The Holy Innocents: Remembering How Political Maneuvering Kills

Matthew 2:13-18 (NRSV)

When the wise men had departed, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him." Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, "Out of Egypt I have called my son."

When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah:

"A voice was heard in Ramah,

wailing and loud lamentation,

Rachel weeping for her children;

she refused to be consoled, because they are no more."

Today is one of those commemorations that I wish we did not have to remember.  After celebrating the birth of Jesus with such beauty and splendor, why must we pause today to remember that King Herod slaughtered all the male children up to two years old, just because Herod was jealous or afraid of his rule being taken from him by the Christ Child?   Because the Gospel story of the Holy Innocents is a reminder that the world in which Jesus was born into is the world we live in, even today.  It is not a world where we recognize individual people for who they are, or respect others who are different from ourselves.  We are reminded today that despite our best intentions, all of us want to maneuver our way around someone else getting ahead of us.  We all have a thirst for power, greed and selfishness that leads to destructive behavior.

Not only is today the commemoration of the Holy Innocents, but it is also the 120th anniversary of the Wounded Knee Massacre of 1890.

The Sand Creek Massacre and the Washita Massacre both led to the Wounded Knee Massacre. The Sand Creek Massacre brought the realization that "the soldiers were destroying everything Cheyenne - the land, the buffalo, and the people themselves," and the Washita Massacre added even more genocidal evidence to those facts. The Sand Creek Massacre caused the Cheyenne to put away their old grievances with the Sioux and join them in defending their lives against the U.S. extermination policy. The Washita Massacre did that even more so. After putting the Wounded Knee Massacre briefly into historical perspective, we’ll focus solely on the Wounded Knee Massacre itself for the 120th Anniversary of the Wounded Knee Massacre.

Also recorded in the Native American Netroots Diary

Black Kettle, his wife, and more than 150 Cheyenne and Arapaho had just been exterminated, and Custer’s 7th was burning the lodges and all their contents, thus stripping them of all survival means. Sheridan would wait until all their dogs had been eaten before "allowing" them into subjugation, then Custer would rape the women hostages in captivity.

As we recall not only one, but two tragedies in human history, we are brought face to face with our own human frailty and need of God's redemptive graces.  As we have seen time and again where there is ignorance, there is also fear.  Where there is fear that goes uneducated it becomes violence.  Violence of any kind is never the will of Almighty God.  Not due to religious differences, political diversity or any other reason.  God makes very good use of the suffering brought about by violence to bring healing and restoration, but the violence itself is never the will of God.

We would like to believe that there no longer exists the political corruption and maneuvering that killed the Holy Innocents and gave rise to the Wounded Knee Massacre.  However a look across the ocean in the Country of Uganda where a bill has been written that if passed will make it the law to imprison or put to death individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or questioning.  One of the most dangerous parts of ths bill is it will require teachers, parents, counselor's and pastors/bishops etc to report within 24 hours anyone they know who is a known homosexual or they could face prison time.  This too is a nation wide, and religious based bigotry with violence at it's root and goal.  The same ignorance that has given rise to the hatred of Indigenous Peoples, is the same bigotry against individuals due to their sexual and gender diversity.  Political maneuvering that results in such violence, destroys communities and peoples in ways that are beyond explanation.

The Christian Faith rose out of an age of religious and political violence to share the good news of the salvation of humankind in Jesus Christ.  Christianity does not hold a monopoly on the truth. Christianity believes in Jesus Christ who is God's truth, but then again, all truth including a respect for all individuals regardless of their religion, culture, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity/expression etc, etc, etc is God's truth.   There is no person, religion, sexual or gender diversity, culture that exists without God's knowledge or creative activity.  In the end, God is the one who will save all human souls.  Not Christians.  The more we try to hang on to our rule, our domain, the more we will lose.

The Episcopal Church though far from sinless in our history, has been for quite sometime attempting to make peace and to include the Indigenous Community.  It is not without amazement that the Episcopal Church has been working on making peace with racial, sexual and gender diversity as well.   The work of inclusion is far from finished. It has most likely just begun.  Unfortunately, there remain even within our Anglican Communion those who do not wish to make room for diversity.  Praying for an open heart and mind is easier than allowing God to actually open them on God's timing. 

The birth of Jesus was about God doing a new thing in time.  It was about God opening up the closed minds and hearts of those who had already decided how God should act and be.  God was not finished with humankind.  In Jesus, God sought to teach us new things by the Holy Spirit's power working in Christ.  We need to pray for that same openness to the movement of God's Spirit in today's Church and society.  So that we may see what is in our hearts and minds and allow God to help and heal us of our own biases and ignorant attitudes and behaviors.  May our minds always be open to learning about the beauty of all of the colors of God's beautiful garden in humankind. 

We remember today, O God, the slaughter of the holy innocents of Bethlehem by King Herod. Receive, we pray, into the arms of your mercy all innocent victims; and by your great might frustrate the designs of evil tyrants and establish your rule of justice, love, and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Collect for the Holy Innocents, Book of Common Prayer, page 238).

Look with pity, O heavenly Father, upon the people in this land who live with injustice, terror, disease, and death as their constant companions. Have mercy upon us. Help us to eliminate our cruelty to these our neighbors. Strengthen those who spend their lives establishing equal protection of the law and equal opportunities for all. And grant that every one of us may enjoy a fair portion of the riches of this land; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Prayer for the Oppressed, Book of Common Prayer, page 826).


Gracious Father, we pray for your holy Catholic Church. Fill it with all truth, in all truth with all peace. Where it is corrupt, purify it; where it is in error, direct it; where in any thing it is amiss, reform it. Where it is right, strengthen it; where it is in want, provide for it; where it is divided, reunite it; for the sake of Jesus Christ your Son our Savior. Amen. (Prayer for the Church, Book of Common Prayer, page 816).

