Today in morning prayer we heard of David's great love for Jonathan. I don't understand this passage to be an indicator of a gay love story, but rather that love, in all its various forms transcends sexualities, bodies and gender (1)

This love doesn't have to be defined or put in a box or identity, it doesn't have to mean this or that. Rather, it articulates the remarkable capabilities humans have to love one another, and how that love is brought further into the world when we encounter God's love too (2)

It doesn't matter to me how David and Jonathan loved each other, the most important thing is that they did, and this is recorded. Love can be emotional, physical, romantic, sexual, spiritual, in all different shapes and forms and in all variations (3)

Love crosses boundaries, rules, structures. It's the most beautiful thing in the world and the most painful because it confronts us with our own humanity and brokenness, like David we too can be left bereft (4)

As a church we need to be better at encountering, celebrating, holding and embracing this kind of love - the love that is gentle, different, wild, that cannot be defined and STOP obsessing over bodies, genitals and the mechanics of sex. It's reductive, and it's not the Gospel.