YES TO 2008: BRING IT ON!

I was sitting here this afternoon thinking I should write something for the end of the year.

Of course that is what everybody is doing. Looking back over all the stuff that happened during 2007. The year 2007 will be reviewed in print, in video and radio till we are just sick of it.

There will be plenty of “this was a horrible year” or “this was a great year” or “the best and worst stuff” written about. So I was stuck as to what to write about which would not be the same old stuff.

Then I remembered an old quote from a former Hall of Fame major league baseball pitcher by the name of Satchel Paige; “Never look behind you, cause something might be gaining on you.” Ain’t that the truth?

In addition our faith calls upon us because of the Christ to be forward looking. St. Paul writes,

“I'm not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. Friends, don't get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I've got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus. I'm off and running, and I'm not turning back.” (Philippians 3:13-14 (The Message) )

This past year has been full of challenges; very difficult times and full of loss…but St. Paul’s words are so true for those of us who claim a relationship with God.

I might be a little too arrogant here, but I am looking forward to 2008 and the incredible good things that will happen!

The ministry which I am blessed to be apart of is on the edge of doing some things that most Pastors can only dream of. March 15, 2008 Gentle Spirit Christian Church will be 10 years old. Given our start and our journey of faith this is no small accomplishment.

I look forward to 2008 because I am the pastor of real life heroes. In a day when we lack for people we can call heroes, I am truly blessed.

I am the pastor of a church that has some of the most resilient and gutsy people on the planet. It takes great effort to break down the walls of tradition that is suffocating and more about morality and rules rather than relationship with and the grace of God.

On any given Sunday, there will be gay, straight men and women, bi, lesbian and transgender folks worshiping together. There will be white, black and Latino all worshiping together. It takes guts to see each other as a true child of God.

There will be Evangelical, Progressive, Moderate Christians, and followers of Jesus, Buddhists, and church questioning folks all worshiping together. It takes guts to allow for many paths to God.

It takes guts and resilience to move the worship time out of doors and never cancel a service because of the weather. Our service moved outdoors Labor Day weekend of 2006.

Worship took place regardless of 100-degree temperatures or a temperature in the 30’s with wind and rain. The congregation was always there with food for the picnic after they had worshipped and praised God.

It takes guts in this day and age to worship outside in a public city park where anybody could show up looking for God knows what. Anything from needing some travel money to some food to get through the day. There have been people showing up needing help finding shelter, or finding a way to get into recovery. Every one of those folks has been welcomed with open arms by each of the people in church that day. The people attending church that day have helped every one of those folks in some way. It did not matter if it was giving a few dollars, a ride, a hug, a smile, or the assurance of support for the need.

Yes, it takes guts to “walk the talk” and love rather then hate, support rather then condemn, embrace rather then shun, include rather than exclude. It takes a special kind of faith to give up the comforts of a building; the security of locked doors and is front and center in the community.

It takes guts to be in church where one’s pets are as important as the people.

Those worshipping in the park every Sunday give a new sense of affirmation to God’s people. An affirmation, which says the people are more important then buildings, committee’s and rules.

Those who worship each Sunday give a loud and visible witness that feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and imprisoned is far more important then having a church building where the utility bills are 10 times more then the benevolence fund.

I look forward to 2008 because of the heroes God has brought to this ministry.

People have heard God’s call and they have answered. The wealth of talented and spiritually diverse people God has brought into our midst is astounding!

We already had an outstanding Deacon who had become a “jack of all trades” and a dedicated treasurer, but we have added an assistant pastor, a vicar of education, a church administrative assistant, prayer warriors, and a marketing professional. All of who give of their time, talents efforts without seeking a salary or fee.

We have a core group of people who with a simple phone call will help with housing, food, medical, recovery issues, mental health issues, jobs, legal matters, financial needs and transportation.

We have people who have simply opened their homes to those who needed a place to stay; no conditions to length of time, no expectations of being paid…just opened their home.

We have people whom week after week brought food for those who had none.

We have people whom week after week, have provided rides to doctors, grocery stores, hospitals, to jobs or back home.

We have people whom have volunteered to help people move, gave money to those in need with no expectation of every getting one dime back.

We have those who call the church office week after week to inquire about any special prayer concerns.

We have group of people who walk 3 miles to church each and every Sunday regardless of weather.

We have a group of people who can testify to the healing power of God almost daily.

These folks are all heroes because in a world where recognition, wealth, power and control mean everything, it means nothing to them. Except for here most of you will never hear of them in the media or in the power places of the community.

