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Pride Month Weekly Devotional:
Week of June 8, 2021 Introduction Welcome to Lutheran Church of Christ the King’s weekly devotional during June 2021! If you joined with us last week, this introduction piece will be just a quick review for those who are new! I’m Pastor Megan Filer, my pronouns are she/her/hers, and this topic is particularly important to me as I myself am part of the LGBTQ+ community. June is Pride month for the LGBTQ+ community. As a Reconciling in Christ congregation, we seek to let all people know they are welcome regardless of race, age, culture, gender, gender identity, or sexual orientation. As part of our ongoing commitment to welcome and affirm all people, LCCK is invited during this month to learn more about our siblings in the LGBTQ+ community and how we can continue to set the banquet of grace for all people. Each week we’ll have an online video along with a written devotional as we look to celebrate the divine diversity God creates in all people. Each week will follow a similar format, and each week will begin with this introduction, a piece of Pride history, scripture, and a story to tie everything together. History Whose stories are we missing in our history? So often throughout history the voices, actions, and stories of LGBTQ+ folx are left out. But stories are how we better understand the world around us, especially as we seek to better welcome and listen to the stories of all people in our church and in our lives. Unfortunately, as much as I wish I could go through the long and ever-growing list of LGBTQ+ historical figures and their stories, as well as the modern voices making history around us, there are writers, speakers, and educators who have done much more than I can in this short amount of time. I invite you to check out the resources below for information on how you can begin your own deep dives into LGBTQ+ figures throughout history. The Library of Congress alone has large compendiums as part of their pride month collections showcasing the vast history and contributions made by LGBTQ+ folx. From collections of works by composers, playwrights, and performers like Jonathan Larson, who famously wrote the Broadway musical, “Rent” to Bayard Rustin’s papers. Rustin was “an openly gay civil rights activist, social reformer, pacifist, AIDS activist and author. He was the chief organizer of the 1963 March on Washington.” But because sharing the history of individuals is so tied up in story, let’s take a look at our scripture readings first before we go further into some of the stories we might not know yet. Scripture Jesus & Stories – Introductions (Luke 18:1-2, 9-10, and so many more),
Story I love the way the Gospel writers, especially Luke, introduce Jesus telling parables, in such a way that not only are these parables, these stories, for certain people, but also that they involve people. The two parables beginning in our reading today especially are stories of people. The first the story of a judge and a woman, the second about two men praying in the temple. Luke in chapter 18 here makes it clear that parables are to inspire, to get people listening and thinking. Whether that be for the disciples to pray and not give up hope or for those who are overconfident and smug. Jesus knows how important stories are. So today I’d like to tell you some stories for our history today. The first is about a man named Frank. In 1957, Frank was banned from federal employment because he was gay. Frank Kameny was a Harvard trained doctor with his Ph.D. in astronomy previously working for the US Army Map Service, and suddenly became the face of the government’s policies against the LGBTQ+ community being employed by the federal government, particularly around areas of national security. But unwilling to be silenced for simply being who he was, Frank began collecting. He “collected thousands of pages of letters, government correspondence, testimony, photographs and other memorabilia”, all of which is now in the Frank Kameny collection at the Library of Congress and is considered one of the greatest collections of the history of the gay-rights movement in America. Frank took his knowledge, his education, and his abilities and put them to work for those whose voices were being silenced, and he is known today as one of the grandfathers of the LGBTQ+ rights movement. Another story, one much more recent, is the story of Rev. Noah Hepler who serves a church in Philadelphia. Noah is an ELCA pastor and a gay man, who recently, and without planning to, became the face of LGBTQ+ affirmation in the ELCA after one of his church staff submitted an application for him to the Netflix series Queer Eye. If you haven’t watched Noah’s episode and have a Netflix account, I absolutely recommend it. You can find the video here: https://www.netflix.com/watch/81149792. Noah grew up in a conservative evangelical church and household, and his heart had been torn apart after years and years of trying to “fit in” and “pray the gay away”, but as he shares his own process of finding the Lutheran church with the hosts of Queer Eye, and as they help him heal and grow from his past hurts into the confident leader he is called to be for his church, healing also appears to be found for some of the hosts as well. I tell these brief stories because whatever historical figure we are learning about, whether it be celebrating Marsha P Johnson and or Sylvia Rivera participating in the Stonewall Riots and then beginning an organization that provided shelter for LGBTQ+ youth to Laverne Cox, one of the first out trans actresses on television – there are often two ways in which we respond to these kinds of stories. The first and most common for generations has been for these stories to be brushed aside, erased, forgotten whether it be by institutions or individuals. The second, especially as so many of us have learned how important these stories are, begin to idolize the figures in the stories. They’re turned into characters rather than people. But rather than either of these responses, my hope is that instead of erasure or idolization, we can find inspiration through the stories themselves– it’s their stories that bring alive to us the people at the center of the story. And it’s in the stories where we can see ourselves. We might relate to a man who has lost everything like Frank, and maybe we can find inspiration to struggle for justice around us despite those losses. We might relate to Noah, feeling lost in his identity, in his own self-worth, and we can hear the words of those around him lifting him up, and we can find ourselves lifted up too. Stories are powerful, and they’re meant to be shared. And especially during this Pride Month, as we look to accept, affirm, and fully welcome into full participation all people as a congregation, we are called to share our own stories, histories of our church and our lives, and look for ways to truly listen to the stories of others. Because as Jesus so clearly shows us, anyone can be at the center of a story. And these stories matter. Prayer: Lord, you help us to see your love and grace, your divine image in all people. Your Word introduces us to your kin-dom through stories, and especially stories of humanity. Help us to recognize the humanity and your divine image in all whom we meet, and as we share our own stories of hope, courage, and joy, we pray that you open our ears to listen intently to the stories around us. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen. Continued Reading: Today’s sources:
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