Fifth Sunday of Lent: Between Where We've Been and Where We are Going

All of us have been on long journeys at one time or another. When we get to the point where we are between where we have been and where we are going, we tend to prepare ourselves for who we are going to meet and/or what we are expecting when we arrive. Lent is a time of preparation for Easter. Not just the Easter that occurs on the calendar, but our own Good Friday and Easter Sunday by reflecting on the actions of Jesus. Next weekend is Passion/Palm Sunday, followed by Holy Week, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday. Before we get there, we are invited into a story of Jesus being prepared for his passion, death and resurrection.

In the first reading the Prophet Isaiah delivers a message of hope when through the Prophet God says:

"Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert." (Isaiah 43:18-19).

God invites us all to see the new things God is doing in our midst. This is a wonderful message for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people. During this Season of Lent we have seen marriage equality begin in Washington, D.C. We have heard the voices of those who are excited, over joyed with the excitement of legally marrying the person they love. Yet, we have also heard those opposed who are rejecting this "new thing" that they are having a problem with. LGBT people are in the midst of great and wonderful experiences. Those new things do not happen without people struggling with letting go of how things used to be. Heterosexism has had a hold on our culture for a long time. It is appalling for people who believe that being heterosexual is normal, and being anything but is not. Such people seeing LGBT people being legally allowed to marry is just something they cannot see differently than they have always understood. People do not want to see God doing new things in their midst, especially if it means them having to move over for a different understanding of how things are.

We are also seeing this happen in our national debate about health care reform. The conflict over the need for health care reform has moved so much away from those who really do need the reform. The sick people who need medical care most include those who are unemployed, those with pre-existing conditions who are unable to get health care. Their health care has become among the bargaining chips that the President and Congress are battling with the health insurance companies that want to hang on to their profits. It is not surprising to discover that LGBT people and people living with HIV/AIDS were also among the bargaining pieces in health care reform. This is why the tax equity for health plan beneficiaries that included LGBT and Domestic partners along with the Early Treatment for HIV Act were among the items chopped off during the reconciliation of the House Health Bill. Those who need health care reform the most, are those first to loose. The health insurance companies do not want to do the new thing, which is to provide health care to all people who need their services if it causes the executives to loose out on their million dollar profits. Yet, the health care legislation that is going to be voted on today, will bring some kind of relief and gives some hope that later there will be amendments to improve what needs fixing can be done later. What the outcome of this will be has yet to be seen. To keep these health care reform from becoming law, Teabaggers have resorted to threatening violence if health care reform should pass. What kind of message is this on accepting God doing things new in our midst?

This past week we heard the wonderful news that Bishop-Elect Mary Glasspool will be consecrated and ordained as Suffragan Bishop for the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles was announced. While we are all rejoicing that discrimination against people being Church leaders is no longer based on a persons sexual orientation, the Archbishop of Canterbury remains disappointed that the Episcopal Church does not wish to regard the Anglican Communions request for "gracious restraint" when ordaining lesbian or gay bishops. Is the Anglican Communion listening to God calling them towards new things, or are they stuck on old prejudices that benefit heterosexuals at the expense of those who are not?

In our Gospel story found in John 12:1-11 we read the story of Jesus enjoying the company of Lazarus, Martha and Mary. While he was reclining and enjoying dinner with his closest friends, Mary anoints Jesus' feet and wiped them with her hair. This story is very important as it is the only version of this story that tells of Jesus eating in the company of all three people, where as Matthew 26:1-11 and Mark 14:1-11 writes that Jesus was in the company of Mary and Martha only. In the other Gospel accounts Martha is seen as serving, while Mary is at the feet of Christ listening. St. John's Gospel tells of Mary anointing Jesus' feet in preparation for Jesus to enter into his passion. The very scent of perfume that fills the room is the same that would fill the tomb of someone who had been anointed after death. Mary was anointing Jesus to face his passion, death and resurrection.

Out in Scripture gives a detailed analysis at what this story means for LGBT people.

This fifth Sunday in Lent leads us more directly into the anticipation of Jesus' passion. John's unique narration of the anointing of Jesus features the trio of Lazarus, Martha and Mary (John 12:1-8). Very recently in John's story, Jesus raised Lazarus from death. Lazarus' liberation created such a stir that the religious authorities begin plotting for Jesus' murder. The Lazarus story also introduced Martha and Mary, whom we recognize from Luke 10:38-41. In both Gospels, Martha "serves." The Greek has it that she performs diakonia, or ministry. And in both Gospels, Mary adores Jesus' feet. Yet in John, Mary receives criticism not for adoring Jesus, but for doing it so lavishly.

