogma.  That doesn't make the foot-dragging and the intentional snubbing of LGBT Christians as fully-baptized members of the church any better.  In fact, haven't we spent enough time beating each other down rather than building each other up?  Are we really that slow to understand that when Jesus fed all the many thousands of people, he fed all and all were satisfied?  Is "all" too difficult to comprehend?

And so here I sit, on the Island of Misfit Toys, wondering when we will see the day that all people see justice and peace, and have their dignity respected.  Hurrah for you, my brothers and sisters in elsewhere Episcopaland. And don't be afraid to send some light this way!

In Remembrance of Harvey Milk

Gay rights activist and San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk was gunned down on this day at San Francisco City Hall in 1978.  His assailant was fellow Supervisor Dan White who also shot and killed mayor George Moscone.  I was only ten years old at the time, but I was a quirky kid in that I paid attention to the news, and so I did hear about it even as I played with Legos on the living room floor.  It was shocking, and even more shocking days later when we'd hear that it was the Twinkies that made Dan White do it.

Milk, who was a firebrand, once said, "If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door."  It may not have destroyed every closet door, but his life, his passion, and his entry into the political arena, makes him one of the many saints of our LGBT civil rights struggle that has led to U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin, as well as countless other openly-gay elected officials.  How sweet it is to know that the state who produced the hate-filled Save Our Children campaign of Anita Bryant now has two openly-gay state representatives!

"And the young gay people in the Altoona, Pennsylvanias and the Richmond, Minnesotas who are coming out and hear Anita Bryant on television and her story. The only thing they have to look forward to is hope. And you have to give them hope. Hope for a better world, hope for a better tomorrow, hope for a better place to come to if the pressures at home are too great. Hope that all will be all right."--Harvey Milk, March 10, 1978.

Hope is out there, it's very visible.  Let's be brave and embrace it!

In the Lord Your Labor Is Not in Vain

Yesterday, we said good-bye and farewell to Father Lee Graham, Jr.  I was honored that my friend had asked that I be one of the lectors at his funeral.  I hadn't dared put in a request to participate, figuring that with all the people who have ever felt close to him, there would be a line a half-mile long of folks who would want to be chalice bearers, lectors, ushers, pall bearers, altar guild members to serve one last time along this servant of God.  So, when I learned that he had put it into his notes on his funeral plan to have me read, I cried.  Again.

And then I read the passage he had selected for me to read, 1 Corinthians 15: 51-58.  And I cried.  Yet again.  All the Scriptural selections he made were a beautiful combination that sounded so much like him preaching one last homily for all of us.  And I definitely felt the words he had chosen for me to communicate to the very large congregation were picked with a purpose.  And so, in honor of Fr. Lee, I thought I'd take us through this particular set of verses, as I understand them in light of my theology as of November 24, 2012:

Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.

This is some mystery, isn't it?  A mystery which speaks to many kinds of life and death.  But I'll just stick with the death of the physical body.  It may seem the person is "dead", but the inhabitant of that body, that inner spirit that once animated the body our senses know as "the person", is not "dead" but it has changed and assumed a new body...one unseen and unknow to those of us in this world.  That person has "changed".  And those of us left behind to mourn the physical death have also changed because we mourn the absense and presensce of that person we perceived through their perishable body.  This is a mystery of energy, and understanding the difference between the physical and the energetic (spiritual) body.  Let's continue...

For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality.When this perishable body puts on imperishability, and this mortal body puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will be fulfilled:
‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.’

For those who do believe that life continues beyond this life we know on planet earth, and that there are dimensions of life that are the places of the saints (or the ancestors, in some customs), then this riddle-like statement put forth by St. Paul makes sense.  Once the spiritual body has put on a new existence that isn't the perishable body where it lived and moved and had its being with us, then it rejoices in the experience of new life, life that is bigger and brighter than where it has been before.  Don't let this be confused with "eternal or everlasting life."  That, too, exists in a bigger and brighter form in that realm that is beyond us.  But, according to my theology of November 24, 2012, we are capable of experiencing eternal and everlasting life now if we will yield to God and allow God, not our own petty egos, to be the center of our existence.

‘Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?’
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Because, for those who do believe in life beyond this realm, death of a physical body does not have the final victory over our spiritual selves.  Because, for those who do believe that there is something more, we have seen an example of this victory in the story of Jesus, who claims new life in the resurrection.

Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labour is not in vain.

