Jesus, Marriage, Equality & the Bible
This is the Oxford Sacred service at which I preached on marriage, equality, Jesus and the Bible - in October 2023. The reading is around 18 minutes in, the sermon starts almost exactly at the 20 minute mark. It touches on the things it says it touches on, plus (inevitably) the Church of England and its bishops' current failure to serve LGBTQ+ people. The text I was working from (and occasionally depart from) is below: Jesus, Marriage, Equality & the Bible Evening all. Introduction: opening our Bibles a bit What a time. In the Church, in life, there are all sorts of people who seem to think they have a God-given right to make decisions about what’s OK for us in our our lives. Normally without really talking to us. Often talking over us. If we risk making any of these conversations in any way Bible-focussed, if I ask for a Bible text about queer people, I’m very likely to get Romans 1 or something from Leviticus thrown at me. But seriously, why not Matthew 11.28? 28 ‘Come to