 

 

 

 

 

 

St. John the Apostle and Evangelist: The Saint of God's Revelation, The One Whom Jesus Loved

1 John 1:1-9 (NRSV)

We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life-- this life was revealed, and we have seen it and testify to it, and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us-- we declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true; but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

James Kiefer writes about St. John the Apostle and Evangelist:

John, son of Zebedee, was one of the twelve apostles of Our Lord. Together with his brother James and with Simon Peter, he formed a kind of inner circle of Three among the Twelve, in that those three were privileged to behold the miracle of the Great Catch of Fish (Luke 5:10), the healing of Peter's mother-in-law (Mark 1:29-31), the raising of the daughter of Jairus (Mark 5:37 = Luke 8:51), the Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1 = Mark 9:2 = Luke 9:28), and the Agony in Gethsemane (Matthew 26:37 = Mark 14:33).

He expressed a willingness to undergo martyrdom (Matthew 20:22 = Mark 10:39)—as did the other apostles (Matthew 26:35 = Mark 14:31)—and is accordingly called a martyr in intention.

However, we have ancient testimony that, although imprisoned and exiled for his testimony to the Gospel, he was eventually released and died a natural death in Ephesus: "a martyr in will but not in deed."

John is credited with the authorship of three epistles (1 John, 2 John, 3 John) and one Gospel, although many scholars believe that the final editing of the Gospel was done by others shortly after his death. He is also supposed by many to be the author of the book of Revelation, also called the Apocalypse, although this identification is less certain.

Today's meditation in Forward Day by Day offers additional insight into John.

Exodus 33:18-23. I will make all my goodness pass ­before you, and will proclaim before you the name, “The Lord.”

The author of Exodus prefaces this speech by explaining “the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend.” Our lectionary sets John’s close relationship with Jesus in the context of Moses’ relationship to God. In the wilderness, when Moses is weary of the weight of leadership, God refreshes him with an intimate vision of God’s very self. Moses, not famous for his unquestioning obedience, needs the reminder of God’s goodness.

John inherits this pattern of relationship with the Lord. John brings all that he is, his whole person, to Jesus, and Jesus receives him. If the other disciples were disturbed by John’s “thunderous” personality, by his questions of Jesus, Jesus himself seems to have known what John needed. Clearly Jesus made his own goodness pass before John.

Like Moses and John, we are meant to bring all that we are to God and to talk face to face. Nothing less will satisfy. (1996)

When I made Oblation as an Oblate of St. Benedict, I chose St. John as my Oblate name.  I chose the name for a few reasons.   Of all the Gospel writers John reflects a depth of knowledge and spirit.  St. John also represents for me the one Apostle who seemed to walk to the beat of a different drummer.   Of all the Epistles in the New Testament, the Apostle wrote more about the topic of love than probably any other author.  John clearly makes the love of God and neighbor a central theme to his understanding of being a follower of Christ.  Some of the best writings and the most difficult are found in St. John's Gospel.  

In my own humble opinion, St. John the Apostle shows through his work as an Evangelist and an Apostle that the love of God for all humankind transcends human labels and classification.  One of the beliefs that is quite central to Christians is that God is both transcendent and imminent.   God is beyond human description and understanding, yet God is closer to us than the smallest cell of our body.  St. John represents to me an individual who's heart was made vulnerable to God in Jesus, and yet he was willing to risk having his heart broken to get closer and closer to God in not only Jesus, but in others who also needed God.  It was John who stood by Mary as Jesus hung dying on the cross.  

As we celebrate this Christmas Season, what is our focus on St. John about?  We read in the Epistle reading that John writes about what he and others have seen and heard, that Jesus came as the Light to deliver us from darkness.  We are encouraged to come to Jesus and receive the forgiveness of our sins through God's perfect revelation of God's Self in Christ.  In today's commemoration we are remembering that Jesus' birth happened so that he could go from his cradle to the cross on which Jesus would redeem all humankind through his suffering and death.  On the cross is the culmination and meaning of all human suffering, when suffering becomes redemption in and through God's human vesture on the cross.  All suffering no matter how little or how great is valuable to God in the sense that God can use suffering to transform ourselves and the world around us.  God is not a sadistic God in the sense that he wants us to suffer pain and anguish. But we know that within our human experience there is much suffering.  At the cross, God demonstrates how God is present in and with all of us who suffer any grief or trouble.   God's love is ever present and communicating with us and with the world through human suffering in ways that we do not understand.

In Jesus, God came to us in the midst of all of our grief, mess and trouble to help us know that we do not walk through the darkness of this world without the Light of Jesus Christ to help guide us through.  When John writes about himself in his Gospel, he refers to himself as "the disciple whom Jesus loved."  All of God's children are among the disciples whom Jesus loved.  When John writes of "the disciple whom Jesus loved" John is writing about all of us.  God's compassion and grace is given and shared with all humankind through the Person of Christ who's birth we celebrate.  St. John the Apostle and Evangelist makes this love for humankind from God the center of his life and ministry through his Epistles.  St. John makes it ever more clear that those who claim to follow Jesus must be willing to make some kind of investment in loving our sisters and brothers if our discipleship with Christ is to be authentic.

1 John 4:7-21(NRSV)

God Is Love

7Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. ⁸Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. ⁹God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. ¹⁰In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. ¹¹Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. ¹²No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.
13
By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. ¹⁴And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Saviour of the world. ¹⁵God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. ¹⁶So we have known and believe the love that God has for us.

God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. ¹⁷Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgement, because as he is, so are we in this world. ¹⁸There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. ¹⁹We love^* because he first loved us. ²⁰Those who say, ‘I love God’, and hate their brothers or sisters,^* are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister^* whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. ²¹The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters^* also. 

