"A Devotional for Same Gender Loving People"

Week Twenty-Three, Day Two

In Luke, Jesus processes into Jerusalem, weeps over the city, and then goes almost immediately to the temple. Perhaps because he is a gentile, or perhaps because he is writing after the destruction of the temple, Luke tells a much shorter version of that episode than Matthew and Mark. For Luke the cleansing of the temple is not so much the event that set up Jesus’ arrest as it is a prelude to the last set of teachings that Jesus offered.

In Luke Jesus cleansed the temple and then spent the rest of his life there “teaching the people and telling the good news.” (20:1) Jesus claimed the temple, and, of course, his claim is challenged immediately by the religious establishment who don’t challenge what he is teaching, but question his credentials. “Tell us by what authority you are doing these things? Who gave you this authority?” (20:2)

In 1968, eight months before the Stonewall Riots launched the “gay rights movement,” a former Pentecostal preacher named Troy Perry held a worship service in Los Angeles for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. That service gave birth to a denomination that was the first to welcome openly gay people back into the family of God.

Rev. Perry gave birth to a historic movement that changed, and is changing, the church of Jesus Christ. Four years later the United Church of Christ ordained the first openly gay man. This painfully slow, but inexorable, movement toward inclusion was possible because the spark was a Pentecostal minister, not a priest or pastor whose authority came from the religious establishment.

Troy Perry’s authority came from the Holy Spirit. It never crossed his mind that he needed someone’s permission to do what he did. Had he been a product of most mainline churches it never would have happened. Radical good news most often seems to come despite religious authority, not through it.

As a part of the religious establishment, that is something I need to remember. Perhaps what you need to remember is that you actually don’t need anyone’s permission to be a bearer of good news. The Holy Spirit in you is all that you need to speak courageously of the radically inclusive love of God. When the Bishop laid his hands on my head to ordain me in the Methodist Church he said, “Take thou authority … ” What he didn’t know was that I already had … and so should you.

Blessings,



Michael Piazza

President, Hope for Peace & Justice