Last Thursday I had the honor and privilege of preaching my senior sermon at Johnson Bible College. I taught from Luke 15; the parable Jesus tells of a younger son leaving his fathers house and then his surprising return. This is a teaching I have been thinking about and working on since the fall of 2009.
The teaching was a sincere, frank, and honest attempt at addressing some topics that are ignored too often in Christian Communities. I approached this story as an example and a critique of Christian community. Through that lens, I addressed issues of rejecting the younger brothers who return from distant lands. I challenged our communities to be more like the father – welcome home our younger brothers with open arms and celebrations. I talked about my struggles with same sex attraction, and how this issue and other issues of sexual brokenness are too often ignored in and kept in the dark on our communities. I hope that this teaching is the beginning of a lot of needed and important conversation. I plan to talk on this blog more about my experiences with struggling through same sex attraction, and I hope more people do too…
Parts 1 and 2 of the teaching are below (it’s only 24 minutes but YouTube has a cap of 15min for videos).
2 comments:
Justin,
I admire you and your transparency. You remind us all of what living a genuine Christ-like life looks like. I look forward to hearing this sermon in the future (sometime when I can sit down and give it my full attention). I hope that people took to heart what you said. Thanks for showing us genuine community.
Caleb
P.S. I would like to hear about your post-graduation plans sometime in the future!
Justin,
You don't know me and we'll probably never meet. One of the Johnson professors (a longtime friend of mine) told me about your chapel sermon, provided me with the link, and mentioned your candid nature. My husband and I of twenty-nine years have a twenty-five year old son who is gay. He came out to us when he was eighteen years old and we both immediately accepted him "as is." He never had to leave his family and we never had to experience losing a son. We consider ourselves fortunate. There was some collateral damage, however: our faith community. We collectively decided that misunderstandings, misconceptions, and outright bigotry within the church threatened our family stability. It is that stability that has taken precedence over all other aspects of our former lifestyle. I do hope that your sermon offers up one small step towards a day when people can integrate their faith, their family, and their sexuality. For now, it is fractured (I know very few people in the LGBTQ community who don't have an uneasy relationship with faith and/or family) . . . but all people deserve the promise of a holistic future. I suspect that you will have to step lightly while navigating your career path from here on out. My hope for you is that you will be surrounded by loving & supportive people along whichever paths you choose to follow -- and, if not, I hope that you never grow afraid to blaze the kind of trail that you just blazed. With love & understanding, Deb.
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