Signs of Spring

The snow has melted. We had our first thunderstorm. I listened to the sound of rain pounding on the roof. The cats line up at the window to watch birds, chipmunks and squirrels at the feeder. Loons swim in the river. People are out walking or starting to prepare their gardens. We enjoy brilliant-hued sunsets. These are signs of spring in the land of long, cold, white winters.

In the living room, by a tall, narrow window, I have a Fiddle-leaf Fig plant. It has lived with us for many years, since it was very small, and is now close to 6 feet high. It is one of my favorite plants with its unique fiddle-shaped leaves. The plant knows it’s spring too. As the sun’s rays grow warmer and stronger, the plant arches toward the window, reaching out to receive the sun’s blessing. I am reminded of how we reach with yearning spirits toward the warmth, strength and love of our God who is always ready to embrace us and bless us with love.

Reach out to receive God’s blessing! Reach out to share God’s love! Another Easter has reminded us of the resurrection and new life. As the sun and rain renew the earth, God’s love renews our spirits. Celebrate life! Celebrate spring! God’s blessings abound!

New and Improved

sermon preached at Faith United Church, UCC, International Falls, MN

Text: Luke 24:36b-48

There’s so much to tell in the Easter story that even though today is the 3rd Sunday of Easter, in the biblical story we are still on Easter day. So much has happened!

If we combine the four gospel accounts, here’s what we know: The women have gone to the tomb. They have been shocked to find that it’s empty. Not only is it empty but the grave cloths have been left behind. Mary Magdalene has seen Jesus but didn’t recognize him until he spoke to her.  

The disciples are locked in a room in Jerusalem in fear for their lives because, they reason, If Jesus was killed, won’t his followers be killed as well?

Two disciples, believing everything is over, have returned home to Emmaus, but something pretty amazing happened to them on the way. A stranger joined them, and he walked and talked with them, and they invited him to their home for supper. Then in the breaking of the bread their eyes were opened and they realized it was Jesus. They immediately rushed back to Jerusalem to tell the others what had happened on the road.

And that is where today’s story picks up.

We need to remember that Jesus just suddenly appeared in their midst. He didn't come knocking at the door. Although he had said that he would be raised and there had been a report of the empty tomb by the women, and the report by the two from Emmaus and one by Peter, they were not prepared to have Jesus just appear in their midst as they were talking with one another. Jesus hadn't given them any warning that he would show up right then in that place. Even though we have been through centuries of talking about and believing in Christ's resurrection, how would we react if he suddenly physically appeared right here in our worship service?

The disciples are "startled and terrified” because they think that they are seeing a ghost. The two verses in this story are probably the only places where the word pneuma, which means spirit is translated instead as “ghost.” In contrast to the popular notion of a comforting guardian angel, the presence of these divine beings in biblical stories produced great terror and fear in those who saw them. Except for coming to Jesus in the garden, every other time angels appear, they say, “Don't be afraid”—we remember that from the Christmas story.

So, the disciples have locked themselves in this room in fear, and Jesus just walks right in—I wonder if he walked through the door or the wall? Who wouldn’t be afraid?! And he says, “I am not a ghost!!”[1]

Imagine their joy at seeing him! But also imagine their disbelief. This is wonderful, but how can it possibly be?

So Jesus offers two proofs that he is not a ghost. First he shows them his hands and feet and lets them touch him if they need to, and then he asks for something to eat. Ghosts definitely don’t eat, so this resurrection thing has changed him in an amazing way! You might even say this is the new and improved Jesus! And I’m not being facetious. The resurrected Jesus is the same person his disciples knew and loved—who knew and loved them too—but he is also, now, so much more!

Encountering the risen Jesus is a powerful experience, and then, once he's done the very human, earthy thing of eating the fish, he does the same thing he did with the disciples on the road to Emmaus, a Bible study. The signs of breaking bread and eating fish combine with the Word of God to help the disciples (and us) to make some sense out of all this. "Jesus is not appealing to specific texts to prove his messiahship; he is not proof-texting. He is appealing to the pattern of scripture as indicated in the stories of Moses and the prophets. The prophets and the Messiah proclaim God's word and are always rejected, persecuted, and killed, and still God affirms them. That is the pattern of divine necessity."[2]  The gospel tells us that the combination of seeing Jesus, of being with him, and the sharing of the Word together, opened their hearts and minds.

