On Sunday, May 6, a diverse and spirited congregation gathered to celebrate Senior Pastor Dave Grishaw-Jones, his 10th anniversary at First Congregational Church, and his 50th birthday!  Our guest preacher--Dr. David Wellman--challenged us to "come out" as progressive, inclusive, expansive Christian believers and to challenge narrow and harsh interpretations of long-held Christian beliefs.  Drawing on the Gospel of John (John 15:1-8), David's words insist on bold sharing and generous service.  There's so much at stake!

transgressing + interrupting = coming out

Our Gospel passage today is a familiar one, and the images many of us attach to it are gentle and affirming.  The pastoral symbols of the vines and the eventual harvest of their fruit.   The idea of God as a gardener or vinegrower.  The call to us as believers to know that God will abide (or remain) in us if we choose to remain in Her.  This is also clearly a passage that engages the themes of connectivity and dependency – the vines and branches are connected to the Earth, and they do not grow strong without being pruned.

This requires a relationship with the Gardener, God, who does the pruning.  The desired outcome, that we become true disciples of God if we follow Jesus, will come to pass if we do the work, just as the fruit of the vine will eventually be harvested in the name of providing sustenance for the people in exchange for their good labor. These images are unquestionably beautiful and comforting.This passage opens the door to any number of conversations: about the role of God and the bodies of God’s people, what it means to be a church, the limits of human power and choice, and the interconnectedness we have to one another as people of faith.  These are all very crucial themes. But what strikes me this morning is that if we are to engage and embody the themes and blueprint for action that this parable contains, then we are being invited into something that is anything but comforting, especially for those of us who call ourselves progressive American Christians.

To be a progressive Christian in the 21^st century United States is to struggle on multiple levels.  It is a struggle for numbers, for allies, for resources, and for credibility in a country where most people don’t even know we exist.   And whose fault is that, anyway?  Many among us decry the might of conservative Christians, who have a powerful level of social and economic connectivity that their resources and membership make possible.  Others among us lament the decline of the mainline Protestant church, which for many people – especially younger folks – is increasingly seen as a quaint institution of the past.  Many of my own fellow seminarians confess to me privately that they believe that many denominations we grew up with may very well cease to exist in our lifetime – including the UCC.  Still others claim that our greatest challenge is the growing disaffection among many with organized religion as a whole.  This is especially true and especially difficult for those of us progressive people of faith who must hear time and time again, from those whose politics we agree with, that our own insistence on remaining religious is at best quaint, and at worst an impediment to the progress we claim to believe in.

As a queer Christian activist, this last point is especially true for me.  Living as I do as a member of a group who has found itself on the short end of the stick of organized religion more than once, to say the least, I understand why many of my fellow LGBT travelers see my faith as a contradiction, a blind spot, or worse.   Knowing this, I am compelled to make a conscious decision to come out of the closet as a progressive Christian on a regular basis, lest my faith – my greatest source of strength that makes it possible for me to fight for what I fight for - is made invisible by my silence...

Read the rest:  transgressing + interrupting = coming out