I don't know about you, but I don't like to think of Christmas shopping quite yet. I am too busy getting ready to enjoy Easter, Spring and Summer. The Church calendar works in such a way that it reminds us that the journey we are about to start with Christ in Holy Week began when Mary received the news that she would be the mother of Jesus Christ. In the Eastern Church, the Paschal Mystery which we will celebrate next week, began at Christ's birth. Meaning that at the moment when God took on the flesh of humankind and became one like us is the moment Christ's suffering on behalf of humankind began. The Episcopal Church likes to blend Western and Eastern Christian Theology to give room for diversity.
The Annunciation as well as the events of Holy Week that we will begin recalling next week are an invitation to reflect on who Jesus Christ is and what he means to those who believe themselves to be Christians. Jesus Christ came, lived and gave himself up for all who were on the margins of society and the religious leaders of his time. What Christ did when he was among us, he continues to do through the ministry of the Church. The work of the Gospel to invite the stigmatized to find God's love and mercy in Christ, is the also the main ministry of the Church. If the Church takes this mission seriously, then we must also acknowledge that no amount of prejudice toward any group of people is appropriate. Any level of violence and hatred that leads people to the feeling that any group of people must be stamped out because they do not fit our agenda, has to be condemned in the strongest possible terms.
Unfortunately there is still a lot of prejudice that lives in the Church today. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people are one of a few groups of people that continue to experience such bias. When the religious right continues their crusade to keep LGBT people from obtaining their equal rights, by proclaiming us to be dirty, unacceptable or labeling LGBT people as pedophiles, or interested in bestiality, it is denigrating. Such remarks and behavior are a contradiction to the very nature of who Jesus Christ is. They violate the very purpose of Jesus Christ coming among us through the Virgin Mary.
Reports of child sex abuse continue to come forward in the Catholic church. All Pope Benedict can say is that the abuse is the result of how many gay priests are in the church. Rather than accept responsibility and be accountable for the lives that are so devastated by the abuse, the clerical leadership of the Catholic church has chosen to be like the elder son in the story of the Prodigal Child. "They are the one's most sinful, not us." The very fact that this went unchallenged for as long as it did, and that it is spread all over the world as it is, tells the level of irresponsibility of Catholic leadership towards the people their lack of action has affected. Yet, the reason all of this has happened, according to the Pope is because of all of the gay priests that are in the Priesthood, as well as the accessibility of pornography on the internet that lures his priests into misbehavior. This is a perfect example of how prejudice and hypocrisy is unfortunately very much alive in the Christian faith.
As we think about the Annunciation I think it is important to remember that Christ came into a world full of violence, hate and bias. We still live in such a world. The Church like Jesus, must meet the challenges of our present culture with a determination to meet violence, hate and bias with peaceful, all inclusive love. This is very difficult to do, because all of us have that human natural tendency to fight violence with violence. However, progressive Christians have a great history of avoiding becoming like the tea party folks who have stooped to throwing bricks through Democratic office windows. Progressive Christians meet these challenges through grassroots community organizing, candle light vigils and parades that celebrate diversity in all of it's many forms. These are excellent ways to stamp out the prejudices of our time. They must continue and we need new people with new ideas to come forward and offer to lead others to peaceful resolutions to conflicts.
As we celebrate the Annunciation, let us pray that the effects of the Incarnation of Jesus will not end with the Gospel story, but will come alive through our participation in the events. Those events come alive when we challenge people about routing out discrimination and violence from the world around us. Such challenges shake people up, but they also help convert old ideas and start new ones. The Annunciation was the start of something new that changed many lives. Hopefully, through our continued participation in the life of the Gospel through our own lives, what happened at the Annunciation will continue to be lived out in our time.
Pour your grace into our hearts, O Lord, that we who have known the incarnation of your Son Jesus Christ, announced by an angel to the Virgin Mary, may by his cross and passion be brought to the glory of his resurrection; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, on God, now and for ever. Amen. (Collect for the Annunciation, BCP, Page 240).
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