This, I believe, was the statement that Fr. Lee intended for me, and others, to hear, read, mark, learn and inwardly digest.  A man who knew his Scriptural teachings backwards, forwards and sideways, and had them in his heart as he pursued the most unpopular and difficult paths for justice in his time and until his death.  This was the part of the passage that made me bawl each time I practiced my reading.  The thought that all that we do in this life to make things better for everyone does not end when our physical body ceases to exist, and that as long as we are in this life, we are to be striving to look out for those who have not experienced the liberating love of Love.  That is the task before each of us who seeks to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with God. 

Thanks be to God for having given me a chance to learn from a teacher like Father Lee Graham, Jr.  He has left an indelible mark on my spirit.

A Prayer of Thanks

O God, who created all peoples in your image, we thank you

for the wonderful diversity of races and cultures in this world.

Enrich our lives by ever-widening circles of fellowship, and

show us your presence in those who differ most from us, until

our knowledge of your love is made perfect in our love for all

your children; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, pg. 840)

 

Happy Thanksgiving, and may this day be one filled with friends, loved ones, family and leftovers to spare!

Joys and Sorrows

As with any lead-in period to a holiday, it seems that time speeds up, and there's no chance to slow down and do such important things as post on one's blog! :-)

Yesterday was definitely one of those whirlwind days.   Fortunately for me, my schedule was totally clear which meant I could go here, there, and everywhere, without much trouble.  My day started with the morning realization that our new state legislature would be sworn in that morning.  Normally, I would thank God for deliverance from having to be there as a reporter.  But this day was different.  Because, on this day, Florida would finally have two openly-gay state representatives seated in the House chamber.   I got out my some of my best clothes, and trudged up the hill to the state Capitol building, quietly humming an antiphon we sing at Easter:

"On this day, the Lord has acted.  Let us rejoice and be glad in it."

And I was!  I was smiling.  I was laughing.  And I was enjoying myself in a way that I never have in all the years that I have entered that ugly structure where sausage is made at the expense of real lives.  On the way in, I met the parents of a newly-elected legislator who unseated one of the rising stars of the Tea Party-infused state Republican party. 

"Oh, thank you for having a son, and congratulations!" I said.  They laughed.

There are advantages to having once been a member of the Fourth Estate.  Namely, nobody questioned me when I fell in with the reporter pack to gain access to the House floor.  I found one of our two new gay boys, State Representative Joe Saunders and his partner Donald, and snapped a quick picture of them.  I gave Joe a big, long hug, and promised him that the community was there to help him however he needed it.

Such an amazing accomplishment as having out-and-proud members of the Florida House is a sign that "the times they-are-a-changin'."  

In stark contrast, the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance is the reminder that we have not fully realized equality here in the United States or certainly around the world.   After stopping in briefly at a church function happening at the home of our associate rector, I headed out to the local LGBT community center to listen to speakers and bear witness to the candle lighting ceremony.  With each votive candle, we heard the names, ages, and circumstances surrounding the death of a trans individual, killed in the past year.  There were 38 names in all, and those are just of the ones we know.  Many of the people had been mutilated in some way, almost as if the killers were so appalled by the person's outward appearance that they felt the need to destroy it.  As people placed their candles around the heart, I repeated in silence my own private prayers for each of these souls snuffed out by transphobia violence.   I thought about the resurgence of the "kill the gays" bill in Uganda.  I thought of trans friends I have made in Tallahassee, and the educational Voices of Witness documentary, "Out of the Box" about the transgender people of faith in the Episcopal Church.  And I thought how much further we still need to go if we are going to live into the vows of our baptismal covenant to "strive for justice and peace and respect the dignity of every human being."

So many have died and, are still dying, for the right to live and love in peace.  As we celebrate the accomplishment of LGBT people finding a place at the table of state politics, we must also continue our commitment to raise up all people and refuse to make peace with attempts to put us in an early grave.  We must stay on the battlefield, and we must have the voices of others joining us in this race after God's promise that all will be included in the kingdom and have eternal life.

May Light Perpetual Shine Upon Him: Rev. Lee Graham, Jr.

Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for
our learning: Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn,
and inwardly digest them, that we may embrace and ever
hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have
given us in our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with
you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

This "Collect of the Day" assigned for this Sunday is the one I refer to as the "Lee Graham Collect" because this is the prayer Father Lee would use on Fridays before his homilies. And quite often, what Fr. Lee would share with our congregation of about a half dozen people were the ideas he had gleaned and considered carefully as he heard, read, marked, learned and inwardly digested the holy Scriptures over a long life of serving in the church.  Somehow, then, it is fitting that on this Sunday, Fr. Lee Graham, Jr. went on to be with the saints who have entered into joy.  He was 92.

