This morning the people of University Park Church and Sunnyside Church had a special joint worship service before members and friends took part in the Portland Pride Parade.

You can watch the video of my sermon homily on Matthew 25:31-46 here.  The text is below the fold.

There Are No Strangers In God's House: A Homily on Matthew 25:31-46 by Rev. Chuck Currie from The Rev. Chuck Currie on Vimeo.

This morning we re-visit Matthew 25: 31-46 – some of the most familiar and important words spoken by Jesus.

At the moment of judgment – and those moment actually occur more frequently than we understand – Jesus tells those around him that the Kingdom is available only to those who have done acts of mercy for the least of these…those who are the outcasts of society but front and center in the heart of God.  As the hymn goes, God’s eye is on the sparrow.  Our God is a God who watches over the powerless and keeps the powerful in check.  There are no strangers in God’s house.  We are all known and loved.  And we are all called to do acts of justice and kindness as we walk humbly before our God.  

We hear the Kingdom talked about in at least two different ways: as eternal life and the realm of God in the here and now.  It was in the here and now that Jesus seemed to place most of his attention. 

In a world such as ours it is difficult to envision the Kingdom existing but it is here now – all around us – in small places, in short moments.  Each time we act to improve the lot of others the Kingdom comes and we are closer with God.  When we act against God – when we hate, fight unjust wars, ignore the hungry and those living in poverty – we move further and further away from God and exile ourselves from the Kingdom God has envisioned for us. 

Right now our nation is in the midst of a great civil rights struggle that will one way or another define how we as a people will regard those who are gay and lesbian, bi-sexual, transgendered and questioning about their sexuality.  This is the kind of debate that would have been familiar to Jesus.  The debates of his time often centered on who was welcome in the community.  Were women welcome? Were foreigners welcome? Were people of different religions welcome?  Were those society deemed unclean welcome?  Jesus always welcomed everyone.  He set an example for us to follow.  He taught that the great test of life was how we treat one another.  Do we respond with love to one another or not?  

A female clergy person wrote last night to say my views on "homosexuality" were Satan inspired and that I was leading Portland into hell with my teachings (who knew I wielded such power?). In response, I wrote:

"If you truly believe this you should be consistent and submit to my Biblical authority as a man and believe as I do... 

Of course, I don't actually want you to do that. You should think for yourself - no matter what the Bible might say." 

After all, a "literal" reading of Scripture generally assumes that women should not preach or be clergy. She replied that I had surrendered my Biblical authority by preaching that "homosexuality" was not a sin. Had I preached a message she agreed with this person would have apparently submitted to me but since she disagreed she has her own viewpoint which only goes to show you should never respond to emails like these. 

You see, homosexuality is still not a sin. It is a sin to discriminate - against gays, people of color, women, children, immigrants... It is a sin to exclude whereas Jesus welcomed. The Greatest Commandment is to love. I think Satan, however you want to define evil in the world, would disagree with me on this but this is how I understand the word of God.

This person offered to pray for me. I hope she will. I prayed for her last night. Not a prayer that she finds a way to agree with me but a prayer that she and I both find better ways to generously love what we might not understand.   

It is a Christian tradition to walk.  Jesus and the Disciples walked as he taught.  Paul walked as he evangelized.  In more recent years, Christians have marched to join campaigns to end slavery and then to extend civil rights to all people not matter the color of their skin.  So to have Christians walked on behalf of women and immigrants and children and for peace in every corner of the globe.  Today we walk again with fellow Christians and other people of faith as part of the Pride Parade as a symbol of God’s extravagant welcome for all.  Some of us walk as gays and lesbians.  Some of us walk as allies.  But we all walk as one in Christ who called us to stand up for the least of these in society and to show the love we would to God to our neighbors, no matter who they might be. 

Amen.    

The people of University Park Church and Sunnyside Church invite you to “A Pre-Pride Parade Worship Service” - a special joint worship service of the two congregations, which will be held at University Park Church (4775 N. Lombard) on Sunday, June 16th at 9:30. 

View this service on Facebook. Invite family, neighbors and friends.

