Here is an article printed in a Presbyterian publication by Dr. David Jenkins, School of Theology, Emory University in Atlanta. The text alludes to it being delivered as a sermon during Epiphany, but I have not been able to substantiate the where and when of the sermon. There are too many good parts to excerpt - IMO, it needs to be read in its entirety.
http://www.covenantnetwork.org/sermon&papers/jenkins.htm
Weird that I ran across this older post today - I had saved this article to Word last year and just re-read it. It's still posted on the website, too.
Another one, though not a sermon, was an article in the
Kansas City Star by Vern Barnet, one of the
Star's two religion and spirituality columnists. Mr. Barnet wrote this on December 28th, about ten days before
Brokeback premiered in the Kansas City area. He considered
Brokeback to have much more spiritual value and significance than
Passion of the Christ, which a lot of people were ga-ga over at the time. A few excerpts:
"Can anyone reading Annie Proulx’s story, from which Brokeback Mountain has been adapted, fail to perceive the fulfillment, the intensity that cowboys Ennis and Jack have for each other? Each is to the other what ultimately makes their life meaningful: sacred.
"Their lives fall apart because they have tried to deny the sacred energy between them, twisted by the homophobia preserved by religious limits from another era that justifies perhaps even murder.
"The Passion of the Christ told us little new about the nature of the sacred; and I, like many, thought it trivialized and profaned the holy with its violence.
"On the other hand, Brokeback Mountain is a parable not just for gays but for our entire society about false and genuine relationships. It asks specifically whether our culture will support the sacred in genuine love or whether it will make demons out of men who find the sacred with other men."The full text of the column is available at
http://www.cres.org/star/star05.htm It's titled "Same Sex Story Has Its Sacred Role To Play."
