I was radicalized in seminary.
Oh, I had come from an open, and accepting family. I had raised my daughters to be welcoming and loving and non judgmental.
But it wasn't until seminary, sitting around a table discussing first call with my classmates, that I heard the stories many of them would have to endure if they were to be ordained.
Many of them would have to deny being gay or lesbian. They would have to lie about their loving relationships. They would have to lie to their families, to their judicatory boards, to their bishops, to their churches. They would have to live a lie even as they felt called to proclaim the gospel of Jesus, which calls us to loving relationships with God and with each other.
I promised myself; I promised God - that wherever I served, wherever I was, I would always proclaim God's love for us all - gay, straight, married, partnered, young, old, healthy, disabled, poor, rich, male, female, housed, homeless - whatever our particularity, there is a place for all in God's house.
I am blessed to serve at St. Paul where the good news that Jesus brought to fallen humanity is that you are loved, even when you were in your sins, even when you failed to love God and love each other, you are loved by God who has bought you with the blood of Jesus.
When we turn from our wrongdoing, when we ask forgiveness for judging harshly, for loving poorly, for turning God's gracious acceptance into something only for a few, God meets us - in Jesus, in each other, now freed to work in this world for all whom the world calls other, and not worthy.
If you join us at St. Paul you will find people who are loving, caring, and working hard to be God's heart in this broken world. You will find people with questions, people with worry, people who are not perfect: in short, people like yourself. You will find people burning with love who are working to make God's love for us visible and real in this community, and in this world.
You will find people who have joy, not because they may or may not have problems, but because they have found Jesus, who loved us when we were most unlovable.
Come and see what we are doing!
Patt +
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An article quoting Pastor Patt,
in "Apartment Therapy", by De Elizabeth.
"How People Are Celebrating Passover, Ramadan, and Easter In Quarantine… Again"
Inclusivity in the Church: An Interview with Rev. Patt Kaufman of St. Peter's Lutheran
By Miranda Southwell - Miranda Selene
Swish Member and Voices Editor, NYC
Swish Member and Voices Editor, NYC
Click below - Swish