It is for the reasons stated in these Bible passages that I repeatedly write about the full inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning and queer (LGBTQ) individuals in the Church and in society here in this blog.  The message of Jesus is one of unconditional and all-inclusive love.  The hate that is so often pitted against LGBTQ people on behalf of arch-conservative Christians of all kinds is not as much based on the Bible, as it is on capital gains.  See an excellent article in America Blog Gay here that is such a great example of what I am writing about.  The hateful rhetoric of organizations like the American Family Association continues in the wake of the historic repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell.  While the focus of LGBTQ people is on equal rights and the opportunity to serve our country openly, the focus of groups like the American Family Association is focused on the issue of homosexuality.   They are insistent on continuing to "bear false witness" (See Exodus 20: 16) about gay sexuality for the express purpose of continuing to criminalize LGBTQ individuals.  Not because it is the right thing to do, but because it earns their organizations money and political power.  Tomorrow we will recall the slaughter of the Holy Innocents.  That is exactly what happens when people are so concerned about political power before justice, inclusion and equality.  That is the kind of thing God came to us in Christ to call us to repentance and redemption from.  It is that kind of thing that concerned progressive Christians have every business speaking and writing about stopping.  That is why we celebrate the mysteries of God coming to us in Christ.  Because in Christ those dominant, conquering forces are overthrown not by violence and more prejudice.  But, by love, acceptance and inclusion.   This is why I think St. John the Evangelist is so important.

Shed upon your Church, O Lord, the brightness of your light, that we, being illumined by the teaching of your apostle and evangelist John, may so walk in the light of your truth, that at length we may attain to the fullness of eternal life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Collect for St. John the Apostle and Evangelist, Book of Common Prayer, page 238).

O God, you made us in your own image and redeemed us through Jesus your Son: Look with compassion on the whole human family; take away the arrogance and hatred which infect our hearts; break down the walls that separate us; unite us in bonds of love; and work through our struggle and confusion to accomplish your purposes on earth; that, in your good time, all nations and races may serve you in harmony around your heavenly throne; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.  (Prayer for the Human Family, Book of Common Prayer, page 815).

 

St. Stephen: A Great Martyr LGBT People Can Relate To

Acts 7:54-8:1 (NRSV)

"When they had heard these things, they became enraged and ground their teeth at Stephen. But filled with the Holy Spirit, he gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus at the right hand of God. "Look," he said, "I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!" But they covered their ears, and with a loud shout all rushed together against him. Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him; and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, 'Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." When he had said this, he died. And Saul approved of their killing him."

The Church's calendar is very interesting indeed. Yesterday we celebrated the arrival of Jesus in Bethlehem. The joyous sound of the Angels singing: "Glory to God in the highest heavens, and on earth peace among those whom he favors" (Luke 1:14) yesterday is now the stoning of Stephen the first Deacon of the early Church and recorded as the first Martyr. Oh dear God, you've ruined the party. We were having so much fun yesterday, or were we?

As many of us celebrated Christmas holiday there were those members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning and queer communities that were not celebrating. In Christmas 09 in Pam's House Blend there was a very moving post by someone who writes about something that I am sure many LGBT individuals can relate to.

"There’s a red envelope sitting near the paper shredder. It arrived about a week ago, the shape betraying it as an obvious Christmas card, the writing on the front looking like my mother’s. The envelope is still unopened.

This happened last year, too. At that time, my partner got tired of looking at it sitting there, and said, “do you mind if I open that thing? You never know, maybe she’s had a change of heart. You never know what it will say until you open it.”

“I know what it will say,” I tell her. “It will have a lengthy sentimental series of verses of love for one's son printed on the card, and inside, there will be a two-page handwritten letter from mom about how she prays for me every day and asks God to take away this feeling that I’m a girl. She’ll tell me all about how Jesus can supposedly fix it all in an instant when I ask, and then she’ll go on about how much I’ve hurt her and the family by my transition. She’ll go into a few paragraphs about how my sister is doing and how my niece and nephew are growing up, just to remind me of what I’m missing, and then she’ll finish by talking about how every day she’s just holding on in hope of seeing the day that I’ll find Jesus, go back to being a boy and then she can die knowing that my soul will be saved.”

For many LGBT individuals this past Christmas Weekend was not the most joyous of times. Many due to the influence of Southern Poverty Law Center designated anti-gay hate groups and many more not listed, many LGBT individuals and couples were not welcomed to their parents holiday celebrations, unless of course they are willing to put "away the gay" for the day. Or better yet, accept Jesus Christ and commit to something like Courage or Exodus to "change" them. Many arch-conservative Christians and Catholics do not understand, that being LGBT is something we cannot change, infact the more we try to change it the worse our lives become. They cannot understand how accepting ourselves as LGBT and being in a relationship with someone that we love is a good and moral thing.

As we celebrate the Feast of St. Stephen I want us to perhaps see him and ourselves as LGBT people in a bit of a different light. Why were the Apostles and other Christians down through the centuries and even today, why are they killed? Because they threatened an established order. Christians are known for shaking things up and challenging the status quo. Christians like St. Stephen challenged positions of power to remember the marginalized of society. Christians called upon people to stop treating others like second class citizens and see them as people who should be celebrated and helped.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning and queer people challenge the status quo of heterosexism. We challenge people who have established the misunderstanding that being straight, being married as "one man and one woman" is somehow the only way to live. Just as people of different skin colors reminds us that not everyone is caucasian so LGBT people reminds others that not everyone is straight. Power structures that have held that being heterosexual is the only way to be, are threatened by LGBT people. If they do not threaten Republicans and people like Pat Robertson and Dr. James Dobson, Tony Perkins and Bryan Fischer, many families that have been going to church for years hearing that homosexuality is a sin, once they learn that one of their own is gay or lesbian or transgender suddenly the structure they always knew has been disturbed. When age old structures are disturbed what do most people do? They rebel and they want to destroy and even kill to keep that structure from falling apart.

That is why Jesus Christ is such a scandal to most people. Jesus Christ when he came into our world was suddenly a threat to an established order. Jesus "disturbed" those who had gained their power through political maneuvering and challenged the established order to see God in every person. God was to be seen in those who were blind, paralyzed, sick, suffering, the stranger and the outcast. In Jesus Christ, the Word made Flesh, God welcomed all and refused none. For many who had established a powerful relationship with the world by their stature, Jesus was the new threat to that power structure. And so was St. Stephen and so are LGBT people.

