Given that this is the Sunday we celebrate the gifts and leadership of our gay, lesbian and transgender members, I thought “Fruit of the Spirit” an appropriate title for more reasons than one.  One of the first close encounters I knowingly had with a gay man was around a display of fruit.  In college I got a job with the top catering company in San Diego, called the A’s Carriage Trade.  Wally was the lead event manager, the master artist of display, a fruity, moody, creative genius.  A big flaming Samoan, Michael Angelo of parties, he would prance into a room and cast his vision:  Jimmy and Peter, the crab, grape and brea quesadillas will go here, Max, the fruit display will go here…and David, can you go get my California bag.  I hadn't ever done anything artistic before then.  I don’t know, I guess I thought art was too gay.  Wally taught me how to be creative.  I’ll never forget the time Wally cut me loose on the main display by myself, and finishing just in time, the guests came in and just gathered around and stared at it. It was so beautiful they were afraid to touch it.  By all means eat, I said, that is what it is there for.  Wally gave me the gift of art.

          I have another gay friend named Dave who was a Peace Corps volunteer with me in Guatemala.  But Dave hadn’t recognized he was gay back then.  He was just the guy who all the girls loved and thought would make a perfect husband. He had had a couple of long-term relationships with women that never moved beyond friendship.  After the Peace Corps he fell into a relationship with a man and realized, "Oh, so that was the problem!"  Dave is brilliant, kind, funny, musical, athletic and self-confident. Because he is so sharp, social and trustworthy, he is the kind of guy who could make a ton of money doing just about anything. But after the Peace Corps he spent some time overseeing elections in Latin American countries, completed a masters in education, and took a job teaching in the heart of Washington DC.  Any parent would be lucky to have Dave teach their children, but Dave has chosen to teach in an area and school from which other teachers flee.  And he and his kids are thriving.  Dave is at least as mentally healthy as I am, and healthier than most ministers I know.  He just went through a particularly difficult time, as his first and only partner contracted cancer, and Dave sat by his side and cared for him until his death.  Dave called a couple of weeks ago; he and a couple of the ladies are planning a twenty-year Peace Corps reunion.

          I have told you about Madalyn, the most righteous, just and hard working person I know.  She double majored in physics and public policy and graduated top of her class.  She taught small business enterprise to women in Guatemala, finished her PhD in Public Health, wrote national public health policy for Pat Shroeder, was professor at George Hopkins, and is now just finishing a law degree.  Madalyn has been together with her partner Rita for sixteen years, the same amount of time as Feliciana and I.   Madalyn was the one gringa who thought it would be a good idea for me to marry Feliciana.

          Susan was our next-door neighbor in seminary.  Wonderful, smart, filled with faith and grace, she loved Jesus and the Bible.  She loved people too.  She saw the Spirit of God in them. She knew about God's Grace and she knew about baseball.

          There is an ongoing debate about the place of gay, lesbian and transgender persons in the life of the Church.  The latest twist with respect to ordination has given jurisdiction back to the presbytery, the local governing body, which here in San Francisco includes about 80 churches.  In Presbytery meetings those opposed to the ordination of gays and lesbians ask candidates about their sexual activity and if they are practicing anything the scripture or our confessions call sin

          As a vocal progressive I have followed with a question of my own:  According to scripture, physical disability and blindness prohibited one from entrance to the temple, being female disqualified you from entrance into the temple, and from teaching or doing ministry over men.  Money lending with interest is prohibited, interracial marriage is prohibited, and slavery permitted.  Given our respect for the authority of scripture, how is it that we have come to a new understanding of what God calls us to be and do, so that we now not only permit but encourage women and the physically handicapped to full inclusion and leadership, permit money lending, celebrate interracial marriage, and condemn slavery as sin?

          The simple answer is, guided by the love of Christ and the wisdom of the Holy Spirit; we are in an ongoing journey toward ever more light.  In the Gospel of John 16:22 Jesus says, “there are many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.  When the Spirit of truth comes, it will guide you into all the truth…and it will declare to you the things that are to come.”       

          The implications of the teachings of Jesus continue to unfold in each time and place.  In this morning's passage from I John we hear, “This is an old commandment but it is new. Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother or sister is still in darkness.  Whoever loves his brother or sister lives in the light and there is nothing in him to make him stumble.”  We are motivated first in faith, by love in relationship.  We are not Christian because we hold the correct doctrine or the right position; we are Christian because we love.  

We get this truth from scripture, from Jesus.  As followers of Jesus we are not seeking to lower ethical standard, but to increase them.  We are not seeking to make Jesus less important but more important.  We do not worship a dead god, entombed in a petrified text, pinned down by our prejudice and fears.  We worship a living God, a god whose Spirit is risen and alive, challenging us to live righteous lives filled with love and grace –lives that shine like stars in the universe, lives that produce fruit.

The belief that certain persons are inherently bad, weak, dumb, dirty or sinful, simply because they fit a certain category cannot stand forever in the Church.  Handicapped, female, gentile, Native American, African, illegal alien, Mexican, gay, lesbian or transgender, or even white, Anglo-Saxon, right handed, heterosexual male, we are all saved by the grace of God.  We are all children of the living God, called to love the Lord our God with all our heart and love our neighbor as ourselves.  Judge not, that you not be judged.  Forgive and you will be forgiven. 

Sexuality is important and powerful.  We certainly should not take it lightly.  As in every other area of life we strive in our sex life for mutuality, honesty and fidelity. We strive to promote family health and longevity, to avoid exploitation and taking advantage of a weaker party. We invoke the power of God to confront addiction, to protect and nurture innocence, and to teach and demonstrate the great responsibility of such a powerful and wonderful gift.

But sex is not the sole definer of the friends I spoke of above.  They are so much more than the sexual acts we obsess and debate over.  And that is why, when we ordain people here at St. John’s, I will not point out the gay or lesbian in some special way. I am just here to ordain those people who have been called by the grace of God to love and lead the Church.  Even when I can tell great stories about you, and list your accomplishments, what is truly amazing is God’s grace.  Grace and love are the fruits of the spirit.

There is a tendency to want to call attention to our specialness, as if doing what is right, what should have been done all along somehow qualifies us for the special award.  Look, we are special because we ordain left-handed people; we let them come into the temple.  Let’s celebrate a Left Handed People Day!  When it is no longer special to have diversity in the Church, when everyone feels at home no matter what distinguishes them as different from the other, then we know what the Kingdom of God is like.  

          There are two parts of a revolution, two parts to the ministry of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  There is the prophetic and the pastoral, the already and the not yet visions of the Kingdom of God.  The prophetic side denounces injustice and sin, and calls us to more righteous living.  This side weeps in grief, expresses anger and pronounces judgment – Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how I have wept for you.   “Woe to you who are rich,” Jesus said, “for you tithe mint and rue, yet neglect justice and the love of God.”  This is a reminder; we haven’t arrived yet.  We still have some salvation to work out.  

        Then there is the other side; the kingdom has already come side. We not only need to call for the revolution, we get to live the alternative. The darkness is passing. The light is already shining. And while St. John’s will continue to fight the good fight, to shine a light into the darkness and stand against church policy based on petrified doctrine instead of the love of Christ, we will be here week in and week out, like we have for the last 100 years, eating and drinking at Christ's table, celebrating the grace and love of God for all people. There is nothing so special about that, about us, but I pray that this is a place, that we are a people with whom you feel comfortable and loved. Comfortable and loved enough to feel like you have found a home. And by all means, come to the Lord's Table and eat. By the grace of God, that is what he is here for.