Miracle and Wonder

by

Sometimes in life, we're privileged to witness the miracle and wonder of Love as God intends it to be. So it was for St. Stephen United Methodist Church in Mesquite, Texas, a Dallas suburb, on Sunday, July 19, when three little boys were baptized.

The smallish sanctuary, with its white stucco walls reminiscent of the catacombs where early Christians worshiped, was packed almost beyond capacity. So many people came out to witness the baptisms of Patrick, Bishop and Michael that by the end of the service, the air conditioning failed to cope with the combined heat of a Texas summer outside and some 160 human bodies inside. No doubt our ecstatic joy in the moment raised the interior temperature by several degrees.

Yet warm as it was, not one soul walked out on a service that included both United Methodist sacraments -- baptism and Holy Communion. There was no turning away, because Love held us all.

The journey of love had begun years ago, when Francisco Varela and Brian Moeschler joined the congregation. Registered as domestic partners in California three months before same-gender marriage was first legalized, Cisco and Brian came to St. Stephen because it has a reputation as a place where God's Love truly reigns over all. They stayed because the people of St. Stephen welcomed them.

Not long after they joined St. Stephen, Brian and Cisco began thinking about sharing their home with children who needed a family. They applied to become foster parents -- no mean feat in any state, but especially challenging for a gay couple in Texas. Their church friends accompanied them along their journey with prayers and encouragement, even to helping fix up their home with the necessary child-friendly environment required for foster care.

Once certified by the state, the couple welcomed a series of foster children. As often as their work schedules permitted, Brian and Cisco and their foster sons and daughters were in church. The people of St. Stephen welcomed the children, with all their physical and emotional wounds and scars. We played with them, and we laughed with them, and we corrected them when they misbehaved. As best we could, we taught them about Jesus, who loved children and promised that God loves every child. When the foster children returned to their families of origin or were adopted, we wept at their departures, because we loved them.

Finally, the opportunity that Cisco and Brian most longed for arose: they could apply to adopt Michael, and then half-brothers Patrick and Bishop. Through all the ups and downs of the daunting adoption process, the people of St. Stephen shared the couple's hope and fear and frustration, praying constantly for the parents, the children, the judges, and all involved. The journey toward adoption was as much a family event for the congregation as it was for the parents-to-be.

When we gathered to baptize Michael, Patrick and Bishop on July 19, we celebrated not just the baptisms of three new little Christians; we gloried in the triumph of Love. Our worship praised God that a new family had been formed in the midst of the St. Stephen faith community, in part because our church decided in 1998 that we would especially welcome gays, lesbians, bisexual and transgender people.  We have welcomed LGBT people, along with their families, friends and loved ones, in defiance of the official stance of The United Methodist Church that holds homosexual practice to be "incompatible with Christian teaching." We continue to defy the official anti-LGBT prejudice of United Methodism for one reason: it is a sin against the Love of God proclaimed by Jesus Christ, which we hold to be the ultimate "Christian teaching."

When consulting with our pastor, the Rev. Nancy DeStefano, and our music director, Ryan Forkner, on the liturgy for their sons' baptisms, Cisco and Brian chose "Prayer of the Children" as the anthem. Few of us can listen to Kurt Bestor's composition, written in response to the Balkan ethnic cleansing wars of the 1990s, without weeping. Among other significant performances, Its heart-rending lyrics and music graced the memorial service for the victims of the 2013 shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn.

On that glorious baptismal Sunday, "Prayer of the Children" took on a new meaning for me. Besides Patrick, Bishop and Michael, I thought of other children -- all the gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual children that The United Methodist Church has wounded over the past 45 years. I thought of how much we United Methodists have wounded one another fighting over whether we should accept those whom God has already accepted, clinging so tightly to our fear of "the other" yet not recognizing that each of us is "other" to someone else. Through it all, I kept hearing the words of Jesus: "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you" (John 15:12).

The family of Brian Moeschler and Francisco Varela is now complete because they chose to commit their lives to one another, and to care for other people's biological children who desperately needed parents. The family of St. Stephen United Methodist Church is now enhanced because we are the spiritual home of Bishop, Michael and Patrick, whose family name is now Moeschler-Varela. As Jesus promised, God has showered us all with the blessings we asked for, pressed down, shaken together and overflowing (Luke 6:38).

All because of the miracle and wonder of Love.

(Licensing restrictions don't permit me to post the audio of St. Stephen's men's chorus singing "Prayer of the Children," but here is a video link to a public performance by the Concordia Choir).

A veteran religion journalist and certified spiritual director, Cynthia B. Astle serves as coordinator for United Methodist Insight.