When I think of a great gay martyr, I think of Harvey Milk. Why was Harvey Milk shot by Dan White? Because Harvey Milk for many was a threat to an established way of thinking and existing. In the days of Anita Bryant and her assault on gay rights, Harvey Milk was a voice for those being left behind by the Bryant's and Briggs of society. Harvey Milk's courageous work on behalf of the LGBT people of San Francisco got national acclaim and he even saved a boy from committing suicide. People like Harvey Milk and others who have paid the price due to being LGBT are examples of what it means to be a martyr. They stood up for what they knew was right and they paid the price of their lives on behalf of the marginalized of society.


As we the LGBT people of today work to help the people of Uganda and Rwanda and other places work for our rights, we are often reminded that working for civil rights comes with a price. Fighting religious oppression comes with a price. It may cost us our lives. It will cost us our reputation and even our relationships with those closest to us. But, if we can cling to Jesus Christ and the example of those who have gone before us, I think we can make a difference in the world. We do not have to have all of the right answers, but we do have to be willing to put ourselves, our voices and our lives out there to show people that being LGBT is not a sin. Our love lives are holy lives, even if others do not think so. Our love for our partner, significant other, friends and all that, that is the love of God at work in and through us. Putting our love on the line like that can be a dangerous thing. There is always the possibility that we will be laughed at, mocked, told we are sinning and maybe in some places thrown out. But that's because we threaten an established order. We put the "unusual" in the face of those who think that straight is the only "usual."


On this Feast of St. Stephen, let us pray that as we witness to the love of Jesus Christ that peoples eyes, ears, hearts and minds may be opened to new understandings of God's love. But let us also not be afraid to be who God has made us, and may we challenge every structure and every prejudice that says that we are second class citizens. Let us remind everyone that God came for all of us and that means all of us.

We give you thanks, O Lord of glory, for the example of the first martyr Stephen, who looked up to heaven and prayed for his persecutors to your Son Jesus Christ, who stands at your right hand; where he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen. (Collect on the Feast of St. Stephen, Page 237, Book of Common Prayer).

First Sunday After Christmas: The Light of God Coming Among Us

John 1:1-18 (NRSV)

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth. (John testified to him and cried out, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.'") From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father's heart, who has made him known.

Vicki K. Black in Welcome to the Church Year: An Introduction to the Seasons of the Episcopal Church writes:

The Incarnation is absolutely central to the Christian faith.  And yet at some level it must remain a mystery, and at Christmas it is often celebrated through the images and language of the poet rather than the theologian.  The words to a Christian hymn written a few decades before the council at Chalcedon make much the same point, beautifully conveying the intersection of time and eternity, Godhead and humanity, in the birth and life of Jesus:

Of the Father's love begotten, ere the worlds began to be,
he is Alpha and Omega, he the source, the ending he,
of the things that are, that have been, and that future years shall see,
evermore and evermore!

O that birth for ever blessed, when the Virgin, full of grace,
by the Holy Ghost conceiving, bore the Savior of our race;
and the Babe, the world's Redeemer, first revealed his sacred face,
evermore and evermore! (Page 30)  (Hymn # 82, Hymnal 1982).

All of us know the experience of walking into a dark room.  What ever we may be looking for in such a space, we cannot see it in the open because there is nothing to show us precisely where it is nor how to get to it.  Even with our best memory, we can still forget and not see where what we are looking for might have been moved to.   Once the light has been put on we can see more clearly the path to what it is we are looking for.  All of the obstacles along the way to what we are looking for shows and we can make a safe journey.

The one thing that most of us cannot see very clearly without some kind of help from God, is ourselves.  Okay, most of us can look into a mirror and see the gray streaks growing in or whether or not we have combed our hair.  We also know all of those emotions and desires deep within us. The one thing that sin does is it blinds us to the reality of the beauty that God has created within each of us.  In this time of dysfunctional family relationships and the presence of racism, sexism, heterosexism and religious imperialism, the idea that if you are wealthy, healthy, etc you have a beauty that is given you by God.  Yet, if you are so unfortunate to be none of the above, there are plenty of individuals in society and even the Church who are there to tell you either directly or indirectly what they think of you.

When Jesus took on the humanity of all of us, God restored and continues to restore the goodness of God's created beauty in each of us.  A woman who sang in one of the choirs I once directed used to say: "There are many beautiful colors in God's garden."  Each one of us has a certain eloquence and magnificence that has been given to us, that makes us all so wonderfully unique.  Yet, we would not be able to see that clearly without the Light of God in Christ having come to us to call each and every one of us to be restored and redeemed by God's compassion and generous grace.  If only we could all take some time to learn to see ourselves as God's masterpiece, then we would not be so quick to assign a level of darkness to others through our words and actions.

Jesus Christ did not come among us through the womb of the Virgin Mary to give to Christians the power and reason to scapegoat one group of people against another.  God's perfect revelation came to reveal God's truth, not make Christianity a monopoly on truth.  The change that was brought through the mystery of the Incarnation was the establishment of God's reign where all of God's people are beautiful, loved and forgiven.  The poor would know the wealth of God's extravagant love.  Those presumed weak would know the strength of a God who made them and through Christ redeems them as God's beloved, with whom God is well-pleased.   Sexual orientation, gender, gender identity/expression, race, religion, wealth, social status or any other classification was to no longer be barriers for one group of people to dominate another.  Even the poor and those who have died now have a face and a name.

In Speaking to the Soul today we read:

In this day of pardoning let us not exact trespasses! In this day of gladnesses let us not spread sadnesses! In this day so sweet, let us not be harsh! In this day of peaceful rest, let us not be wrathful in it! In this day when God came to sinners, let not the righteous be in his mind uplifted over sinner! In this day in which there came the Lord of all unto the servants, let masters too condescend to their servants lovingly! In this day in which the Rich became poor for our sakes, let the rich man make the poor man share with him at his table.

On this day to us came forth the Gift, although we asked it not! Let us therefore bestow alms on them that cry and beg of us. This is the day that opened for us a gate on high to our prayers. Let us open also gates to supplicants that have transgressed, and of us have asked [forgiveness.]