I thank God for these faithful people of God:

Braden Baker
Allen Bozeman
Robbin Brown
Rev. Jarrod Cochran and Erin
Kim and Sharon Dugan
Gareth Fenely
Carmen Gonzales
Maru Gonzales
Lance Helms
Monica Helms
Corey Hoblit
Vicar Alyce Keener
Teresa Kenney
Deb Wolfe
Ann Marie Knittel
Estelle LeClaire and Erin
Christopher Martinez
Maura NiConnell (Spike)
Richard Ozveth
William Pabst
Caroline Ray
Rev. Judy McVey
Nancy Vandyke
Deacon Bob Shaw
Clinton Silver
Phyllis Silver
Susan Stephens
Jeff Tatum
Father Warren Taylor
Charles Smith
James Langston
Bill Smith
Bill Bailey
Charles Harris
Wolf Thomas
Jennifer Turner
Enrique Silvani
Zan Thornton and Elizabeth
Melissa White
Bill Butler
Darrell Grizzle
Aaron Angel
Tom Rose
Rev. Candace Chellew-Hodge
Rev. Guy Kent
Rev. James Brewer-Calvert

Yes, I am more then just a little excited and looking forward to 2008. I cannot wait to see and experience the new heroics these people will do by the power of God!

Yes to 2008: bring it on!

WELCOME TO THE NEW YEAR!!!

Let us go into the new year with these words written on our heart:

"Now we ask you, sisters and brothers, to respect those who work hard among you, who are over you in the Lord and who admonish you. Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other. And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone. Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else.

Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

Do not put out the Spirit's fire; do not treat prophecies with contempt. Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil.

May God, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and God will do it.

Sisters and brothers, pray for us. Greet all the brothers and sisters with a holy kiss.... The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you."

1 Thessalonians 5:12-26, 28 (New International Version)

WELCOME TO CHRISTMAS WEEK!!! :-)

No better words from our Savior as to what his birth is all about:

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, or they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you."

Matthew 5:3-12 (New International Version)

WELCOME TO THE NEW WEEK!!! :-)

Let us carry these powerful words of our Christ in our heart as we journey the week:

"And don't say anything you don't mean. This counsel is embedded deep in our traditions. You only make things worse when you lay down a smoke screen of pious talk, saying, 'I'll pray for you,' and never doing it, or saying, 'God be with you,' and not meaning it. You don't make your words true by embellishing them with religious lace. In making your speech sound more religious, it becomes less true. Just say 'yes' and 'no.' When you manipulate words to get your own way, you go wrong."

Matthew 5:33-37 (The Message)

I JUST WANT TO SCREAM...

Just when I think things cannot get worse…the 2 stories come across my desk.

Now mind you over the last couple of months there have been more then our fair share of really bad things happening to our community, but these two set up tonight’s soapbox.

“Gay teen couple made to sit apart on bus
Posted by: "Thomas Jackson" tcjackson2005@sbcglobal.net tomjackson2008
Mon Nov 5, 2007 9:58 am (PST)

Two gay teenagers from Scotland are considering legal action after being
humiliated on a late-night bus journey.

Steven Black, 16, and Mark Craig, 19, were told to get off the bus by the
driver and then forced to sit in separate seats, according to the Sunday
Mail.

"If we had been all over each other, I could understand - because that
behavior in public is not appropriate whatever your sexuality. But Mark
just had his arm around my shoulder," Steven told the paper.

"I have never been so humiliated in my life. I just can't believe we are
still made to feel like second-class citizens."

In 2000 Mr. Souter, an evangelical Christian, donated half a million pounds to a campaign in Scotland to uphold Section 28, which banned the "promotion of homosexuality" in schools.

He cited his religious beliefs as justification for his actions, insisting he is not homophobic.

Mr. Souter is a member of the Church of the Nazarene, a Methodist denomination.

The couple chose to sit separately because they had no other way to get
home.

Indicted in beating of gay couple
Saturday, November 03, 2007
By MICHAELANGELO CONTE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER
UNION CITY - Two former employees of a Burger King on Bergenline Avenue have
been indicted on hate crime charges in connection with the vicious beating of a
same-sex couple outside the restaurant earlier this year, officials said yesterday.

Angel Caraballo, 28, of Duncan Avenue, and Christopher Soto of Prospect
Street, both of Jersey City, were charged with aggravated assault and a first-degree hate
crime in connection with the July 22 beating, officials said. The hate crime offense
carries a possible sentence of 10 to 20 years in prison.

The two victims, Union City men in their early 40s, were in the Burger King,
on the 3500 block of Bergenline, when they asked someone behind the counter for a refund for an item that was not available, officials said.

One employee allegedly asked the other who was asking for the refund and he
replied with a derogatory term for a homosexual, according to a news release issued by
the gay rights advocacy group Garden State Equality.

The couple left the restaurant, but a group of Burger King employees followed them outside, where "they beat them mercilessly," while repeating anti-gay slurs,
the news release, says.

There is the 21 year old who was executed in Iran (we don’t have any homosexuals as stated by Iran’s Dictator) for being gay.

There was the drive by shooting in front of a gay club in Atlanta.

There was the transgender person who was murdered down in Savannah Georgia.

