The sound you hear is another crack in the stained glass ceiling

Remembering Marcus Borg: 1942-2015

So sad at the loss of such a great teacher, scholar, mystic and faithful prophetic voice.

Here's the All Saints tribute -- including a video of his last presentation with us: "Why Jesus Matters"
And here was my favorite tweet from yesterday:

Amen.

SCOTUS on marriage

The announcement that the Supreme Court will at long last rule on state power to discriminate against the marriages of same-sex couples is good news not just for gay and lesbian couples but for anyone who believes that liberty and justice for all really means "all." And it is long past time to recognize that equal protection is not equal protection unless it protects all Americans equally.

 As an American citizen, I believe in the promise we make every time we pledge allegiance to our flag: the promise of liberty and justice for all. And as a priest and pastor, I believe in the biblical promise that "the truth will set us free."

 And the truth is that continuing to discriminate against the marriages of some Americans undermines the liberty of all Americans.

The truth is -- in the words that are one of Martin Luther King's greatest legacies -- "We know that none of us are free until all of us are free."

The truth is that the arc of history we are promised bends toward justice is bending a little closer every time we take another step forward in the struggle to end discrimination against LGBT people in our nation.

And the truth is that today the Supreme Court took a big step toward taking a giant step. It has been a long journey -- and it is far from over -- but it is never the wrong time to do the right thing. And today the Supreme Court did the right thing.

So let us rejoice and be glad in it. And then let's get back to work. Can I get an Amen?

Michael Hopkins: 25 Years A Priest

On Saturday, January 10th the Diocese of Rochester celebrated the 25th anniversary of the ordination of Michael Hopkins with a festival Eucharist at St. Michael's, Ganeseo -- and I had the privilege of being the preacher.








A Sermon Celebrating 25 Years A Priest
St. Michael's, Ganeseo | Diocese of Rochester | January 10, 2015

It wasn't until the breaking of the bread that they finally "got it." The despondent disciples were trudging their way home to Emmaus, trying to make sense of the heartbreaking events of the last weeks. They were still reeling with what they had seen with their own eyes: the triumphal entry into Jerusalem of the One they hoped would redeem Israel go quickly and tragically downhill – ending with the trial, the conviction, the cross and the grave. None of it made any sense to them ... and what on earth were they supposed to do now?

And then they ran into this stranger – and what were the odds they'd end up walking along with the only guy in Jerusalem who didn't know the story? It had been the lead on Headline News all week – it was trending on twitter, for heaven's sake. Where had he been? And so they walked and they talked – and he explained to them things they'd never understood before about the scriptures they shared as a common heritage ... and they still didn't "get it."

But that didn't stop them from offering the stranger hospitality. "Stay with us, for night is coming." they said. And so he did -- and he blessed the bread and broke it ... and their eyes were opened – and suddenly they realized that the one who had walked with them and talked with them on that long, dusty walk from Jerusalem was not just someone but THE One.

They "got it" – they had what my rector, Ed Bacon, would call a "glory attack" – for they had seen the Lord: the Lord who had risen indeed … he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

And that is arguably the vocation those of us called to priests – of presbyters in the Church of God, as the prayer book calls us: to make Christ known in the breaking of the bread; to witness to the glimpses of God we have been allowed to catch in order to equip and inspire others to go do likewise; to break open the body of Christ in the bread made holy … in order to live out the Gospel According to Leonard Cohen:

There is a crack in everything.
That's how the light gets in.

And I don’t think there is a priest in Christendom who more fully incarnates the reality of that vocation than Michael Hopkins.

We gather here today to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of his ordination – and it is truly a celebration not only for Michael and for those of us gathered here at St. Michael’s – but for the whole church.

And because I had some “lead time” to prepare tonight’s sermon, I took the opportunity to gather up some thoughts from some random members of “the whole church” who can’t be with us tonight. Here’s a sampling:

From Stephen Lane – formerly of this diocese and now hanging out up there in Maine: Michael is visionary and courageous and willing to take on the risks and the work associated with any truly new effort.

From Bonnie Anderson – past president of the House of Deputies of the Episcopal Church: The Church needs priests like Michael who "get it" about all orders of ministry. Michael demonstrates the understanding that we all bring gifts differing, none better than another, just different, according to the Spirit.

From Elizabeth Kaeton – president of the Episcopal Women’s Caucus among a boatload of other things: One of the things I learned from Michael is that, in the church, there’s a difference between being “successful” and being “fruitful.” Success brings many rewards and often notoriety, but its long-term effects are often fleeting. Fruits, however, come from weakness and vulnerability which are foundational to the work of movement building in Christian community. And, Michal Hopkins is a quintessential movement builder, calling together various constituencies of race, gender, sexual orientation, gender, age, and economic status, teasing out the threads common to each, to work together on a common goal.