Some have found in this Bethany family — of Lazarus, Mary and Martha — a way of understanding family that embraces the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. Here is a family constructed not by the bonds of marriage or models of convention, but by alternative ties of love. Whether or not Lazarus was, as some suggest, the disciple whom Jesus loved (a suggestion strengthened by the fact that the authorities want to kill Lazarus as well), it is clear that Jesus found in this chosen family a safe haven.

Among this alternative family, Jesus sought and found camaraderie, love, support and a fitting final preparation for the events of his death. That John attributes the outrage of those who would kill Jesus to his raising of beloved Lazarus from the grave has particular resonance with LGBT people whose relationships have been the source of suffering at the hands of those outraged by them. It is also worth noting that Mary understands that Jesus' physical body must be honored and anointed in preparation for his death. It is no accident that her lavish gift is sensual and embodied, nor that it is her story that Jesus says (in Matthew's parallel account in 26:13) will be remembered wherever the good news is told in the entire world.

The entire account in John must be grounded in an appreciation for the gravity of the events ahead of them and behind them: their experience (past and future) was grounded in the sacred convergence of life and death. Indeed, when Mary anoints Jesus we encounter the heart of the Lenten journey — a journey of faith and hope in the midst of death.

Judas' criticism, that Mary should consider charity above worship (John 12:5), poses a false dichotomy. In this moment, we ponder the value of the life we receive in Jesus. Many churches commit a grave theological error by separating Jesus' death from his life. The story of Lazarus, Mary and Martha reminds us that Jesus' dying resulted from his life-empowering living and his boundary-crossing loving. Jesus died not as an innocent victim but as a faithful witness to the ways of God, the author of life.

As we prepare for Holy Week to begin, we should take some time to meditate on how much we honor our own bodies, as well as the bodies of those we love. One matter that is very close to my heart is to keep in mind that the people we love are children of God and their bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. When we engage in careless and promiscuous sexual activity that only uses someone's body for our own pleasure with no regard for the person, we dishonor God and the individual. Respectful, sexual pleasure that truly seeks to love another person with a sense of tenderness and appreciation for the other individual while they return that love to us is wonderful, holy and life giving. Sexual activity like many other things can be life giving or it can be destructive. As LGBT people become more integrated into society and the Church it is very important for us to seek to love people and be loved by other people with a sense of honesty, integrity and respect. Our pride in being LGBT must be reflected in our relationships with God, others and ourselves. This is a challenge in our community in which our relationships are constantly demonized by the religious right. We must be very careful not to demonize our relationships with unhealthy practices that gives any level of validity to their arguments. We must also seek the grace of God in Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit, along with good therapy and personal mental health to assist us in those places where our relationships may be unhealthy.

I want to be very careful before I close the subject I have just written about to avoid anyone misunderstanding me that any relationship that has unhealthy issues in it is somehow beyond help. Some of the greatest relationships in history both gay or straight are those where the people in them know they have issues to be addressed, but they never give up trying. I also do not want any of my readers to get the message that if someone's relationship does not appear to be what everyone's definition of a relationship is, that their relationship is wrong. No, that is not what I wish to say. What I am saying is that relationships that are filled with a sense of mutual trust, respect and love that understands that people are people and not just mere sex objects, even if it means that once the relationship was that way and now it is so much more than that is a wonderful, holy marriage. No relationship is totally perfect, nor should a relationship fit into a status quo. But, mutual trust, respect and love are common understandings as they seek the common good of the people in the relationship. That is the bottom line.

Let us continue to follow Jesus as he leads us to Jerusalem where he will offer his life for the salvation of the world. May all of us gather at the Cross to experience God's saving graces for everyone. May we know God's redemptive love and experience the joy of God's peace and mercy as we finish out this season of Lent.

Almighty God, you alone can bring into order the unruly wills and affections of sinners. Grant your people grace to love what you command and desire what you promise; that, among the swift and varied changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are found; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God now and for ever. Amen. (Collect for the Fifth Sunday of Lent, Book of Common Prayer (BCP), Page 219).