Main
Who We Are
Upcoming Events
Links
Our Worship
Divine Office
Services
WOW
Homilies
Our Ministries
Prayer List
Lay Ministry Rota
The Servant
San Esteban
San Esteban
Search:
1 Samuel 18:1-4, 20:16-17, 42, Romans 9:20-21, 25-26
Matthew 13:1-11, 18-23
St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, West Valley City, UT
The Rev'd W. Lee Shaw
We are gathered here today as the family and friends of Robb and Dex (and less there be any confusion, Robert and Mark) to do something very ordinary: celebrate their love, share in the Holy Eucharist, and give them our blessing in their union. And we gather here this morning to do something very extraordinary: celebrate their love, share in the Holy Eucharist, and give them our blessing in their union. For on the one hand this is something that couples do daily around the world: gather with family and friends to mark significant milestones in their lives, such as committing themselves to each other in a sacred covenant. To do this here at St. Stephen’s Church in West Valley City, Utah, with these two men, moves it up a few notches into the extraordinary. At least it does for me.
I’ve known you two for many years and have seen you through much change and challenge, joy and sorrow. There are few things, however, that give me greater joy than to be part of your celebration today.
The Rt. Rev. Gene Robinson, Bishop of New Hampshire, tells a story about how the church responds, albeit slowly, to the sometimes uncomfortable realities of men and women. In France at the end of World War II, three American soldiers approach a small country church. Their friend has been killed and he had wanted to be buried in the French countryside. They ask the priest if they can bury him in the church cemetery. The priest asks if the man had been baptized and they reply, no he had not. The priest then informs them that only baptized Christians can be buried in the church cemetery. So they ask if he could be buried just on the other side of the church cemetery wall, off church property. The priest reluctantly agrees to that. So they buried their friend outside the wall of the church.
Several years later the three of them returned to France and went to visit their friend’s grave. They searched outside the wall and could not find it. They went inside the church to ask the priest what had happened to their friend’s grave. The priest explained that he had had second thoughts about the burial. He had come to realize that the church should not restrict its blessings, even in burial, to those who did not fit easily into convenient categories of who is in and who is out. So, he had the church wall moved to include the grave of their friend.
Today, we are moving walls! The church and the state move slowly (some states more slowly than others) to include those who do not fit easily into convenient categories of who is in and who is out; of who society sees to be acceptable as to who can be blessed and who can be married. What we are doing here today is helping, in a small but significant way, to move one of the walls of the church to include all of her children, especially her gay and lesbian children in recognizing, celebrating and blessing those loving, faithful relationships.
The story in the Hebrew Scriptures of David and Jonathan gives us an
intriguing glimpse into the lives of two men who cared deeply for one
another, who loved each other as their own soul. We cannot
realistically speculate on the rather modern concept of sexual
orientation between these two men. Suffice it to say that their love
for each other was profound and lasting. Such so that at Jonathan’s
death, David openly grieves: I am distressed for you, my brother
Jonathan; very pleasant have you been to me; your love to me was
wonderful, passing the love of women,
(II Samuel 1:26).
Each of you were created in the image of the living God who loves you
and sustains you. At your birth, as in the creation of the world, God
pronounced the divine blessing that you are very good. No one
can keep you from feasting at the Table of the Lamb. No one can stop
you from being loved of God. For as Paul echoes Hosea about Israel,
so we echo Paul about you: And in the very place where it was said
to them
Know that you are beloved sons of the
living God.
you are not my people,
they shall be called children
of the living God.
Your love has been planted and blessed in fertile soil among your
family, friends, and faith community. May you continue to show forth
your love for one another and love for God in all your life together.
This sentiment is echoed beautifully in the simple lines from the very
end of the musical Les Misérables: To love another person is
to see the face of God.
May you continue to love one another and to see in each other the face of God.