From Michael Barlowe – Executive Officer of General Convention: A phrase that comes to mind when I consider Michael and his ministry is “meet and right.” The past 25 years as a priest has been a time of faithful leadership – an incarnation of obedience of Christ’s command to love and Christ’s longing for us to be one. He took Ed Browning’s words “No outcasts” and held them before the church. And thanks be to God — Michael is still doing that.

And from Louie Crew – founder of Integrity and long time justice leader: It is not a comfortable position to have to tell the church you love, “You are wrong.” Few of us ever welcome bad news, yet for a quarter of a century Michael has done that faithfully, again and again, patiently, and most important lovingly.

And that brings me to a story.

It was June 2003 -- just days after Gene Robinson’s election as a bishop in the Diocese of New Hampshire and Michael was invited onto the Buchanan & Press show on MSNBC to speak in support of that election. After a rather rambling preamble about church history, scripture and the “faith received from the fathers” Pat Buchanan asked Michael (and I quote from the transcript): 

BUCHANAN: ... you're saying the church was wrong then?
HOPKINS: I am saying it was wrong. I am saying the problem is that the church has been in hiding all of these years because there have always been gay clergy … they were just forced to live in the closet, to live lives of secrecy.

And “crack” – a little more light got in because Michael Hopkins was willing to tell the church he loved that it was wrong. On MSNBC no less. 

Also in 2003 – that was a busy year, wasn’t it? – Michael wrote a “message to the church” for our Claiming the Blessing theology statement. It read in part:

My first message is that we are absolutely committed to this Church and we are absolutely committed to the continuance of as broad a diversity—including theological—as is possible for us to maintain together. Liberals and conservatives, progressives and traditionalists, must learn to live together in this Church or there will be no Church in which for us to live. But learning to live together must mean “mutual deference” not moratoriums or some insistence that we all convert to being “moderates.” 

My second message to the church at large is that we are not going anywhere. Gay and lesbian Christians make up a significant portion of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. We will continue to do so after General Convention 2003 no matter what happens. We will not attempt to get our way by threatening to leave. 

And we didn’t. Under Michael’s leadership, all we ever threatened to do was to stay – and to keep coming back again and again – like the persistent widow in Luke’s Gospel.

And the Episcopal Church of 2003 was very different than the Episcopal Church of 2015 … in no small part because of that leadership … and the appropriate response to that versicle is “Thanks be to God.”

Yes, there are some cracks. But remember the Gospel According to Leonard Cohen: That’s how the light gets in.

That’s how the Spirit moves. That’s how the church continues to grow into its full stature as the Body of Christ in the world: by being broken open over and over and over again.

Remember our friends on the Road to Emmaus? The story stops for us tonight at verse 35 … but what they did after the part where their hearts were burning within them and he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread was to go out to tell the others. They didn’t stay there and build a shrine, develop a doctrine and come up with some rubrics. They stepped out of their comfort zone and went back out into the fray to bring their brothers and sisters along with them. Sometimes brothers and sisters who were happy where they were, thank you very much. But they went anyway.

Another “memory lane” story I carry with me tonight includes George Barrett – a former bishop of this diocese who I had the privilege to know in retirement in the Diocese of Los Angeles. In 1995 Bishop Barrett preached at the memorial service for his life-long friend, Bishop John Krumm.

He climbed into the pulpit at our Cathedral Center and began with these words: “John Krumm,” -- stabbing his long, boney finger into the air for emphasis – “was never disillusioned by the church because John Krumm never had any illusions about the church!”

And I thought “How on EARTH did he manage that?” … and it’s been my aspiration ever since to grow up and be John Krumm. And I’ve done that by watching Michael Hopkins.

Now, this is NOT to say Michael has never been disillusioned by the church. I know for a fact certain we both have. And yet there is a hard won freedom in having no illusions – that freedom that is also known as just another name for nothing left to lose – that has equipped and empowered him to serve the church he loves joyfully and well. Even when he’s had to tell it it was wrong.

I have a favorite photo of Michael standing next to a banner in an exhibit hall of some General Convention past next to a banner that reads “The truth will set you free.” And the truth that has set Michael free to be the priest he has been for us for these last twenty-five years is that with no illusions about the church he has been free to love the church enough to crack it open – over and over and over again.

