Today is a day of anniversaries. One important, and one rather more personal. 38 years ago this weekend a young Pentecostal minister, Troy Perry, held a service in his front room for lgbt people. He called his new church the Metropolitan Community Church. The picture shows the home where the service was held and the artwork for the advert. The more personal anniversary is that 19 years ago this Sunday I went to my first MCC service.
Troy had been sacked from his Pentecostal church a few years previously when they found out he was gay - this was the mid sixties and homosexuality was still seen as a matter of shame by most people. His lost his wife and kids in a divorce, his ministry and at one point became very depressed and made a suicide attempt. He started to rebuild his life but still felt that something was missing - that thing was God and the fulfilment of his calling to ministry.
He got talking one night to a lad in a bar who was depressed. He also wanted to commit suicide and Troy was trying to talk him out of it. He told him that he had a good job - but the guy said that his employers had found out he was gay and sacked him. He told him he had a wonderful family - but they too had rejected him. Eventually Troy said that God loved him. The lad responded "how can I believe that God loves me when the Church hates me?" Troy has been engaging in social action since the start of our church. The lower pictures show the aftermath of a police raid on a gay bar. Instead of allowing those arrested to feel shame when they were released - Troy and friends turned up at the station with flowers for them! Heaven knows what the police thought!
That question, "how can I believe that God loves me when the Church hates me" haunted Troy and led him to start a church. He felt he was only ever going to have a church in Los Angeles where he lived, but soon other groups of lgbt Christians heard about him and wanted to join. By 1972 a gay prayer group in London voted to join and started MCC in the UK. o The pictures show some ministers with Troy at a conference in 73 and the dedication of MCC's first church building in LA. Now we have around 300 congregations all over the world.
In his first sermon Troy said that MCC would stand for a three pronged gospel of Christian Salvation, Christian Community and Christian Social Action. These three aspects of the good news of Jesus are what guides our life and ministry here in Manchester.
Christian Salvation
From the start of our church we have always preached that which the Christian Church has always preached - that God's love extends to humanity in the person of Jesus Christ. The unique thing about MCC is that we believe that this love extends to us. It seems that the Christian Church is getting more and more divided over human sexuality and gender instead of coming to realise that these things are less and less important. The worldwide Anglican church seems determined to tear itself apart on the issue, the Methodists look deadlocked, the URC have agreed, I think, to stop talking about it for a bit as the debate got so intense. Baptists wouldn't dream of it and the Catholics under this pope - well let's not even go there! The simple idea that God's love extends even to us seems quite revolutionary.
So what does it mean to say we offer Christian Salvation?
When we are out and about at Pride giving out our cards, talking about church we are showing that Jesus offers us a way of living and loving which is wonderful and which gives our lives meaning and purpose. When we make our website a good advertisement for people to check us out before coming along we show that God's love captivates us and offers us freedom and fulfilment. When we offer worship which is lively, relevant, meaningful and contemporary we show people that God is those things too. When we share our faith with each other and when we teach those who don't know what Christianity is about we offer Christian salvation - the idea that God's love will save us from ourselves and from the consequences of our stupid moral choices. We make God's love known to our people in the knowledge that they are lovely and in need of God's presence in their lives.
Christian Community
From the start of the Christian Church those who responded to Jesus formed a community. The disciples lived together as they followed Jesus, the first believers in Jerusalem after the Day of Pentecost, lived and worshipped together. The believers in other cities in the ancient world gathered together to worship on the first day of the week, to share bread and wine, to read the scriptures and to love each other - in much the same way that we do now.
The strange thing about our society is that we have more ways than ever to keep in contact with each other, to make friends, to get to know people. We have more social time than ever before, we have the phone, the internet, bars, clubs and loads of people we know; yet loneliness is the hallmark of our society. We communicate so much but stay ever more isolated. One of the counter cultural things we offer is community. A chance to make friends who will help us in our faith, a place to get to know and value each other across social and class divides, a place where we can get on and like each other without the pressure to get off with each other that the commercial scene offers!
We build community because this is what God calls us to do, because it is good for us and because we are building something for those who are still to come. That first MCC service I went to affected me profoundly - I can't say I enjoyed it, but I can say that it intrigued me - this group of people being church without really worrying about what others thought of them. This group of people striving to love each other in the face of quite a hostile world was impressive, it captivated me. We build so that others benefit from our labours, just as we have benefited from those who were here before us.
Christian Social Action
One of the interesting things about MCC is that we have always engaged in social action. From the start of our life together we have tried to campaign for a better world. Troy engaged in protests for civil rights for gay people - engaging in a week long fast on the steps of the California State Legislature. He is still at it, trying now to get the American courts to recognise his Canadian marriage to his husband Philip. We started in 1968, the year before the Stonewall Riots in New York which gave rise to the modern gay pride movement, a year later, Troy led the first ever gay pride march in Los Angeles a - plaque was recently unveiled there to mark this. MCC has been at the forefront of care and campaign around HIV/AIDS in the 80s and 90s, now in Eastern Europe we are working with other lgbt groups for gay pride in former Soviet countries.
In our own congregation we continue to engage in social action. When we joined Moses' campaign, when we sign Amnesty letters, when we write to MPs about injustice we continue this proud tradition of trying to change the world in Jesus' name.
Conclusion
God called Troy to start MCC. At the time Troy had no idea where it would end up. God has called each one of us to join and be part of MCC - when we first walked through those doors we had no idea what God had in stall for us; it may even be your first visit this evening. Masoud found us because he googled looking for a gay gym in Manchester - he still hasn't found that gym! Iain and John first heard of us 10 years ago in London at a pride stall, kept the leaflet and found us again last year. Some of us found us on the web, others found us by word of mouth, some of us married in. Philip found himself musical director by his third visit.
We have all been called by God to continue God's own work through MCC; the work of offering Christian Salvation, creating Christian community and engaging in Christian social action; all to help the Kingdom come.
Amen.
This sermon was first preached in the Metropolitan Community Church of Manchester. Click here for further information.