I have written about Father Lee so often on this blog through the course of the years as I have gotten to know him and serve with him on Fridays at St. John's.   He has lived an amazing life of overcoming his own prejudice as a young white Southern male priest who was one of the recipients of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s letter from the Birmingham jail.  The civil rights struggles in Alabama during the early 1960s  tested Father Lee and he took up his cross to fight for equal rights for black citizens.  Fr. Lee used to tell one story of the vestry meeting where he was instructed to keep quiet as the group laid out plans to get dogs to patrol the parking lot during an Easter service to prevent black families from coming to church. Fr. Lee listened for awhile, and then asked if they wanted to know what their rector thought of this plan.

"If you do this," he said, "I will not celebrate an Easter service."

"Are you quitting?" they asked.

"I didn't say that," he replied.  "I said if you have dogs and patrols in the parking lot, I will not celebrate Easter."   That ended the vestry's plan, but not the racial tensions in Alabama.

Fr. Lee and his wife, Betty, then moved to Tallahassee where he became the rector of St. John's Episcopal Church for almost twenty years.  Racism was still an issue in Florida's capital city, but nothing nearing the brutal nature of Alabama.   Early in his tenure, an usher who was a state Supreme Court justice turned away a black family from the church.  Fr. Lee, recognizing that the man held a position of power in the state and was a muckity muck at St. John's, nonetheless quietly took care of the matter but never allowing the man to usher again.  The Grahams were about bringing people, all people, into the church; not keeping them out.  He survived the angst about women in the priesthood, girls as acolytes, a new prayer book and hymnal.  He provided space for pregnant teenage girls in the county to attend an afterschool session, so they could complete their requirements for graduation (since the county wouldn't let them attend with the other children).  His food and clothing ministry eventually became ECHO, a program that continues to this day in Tallahassee.  The Grahams were always on the lookout for who was not experiencing the liberation of Love.

No place was that more evident than in the way Lee and Betty Graham treated me and others in the gay community.  During the horrible aftermath of Florida's vote in 2008 to ban marriage equality in the state constitution, Fr. Lee was the only priest at St. John's who recognized the pain in my face, and offered words of love and encouragement to me at a time when I felt the world and even the church was against me.  The Friday before that election he had used his homily as a time to preach about the evils of exclusion, and specifically called out the church and society for their treatment of the LGBT community. I cried.  It was the first time anyone at St. John's had even dared to say anything in response to the lies that had been, and were being, told about us in the public square (mind you this was the church that under another rector had embraced homophobia as kinfolk). He openly praised Bishop Gene Robinson for his frank discussions of human sexuality, and didn't shy away from stating over and over that equal rights for the LGBT community was the new civil rights struggle for the church and for society... and both had better get on with establishing justice in the gate.  And when I told him about a rally that would be happening at the state Capitol building for LGBT equal rights, he was there, in his priestly blacks amidst a sea of 20-and-30 year olds.

The Grahams also spent about eight years in Memphis where Betty Graham got the city police department up to speed on dealing with crime suspects who had mental illness issues.  The police officers had no idea what to do with suspects who suffered from psychological problems and would usually use brute force or stun gun them.  Betty and some others involved with the National Alliance on Mental Illness   met with the police chief, and offered to train the officers.  Several of the cops signed up for her workshop, and Memphis became the model for the national movement to train officers in how to respond to the mentally ill.

I loved serving with Lee at the Friday noon day service.  He kept things simple, but didn't lose any of the joy embedded in the liturgy.  His homilies were teaching moments, and on occasion he would employ a rabbinic style of asking questions to get us engaged in our own learning, reading, marking and inwardly digesting of the message of Love.  On one Friday, I remember walking into St. John's with him as we were going to vest and prepare for noon day.  The feast day was that for the Ugandan martyrs.  I shared with him my concerns about what is currently happening in Uganda with the LGBT community  Fr. Lee decided that what he was going to say needed to reflect the reality of the current situation, and so he turned to me and asked me to share with everyone about the "kill the gays" bill, and that, rather than the text from Holy Women/Holy Men, became the basis for his homily. 

Father Lee was a tremendous man, and I thank God I had the opportunity to get to know him.  Prayers for his wife, Betty, and his children and grandchildren.