To-day the Lord of nature was against His nature changed; let it not to us be irksome to turn our evil wills. Fixed in nature is the body; great or less it cannot become: but the will has such dominion, it can grow to any measure.

To-day Godhead sealed itself upon Manhood, that so with the Godhead’s stamp Manhood might be adorned.

From Hymn 1 of Nineteen Hymns on the Nativity of Christ in the Flesh by Ephraim Syrus, translated by J. B. Morris, M.A. (Oxford Library of the Fathers); found at http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf213.iii.v.ii.html

As we continue through the Christmas Season, may we all see the Light of Christ that has been shown in and through all of us.  May we see ourselves as part of God's beautiful creation.  In Christ, God has redeemed us by God's unconditional and all-inclusive love.  May we also remember in our prayers those who continue to live under oppression.  Whether that oppression be self imposed or by religious, social and political means outside of their control.  May the Light of Christ who's birth we celebrate this Christmas Season, help us all to see past the darkness of prejudice, violence and bitterness.  May that Light help us to see what is in our own hearts and be open to the power of God's transforming grace. What the Incarnation shows us about God is still a great mystery.  But what God shows us about humanity is that we do have the ability to change our hearts, lives and world if only we can know God's precious love in our own hearts.  Once we know that love, we can share it openly and freely.  Because God will have begun the work of transforming us and the world around us.  There would be no more scapegoating.  No more of denying basic human rights and opportunities to the poor, helpless and marginalized among us.  Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning and queer people can be free to be who we are, love who we love and find a world that welcomes and affirms us, because God in Christ has loved, redeemed and given new life and grace to us all.

Almighty God, you have poured upon us the new light of your incarnate Word: Grant that this light, enkindled in our hearts, may shine forth in our lives; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (Collect for the First Sunday After Christmas, Book of Common Prayer, page 213).

Christmas Eve/Day: God Comes to Us In Christ

John 1: 1-18 (NRSV)

The Gospel According to John

The Word Became Flesh

1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was in the beginning with God. ³All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being ⁴in him was life,^* and the life was the light of all people. ⁵The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
6
 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. ⁷He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. ⁸He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. ⁹The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.^*
10
He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. ¹¹He came to what was his own,^* and his own people did not accept him. ¹²But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, ¹³who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.
14
And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son,^* full of grace and truth. ¹⁵(John testified to him and cried out, ‘This was he of whom I said, “He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.” ’) ¹⁶From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. ¹⁷The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. ¹⁸No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son,^* who is close to the Father’s heart,^* who has made him known.


In her book: Welcome to the Church Year: An Introduction to the Seasons of the Episcopal Church, Deacon Vicki K. Black writes:

"For the church, Christmas is a time to celebrate the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem.  We celebrate this birth not because Jesus was simply a 'good man" but because we believe Jesus was -- and is--both the human son of Mary and the divine Son of God.  That makes Christmas a time to reflect on a mystery that the church calls the doctrine of the Incarnation.  This important theological term comes from the Latin word carne, which means "flesh," and has to do with the divine taking on human flesh and coming among us in human form.

All religions throughout the ages have struggled with the fundamental question of the relationship between God and creation.  Some believe in a God who is completely and utterly separate and distinct from humankind; others believe in a God who occasionally makes transitory, purely spiritual connections with certain individuals; still others believe in many gods who are present within all of creation, including human beings.

The early church struggled with this question, too.  After centuries of heated debate the church formally defended the doctrine of the Incarnation at the Council of Chalcedon in 451.  The church fathers tried to explain their conviction that Jesus was "at once complete in Godhead and complete in manhood, truly God and truly man" (BCP 864).  What this meant was that Jesus was not just a man whom the Spirit of God visited on occasion (as with the Old Testament prophets), nor was he really God just pretending to be human.  In either of those cases, the church fathers believed, it would not have been possible for Jesus to bring salvation to humankind.  He must be both God and human to be our savior." (Page 29).

The concept of which Vicki Black writes is not one that can be understood by human beings, let alone explain.  We are all human beings with very limited minds and varied experiences.  No two human beings are made the same way, nor live their lives the same.  God is beyond human limitations, yet in Christ God chooses to become like one of us.  Yet as God is closest to us in Jesus, so Jesus is still very mysterious.  God changes the powers of human history by bringing in a new understanding that there is no longer a dominant species and a submissive species.  God becomes human through the conception of Jesus in the womb of the Virgin Mary by the power or God, the Mother, the Holy Spirit.  Jesus is born in Bethlehem today.   All human traditions are turned upside down, and a new era of the relationship with God and humankind is begun.

Luke 2: 1-20 (NRSV)

The Birth of Jesus

2In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. ²This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. ³All went to their own towns to be registered. ⁴Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. ⁵He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. ⁶While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. ⁷And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

The Shepherds and the Angels

8 In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. ⁹Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. ¹⁰But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: ¹¹to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is the Messiah,^* the Lord. ¹²This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.’ ¹³And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host,^* praising God and saying,
¹⁴
‘Glory to God in the highest heaven,
   and on earth peace among those whom he favours!’^*
15
When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.’ ¹⁶So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. ¹⁷When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; ¹⁸and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. ¹⁹But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. ²⁰The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

In here Christmas Message to the Episcopal Church, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori writes:

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. —Isaiah 9:2

That's how the first lesson of Christmas Eve opens. It's familiar and comforting, as the familiar words go on to say that light has shined on those who live in deep darkness, that God has brought joy to people living under oppression, for a child has been borne to us. The name of that child is Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace — and God is bringing an endless peace through an heir to the throne of David (vv 3, 4, 6, 7).

This year we're going to hear a bit we haven't heard in Episcopal churches before, in that missing verse 5. It's pretty shocking, but it helps explain why the hunger for light is so intense, and the joy so great when it comes: "For all the boots of the tramping warriors and all the garments rolled in blood shall be burned as fuel for the fire." The coming of this prince of peace will mean the end of all signs of war and violence. An occupied people will finally live in peace, without anxiety about who or what will confront them the next time they go out their front doors.

