Sermon - 8-27-23

<p><strong><u>Pride Sunday – 08/27/2023</u></strong></p> <p>Today is Pride Sunday. You have had this celebration here before, but I don’t ever remember participating in a Pride Sunday. Thus, for me, this is a blessing. Pride is often thought of in a negative sense as to why do you think you are better than anyone else. Of course, it is quite the opposite, as it is about recognizing that every person is a child of God. This is regardless of anything.</p> <p>In many churches and with a number of people we in the LGBTQIA+ community have been seen as less than, committing some kind of great sin for being who God created us to be. We at Faith Lutheran church do not believe that. Our welcoming statement spells out many groups who are often excluded, where we are here to welcome and include.</p> <p>For me today is about celebrating diversity and inclusivity. God did not create us all alike and that is a beautiful thing. In Psalm 139 we read from the New Living Translation: O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me. You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts even when I’m far away. You see me when I travel and when I rest at home.</p> <p>You know everything I do. You know what I am going to say even before I say it, Lord. You go before me and follow me. You place your hand of blessing on my head. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand!</p> <p>You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.</p> <p>Wonderfully complex. This is something that all of us are called to grapple with. For those of us in the LGBTQIA+ community, in order for us to find wholeness we have to affirm who God made us to be. This is not an easy process it means we are different than the main-stream person. We are different than what has been seen as “the norm”.</p> <p>Yet God has created us to be complex beings. As God’s people we are called to