This new and improved Jesus, who is not the same and is also not a ghost but has been bodily resurrected, affirms that "the creature formed 'from the dust of the ground'[3]  is indeed good and what God intended." Contrary to the beliefs of the early church and even modern culture, body and soul (or spirit) are not separate but combined into one living whole. Jesus’ resurrection demonstrates that. Many scholars observe that we are saved in our whole being, body and soul, and that somehow that salvation gets worked out here, on earth, in our bodies just as much as our souls.

The resurrection is "God's affirmation that creation matters, that love and justice matter, that humanity, in all its ambiguity and complexity, is still fearfully and wonderfully God-made."[4]

Our culture, with all its marketing messages, loves the idea of "new and improved." But this

 "something new" represented in the resurrection of Jesus is so far beyond any advertised product, beyond anything we can get a handle on! It’s beyond our "current modes of thinking about nature—the way things are—as a fixed order of things"[5]  God did and is doing something new in the resurrection of Jesus, and in a sense, God is doing something new each time we experience the risen Jesus.

But things are still familiar. When Jesus asks for something to eat, he brings table fellowship right back into the narrative, because it's still at the heart of our story and at the center of who we are. The experience of the early disciples who touched Jesus, put their hands in his wounds and heard his voice, fed his hunger and received his blessing, is the same experience of Christians today who feed the hungry, break bread together, hunger for God's blessing, and respond to the call to turn our lives toward God once again.

The new and improved Jesus also calls his disciples to action. They are to proclaim repentance and forgiveness of sins in his name. They are to start in Jerusalem—the center of things—and go out from there “to all the nations.”

The disciples experienced Jesus that day as being the way they remembered him and at the same time so different! He drew their attention to his hands and his feet, reminding them, I’m sure, of the ways the hands and feet of Jesus had been important in his ministry—healing people, breaking bread, traveling around with the good news—“They were wounded now…the hands that had joined him to other people and the feet that had joined him to the earth. They had holes in them, sore angry-looking bruises that hurt them to look at, only it was important for the disciples to look, because they had never done it before….He wanted them to know he had gone through the danger and not around it."

Through the danger, and not around it. Much of our time and energy is spent on finding a way around things, rather than living through them! We don't want to experience pain or danger, or even to come face to face with the suffering of other people, or the suffering of the earth. What can we do about all of that? And yet, we bear hope for the world because of that commission Jesus gave the disciples and the whole church long ago: "When that world looks around for the risen Christ, when they want to know what that means, it is us they look at. Not our pretty faces and not our sincere eyes but our hands and feet—what we have done with them and where we have gone with them"[6]

In the resurrection, God shows us that there is so much more—both for us and for the world. And with faith in the promise and fulfillment of the resurrection, we are called to be new and improved Christians! We are now the hands and feet of Jesus in the world!  AMEN.

Endnotes

[1] Adapted from note #12906 from Brian Stoffregen to “Gospel Notes For Next Sunday” on Ecunet.

[2] Bernard Brandon Scott, New Proclamation, 2006.

[3] Genesis 2:7, NRSV.

[4] Cynthia Gano Lindner, The Christian Century, April 21, 2009.

[5] Stephen Cooper, Feasting on the Word.

[6] Adapted from http://www.ucc.org/worship/samuel/april-26-2009-third-sunday.html quoting Barbara Brown Taylor’s sermon "Hands and Feet" from Home by Another Way.

Easter 2009 at Faith United Church

The only time I get to church this early on Sunday morning is on Easter because I need to get my "prep" stuff done before the Easter Breakfast which is put on by the Men's Club. So I rolled in just in time to see a wonderful phenomenon that happens between 7:30-8:00 a.m. this time of year.

The sun shines through the stained glass windows over the front door, throwing its light through another window and directly onto the communion table/pulpit/altar. It's beautiful and such a treat to see. (pictures below) and it just fits as an Easter gift.

Sunday was joyful and colorful. Preaching on Easter is my very favorite thing to do. Our Easter Garden was especially spectacular this year, thanks to everyone's donations of plants and flowers and the artistic abilities of one of our newer members who creatively arranged it. 

