This Sunday is the 6th Sunday After Pentecost. It is also the last Sunday of Pride Month for us in Central Alabama. This past week was the last Week of the current Supreme Court term. John Archibald said recently, “A good day in Alabama is any day the State Legislature IS NOT in session. A bad day is any day the State Legislature IS in session.” That same sentiment can be applied these days to America and this current configuration of the Supreme Court. With the reversing of long settled legal principles, civil liberties and equality laws; this court has aligned itself with Christian Nationalism that seeks to take the American society backwards before the Civil Right Act, Voting Rights Act, a woman’s right to make decisions about her health care, and also, marriage equality.

          However, the assigned scriptures for this Pride Month have sought to do just the opposite. The assigned text for this Sunday from Mark 5 is two stories intertwined: one about a dead girl and the other about a sick woman. Both were folks that would have certainly qualified in Jesus’ day as those Jesus identified in Matthew 25 as “the least of them.” And yet, on His way to meet the needs of one, Jesus meets the needs of another as well, in a powerful lesson of inclusion.

          Join us for worship this Sunday at Covenant, either in-person, by Zoom, Facebook Livestream or YouTube.” I will be using the assigned text for my sermon, “A Timely Message on Inclusion” … AND … “Another Lesson on Loving Your Neighbor,” based on “Mark 5:21-43.”