There was this headline: “Gay-bashings up in 2006”

The African Episcopal Bishop continues to say all kinds of nasty things about us as if we are not in the room.

This is followed by an entire section of the Episcopal Church leaving the denomination because a man who is tremendously gifted but gay and in a long-term relationship is made a Bishop.

“The Diocese of San Joaquin, a conservative fold that serves California's Central Valley and has long chafed under what it considers the increasing liberalism of its fellow Episcopal, on Saturday became the first in the nation to separate from the U.S. Episcopal Church, voting overwhelmingly to take a strong and definitive stance against how the church deals with homosexuality and other controversial issues.

The vote capped a dispute that had been sweeping through the Episcopal Church in the United States for decades, one that was highlighted in 2003, when the Right Rev. V. Gene Robinson, who is openly gay, was ordained as bishop in New Hampshire.

"We were interested in seeking leadership that held to a traditional interpretation of Christianity," said the Rev. Van McCalister, a spokesman for the Diocese of San Joaquin."

We have a democrat who wants to be President of the US and thinks it is perfectly OK to have a lying, self-absorbed internalized homophobe sing for his campaign. I wonder if a former grand wizard of the KKK who suddenly got religion would be ok to sing for the campaign too?

Of course there is the radio talk show host by the name of Michael Savage who gets in his dig:

“CNN is a bear trap. CNN is a bear trap for anybody conservative. Look what they did the other night, last week rather, with the YouTube/CNN debate, when they put a planted, gay, phony general in the audience to throw out a question, and then Anderson Cooper followed up with intelligible, ‘Did you get the question answered adequately?’ That’s your idea of a fair debate? It’s like a Stalinist show trial.” “I don’t care about this old queen, frankly. He disgusts me to make — my flesh crawls from the old queen. That was a general? Now you wonder why we’re still in Iraq five years later. General — with General Keith Kerr, you know why we’re still in Iraq five years later.”

Think the craziness is over? Hell no…we get a National League football coach with this gem:

“During an interview with Bob Costas on HBO's Costas Now, Colts coach Tony Dungy seemed taken aback when asked what he would do if he had an openly gay player on his team.

After a pause in which Dungy smiled and looked as though he wanted to choose his words carefully, Dungy said, "I'm sure I would talk to him about my views on it, what the Bible says about it."

So why is the afore mentioned stuff so bad? Why do I want to just sit in a room and beat my head against a wall?

Because it shows just how fundamentally flawed the whole damn issue around LGBT folks really is.

People in the LGBT community have to fight for full and legal recognition of their relationships, job protection, protection from being hunted down like animals and killed. We have to fight for the ability to be contributing members of the church, to be a pastor, a bishop, to get communion.

We have to fight to visit our partner in the hospital, get health insurance for our partner, or just live in peace where we want too.

To make matters worse we are told that because of whom we love, we don’t meet biblical standards for being included equally in God’s creation. Yet when these same biblical standards are applied to these zealots the hypocrisy could not be more obvious.

Anybody with more then a 6th grade education knows to claim the Bible, as the inerrant word of God is as ridicules as it is foolhardy. I am sorry if I offend people’s faith here, but God and the Holy Spirit did not go out of business 2,000 years ago.

Hey wait a second…let’s take the Bible at its word…let’s suppose for a moment we have exact quotes from Jesus. Let us suppose there is a heaven or a burning hell for which people are heading. Let us suppose God is going to sit in judgment and one by one will decide who is in and who is out.

How will God make the determination? By what standard will we be held accountable? In the very words of Jesus I found an answer.

31"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. 32All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

34"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

37"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

40"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

41"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'

44"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'

45"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'

46"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life." Matthew 25 (New International Version)

Damn, apparently those whom think the battle to stop homosexuality is the end of the world have missed God’s agenda all together.

Tell you what, I will make a deal with all the traditionalists, fundamentalists, conservative family value folks. When y’all begin spending your time, energy and resources living up to God’s agenda for who is in and who is out as stated by Jesus, then and only then can we talk about homosexuals and how we are supposedly destroying the world. It seems to me we are the least of the problems with the coming judgement.

WELCOME TO THE NEW WEEK!!! :-)

Let us carry these powerful words in our mind and heart as we journey our week:

"Don't be naive. Some people will impugn your motives, others will smear your reputation—just because you believe in me. Don't be upset when they haul you before the civil authorities. Without knowing it, they've done you—and me—a favor, given you a platform for preaching the kingdom news! And don't worry about what you'll say or how you'll say it. The right words will be there; the Spirit of your Creator will supply the words."

Matthew 10:17-20 (The Message)

WELCOME TO THE NEW WEEK!!! :-)

Let us carry these words of our savior in our heart and mind as we journey our week:

"You're familiar with the old written law, 'Love your friend,' and its unwritten companion, 'Hate your enemy.' I'm challenging that. I'm telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that."

Matthew 5:46-47 (The Message)