Christ-mass Preparations Begin!

This Sunday, our preparations for the arrival of the Christ-child begin! I invite you join us, especially if you have not been to church in a while, for a very special Advent Season leading up to Christmas.

This is such a special and holy season. I hope you will make it a point to step away from the secular holiday events to truly explore the meaning and message of this season of peace and joy as we together await for the birth of Jesus.

This Sunday we will begin a new series entitled, "The Unexpected Messiah," which will focus on the ways that Jesus was not the Savior that everyone thought they wanted, but he was exactly what was needed. The series is based on the famous line from Isaiah 9: "A child is born to us, a son is given to us, and authority will be on his shoulders. He will be named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace." In this Advent series, we will turn these historic titles upside down, inside out, and back up again to explore the ways Jesus was an unexpected Messiah, queering and challenging the expectations of what deliverance means for the world.

I am excited to discover new sides to Jesus as we journey from here to the manger on Christmas Eve.

I hope to see you soon on the road to Bethlehem!

Winter Outreach

Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?' -Martin Luther King, Jr.

Our Winter Outreach Shelter provides refuge on the coldest nights of the year saving people’s lives. Our guests range from those who have always been poor and have always lived with housing insecurity to others who have become unhoused because of their mental health or substance use challenges. And many others are unhoused for reasons that we will never know.

Over the last 10 years, I have stayed committed to this program because the generous, incredible people who take refuge for a safe night’s rest in our care. I cannot tell you how many times I have watched someone, carrying on their backs all they own, quickly dig through their few belongings to find pants or a belt for another guest who needs it more! Today, I am grateful to share some of the stories of those who have shared a night of their lives with me:

Among past guests was the woman who carried herself elegantly as she rolled her small suitcase into the shelter. One of our volunteers gasped, remarking: “she was my teacher!” Quietly, he said that this woman had been an impressive teacher that he remembered well from his childhood.

I remember a young couple, sitting up late into the night as they studied for an exam in a dental tech program they were both enrolled in. The next week, they came back SO excited to tell us that they had passed the exam – largely due to the help of one of our volunteers who sat up helping them prepare.

And then there was the family of four: mom, full-time-employed dad, and two small children. The mom cried as she said that two months earlier she had been the one passing out sandwiches to the homeless. But then the pipes broke in their apartment, the apartment was condemned, and they were suddenly unhoused without money to pay a deposit and first/last month rent.

Every one of our guests has their own story. And ALL deserve a warm place to stay on deadly cold nights.

God with the People

God with the Privileged?

This Sunday, we will continue our sermon series, "God with the People," and this story of God's relationship with the Israelites from Genesis to Jesus, we have come to the time of the great Kings of Israel.

Saul, David, and Solomon each have big stories written about them in our Bibles, especially King David. While many of those stories are about their great successes, others include murder, adultery, and other serious mistakes. We quickly get the clear sense that the Kings were blessed leaders and regular people with faults.

As we continue our larger story of God with the People, this week we will take a closer look at these leaders as we consider how God is with these people: the wealthy, privileged, top 1%, rulers. If God is with the people, then that means everyone. But how is God's relationship to the most privileged similar or different from God relationship with the 99%? Join us on Sunday as we find out together!

Fellowship Sunday

51 years ago, 12 people met together in a little pink house with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir streaming through a boombox. Rev. Troy Perry, a twice-defrocked Pentecostal & Baptist minister, put an ad in the Advocate magazine, wore his vestments, and consecrated communion over a coffee table that served as an altar. This was the first service of Metropolitan Community Churches where people, like us, now gather around the world each week to celebrate our loving God who made LGBTQ+ people in God's own image.

This week, articles of MCC's history were welcomed into the Smithsonian American History Museum. It was a momentous occasion where MCC's unique role in uniting spirituality and sexuality was honored and celebrated.

Many of the items donated were used in the very first days of MCC, including Rev. Troy's Book of Common Prayer, which he used as he conducted some of the first same-gender unions and far too many funerals of those who died due to complications from HIV/AIDS. When speaking of some of these things, he said that he kept good record of what happened in those early years because he knew he was making history; he knew what MCC was doing was important for the world.

46 years ago, MCCGSL became the first house of worship for gender and sexual minorities in St. Louis. In 2014, our own pastor, Rev. Wes, performed the first legal gay marriage in the State of Missouri. We, too, are doing ministry that makes history and is important for the world.

As MCC's story is made of us, we are history. While we look toward the next 50 years of MCC's history, what things do you want to be remembered for? What is the faithful legacy we will be a part of creating? How will we make the world more just, peaceful, and kind?

Join us this Sunday as we celebrate our shared history and consider what God may be calling us to next!

Wear Orange to Take a Stand

This week, Pastor Lauren and I joined with the rest of the clergy in the Carondelet neighborhood to host a Community Prayer Vigil for the child victims of gun violence in St. Louis. Before that night 22 teens and children under 18 had become victims of gun violence in 2019 in our city.

Literally while we were gathered in prayer and sharing, just three miles away, another 6-year-old was killed in an act of gun violence. To add to that bitterness, just this morning a 3-year-old boy was shot and later died at the hospital. That means that a gun has killed 24 kids this year in St. Louis.

I grew up in the country...in the foothills (or as we would have said "footheels") of Tennessee's Appalachian Mountains. There, guns were a part of life. My family had guns, I was taught to use those guns safely even at a young age, and I honestly gave it very little thought. So, I am not writing today about guns, the personal freedom to own guns, or the crazy politics of our country. I am writing about the universal right to life that everyone of us--and especially our kiddos--have.

In Matthew 19, Jesus moves the adults aside and orders that the children be brought to him. He recognized the importance of children and the collective responsibility every person has to protect them. It sounds kind of funny to say, but Jesus was a Mama Bear! Don't mess with his kiddos, or he will protect them like a Mama Bear!