What a joy it is to be a part of the Easter celebration each year! Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed. Hallelujah!! Amen!
                                          Easter Light
                                      Light on the table
           Stained glass reflectino above sanctuary doorway
           Stained glass window over the church's front door
                                        Easter breakfast

                               Sanctuary ready for worship
                   Welcome screen on Easter PowerPoint

                                          Easter Garden
                                              Rev. Sue

"I Have Seen the Lord!"

sermon preached by the Rev. Sue Judson Hamly on Easter Sunday, April 12, 2009 at Faith United Church, UCC, International Falls, MN

Texts: Isaiah 25:6-9 and John 20:1-18

What a GLORIOUS morning! After such a long, cold winter, we’re finally seeing signs of spring!

But even better than that, it’s Easter! Hallelujah!! Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed!

Look around you; look at the color! Look at our beautiful Easter garden! Look at the smiles on everyone’s faces. It’s Easter! There is new life! Hope abounds!
If you were here Thursday night, you may be thinking about the amazing contrast between the darkness, the shadows, the starkness of black and red, the somberness of our Maundy Thursday/Tenebrae service and the riotous abundance of color that we see here this morning! From death to life in 3 short days!

I LOVE Easter, don’t you?! I think I can safely say that I like Easter even better than Christmas. After all, Easter is what Christians are all about. We are defined by what happened on that first Easter morning—we ARE Easter People!

But Jesus’ friends didn’t wake up that day and say “what a glorious morning.” They had nothing to be happy about. Their Sabbath had just ended and there was nothing to look forward to. No more traveling with Jesus. No more listening to his wonderful stories that they didn’t always understand. No more sharing meals and laughter and having theological discussions. No more dreams of making life better, no more miraculous healings. No more compassionate, caring, challenging friend to make their days exciting, interesting, even amazing.

On that particular Sabbath—the day after Jesus was crucified—his friends were caught between death and life. They didn’t know that, of course, and only felt grief and despair. But Holy Saturday was the Sabbath day that hung heavily, like a huge black cloud, between Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. The people of Jesus’ day had rules and requirements for the Sabbath. Work must stop and Jesus’ body couldn’t be attended to until the Sabbath was over. So it had been quickly placed in a tomb belonging to Joseph of Arimathea on Friday afternoon because sunset was coming and the Sabbath began at dusk.

For Jesus’ friends, it was a dark day of sadness and grief. They did not know that it was a day of waiting, a day that was pregnant with possibility. But on that first Easter morning they would learn that death is not the final answer—for Jesus or for any of us—and that is fabulously good news!

But this morning I want to focus on Mary Magdalene. In other gospels there were more women accompanying her, but John’s story is about her—a special woman—Mary of Magdela.
Imagine waking up and wondering how life can go on when the person who brought so much light and life into your world has been crucified.

I can only guess that Mary must have dragged herself out early that morning, making her way slowly to the garden where the tomb was. Not wanting to remember that awful vision of her beloved friend being tortured on a cruel cross. What next? What do we do now? Those thoughts must have run through her mind as she slowly trudged along.

Distracted by grief, I’m sure she barely noticed anything around her. Until…..

How can this be?! That was a heavy boulder! Who could possibly have rolled it away, especially this early in the morning? With a ghastly sinking feeling, she looks in and sees that the tomb is empty. How can things have gotten any worse?

Her first reaction is to run away and tell the men. And Peter and John dash back to see for themselves. The tomb is still empty. Mary stands there weeping. As if it wasn’t bad enough, now they’ve gone and taken his body who knows where.

She stands in the beautiful garden, overcome with grief, not seeing a thing…..

And then… a voice says, “Mary!” Oh! This must be the gardener. If only he will tell her what they’ve done with the Lord’s body….

“Mary!”

Suddenly the grief-induced fog that has clouded her brain is penetrated by the voice. She knows that voice. She’d know it anywhere!

“Teacher!” she cries out. “How can it be you? I did not recognize you!”

Imagine her shock and amazement at the realization that this really is Jesus who is standing there speaking to her! How CAN this be?! Automatically, she reaches out to hug him because she is filled with relief, joy and absolute astonishment.

But he stops her, “No, don’t hold on to me. I haven’t ascended. But do this for me; go tell the guys I am ascending to my father and your father, my God and your God.”

“I have seen the Lord!” Mary’s shock and astonishment turn to action, faithful response and joyful witness. There will be no lingering together in the beautiful garden because there is joy to be shared and work to be done.

