Good Shepherd New York: Pride Month, The Gospel, Saint Paul and Inclusion

WN: In the worship service today, the issue of homosexuality and the church is directly, lovingly, and beautifully addressed. Good Shepherd New York is an “inclusive” church, as word use goes. Not because it is “liberal,” “progressive,” “anti-conservative,” etc. It is that because in its attempt at collective imitation of Christ, it has chosen “the most excellent way. (I Corinthians 12:31b).” And what is that way? Saint Paul continues in the next chapter:

1If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. — I Corinthians 13.

I have embedded the whole service, of which every component is outstanding; then included again below the sermon by Pastor Michael Rudzena; followed by recitation of “The Apostles’ Creed;” and finally: “Prayers of the People.”