Summerstorm

No, this isn't a comment on yesterday's awful weather, but a reflection on a DVD I watched last night with my 19yr old daughter, Becky. Summerstorm is a wonderful tale of friendship and emerging sexuality. It centres around two friends - Tobi and Achim - both of whom are keen members of their local rowing club. Their friendship breaks down during a summer camp as Tobi slowly accepts that he is gay and that his affection is not going to be returned by Achim. For me one of the most touching moments in the film is when Tobi's girlfriend accepts that Tobi is gay and that her love for him cannot be returned. She graciously lets him go.

Two evenings earlier Liz and I watched another film - For the Bible tells me so. This tells the story of five US families and how they reacted as their sons or daughters came out. This film was given away free at the Lambeth Conference and I regret only picking up a single copy. The stories are heart wrenching and I sat in tears towards the end as I watched parents in their retirement campaigning for gay rights and being arrested in defence of their son.

One of the five families in the film is Gene Robinson's, the Bishop of New Hampshire. Gene was married and has two daughters and the film tells this aspect of his story very honestly. When Gene finally accepted his sexuality, instead of perceiving their marriage as a failure, they came to see in their divorce an honouring of one another, as each was freed to find a new partner who could affirm them as the person they really are. For Gene and his wife, Boo, their divorce was the positive culmination of their marriage vows.

Both films illustrate the graciousness and cost of true love. Letting go can sometimes be the very best way we can love one another.

That is what the incarnation is all about of course. And every time we help someone else become who they were born to be, we repeat that story of incarnational love in our own lives. As Jesus showed, the cost can be high.