People in many parts of this world still live with the echo of tramping boots and the memory of bloody clothing. Many Episcopalians are living with that anxiety right now, particularly in Haiti and Sudan. Americans know it through the ongoing anxiety after September 11 and in the wounded soldiers returning to their families and communities, grievously changed by their experience of war. Remember the terror of war when you hear those words about light on Christmas Eve. Remember the hunger for peace and light when you hear the shocking promise that a poor child born in a stable will lead us all into a world without war. Remember the power of light when you go out into the darkness after hearing those words — and pray that you and those around you may become instruments of peace.

Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors! —Luke 2:14

The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori is presiding bishop and primate of the Episcopal Church.

Even as Jesus is born into the world to unite people in the mission of peace and good will towards all people, there remains in the Church and society those who still wish to be the cause of anything but peace and good will.  Those who want to divide humankind according to race, religion, class, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity/expression. language, employment, challenge etc.  Jesus comes into our human experience to experience the joys and sorrows of humankind itself.  God comes to us in Christ to communicate God's unconditional and all-inclusive love for all humankind.  God tells us that God is with us through all the messes, good times and bad times, illness, violence, discrimination, marginalization, oppression and death that everyone in humankind experiences.  In God's perfect revelation, Jesus comes to invite all humankind to come to God and know God's mercy, forgiveness and generous grace.  There is room for everyone in the manger where Jesus is born on this holy night.  We are invited by the Angels to go with the Shepherds and see this event that has come to pass.  It matters not who you are, what you believe, how you love others, whether you are poor or wealthy, gay or straight, female or male, of one gender or transgender.  Whether you are sure about everything in what your future holds, of even if you wonder how you will make it through this holiday season into the New Year.  Even if your life span will only last until another hour, minute, day, month or year.  God in Christ welcomes us into God's presence in Christ.

As we are called to come and adore God in Christ, so we are are also empowered with a sense of mission to bring Christ's abiding peace to all who are broken, wounded, hurting, separated, marginalized and in darkness and death.  The world will become no less violent today, just because we have been to visit with Jesus.  There is still way too much war, oppression, sickness and death.  We are called not to solve the problems, but to be that shining example of the Light of Jesus Christ born in Bethlehem today and always.  As we remember that Jesus is born in Bethlehem today, Jesus also longs to be born again in us, in spite of our broken human experience.  God desires to calm the storms of hate speech and violence if only we will dare to have a little faith in Jesus.

I cannot close this blog post without a reminder that many of our lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning and queer people, and others who are of minority status celebrate the Christmas Day/Season alone and in need of new family and friends.  Many LGBTQ people are not able to go home and celebrate with their families today, because they are not accepted, or risk being proselytized by arch-conservative Catholics and other Christians.  These are very stressful times for couples and individuals.  Make a phone call today, write an email or invite and spend some time in prayer today for all who face the difficulties of social, political and religious oppression.   Today is an awesome day, help make it awesome for those who live through it in tears, anger and sickness.   God reached out to all of us in Christ, so we need to reach out to each other.

On behalf of Jason and myself, we wish every one a very Merry Christmas and Happy and healthy New Year in 2011.

O God, you make us glad by the yearly festival of the birth of your only Son Jesus Christ: Grant that we, who joyfully receive him as our Redeemer, may with sure confidence behold him when he comes to be our Judge; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

O God, you have caused this holy night to shine with the brightness of the true Light: Grant that we, who have known the mystery of that Light on earth, may also enjoy him perfectly in heaven; where with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting.  Amen.

Almighty God, you have given your only-begotten Son to take our nature upon him, to be born this day of a pure virgin: Grant that we, who have been born again and made your children by adoption and grace, may daily be renewed by your Holy Spirit; through our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom with you and the same Spirit be honor and glory, now and forever. Amen.  (Collects for Christmas Day, Book of Common Prayer, page 212-213).

Are We Open To God Doing New Things? Isn't that What Advent and Christmas Are About?

Luke 1:26-38 (NRSV)
 

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, "Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you. But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be." The angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end." Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I am a virgin?" The angel said to her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God." Then Mary said, "Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word." Then the angel departed from her.

The Advent and Christmas message calls Christians to open our hearts and minds to God doing new things in our world and in our lives.  God gives us those traditions that Jarislov Pelikan says are the "living faith of the dead."  God opens our hearts and eyes to the new things of God by always doing new things.  When new flowers bloom in the spring we do not remember the old flowers that withered and died.  We concentrate on the new beauty of that which is before our eyes.

Today three days before we celebrate the Nativity of Jesus Christ we hear this time honored narrative of the announcement of Jesus' conception and birth in the womb of Mary.  We see God, the Holy Spirit, the Mother and Life-Giver working in the life, spirit and body of Mary to bring forth the salvation of all humankind.  God transcended all human traditionalism, even those things which God had done previously and brought for something new and wonderful.  In the words of Rev. J.Edwin Bacon, Rector of All Saint's Episcopal Church in Pasadena, California: "I am sure glad Mary didn't wait for the doctrine of the Incarnation to be decided to say yes at the Annunciation."

As Christians we are told to wait on the Lord. Yes, that is true.  Yet, so often when God the Holy Spirit arrives to lead us to do something new, we are still in the "wait and see" mode.  As if we expect to just sit and wait while God does all the work.  One of the most important pieces of Benedictine Spirituality is "Ora et Labora" (tr. pray and work).  When we pray we are doing the work of God, when we work our works find their greatest fulfillment because our work takes place in a constant and continual prayer with God.  Jesus did say in John 15:5: "I am the vine you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit. because apart from me you can do nothing."   Jesus did not say: "Once I arrive, you are free to do nothing. while I do it all."  The Holy Spirit empowered Mary to receive God's promise to do what humanly was impossible.  God came to Mary and gave her the opportunity to serve God and all humankind by being the vehicle and bearer of God the Incarnate Word.  She did not wait around to discern some doctrinal mystery or wait for a Parish Vestry to approve her mission.  She knew that if she trusted God and the work of the Holy Spirit who was going to do this wonderful new thing, all the things that she feared most would somehow be worked out. Thus Mary not only became the first Disciple of Jesus, but also the first female Priest.  She accomplished so much by trusting in God. What about us?

