Romans 8:22-26, 35, 37-39 – John 14:16-20, 25-27

Thank you Frank for this beautiful testimony, which reminds us that, while most of us here live in freedom and relative safety, there are many who still suffer for who they are – whether that is in countries far away or even still here in Québec and Montreal.

Prejudice, threats and violence can sometimes be just around the corner, and the Cathedral team knows well that whilst there are many positive reactions to our Pride Flag here in the Cathedral, there are also regular antagonistic reactions – those who would like to teach us that the love of God is exclusive and rejects.

We know that there are many Christians still today who have been taught to use the Bible in ways that exclude people and deny our shared humanity, in ways that create division, in ways that would seek to claim a nearer place to God by virtue of their own privileges.

And yet, as we can read plainly in the Scriptures, the purpose of Christ was to widen Grace, not to restrict it. Jesus specifically says that he has come that we may have life abundantly (John 10.10).
The way in which he summarized the law is not that complicated: Love God, love your neighbour as yourself.

Those three principles might appear simple, yet they require a lifetime’s dedication. It might be easier to think of loving God if we understand it to mean using scripture to judge other. But Jesus reflects it all back to us. How much have we been able to accept ourselves as beloved creatures of God just as we are? And does the view we have of ourselves affect our view of others?

As we know, we speak freely of the LGBTQ2S+ community as if it was a united, uniform group of people all working together to build a better world. From my own experience as an activist in my younger years, I know how different that reality is when personal and organizational agendas come into the front, how easy it is to fall out and form splinter groups out of certainty.

The spiritual writer Richard Beck, quoted in this week’s newsletter from the Center of Action and Contemplation, writes: ‘ Jesus shows us how to read the Bible as the Book of Love. Whenever you face a choice of interpretations for a text (hermeneutical fork in the road ) and must decide upon a reading of Scripture, read the Bible like Jesus did. Choose mercy over sacrifice.

As we read Romans 8 or John 14, we face that same choice. Do we hear condemnation or do we hear the voice of the Spirit reminding us that nothing can separate us from God’s love.

And we should learn to do the same in our relationships with one another. When we have to interpret the behavior of others, we should also choose love over condemnation.

A tough discipline, yet one in which we can grow spiritually into our truer selves, as we seek to model ourselves on the Jesus of history.

Communities flourish when we can make compromises together for the common good, when everyone contributes, when we all recognise one another as made in the image of God. Not God ourselves, but one of the many reflections through which God is known in the world today.

Our readings today show Jesus and the Holy Spirit as distinct persons of the Trinity who affirm inclusion rather than exclusion, that support love rather than hate, that support community rather than rejection.
St Paul reminds us that nothing – NOTHING – can separate us from the love of Christ. There are no conditions in the gift of the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, to guide us on our journey in the same way that there was no condition when Jesus stepped on the cross in order to save us all.

Saving did not mean changing all of us to become the same, but instead it meant embracing each one of us as a beloved child of God. I wonder who we may still be trying to change before including them.
This inclusive embrace gathers us into God’s love, and invite us to respond in living lives that similarly invite others into this divine fellowship.

We are not orphaned, even when families, churches, or societies have acted as though we were. The Holy Spirit is the proof that God refuses to abandon what God has made.

There has been, and there continues to be, much distrust between the Church and the LGBTQ2S+ community.
Churches are human institutions that seek to embody, very imperfectly, the body of Christ. The Body of Christ is wounded when some are told they do not belong. This was after all the original meaning of the word ‘catholic’ small c. A church that is universal, because it can provide a spiritual home for all of us to grow in understanding and in community.

Here, in this cathedral, we strive to live out this reality in downtown Montreal – with the joys and the challenges that this poses. We seek to respond to God at the intersection of faith and gender, sexuality, colour, languages, colonial past, socio-economic status.

This week, with the wider Montreal community, we honour our LGBTQ2S+ siblings by listening to our stories, confronting our own prejudices and acknowledging our full belonging into God’s family.

May Pride week be a time of joy, friendship and fellowship, and a safe time for all.

Amen