God is Love...Period!

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 23^rd 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!