See the following video on homosexuality and scripture:https://youtu.be/30cvQnp8BZk

We must be very careful when putting other scripture ahead of the great commandment! The Great Commandment–in Luke 10, Mark 12, and Mt. 22–is part of the discussion of who is my neighbor.  Love of neighbor is second to love of God. 

Jesus said the scriptures do not give life.  It is coming to him who was sent by God that gives life.   Jesus overturned scripture and its tradition on several occasions.  He let his disciples harvest grain to eat on the sabbath…a death penalty existed for work on the sabbath, and he himself worked healing people on the sabbath.  He refused to stone a women taken in adultery…the death penalty was prescribed for sexual sins.  His love of neighbor shows it is more important than scripture.

Even more scary is the scene in Matthew 25 when all people come before the judgment and are divided into two groups…those who were compassionate in action for “the least of these my brothers” and those who did all sorts of things in Jesus’ name but apparently didn’t care for the “least of Jesus’ brothers”. The former group, “the righteous” go into eternal life. The latter group will be sent away into eternal punishment.

Jesus was Spirit led and Spirit filled.  He said you can’t tell where the Spirit is going to pop up or where it will go.  But it is essential to have the Spirit to enter the Kingdom of God, of Heaven. He taught us to pray for the kingdom to come on earth and said it even now is among us! God has said that all things are to be new.  How can they be new if we stick to tradition and ignore the Spirit?

So now, we who love the Methodist way, we must do all we can to help the nations learn how to protect “the least of these, Jesus’ brothers and sisters.”  It has taken decades for the United States to remove laws that imprisoned homosexuals. And decades more for some citizens to accept, if not love, our homosexual neighbors.  There is much work to be done to the United Methodist Book of Discipline to bring it into conformance with the Love of Neighbor which is a higher command than tradition. Amen.