MCCBR-SVE

Action breeds confidence and courage.
If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it.
Go out and get busy."
~ Dale Carnegie

Out there, somewhere, perhaps even now as you're reading this, rolls a bus
of courageous Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgendered, and just
generally Queer, kids. They are the SoulForce Riders [Equality
Riders], and their route takes them into many of the very places where
people may want least to openly encounter them-- largely conservative
evangelical colleges. Sometimes they are allowed on campus. But
sometimes, as they visit, the people of the college keep themselves
hidden away, behind closed doors. Occasionally, police will even
block the entrance to a campus to forcibly keep the SoulForce Riders
out.

Ages ago, a group of disciples huddled behind doors closed and locked
as well. They were afraid. Afraid for their life. Afraid that what
happened to Jesus might happen to them. Afraid of what
people might think of them, afraid of what people might say.

But it was behind those doors, closed and locked,
that the risen Christ came, stood among them,
and reached out to them with a message of peace.

Now Jesus was the LAST person the disciples expected to encounter that
day, much like a bus full of openly Queer folk rolling onto a conservative
college campus. But the risen Christ cannot be kept out.

In many ways, the GLBT community is one of the wounds in the body of
Christ, and on the Sunday after Easter, as we reflect on John
20:19-31... and as we reflect on fear... we also remember the brave
riders, and the people with courage enough to reach out in the face of
their own doubt, and touch the wounds in the body of Christ.

Sunday at 4 pm
at the Harrisonburg Unitarian Universalist Meeting House
the conversation continues.

I hope to see you there. :)

Shalom,

Emma