God is doing new and wonderful things in our time.  This morning President Obama signed the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell into law.  The ban that required lesbian and gay military service members to lie about who they are to serve their country is over.  Though they still cannot come out totally because the ban has to be implemented, the days by which they will have to remain closeted are numbered.  And what has the response of radical right Christians been to this wonderful new thing that God is doing among us?  The Family Research Council is planning to sue to keep the repeal from happening in the Military.  The same Family Research Council is teaming up the DADT Repeal opponent Sen. John McCain to do all they can to stop the implementation of the repeal process in the US. Military.  Last night Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell attempted a last minute ditch attempt to block the repeal in the Defense Authorization Bill that he would not support if the repeal of DADT was included.  A right wing extremist news reporter attempted to trip up Rep. Barney Frank over gay men showering with straight men in the US. Military.  While LGBT people celebrate today's monumental victory over being able to serve their country openly, right wing extremists are still stuck on the issue of homosexuality. 

In other news yesterday the United Nations voted restore the resolution to condemn the execution of gay and lesbian people. One of the organizations that had a big hand in raising the importance of such a decision was Soul Force.    The work of Uganda to pass a bill that would sentence lesbian and gay people to life in prison or even death is one that needs condemnation from all who call themselves Christians and/or people of good will towards all.

Back here in these United States we have a horrible act of selfishness and greed taking place as Republican Senators work to block the health care bill for 9/11 first responders. No wonder Jesus wept as he looks over our City, State and Country.  Not only are we in a time when arch-conservative Christians condone discrimination towards any group of people, but we cannot even give health care to those women and men who put their lives on the line on September 11, 2001 and are now sick and dying.

When the Archangel Gabriel came and announced that Mary would bear Jesus, God began ushering in a new world order.   One in which the dead would live again, God would "deliver the poor who cries out in distress, and the oppressed who has no one to help.  God shall have pity on the lowly and poor; God shall preserve the lives of the needy.  God shall redeem their lives from oppression and violence, and dear shall their blood be in God's sight." (Psalm 72, BCP 686).  Yet what are we seeing from Christians?  Those who would rather leave the poor outside in the cold.  Those oppressed by unjust laws and inapplicable interpretations of the Bible should be further oppressed with violence and hate rhetoric.  Yet those who are poor and oppressed are precious in the eyes and heart of God.  That was the new and exciting message that Jesus would bring by his Incarnation, life, death and resurrection.  But, even the Church has yet to allow that message of salvation and justice for all people to become the heart and soul of the work of Christians.  And we wonder why Jesus weeps as he enters the world?

The Advent and Christmas events are about being open to God doing new things among us.  God shows us new things in God's perfect revelation of God's Self.  God will challenge our comfort zones and call us to redemption in God's Son Jesus Christ, and our Mother the Holy Spirit will tear open the boxes we put God, others and ourselves in.  If we want God to be born anew in us this coming Christmas Season, then perhaps we need to bring our restless hearts to that Christ Child born through Mary's yes to God, and ask that our hearts be broken with Jesus' as he weeps for the world of violence and oppression he and us still live in.  Yet Jesus comes not just to weep, but to inspire radical social and personal change.  Are we open to what Jesus and the Holy Spirit want to do in and through our lives this Christmas Season?

Purify our conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation, that your Son Jesus Christ, at his coming, may find in us a mansion prepared for himself; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (Collect for the Fourth Sunday of Advent, Book of Common Prayer, page 212).

Almighty God, we commend to your gracious care and keeping all the men and women of our armed forces at home and abroad. Defend them day by day with your heavenly grace; strengthen them in their trials and temptations; give them courage to face the perils which beset them; and grant them a sense of your abiding presence wherever they may be; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Prayer for Those in Our Armed Services, Book of Common Prayer, page 823).

Look with pity, O heavenly Father, upon the people in this land who live with injustice, terror, disease, and death as their constant companions. Have mercy upon us. Help us to eliminate our cruelty to these our neighbors. Strengthen those who spend their lives establishing equal protection of the law and equal opportunities for all. And grant that every one of us may enjoy a fair portion of the riches of this land; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Prayer for the Oppressed, Book of Common Prayer, page 826).

Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen. (Prayer Attributed to St. Francis of Assisi, Book of Common Prayer, page 833).  

The Bible: Not The Only Source of Revelation

John 5:30-47 (NRSV)

'I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge; and my judgment is just, because I seek to do not my own will but the will of him who sent me. 'If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true. There is another who testifies on my behalf, and I know that his testimony to me is true. You sent messengers to John, and he testified to the truth. Not that I accept such human testimony, but I say these things so that you may be saved. He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. But I have a testimony greater than John's. The works that the Father has given me to complete, the very works that I am doing, testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has himself testified on my behalf. You have never heard his voice or seen his form, and you do not have his word abiding in you, because you do not believe him whom he has sent. 'You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that testify on my behalf. Yet you refuse to come to me to have life. I do not accept glory from human beings. But I know that you do not have the love of God in you. I have come in my Father's name, and you do not accept me; if another comes in his own name, you will accept him. How can you believe when you accept glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the one who alone is God? Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; your accuser is Moses, on whom you have set your hope. If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But if you do not believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?'

I really appreciate the words from Forward Day by Day for today's meditation.

Many Christians read the Bible the wrong way. We read not so much to find God as to find support for our notions about God. Rather than learn a solid theology from the Bible, we use the Bible to defend a theology we have already devised.

And sometimes we commit an even more grievous error. We see the revelation of God as something God wrote in a book rather than as something God did in history. We make a big mistake when we view the Bible as God’s revelation: it is the record of God’s revelation.

