Rainbow Worship Service 2nd Anniversary, Sunday Feb. 2/25 – Sermon by Rev. James Murray

“Room for us all” Sermon for TSA’s Rainbow Service on February 2, 2025
By Rev. James Murray

When I am feeling blue, there are certain pieces of music that I know can pick me up. When I am feeling so low that I want to go to the garden to eat worms, there is only one song which will do. The world’s most hurting, down in the dumps blues song is by the great B.B. King. The chorus says it all. “Nobody loves me except my mother, and I think she’s jiving me too.”  That’s low. It’s so low that it lifts me up.

To feel this lost and hurting is not a new emotion. The pattern of the blues and the pain they express stretches back even to the Bible, where the Blues first finds its voice. Even the prophet Isaiah wasn’t above wailing a lament or two.

Isaiah said “But I have laboured in vain.  I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity.” We all have lots of days that can feel like that. But Isaiah doesn’t stay there singing the blues. Because a few short verses later, God replies “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the people and to restore the survivors.  I will give you as a light to the people, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

The good news of a day like today is that God meets us even at our darkest moments, and God seeks to lift us up.  That doesn’t mean all our problems will magically disappear. God will lift us up by giving us support and encouragement we need for the road we are actually travelling on. We need such support and encouragement because the emotions of the past few weeks have been a rollercoaster for everyone. The changing political landscape in both Canada and the US means that everyone is on edge. We see in the US protections for transgender people being taken away. We see government agencies and corporations backing off from their commitment to important values such as diversity, equity and inclusion. Such changes are meant to hurt the LGBTQ community, as well as women and racialized communities. And we know these are just the first wave of changes that may turn into a tsunami of hate.

We can be easily overwhelmed by such cruelty and anger. It’s not hard to start singing the blues when we feel unwanted and unloved. In the face of such feelings of despair, there was a prophetic voice over the past week that did speak a word of hope for everyone to hear. The day after the inauguration of President Trump, there was an interfaith prayer service at the National Cathedral in Washington. As the Bishop of the Cathedral, Mariann Budde gave the sermon. In her sermon Bishop Budde spoke directly at President Trump and urged him to show mercy and compassion to vulnerable people Budde specifically mentioned the LGBTQ+ communities, immigrants, and refugees fleeing from war in their countries. The President was offended by her remarks and demanded she apologize. The Bishop has refused to apologize for preaching the gospel. After all, Jesus did say ‘Blessed are the merciful’ .As Christians we are called to show compassion to the vulnerable.

Bishop Budde has been a strong voice for compassion in her ministry. One example of her caring spirit involves Matthew Shephard.  Matthew Shepard was a student at the University of Wyoming who was beaten, tortured, and left to die near Laramie back in 1998. Shepard was brutally murdered because he was gay. His murder received national attention and inspired laws meant to deal with hate crimes.

Because of the attention, Shepard’s parents hesitated for many years to bury Matthew’s remains. They were afraid that anti-gay activists would vandalize the site. In 2018 Bishop Budde offered to have Matthew Shepard’s remains interred at the National Cathedral where they would be safe.

Normally it is presidents and admirals and important people of great national significance who are honoured in this way. Bishop Budde has often spoken against our human tendency to dominate, demean, and exploit each other. She is a firm believer that there should be equal justice for all since all people are created in God’s image. She has even gone so far as to remind people of the relevance of the Christian principles to be peacemakers and to love one’s enemy.

Bishop Budde is a slight woman with a fierce spirit. Her most recent book is called “How we learn to be brave”. Her book has become a best seller after last week’s events and media exposure.  I think we all need to learn how to be brave. It’s the only way we can survive in this toxic environment we find ourselves in.

Our gathering here is also an act of bravery, and a source of comfort. It lets us know that we are not alone in this struggle. That we are all children of God, made in God’s image. That everyone belongs. That what was once thought impossible can become a reality. That prophetic voices can create positive change. It helps us resist the corrosive forces that threaten to tear us apart. And it reminds us of Jesus’ ministry, that demonstrates there is room for us all at the table.

Our Prayer after Communion

Loving God,   your gifts renew us in body, spirit, and mind.
May the Spirit of life fill us with a faith that is brave.
Let no institution or narrow thinking hold us back;
Walk with us as we tend to the world’s pain and seek to mend that which is broken.
May we be people who boldly pursue collective justice, peace and equality.
Amen.