Directly after the service the members from the two churches will head downtown to join the Community of Welcoming Congregations in marching in the annual Portland Pride Parade. All are welcome. 

Sunnyside Church and University Park Church are progressive and Reconciling Congregations in the United Methodist Church. Preaching that morning will be The Rev. Chuck Currie, a minister in the United Church of Christ, who serves as the minister of both congregations in an ecumenical partnership. Rev. Currie is a contributor to The Huffington Post whose ministry has focused on opportunity and hope for those living in poverty, and for the civil rights of all. 

University Park Church, located at 4775 N. Lombard, worships Sunday morning at 9:30 am. The congregation is known as a place of radical hospitality and has been a beacon of justice for the LGBTQ community.

Sunnyside Church, where worship is held each Sunday at 11 am (except June 16th- when there will be no service at Sunnyside) is the home of the Common Cup Family Shelter, and has long been involved in the fight to end homelessness. The congregation also hosts a community meal program, an affordable day care program, and Camp Fire’s summer program. Sunnyside is located at 3520 SE Yamhill. 

U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley talks marriage equality at Sunnyside Church.

Rev. Chuck Currie has endorsed marriage equality.

This is an issue being faced by people all across our nation.  In the past, opponents of equality for gays and lesbians could count on religious leaders as allies.  Not anymore.  The United Church of Christ, where I am an ordained minister, became the first mainline denomination to endorse marriage equality back in 2005.  Many Christian leaders have followed since.

Sunnyside Church and University Park Church, the two Reconciling Congregations in the United Methodist Church that I serve in ecumenical partnership, will be holding a joint worship service on Sunday, June 16th at 9:30 am at University Park Church (4775 N. Lombard) before the Portland Pride Parade.  Our churches will then be marching with the Community of Welcoming Congregations in the parade.  We invite all in area to join us in worship and for the parade.     

To learn more about Oregon’s campaign for marriage equality visit: http://www.oregonunitedformarriage.org

Listen to the story about today's event from Oregon Public Broadcasting:

It has been nearly a year since my appointment to serve Sunnyside Church and University Park Church was made.  This week I updated the congregations on our progress.  You can support the work of progressive Christianity in Portland with a gift to support our ministries.

Dear Members and Friends of Sunnyside Church and University Park Church,

We’re just a month shy of the one-year anniversary of the appointment that brought a United Church of Christ minister to serve Sunnyside Church and University Park Church, two Reconciling Congregations in the United Methodist Church.

Members of Sunnyside Church, University Park Church & Ainsworth Church read #OccupyTheBible.

At the Annual Conference of the Oregon-Idaho Conference of the United Methodist Church – held this June in Boise – our two congregations will be presented for a special award for the ways we have lived out this new partnership.

Together we’ve held joint services for Christmas Eve, Martin Luther King, Jr. Sunday, Ash Wednesday, and Easter. These services have drawn together far more people into our churches than either church could have ever done alone. Media attention has followed. At the same time, along with the people of Ainsworth United Church of Christ, we’ve held successful and well-attended adult education programs this past fall and spring using the books Remedial Christianity and #OccupyTheBible. We’ve used social media this past year aggressively to get out our message. We'll worship together again soon at University Park Church on June 16th at 9:30am, and then those who are able and interested will gather downtown with the Community of Welcoming Congregations to march in the annual Pride Parade. There will be no service that morning at Sunnyside. More information will follow.  

Now we are launching a new “partnership planning process” to more intentionally discover ways our two congregations can be in mission together for the benefit of the community as we preach a progressive Christian message of hope. We're also kicking off a Thursday morning Bible study for all interested members and friends for the summer months. 

During this past year we’ve also gathered for special social occasions – a summer BBQ and Christmas drop-in – not to mention potlucks at both churches. Pastoral care has been offered. Memorials have been held. We’ve had a baptism and welcomed new members at Sunnyside. University Park Church has done food drives for those suffering hunger and Sunnyside Church has teamed up with Bread for the World to ask Congress and the President to do more to fight hunger.

