All God’s promises are meant for me.

August 4, 2007 by Pastor Dan.

Does the Christian “right wing” really think that the Gospel belongs to them alone? Or that they can prevent unsavory or unacceptable people from receiving the word of God. One of the continuous drum beats we hear coming from the anti-homosexual right wing is that we are not really Christians. What? Do we not profess our faith in Jesus Christ just the same as they? Or is there another criterion to which we don’t measure up, because we are lesbian/gay, bisexual, transgender or use another label to describe ourselves?

We can all read the Word which tells us that all are welcome, even the least and the last. But if those who believe themselves to be saved—to be among the insiders, to be God’s cherished people, don’t like “the least and the last,” to what can they appeal to insist that those other people—us— aren’t really welcome? They can appeal to the idea that everyone must repent. And for the insiders’ purposes, the bar of repentance can be set very high indeed.

Greg Egertson once told of his experience and struggle with the discernment that he was gay, and especially how he dealt with this in relationship to his Christian faith. Greg’s grandfather was a respected Lutheran pastor in Los Angeles. His father, Paul Egertson, has served both as an equally-respected pastor and bishop of the Synod; and continues in retirement as a faculty member at California Lutheran University. Greg is a seminary graduate who is one of many qualified and gifted individuals that Vision & Expectations continues to exclude from the ordained ministry of the Lutheran Church.

And his statement of faith? Greg expressed his understanding as a young person very succinctly: “I believed that all God’s promises were meant for me.”

It is such a clear and unfettered, uncomplicated statement to make – one that sings with the melody of the Gospel and the harmony of the Lutheran confession of the Christian faith. “I believe that all of God’s promises were meant for me.” Is not this perfectly equivalent to the favorite slogan of those who say they have been born again: “I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.” Amen, sisters and brothers.

—Pastor Dan Hooper, Los Angeles

Posted in LGBT Christian, Faith, Living by Grace, Spirituality, ELCA | Print | No Comments »