Second Sunday in Lent

Text: Mark 8:31-38

Look:

To me, this passage speaks to finding out “who you really are,” and furthermore, who you really are when you are aligned with Christ. In LGBTQ interpretation the crux of this passage lies in verse 36, “For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life?” If the “whole world” is wanting our true identities to be sealed and locked away, we lose our true selves and who God is calling us to be. Tragically, so many have died to suicide or bullying because of blind hatred and homophobia. Often times, the church has been the largest voice condemning LGBTQ persons, forcing many to remain in dark closets of depression and despair. This Lent, may we examine as a church the ways in which we can do the restorative work of making the church a place where all can be who God created them to be, openly and honestly.

Listen:

I share two videos from the “It Gets Better" series, a video project started after a chain of LGBTQ teen suicides in 2010. The first video is by out-gay Bishop in the Episcopal church, Rev. Gene Robinson. He says, “God wants you to live in the light of God's love and that light will take away all this darkness." And the second video is a “True Colors,” originally performed by Phil Collins, but performed here by the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles and friends from Immanuel Presbyterian Church. It spoke to me strongly of the need for Christian community as a source for both healing and strength.