Members of both congregations became active this year in the effort to reduce gun violence and to promote marriage equality. 

In the midst of all this, we’ve wrestled with a challenge about how best to assist people experiencing homelessness around University Park Church (and fought off fines imposed by the city for allowing people to sleep on our campus). At Sunnyside Church, we dealt with staffing and building issues. The leadership of the congregation made the difficult decision not to renew to building user agreement for the Sunnyside Swap Shop, a much loved program, and the future of The Roost, the after-school program housed at Sunnyside, is in question after Camp Fire decided they could no longer be the sponsor (they’ll still be operating the hugely successful summer program at Sunnyside). All of this impacts us in many ways, including financially. We still have a lot of work to do. 

This note just touches on the many ways our two congregations have been in partnership and mission. As we prepare to move into a second year of ministry together there will be hard choices to confront about what it means to be church in our time. Hard doesn’t need to equate with bad, however. We need to be thinking in terms of what legacy we what these two churches to leave – what legacy we want to leave – for the next generation…and about resurrection, about how we bring new life to our work of proclaiming the Gospel. 

Sunnyside Church and University Park Church are blessed with tremendous lay leaders who care deeply for the church and for the common good of our community. Few churches are as fortunate. All of you are in my prayers. I invite your prayers as well as we move into a second year of ministry together.

Your pastor,

Rev. Chuck Currie 

 

University Park Church worships each Sunday at 9:30 am and Sunnyside Church worships at 11am.  All are welcome.

Dear Portlanders, 

There’s no question about it:  I love Portland.  It’s been true since moving here as a boy.  My life, in fact, has been dedicated to making our community a better place.  Portland’s rejection this week of fluoridation is far from cause for divorce but it does feed into the lover’s quarrel that is part of my relationship with this special place.

The fact is that fluoridation would have helped protect kids by increasing dental health.  The Clean Water Campaign, fueled by Tea Party money and some odd doctors (like the one who asserts HIV doesn’t cause AIDS), scared the city into believing that fluoride causes cancer and was bad for the environment.  In my 26 years of advocacy and ministry in Portland, I’ve rarely – if ever – seen a campaign distort and lie as often.

In the wake of Portland’s lopsided decision to reject fluoride people across the country are asking if we reject science in the City of Roses – or more plainly: is Portland just anti-science?

The fear based campaign waged by Clean Water Portland was upsetting enough but the often heard statement by those who identify as progressives that putting fluoride in the water violated their personal choice to take fluoride was perhaps more upsetting.  Portland has never been about “me!” but about “us!”  Not so this week.  The common good lost out to a growing libertarianism that in this case put the needs of children last when they should have gone first.  That children should come first is a beadrock principle of my faith.  

Still, this is hardly the first time I’ve been disappointed in the city I love.  We don’t do enough to fight poverty – and North Portland and East Portland are too often ignored, like these parts of our city just don’t count.  Inequity flourishes here and if you are a person of color your chances to succeed diminish greatly.  We launch plans to end homelessness every few years only to watch homelessness grow. 

We say “Keep Portland Weird” because this is a unique community that has produced a special culture a little bit different than much of America and we can laugh at ourselves when watching Portlandia because there are times we’re absurd in funny, yet harmless, ways. 

But at the pot-fueled Clean Water Portland victory party, where reporters say the air was thick with marijuana from smoking activists protesting adding fluoride to the water supply because fluoride was harmful (the irony is worth noting), the city crossed a line from absurd to sad.

Say what you will about Clean Water Portland: Them folks got some pungent medical herb. #fluoride

— Aaron Mesh (@AaronMesh) May 22, 2013

In the end, we still have a dental crisis.  Portland children will still suffer.  Nothing changed this week – our dental crisis didn’t get worse but it could have gotten better but fears and lies and, yes, personal self-interest won over the common good. 

Still, Portland is better than this.  When confronted with difficult questions over taxes, schools, health care, LGBTQ equality and the environment we normally make the moral choice, even if it costs us more in taxes and upsets family, friends and neighbors.  We normally put the common good first when given the opportunity. 