Jesus has led the way and shown us the path. Because of Easter we are given a new hope and born into a new life. Joy comes in the morning; joy dawned again on Easter day!

Why didn’t Mary recognize Jesus until she heard his voice? I think Paul explains it in his first letter to the Corinthians[1] when he says that death is necessary in order for new life to be possible. In this life we are “perishable.” The way we are now, we can’t last forever. We are mortals. But in Jesus’ death and resurrection we receive the promise of a wonderful change. In the new life that follows earthly death, we will all be changed and, Paul says, we will become imperishable! In that new form we will experience new life—whole and complete.

Through Christ’s victory of life over death, God has gathered us to God’s self, reaching out with loving arms to welcome us into God’s embrace.

Easter is about life. Mary Magdalene discovered that Jesus wasn’t a corpse in a tomb, but a living experience! For a thousand years after the first Easter none of the early Christians focused on the crucifixion. In fact, there were no images of a dead Jesus anywhere to be found until the 10th century! In the first thousand years, “[the] death of Jesus, it seemed, was not a key to meaning, not an image of devotion, not a ritual symbol of faith for the Christians who worshipped among the churches’ glittering mosaics. The Christ they saw was the incarnate, risen Christ, the child of baptism, the healer of the sick, the teacher of his friends, and the one who defeated death and transfigured the world with the Spirit of life.”[2]

So Mary Magdalene says, “I have seen the Lord!” and that is what Easter is about—life! From the empty cross, God speaks to us about life. God has spoken to us through the life of Jesus. God calls us to follow in love and faithfulness. And God promises to be with us and remain with us always.

The good news of Easter is that Death has lost its sting and has been swallowed up in victory! God is able to take something horrendously horrifying like “Good Friday” and turn it into Easter. God is able to turn death into new life. God is able to keep surprising us with the goodness of life in the midst of destruction and despair. God surprises us with little Easters throughout our lives because God loves all God’s people, and because God IS Easter.

Death is not the end because Mary has seen the Lord. And in the following days, many more of Jesus’ friends experienced his living presence. That is the joy and the gift of Easter.

Life wins! Love wins! God wins!! Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed! Happy Easter! Hallelujah! AMEN!

Endnotes:
1. 1 Corinthians 15:50-58, NRSV.
2. Saving Paradise: How Christianity Traded Love of This World for Crucifixion and Empire, by Rita Nakashima Brock and Rebecca Ann Parker. Beacon Press, Boston, 2008, Prologue p. xi.

Easter Morning

EASTER MORNING
Bowed over
bent down
weighted with grief,
In the half-light of pre-dawn
the women trudge toward the tomb.
The world pressing in like a heavy, black shroud –
how can the sun possibly rise again
with such despair all around?
How will they manage
to stumble through another day?
Yet there is work to be done…
They trudge in silence
bearing burial spices
each one lost in her personal pain.

Something isn’t right in the garden.
It’s much too bright – no grief hangs in the air…
and who could possibly have arrived before
to roll away that heavy stone?
Anguish gives way to confusion
and terror –
“What have they done with my Lord?”
“He is not here. He is risen!”

As confusion turns to comprehension
all existence transforms
from the heavy gloom of winter gray
to the shimmering vividness of glorious spring.
Death is overturned by life!
Darkness is pierced by shining light
Fear is shoved aside by hope
God’s love is revealed anew – a promise fulfilled.

Easter is the turning-point
Christ has risen!
Joy abounds!
Run! Shout! Dance! Leap with delight!
Your sorrow is lifted
God shares your life.
There is good news to be preached
so go and tell all –
Christ lives in us …
and we must embrace the world with love!

-- the Rev. Sue Judson Hamly
Easter, 2007
Copyright April 6, 2007

Holy Saturday

The sombre decorations of Maundy Thursday are taken down and the chancel is full of joyful colors and flowers, eagerly awaiting our Easter celebration worship. The children's Easter treat bags are ready and the sermon will soon be written...

At home, sunset through the trees turns the snow gold. Even though it was 50 degrees today the backyard is solid white. The river is calm. We await the dawn of joy!

Maundy Thursday

Maundy is an English translation of the Latin word, mandatum, which means command (mandate). On Maundy Thursday the Last Supper is celebrated and sometimes there is foot washing because that's what Jesus did for his disciples. We are reminded of Jesus' command to love one another as he has loved us.



