What
if I told you that love really was the most powerful force in the
universe? What if all that stuff about “God
is love” was actually real?
Prior
to this past Saturday I had only officiated at one wedding since being
ordained. That wedding was at a country
club in town, and while I am happy to say that the couple is still together
(meaning that I’m still batting 1.000), there was a part of me that wished I could
perform such a ceremony in our cathedral.
This past Saturday I got my wish, and I could not be more blessed. This couple—pillars in our church community—
has been together longer than I have been alive! And while they were already legally married,
they were seeking the blessing of their union by God and Holy Mother Church. Who would not feel blessed to participate in
such a celebration of love?
Michael
Miller and Tom Yates are the kind of couple that are just perfect for each
other. Time and again their story has
consisted of goodbyes, of the uncertainty that they were actually meant to be
together. Yet God continued to bring
them together, over and over and over again.
Eventually the two got the message and have built a life together. That life has enriched our church community,
from Michael’s singing to Tom’s exceptional cooking. They are here every Sunday, sitting in their
familiar pew on the pulpit-side of the nave, and they are one of those couples
that everyone knows. And everyone
loves.
In
June of 2011 I was sitting in a comedy club on 23rd street in New
York City when the comic stopped his show to announce that marriage equality had
been passed in the Empire State. My girlfriend
and I were almost in tears as the audience in the club erupted in
applause. This was something that meant
a great deal to both of us. We had
people we both loved dearly who would now be permitted to legally marry. Our own relationship was transformed by the
news. It was monumental! And almost instantly the Episcopal Church
took action. One New York bishop allowed
his clergy to perform marriages immediately; another said that none of his clergy
would be permitted to do so; while still another would not allow them until our
General Convention approved a new service.
That approval came in 2012, and in the Diocese of Lexington (KY) we
began performing such ceremonies this year.
Michael and Tom are the first such couple to have their union blessed
here at Christ Church Cathedral!
There
are those who will see this post and think that I was wrong to preside over
Michael and Tom’s blessing. There are
those who will think that they, and I, are on the fast track to hell, that what
happened on Saturday was nothing short of an abomination in the eyes of God. Maybe they’re right. Maybe their God does think it’s an
abomination.
But
that isn’t the God I have come to know. The
God I know is the God revealed in Jesus Christ, who, I might add, never said a
single word on the issue of homosexuality or marriage equality. The God Jesus spoke of is a God who loves us
unconditionally and invites us to love one another in like fashion. This God tells us that those who are
persecuted are blessed in the kingdom of heaven, that those who have been
considered lowly are, in fact, being lifted up.
This God tells us that love is the greatest force in the universe, love
of God and one another, and that if we abide by that simple command then we
will have accomplished all that God has asked of us. That is the God that I know. It is the God that I serve as a priest.
If
sin is defined as that which draws us away from God, then love cannot possibly
be a sin because love is of God. Michael
and Tom exemplify that love. So do Liz
and Rebecca. And John and Tait. Holy Scripture teaches us that we were made
for each other, for relationships, because it is in loving relationships that
we experience the love of God. Adam and
Eve. Abraham and Sarah. Jonathan and David. Scripture shows us that the blessing of God
is present in the love shown between two of God’s children.
I
pray that couples everywhere will see the photo above and know that God blesses
all kinds of love. Michael and Tom have
the kind of relationship, the kind of trust and love that I hope one day to
have with someone. It is the kind of
relationship that we all deserve to have, the kind that God very clearly
blesses. Thanks be to God for Michael and
Tom and the love that they share!