I don’t fault the 60% of Portlanders who voted against fluoride.  Most people don’t pay close attention to these elections and if I heard the city wanted to add chemicals to the water that caused cancer the natural reaction, it seems, would be to vote no.  Those behind Clean Water Portland, however, - the activists and their financial supporterss, including the Tea Party and their allies – knew better and did great damage to Portland by waging a divisive campaign that hurt Portland’s children.  Don’t be surprised to see this coalition reform to try and to reshape Portland in their conservative / libertarian image that is fueled by a distrust for government, other institutions (including institutions of higher learning) and, of course, science. 

That coalition in no ways represents 60% of Portland.  One lost election doesn’t mean progressive Portland is lost.  What it does show is that our work to improve Portland just got more difficult.  Outside Tea Party groups are willing to foot the bill to take on what our city has generally held most dear. 

Fluoride supporters were wrong not to engage the public in an open and transparent process from the start on this issue, instead of trying to move this through the Portland City Council quickly (a move I endorsed).  The backlash is similar to when the Multnomah County passed an ordinance to allow gay marriage without a public process (a move I also endorsed), only to see voters outlaw gay marriage statewide in response.  Government works best when it is transparent.  We ought to learn this lesson.  Back room politics don’t work in Portland. 

Progressives also need to find a way to fight lies in ways that don’t just win campaigns but also strengthen the community.  As a minister, you might think this would be a skill I would have.  But plenty of times I reacted to the lies told in this campaign with more anger than light and that is just as damaging.  Lies shouldn’t be tolerated.  They should be called out.  But we can all find better ways to engage in the public square. 

For me, I love this city too much to give up on it.  I want my kids and the children in my churches to have access to the best public schools and to public health programs that help them thrive.  After all these years, after all these battles, my deep belief is that 90%+ of Portlanders want the same even if we cannot always agree on the ways to get there.  Good people can come to different conclusions on difficult issues.  Until Portland becomes the city it ought to be, I’ll continue my lover’s quarrel and will happily work with people of integrity – people who value truth – even when they disagree with my views.  After all, I’ve been proven wrong before and changed my views when confronted with good arguments based on reason and fact.  Democracy works that way when it is truthful and fair. 

Your neighbor,

Rev. Chuck Currie            

My latest in The Huffington Post:

"Star Trek Into Darkness" does what Star Trek has always done best: holds up a mirror to the United States and asks, "Are we the moral people we want to be?"

Star Trek Demands Path out of the Darkness

Photo credit: http://www.startrekmovie.com 

My latest on The Huffington Post:

"Judy Bright -- a certified nurse midwife, advanced nurse practitioner, public health administrator and my mother -- died before she could take advantage of Obamacare, but as an advocate for public health and someone with a pre-existing condition, she knew the difference it would make for millions of Americans."

News that the IRS targeted conservative organizations for special review as part of the non-profit certification process is deeply concerning.  It reminds me of the Bush-era IRS investigation of the United Church of Christ.  The Obama Administration needs to quickly fix the problem but much of this is the messy result of the Citizens United court decision and thus the fix will require an overhaul of corrupt campaign finance laws.  The Washington Post notes:

Campaign reform groups have been pressing the IRS for several years to conduct greater oversight of nonprofits formed in the wake of the Citizens United case, given that many have become heavily involved in elections.

“But this isn’t the type of enforcement we want,” said Paul Ryan, a senior counsel at the Campaign Legal Center. “We want nonpartisan, non-biased enforcement.”

Our government should work better than this.  No one should be targed simply for their political views.  At the same time, our election system should not be the rigged, corrupt system put in place by Citizens United.

Portland faith leaders are standing up for 26-151 and Healthy Kids Healthy Portland because "one of our core principles is that the blessings of our community should be felt by all, not just a few." Fluoridation of our water will help our kids and entire city. The numbers have gotten slightly better but we still face a true crisis. Read the arguments in support of 26-151 at

http://web.multco.us/sites/default/files/elections/documents/multco_vp_26-151_for_2013-05.pdf.