Letting in light for the LBGT baptized.
For those oppressed by systemic racism.
For our young people being murdered in our streets.
For an end to gun violence.
The list goes on and on.

As the disciples finally “got it” when Jesus broke the bread at that table in Emmaus, priests like Michael help the rest of us “get it” when he points us – again and again – to the church God dreamed we would be rather to the church we have settled for being. The church described by biblical theologian Verna Dozier in her brilliant book, “The Dream of God.”

I think God was always offering the possibility of living in the kingdom of God in the midst of the kingdoms of this world. Each time that frighteningly free gift of God to be the new thing in the world – a witness that all of life could be different for everybody – this gift was harnessed by an institution that established hierarchy of those who “know” above the great mass of people who must be “told.” The people of the Torah made the gracious gift of the law into a system – and the people of the resurrection made the incomprehensible gift of grace into a structure … and the biblical story is all about the people of God losing the way and a God who will not give up calling them back … again and again God calls us to return. 

When Michael Hopkins stood before Bishop Ronald Haines – after a sermon by Dr. Verna Dozier – to be ordained as presbyter in the Church of God, I hazard a guess he could not have imagined the new possibilities he would be presented with during the first twenty-five years of his ministry. And I suspect the same is true today as he looks forward to the next twenty-five years.

And so I want to offer a few more words from Dr. Dozier – for Michael and for the church:

“Doubt is not the opposite of faith,” she wrote. “Fear is. Fear will not risk that even if I am wrong I will trust that if I move by the light that is given me, knowing that it is only finite and partial I will know more and different things tomorrow than I know today, and I can be open to the new possibility I cannot even imagine today.”

May we all be given the grace to embrace those new possibilities as we strive together to be the church God dreamed as the Body of Christ in the world.

Finally, let me close just a few more words from Louie Crew: Tonight you celebrate the way that God has been shaping a young and fearless prophet into a sage. What an enormous privilege we all have in sharing some of the same gravel stretches with him on The Way. The costs to Michael have been great. May his example encourage us also to discover the peace that is no peace, the marvelous peace of God.

 And let all God’s people say Amen

The "Moral Goods" of Marriage

Nineteen years ago yesterday I spent the morning answering the following question:

SET V Saturday, January 6, 1996, 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon

LIMITED RESOURCES - You are limited in resource material to the Bible, the Book of Common Prayer, the Hymnal, and the Constitution and Canons of the Episcopal Church. You may use printed or electronic versions of these texts but no other resources of any kind, printed, written, verbal or electronic.

(Set V focuses on the canonical area of Ethics and Moral Theology. It also deals with the areas of Holy Scripture, Liturgics, and Contemporary Society.)

A couple active and involved in your congregation who have been living together for some time come to see you. They tell you that they have decided not to have children. They ask you, "Are there reasons to get married other than having children?"

In an essay of no more than 1250 words, discuss how a Christian understanding of the moral goods of marriage invites them to marry in spite of their decision not to have children. Include in your answer at least the following:

A. The moral goods of marriage as set forth in the 1979 Book of Common Prayer;

B. The Biblical groundings of this understanding of marriage;

C. The moral criteria for evaluating a decision not to have children.

Today I'm spending the morning getting ready for the upcoming release of the Blue Book Report from the A050 Task Force on the Study of Marriage -- a group that was charged to answer these (among other) questions about marriage ... not for the Board of Examining Chaplains but for the 78th General Convention.

And it occurs to me these are still good questions for us to be mulling -- individually and collectively -- as marriage equality comes to Florida, bringing the numbers up to over 70% of Americans living in jurisdictions with civil marriage and as the Supreme Court prepares to consider whether they'll consider pending marriage equality cases in their docket. What does the Episcopal Church have to say about "the moral goods" of marriage? What makes Christian marriage "Christian?" And what can we do as a church to offer a theology of marriage as vocation that both inspires and supports couples as they strive to love, honor and cherish each other until death do they part?

Stay tuned. Coming Soon to a Blue Book near you!

Marriage Equality Comes to Florida

Big day today -- Marriage Equality came to Florida, making it the 36th state (plus DC) to end marriage discrimination and, by some counts, putting the percentage of Americans now living in jurisdictions with marriage equality at over 70%.

My response to Florida Governor (and would-be presidential nominee) Jeb Bush's statement on marriage equality in Florida was just posted to my HuffPost blog:

On this historic day as marriage equality comes to the State of Florida, I was saddened that your statement reiterates the false dichotomy that providing equal protection for same-sex couples and protecting religious liberty are two "sides of the gay lesbian marriage issue." Nothing could be further from the truth.

