This is our month to celebrate! For on June 25, 1530, our beloved LGBTQ+ confessors at Augsburg presented their confession to the emperor, the pope, and to the entire world.

LGBTQ+ stands for:

• Lutheran - the name put upon us by our opponents.

• Grace - God’s favor shown to us for Christ’s sake.

• Baptism - the new birth of the Christian which connects him to the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

• Theology - our confession that is not a personal opinion or new revelation, but is rather grounded in the theological confessions of the ancient Church Catholic

• Quia - our confession that is true and faithful because it is a correct exposition of Scripture

• + - Our confession includes other points drawn from Scripture, including Word + Sacrament, Law + Gospel, Sinner + Saint, Justification + Sanctification, as well as the timeless confession of our Lord Jesus Christ as true God + true Man, Priest + Sacrifice.

And our confession contains the unity of the Holy Church across time: Militant + Triumphant, Old + New Testament. In the unity with the church of every age, let us take solace in the rainbow that confirms the grace of God, even as He has Good News for people, who like Noah, and later like Lot, find themselves stuck in a world burning with sin and pride and the denial of the truth. And let us also call to mind the rainbow that encircles our Lord on his eternal throne.