IMAGES OF TENEBRAE
We combine the Tenebrae service or "Service of the Shadows" with our Maundy Thursday worship. As the story of Thursday evening and Good Friday is read, candles are extinguished and we leave the dark sanctuary in silence.









In silence, we wait...

Hosanna ??

Sermon preached on April 5, 2009

at Faith United Church, UCC, International Falls, MN

Texts:Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29 and John 12:12-16

This is a week that begins and ends with joy. But sandwiched in between are days of horror and tragedy and torture and fear. And it was political.

Why? Because Jesus declared a new world order when he began his ministry by proclaiming, “the Kingdom of God has come near,” [1] or as scholar John Dominic Crossan puts it, the kingdom of God has begun here and now. It has already arrived, so get with the program! [2]

Jesus called for a new way of life in his Roman-occupied, Roman-dominated homeland of Israel. In this new way of life, God would sit on the throne, not Caesar or Herod. “It would be a new kind of community in which the sick were healed, the poor welcomed, and possessions shared. The common people heard this as good news, but the Roman and Jewish officials took [it] as a direct threat to their peace and order.” [3]

Sadly, what people seem to understand best—throughout history—is violence rather than love. The Romans put Jesus to death on a cross because that was their standardized form of capital punishment throughout the empire. Troublemakers were put to death using this heinous form of torture in order to frighten off their followers with the idea that competing movements would then be eliminated before they became serious trouble.

So, what were the hosannas about on that first Palm Sunday? Some people may have been expecting Jesus to lead a military revolution to overthrow the Roman government, but Jesus wasn’t about violence and war. He was subversive and he was about love and sharing and taking care of the poor, the sick, and the outcasts.

All our lives we’ve heard about one procession on the first Palm Sunday, but actually there were two, and the one led by Jesus was a parody of a grand, ceremonial Roman procession.

“From the east, Jesus rode a donkey down the Mount of Olives, cheered by his followers. Jesus was from the peasant village of Nazareth, his message was about the kingdom of God, and his followers came from the peasant class. They had journeyed to Jerusalem from Galilee, about a hundred miles to the north.

“On the opposite side of the city, from the west, Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Idumea, Judea and Samaria, entered Jerusalem at the head of a column of imperial cavalry and soldiers. Jesus’ procession proclaimed the kingdom of God; Pilate’s proclaimed the power of empire.” [4] Most contemporary Jesus scholars agree that these two processions into Jerusalem on what we now know as Palm Sunday “…embody the central conflict of the week that led to Jesus’s crucifixion.” [5]

The kind of imperial procession that was happening that day was very familiar to people in the Jewish homeland of the first century because it was standard practice for the Roman governors of Judea to be in Jerusalem when the major Jewish festivals were taking place. This wasn’t because they had any reverence for the religious traditions of their Jewish subjects. They wanted to be present in the city–along with their soldiers–in case there was trouble. Uprisings frequently occurred at Passover because this was the festival that celebrated the Jewish people’s liberation from Egypt. So they were probably easily reminded that they were now under the power and rule of Rome and things were not good.

Pilate’s military procession was a demonstration of Roman imperial power and Roman imperial theology. Roman emperors were considered to be the son of God, savior, and most of the other names we always thought were reserved exclusively for Jesus!

So, imagine … Pilate and his troops have come up from Caesaria on the Sea, about 60 miles west of Jerusalem. The troops will provide reinforcements for the garrison stationed at the Fortress Antonia which overlooks the Jewish Temple and its courts. This parade demonstrates Roman power—cavalry on horses, foot soldiers, leather armor, helmets, weapons, banners, golden eagles mounted on poles, sun glinting on metal and gold. There are the sounds of marching of feet, the creaking of leather, the clinking of bridles, the beating of drums. Dust swirls and onlookers watch in curiosity, awe or resentment. [6]

In contrast, Jesus rides on a young donkey and the crowd goes to meet him, waving palm branches and shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord—the king of Israel!” [7] These are the very same words used to describe the emperor! It definitely looks like a “prearranged ‘counterprocession’” or a planned political demonstration! [8]

Jesus’ procession was a deliberate contradiction to the parade going on at the opposite end of the city. Pilate’s parade personified the power, glory, and violence of the empire that ruled the world. Jesus’ procession embodied an alternative vision, the peaceful reign of God consisting of justice and righteousness for all the people, not just the wealthy and powerful. The contrast between the kingdoms of God and Caesar is central to the story of Jesus and early Christianity. A confrontation between these two has been building throughout Jesus’ public ministry and it continues in the last week of his life.