Even though you may not be the mama or daddy to any of the kids in our city who have been shot, you can be their Mama Bear. You can take a stand to say this must be stopped. Our kids must be kept safe.

At our Prayer Vigil we encouraged everyone to wear an orange ribbon to take a stand for the children in our community. Orange is the official color that calls for an end for gun violence. You can wear an orange ribbon or any orange clothing as one small way to take your stand. On SATURDAY (remember service is moved this weekend), I will be wearing an orange stole as a symbol that our church is lifting up every one of these 24 children and their families in prayer. Let us stand with Jesus...for the kids...for life.

The Faith We Sing - This Is Me

One of the things we are all so proud of here at MCCGSL is our choir! This is a big weekend of special choir events.

First, I hope you are among the 400 people who got a ticket to Pride Night at Busch Stadium this Friday! Our choir rendition of the National Anthem is one of the most beautiful I've ever heard, and I hope you will be there to celebrate this very special honor of singing at the Pride night game.

Secondly, everyone is certainly invited to join us on Sunday for the conclusion of this summer's The Faith We Sing Series. The choir will be singing several songs this week, making this service a very special musical treat! Our focus for the last Sunday of this series will be on the song, "This is Me," from the movie The Greatest Showman. It will be show-stopper of a Sunday, and I know I speak for Jerry and the choir when I say I hope we will see you this weekend!

The Faith We Sing - Shallow

This Sunday our "The Faith We Sing" series will take us into some deep territory. Far away from the lollipops and rainbows of "Over the Rainbow," the story of the song "Shallow" and the latest version of the film "A Star is Born" take us into the trials and struggles that come with love, fame, and addiction.

New relationships are easy. They splash and play in the shallow end, and you can end them at any point without losing much, if anything. But once you wade out into the deep of life with a partner, a church, a job...really anything...the stakes get much higher. Join us on Sunday when we look at what it means to follow God when we are "far from the shallow now."

The Faith We Sing - Because You Loved Me

After nearly two weeks of traveling, I am so excited to get home and be back with you this Sunday as we continue our trip through "Songs Made Famous by a Movie! This Sunday, we will look at the song that made Celine Dion famous...and no it is not that song from Titanic! Join us as we look take a look at the song "Because You Loved Me," which was made famous by the film "Up Close and Personal," which starred Robert Redford and Michelle Pfeiffer.

This film which follows the careers of two news reporters has some interesting connections to the changes we are seeing in today's news reporting. More than a story about news, this is really a story about the power of love. Hence the song, "Because You Loved Me."

Whose life has been changed because you loved them? Who changed your life by loving you? There is lots to consider this week as we join together in worship because each of our lives have been changed by the unconditional love of God!

The Faith We Sing - Over the Rainbow

This Sunday we begin a four-week series that you will love! We are looking at four different films and four songs that were made famous by those films. This Sunday our choir will take us "Over the Rainbow" with the Wizard of Oz...a film and song with powerful themes that resonate with our faith.

Later in the month, we will look at music by Celine Dion, Lady Gaga, and The Greatest Showman. Over these next four weeks, the films and songs will bring us themes about the power of love, the damaging effects of addiction, and the importance of discovering your truest self. Join us on this journey. It will be worth every minute. ...And it might just change your life for the better!

Standing in Unity, Marching in Solidarity

As many of you are likely aware, over the last few weeks there has been a fundamental breakdown of communication and promises have been broken between the leadership of Pride STL and our local Trans community. If you are not aware of the background, this statement from James Croft at the Ethical Society of St. Louis does a great job of explaining that background.

Today, I met with Trans members of our congregation along with members of our Pride Team, and I am grateful for their vulnerable input, loving hearts, and sage guidance. I want to share with you what our MCC response will be this weekend in light of the recent events.

1.) I will be marching in Friday's Trans and Gender Free Pride March that is sponsored by MTUG (Metro Trans Umbrella Group). I invite any of you who would like to join me to do so. It is important that we stand in solidarity with MTUG and show MCC's inclusive love of God. It is deeply disappointing that MTUG could not lead us in the parade downtown as our Grand Marshall. We want to let them know we see them, we hear them, and we lovingly stand with and behind them.

2.) We will keep our booth open all weekend at both Tower Grove and Downtown Pride as we want to be able to engage with members of the community to continue sharing the Good News of God's love for LGBTQIA+ people. Given the rejections of LGBTQIA+ people that have happened in other Christian Churches this year, our loving, affirming voice is as important this year as ever.

3.) We will still co-lead our Interfaith Pride Service in the park (at 10am!), for nothing about God's love or the importance of having healthy spiritual lives has changed. God still meets us all exactly where we are, and that is the richest place to be!

4.) In response to recent events, rather than have our normal, very colorful, "glitter and rainbow explosion" Pride Float, we will be driving an un-decorated truck and trailer in the parade. We will have a very large white sign on the trailer with one simple statement in black letters. It will read, "Still Marching for Equality..." We will play calm, hopeful worship music (instead of things like the song "Happy") to draw attention to our intentional, prayerful belief in the ongoing need for true equality for everyone. Our marches will be invited to make simple, one-color signs with messages of love, unity, and prayer to display as we march.

This change to our float shows our willingness to listen and hear the testimonies of the most marginalized among us and hold all the tensions and disagreements that are found across our rainbow people. Even 50 years since Stonewall and after many strides forward in the pursuit of equality, we can all agree that there is more marching and more work to do for full equality to be realized.

I hope you will participate in these Pride events this weekend. This is a poignant moment in which we are invited to share the wisdom and guidance that we find in and through our faith. Let your light and love shine.

With Loving Solidarity and Unrelenting Hope,

Pastor Wes