Read the rest here.

On the Feast of the Epiphany

On the 12th Day of Christmas ...

... I (thankfully) didn't get 12 drummers drumming or any of that other long list of things, but this great book by Marc Solomon ...



... inscribed and everything. ON the very day folks were getting married in FLORIDA. Seriously, people. FLORIDA ... of Anita Bryant fame.

It's still a journey -- and we're not "there yet" -- but Lord, Lord, Lord ... how far we've come!

(You can order "Winning Marriage" here ... check it out! And thanks, Marc!)

Looking Back; Looking Forward

2014: A year of rest and work; endings and beginnings; joy and loss; despair and hope ... basically, a year of the stuff of life. Here's a tip-of-the-iceberg look back at the Old Year on this first day of the New Year:

I had the gift of three months of sabbatical to begin the year: a time of rest, reflection, recreation, reading and writing. #Blessed

Such an extraordinary privilege to be part of the A050 Task Force on the Study of Marriage -- charged by General Convention 2012 to report our work back to the church at General Convention 2015. (Coming soon to a Blue Book near you!) #MarriageMatters

In March we lost our sweet Juno to the rapid onset of an aggressive immune disorder. She was quite literally one of the best dogs ever -- never letting the fact that she was blind slow her down for a nanosecond -- and we're still grateful for the gift of her in our lives. #DogsRule

Also in March I attended my first Planned Parenthood National Conference in Washington. As a member of the Clergy Advocacy Board got to be part of the work of lobbying for women's reproductive justice on Capitol Hill -- and hanging out with some amazingly powerful women. The theme of the conference was "Stronger Together" ... and we are, indeed! #EndTheWarOnWomen

A Happy Easter was had by all. #AlleluiaAlleluia

June was "Happily Ever After" month for us as we were married (in the sight of God and the State of California) at All Saints Church. The best wedding in the history of marriage was followed by ...

... the best honeymoon in the history of weddings. #MauiBliss

In July I had the OMG, totally out of the blue, unanticipated honor of being a guest in the East Room of the White House to witness President Obama signing the executive order ending workplace discrimination against LGBT people. My HuffPost piece is here ... truly an historic, once-in-a-lifetime gig. #SoGrateful

Freed from the clutches of the evil McCorts my Dodgers had a great year -- which even the messed up no-Dodgers-on-local-TV-unless-you-have-Time Warner snafu or their less that brilliant playoff performance could ruin. #GoBlue

Two announcement of impending retirement came in 2014, with both Ed Bacon (my rector at All Saints Church) and Jon Bruno (my bishop here in the Diocese of Los Angeles) called for selection/election of their successors in 2016. #EndOfAnEra

My son James William (Jamie to his mom) Russell graduated from Western Kentucky University with a BA in social studies and education -- and plans to continue on to graduate school in January. #SoProud

The two steps forward, one step back on that journey along the arc of history that bends toward justice continued with major victories on marriage equality and FINALLY gaining approval for women as bishops in the Church of England -- while the work of dismantling racism, standing against torture and gun violence and a host of other challenges continues. #LaLuchaContinua

My QOTD to start the New Year is also a great one to mark the end of the Old Year: this favorite from Sister Joan Chittister. #HappyNewYear

Happy New Year: "Consider the Camas Lilies of the Field ..."

We "rang out" 2014 at All Saints Church with our annual New Year's Eve Eucharist -- where this poem by Lynn Unger -- "Camas Lilies" -- was one of the readings and part of Ed Bacon's sermon. Sharing today with best wishes to absolutely everybody for a Very Happy New Year ... a year that we remember both that "our work will always matter" AND that we are called to take time to go "to the fields to be lovely."

Happy New Year!

Consider the lilies of the field,

the blue banks of camas opening
into acres of sky along the road....
Would the longing to lie down
and be washed by that beauty
abate if you knew their usefulness,
how the natives ground their bulbs
for flour, how the settlers’ hogs
uprooted them, grunting in gleeful
oblivion as the flowers fell?
And you—what of your rushed
and useful life? Imagine setting it all down—
papers, plans, appointments, everything—
leaving only a note: “Gone
to the fields to be lovely. Be back
when I’m through with blooming.”
Even now, unneeded and uneaten,
the camas lilies gaze out above the grass
from their tender blue eyes.
Even in sleep your life will shine.
Make no mistake. Of course
your work will always matter.
Yet Solomon in all his glory
was not arrayed like one of these.

http://www.lynnungar.com/camas-lilies-2/