In Jesus’ time the word “salvation” meant security and Jesus’ plan for security for the people was a reorganization of society, particularly the peasant class, from the bottom up by mutual sharing in the name of God. This was the kingdom happening on earth, not in some far-off or future place. [9] Think about the Lord's Prayer... "Your kingdom come, your will be done, on EARTH as it is in heaven." It's here now!

Of course any plan that includes justice and equality for all the people is a serious threat to those in power and those trying to accumulate more money and possessions than anyone else. The Roman Empire didn’t tolerate alternative kings or kingdoms—Caesar was lord, and that was that!

And so, I wonder about the “hosannas.” Did the people who shouted “hosanna!” really understand what was going on? We know the disciples didn’t understand why Jesus kept talking about going to Jerusalem to die. Surely Jesus was aware that the societal changes he was trying to bring about were a huge threat to both the Romans and the Jewish temple leaders in power.

But if the people understood the passion Jesus had for all God’s people and his desire for justice, equality and the reign of God on earth, then their celebration on Palm Sunday was definitely warranted.

The book we’re finishing today in our “Everything UCC” discussion group points out an interesting difference between the crucifix you see in Catholic churches and the empty cross found in most Protestant churches. “These two versions point to different interpretations of the meaning of ‘passion.’ The crucifix suggests that the passion of Christ refers to his last hours of suffering on the cross. The empty cross, in contrast, suggests that the passion of Christ was what he was passionate about in his life—about healing, including, welcoming and transforming.” [10]

Today we celebrate the gift of God’s love in the sacrament of communion. We are also moving into Holy Week. What will be your focus—Jesus’ suffering and death, or Jesus’ love and life? Me? I’m going to sing “hosanna!” remembering our still-speaking God’s love for all the people, demonstrated in the life, passion and love of Jesus Christ! AMEN.


Endnotes
1. Mark 1:15, NRSV.
2. John Dominic Crossan, lectures at Thunderbird Lodge, International Falls, MN, August, 2005.
3. Balaam’s Unofficial Handbook of the United Church of Christ, by Balaam’s Courier staff. 2008, United Church Press, Cleveland, OH., p. 133.
4. The Last Week: A Day-by-Day Account of Jesus’s Final Week in Jerusalem by Marcus J. Borg & John Dominic Crossan. Harper San Francisco, 2006.
5. Ibid.
6. op. cit. p. 3.
7. John 12:13, NRSV.
8. Borg & Crossan.
9. John Dominic Crossan, lectures at Thunderbird Lodge, International Falls, MN, August, 2005.
10. Balaam’s, op. cit. p. 136.

Palm Sunday Communion Bread

About a month ago I became facebook friends with the son of one of my parishioners. He lives in Grand Marais on Lake Superior and attends the UCC church there. He posted a picture of the bread he had made for his congregation for communion. I jokingly said "you should come visit your mom and bake communion bread for us!" Well, he did! Today we had a loaf of fresh, home-baked bread for our communion meal. Yes, it was as delicious as it looks!

Way to Go, IOWA!!

UCC leaders hail Iowa court decision legalizing gay marriage
Source: www.ucc.org
United Church of Christ leaders are hailing a unanimous decision by the Iowa Supreme Court to reject the state's ban on same-gender marriage as unconstitutional. Iowa now joins Massachusetts and Connecticut in becoming the third state to allow same-sex couples to marry. (To read more, click the link above)

Today I am very proud of my former state, Iowa! When I moved to Decorah, IA, from California in 1991 the Iowa Conference of the UCC was dealing with the issue of becoming an Open and Affirming Conference, which they did. (Northern California had already become an ONA Conference in the 1980s.) Today the Iowa Supreme Court declared Iowa's marriage law (stating marriage could only be between a man and a woman) to be unconstitutional. Iowa is now the third state, along with Massachusetts and Connecticut, to have Marriage Equality! What a wonderful day for my GLBT friends who live there!

My prayer is that those who disagree will still be in conversation without rancor. I pray for the day when ALL people, regardless of gender or sexual orientation, will be seen as the children of God that they are, because we are all equal in God's eyes.