Coming Out for Pride (1 Cor 12.12-26, John 15.1-17)

This sermon is based on the above bible readings and the book 'Elmer' by David McKee 

Elmer is an unusual elephant, he’s not elephant coloured, in fact he stands out from the crowd, and although he’s much loved by his herd, he still feels bad about being different.

I just want to blend in he thought, I want to be normal like the rest. But Without him, and his sense of humour and his colour, life is very dull for the elephants.

Life is dull without variety, and the story of Elmer is one I really identify with. Elmer is who he is, the fact that he’s patchwork coloured is not what makes the herd love him, but it’s his personality, who he is that makes him loved. Even when trying to fit in, he can’t help but be himself.

I’m gay, for many years I hid this from myself, and from all the people around me. It made me violently unhappy, I couldn’t see that I was loved exactly for who I am, that being a bit patchwork, a bit different was okay.

From what I saw in society, and from what I was being told by some people in the church I felt I had to hide, to live in the closet as there was something fundamentally wrong with me.

But I came to realise that the voice that was telling me I was wrong, an abomination, that deep pit of self hatred was not from God, but was from something else.

When I was at Theological College, I still wasn’t out of the closet. I was utterly miserable, and not just because I had to read lots of theological books, but because I felt like a liar and afraid, and a fraud and so unsure about who I was.

There was a reflective service in which we were invited to imagine ourselves laying our burdens down in front of the Altar. The vision that came into my mind was a big bag with the word Gay written on it.

Then suddenly something happened, I felt an overwhelming sense of God’s presence with me, a love that filled my entire body and soul. God spoke to me and said “you know that I love you don’t you.” I replied;

“Do you?”

God replied “Yes I do, I love you very much. But if you’re going to serve me, you need to be yourself. You must stop lying to yourself and others.”

I cried a lot after that. I wanted to be just a normal elephant. I realised for the first time God’s love for me, wholly, truly, deeply. I’d always believed God loved people, just other people, not me, as a dirty homosexual. How wrong I was.

God loves and accepts us for who we are. Love if it’s real isn’t sinful, love doesn’t force us to be something we’re not.

Real love is passionate and kind, patient and doesn’t seek its own way, if that’s true for human love, then it must be true of God’s love for us. Love is never a sin, and in our Gospel reading today Jesus commands his disciples to love each other, and those of them that live in that love, are one with him.

So it is with us, when we love each other and love God we’re fulfilling what the Gospel commands us.

God has chosen us. “You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name.”

We are cherished, we are held. In a never-ending love that is there for all of us. A God that is love, doesn’t require us to deny fundamental parts of ourselves because other people may not like it.

Jesus said by their fruits you shall know them. The fruits of conservative theologies on gender identity and sexuality are self-harm, depression and suicide. Jesus came to give us abundant life, this isn’t abundant living, it’s not of God, that we can be assured of.

A vine has to be nurtured with good nourishing food, and plenty of water to flourish, if it’s not it withers and dies.

God hasn’t made us to wither.

God loves and accepts us for who we are and has made us all wonderfully unique. Whatever colour or shape we happen to be.  

We are part of the Body of Christ, and the Body of Christ needs us just as much as any other part. When Elmer came back ‘normal’ elephant coloured, the herd he was part of was just not the same. It wasn’t vibrant.

In Christ there is no distinction between us, we are all part of one body. “But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many members, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you’, nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you.”

God has made us the way we are, we will not be removed from the body because we belong here as much as anyone else. We are needed, just as Elmer was needed to complete the character of the Body.

So forget any of the nonsense you’ve been told, if you’ve been told you’re unacceptable to God because of who you are.

Forget that people in the name of god have called you names or an abomination because of who you are.

Forget what they say, and listen to the heart of God.

God yearns to be in relationship with all of us. The idea that a God that yelled forgiveness as nails were being hammered into his hands on the cross can’t cope with a bit of homosexuality or all the various gender identities that God created is nonsense. It doesn’t make sense, it reduces God to a small being.

So find your patchwork Elephant, be an Elmer! A character full of joy, who brings out the best in people. Who loves those around him, and who’s loved so much by his family they paint themselves to try and be a little like him.

Be you, glorious you, because that’s what God has called you to be, because God loves you.