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The Witnessing and Blessing of a Lifelong Covenant

A Recent Sermon

 

We are here today to celebrate the commitment of two gay men to the mystery of love. It is not just human love since they are invited to enter into a sacred covenant whereby God will manifest his love in a special, sacred and life-nourishing manner. If these men choose to accept this love, they will learn that they have been called to a life of loving intimacy.

 

In our information driven and rapidly changing culture, we are struggling to define and maintain the Christian concept of being a person. One of the essential ontological characteristics of being a person is the need to experience deep, loving and sacred manifestations of intimacy. It is for this reason that our Episcopal community has approved same sex blessings.

We have made this decision because all human beings, either gay or straight, have the need and God-given right to experience the completeness of their nature as social beings. Furthermore, the concept of sacred intimacy not only serves as a proper theological basis for a same sex blessing, but it serves to explain the nature of marriage as a sacrament. In other words, living a life of loving and sacred intimacy is a fundamental need and right of gay and straight people.

 

A Covenant of Intimacy

 

Intimacy is word that expresses the nature of a sacred love relationship.  It is from the Latin word intimus. In Spanish, it is intimo conversant. In French it is intime, meaning deep, internal and confidential
Loving intimacy occurs in time, but it is sacred time; it is not chronological time. It is not just one thing after another. It is time for manifestation. Intimacy means that in, through, and with time, something marvelous is about to manifest itself in these two loving mates.

In time (Faith)
In time, I see in the experience of the past and future, and now I see the manifestation of love. It means in a relationship committed to sacred intimacy that the couple will transcend to a higher level of value, knowledge and feelings. If sacred intimacy is the goal, then in an extraordinary way God will clearly manifest his burning, divine love. They will become a beautiful story.
Into me see (Individuation)
Please see into my heart. See into to my soul and find the beauty of my individuality. I promise to discover the beauty of your unique soul and delight in your beautiful and powerful individuality. I will see you, and you will see me over time. If we do not share in the beauty of our individual nature, then we run the danger of becoming narcissistic and lonely individuals.
In time mates see (Co-journeying)
I promise this day to enter into an intimate co- journey. We will grow in time in mutual respect. We will journey through life together. When we are old, we will tell the marvelous story of a life time of spiritual intimacy.  The text of our journey will be written in every wonderful wrinkle of intimacy on our aging faces and the touch of our hands. We will move through time together. Yes, young love is beautiful and promising, but mystery and a transcendent beauty is found in old love. If we do not journey together, then it merely becomes a relationship of an unhealthy codependence.
( Intimacy) Into my sea
We bath in a sea of wonderful family, true friends and Christian community. You have true friends here at your blessing. You will move in worthwhile social cycles of increasing spiritual value. If you do not discover the blessing of a loving community of quality people, then life will become an existence of busyness and boredom only to be relieved in play.
Therefore on this solemn occasion of your Covenant, I pray that:

 

·         You will continue to grow in the mystery of God’s intimacy, as his love is expressed in the living of your  covenant

·         You will find divine purpose

·         You will continuously learn to share this sacred blessing as a Christian example of God’s grace

·         You will discover your souls in this sacred relationship

·         You will know the power of spiritual vitality

·         You will know happiness

·         You will be free of pain

·         You will find the ease in a changing world.

Finally as your Priest and a Priest of the Church, I apologize to you and the rest of the gay community here today. I apologize for my past bigotry towards gays and my intolerant and ignorance-based attitudes of the past. I do not have the authority to make an apology for the Church, but I suggest that this liturgy for same sex blessings is a liturgical act of reconciliation.