A Godly Bishop

What a week this has been! I am still on a high after the wonderful visit of Bishop V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting with the Bishop Friday afternoon at the Memphis Lesbian and Gay Community Center where we posed with a painting of Marilyn Monroe. He left me with a few quotables that I want to share with you as we continue on our Lenten journey toward Easter. Perhaps most meaningful about his visit was the refreshing way in which he communicated God's love. It warms my heart to see a gay man so overwrought with a sense of gratitude for God's faithfulness. OK, so here is what he said, "We are not called to be admirers of Christ, but we are called to be followers of Christ." The context for that statement came when he was talking about how everybody likes Jesus, admires what Jesus taught and see him as a great teacher or prophet. He explained that there are few who want to go where Jesus goes. The other quotable, which there were many, was in response to the question, "Are you saved?" He clearly stated that this is a very good question, "one with which we ought to struggle and it ought to create discomfort." He framed the hard look into salvation language with a transparency about what it means to be loved by God and to love as God loves. He encouraged us to say "Yes, I am saved and have I got a story for you." He became very personable in his sermon that Friday afternoon, telling his story and how God's love was always upon him. He drew comparisons of what it is like to be viewed as the unsaved. In Jesus' construct of the realm of God, salvation doesn't come until we are all included in the temple. He encouraged us to do what we can and quit focusing on what we can't. "That all of us must get up and dance, pray, sing and shout into the temple of God."

On another encounter with Bishop Robinson, after introductions and placing who I was and where I serve, the Bishop exclaimed, "You go girl!" I busted out in blushing laughter as he joined me in a big chuckle. I shared with him, that was the first time any bishop has ever called me a girl to my face! He then shot back, "Well, that may be so but they were saying it everywhere else and behind your back!" When we greeted each other the next day, the Bishop responded with a big hug and handshake when I referred to him as my "girlfriend." What a moment of healing laughter and freedom in the temple of God! I drove home Friday night thinking, this is a Bishop and he is truly a man of God.