Jesus said that the scriptures “testify in my behalf.” Let us join the psalmist and sing, “And in the temple of the Lord all are crying, ‘Glory!’ ” (Psalm 29). (1994)

Is the revelation in the book or in the events which the book records? Plainly it could not be in the book unless it is first in the events. And this is the witness of the book itself; for the prophets, who claimed that the word of the Lord came to them, were largely occupied in reading the lessons of history to the people whose history it was. Living by faith in the personal and living God, they saw his hand in all  that affected the people with whom they were concerned. —William Temple.

I am thinking quite a bit about this kind of thing as I continue to read and hear many of the insulting remarks from right wing extremists after the Senate vote to repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell this past Saturday.  Comments such as those of  Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association who said that "The Military is forever feminized."  His remarks not only continue the cruel spiritual and socially violent rhetoric towards lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning and queer individuals, but also women.   They continue to suggest that the feminine is somehow lesser, weaker and less worthy or equal rights and justice.  That it is okay to continue laws that are unequal towards women and LGBT people.  Because there is always the men and the heterosexuals who must continue to benefit at the expense of women and LGBTQ people.  Such comments continue because of a belief in the Bible as the "Infallible Word of God."   As Bishop Gene Robinson so correctly states in his book In the Eye of the Storm, to place the words of Scripture above the Incarnate Word of God that is Jesus the Christ is "an act of idolatry." (See page 22).

The Christmas event that we are about to remember this coming Saturday was an actual event that took place.  What was written in the Bible was written there because God came to all humankind as one like us in God's perfect revelation in Jesus the Christ.  The desert blooms and the dry rivers have water not because of what is written down some where, but because God has done something so incredibly wonderful that all the wonder of the world cannot contain the joy at what God did.  When Jesus came to us on that Christmas Night darkness was turned into light and sadness gave way to joy.  What was written down was what others witnessed, and yet even for right wing extremists determined to keep certain types of people or groups of people weak and oppressed, while others benefit the event might as well not even happened.  It is easier to use the Name of Jesus Christ to justify scapegoating and prejudice.  I seem to remember King Herod doing the same thing when he slaughtered the Holy Innocents because of his fear that someone weaker than him, just might take his place and power away from him.

The Jesus event that we are preparing for this Advent is one in which there is no scapegoating and there is no excuse for prejudice or violence.  God has become one like us in the midst of all our uncertainties and all of our messiness to tell us that God is here with us no matter who we are or what we are facing.  The Baby Jesus came into the world and no sooner did he arrive did people in high places of power want to remove him as soon as possible.  Jesus came to love people differently and to demonstrate that no person on God's green earth is unloved nor undervalued by God.   We know all of this not just because of what is written in the Bible.  We know this to be true because of how God has continued to converse and intervene in human history and Church tradition.  Even when the Church and society still misses the mark on our obligation to recognize the goodness of God's creative and redemptive love in all persons, God still interacts with us by the power of the Holy Spirit to work to change and redirect our stubborn and fragile human hearts.  

As we look to God's grace and mercy during the remainder of this Advent Season leading into Christmas may we be open to what God in Jesus by the Holy Spirit wishes to do in and through our lives.  May we take some time to sit in the quietness of our hearts and minds to welcome the Christ Child and to make room for God's Holy Spirit to convert our hearts and make the world a less violent place for all who suffer from oppression, injustice, disease and death.  

Purify our conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation, that your Son Jesus Christ, at his coming, may find in us a mansion prepared for himself; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (Collect for the Fourth Sunday of Advent, Book of Common Prayer, page 212).

O God, the creator and preserver of all humankind, we humbly beseech you for all sorts and conditions of humankind; that you would be pleased to make your ways known unto them, your saving health unto all nations. More especially we pray for your holy Church universal; that it may be so guided and governed by your good Spirit, that all who profess and call themselves Christians may be led into the way of truth, and hold the faith in unity of spirit, in the bond of peace, and in righteousness of life. Finally, we commend to your fatherly goodness all those who are in any ways afflicted or distressed, in mind, body, or estate; that it may please you to comfort and relieve them according to their several necessities, giving them patience under their sufferings, and a happy issue out of all their afflictions. And this we beg for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.  (Prayer for All Sorts and Conditions, Book of Common Prayer, page 814).

Fourth Sunday of Advent: Emmanuel: God With Us Turns Traditionalism On Its Head

Jaroslav Pelikan in The Vindication of Tradition: 1983 Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities said: "Tradition is the living faith of the dead.  Traditionalism is the dead faith of the living."  Many of the things and attitudes we have often adopted as part of our faith and way of life are often said to come from tradition, when in fact they are the result of traditionalism.   Because my blog is based on the Scriptures and the full inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning and queer people, I am going to present the idea here that the virgin birth of Christ which we will celebrate on December 25 and our belief that Jesus was God's perfect revelation of God's Self was an act in which God turned traditionalism on it's head.   That traditionalism extends to an understanding from the Bible that men are strong and dominant, and women are somehow weak and subordinate.  When God broke into human history through the power of the Holy Spirit to conceive the human body of Christ in Mary all labels and attitudes of the weaker vs the stronger were overturned, never to be the same.


Out in Scripture reminds us of something very important to go with the Gospel reading for this weekend of Matthew 1: 18-25.

Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:

"Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,

and they shall name him Emmanuel,"

which means, "God is with us." When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.

 In spite of the disturbing shifts away from liberation in these texts, we also discovered there is at least one liberating gift for LGBT people in Matthew 1:20b and its portrayal of Mary becoming pregnant by the Holy Spirit.  We hear the passage speak of a female same-gender loving partnership, since in Hebrew the word ruah, Spirit, is a feminine form.  The Greek version of Spirit, pneuma, is neuter in form, which furthers the claim of both Hebrew and Greek traditions that males were not involved at all in Jesus’ conception.  This radical reading shakes up any traditional take on love-making between God and Mary.  God is about something altogether new in creating Emmanuel, God with us.

The Virgin Birth Narrative might also be understood as obliterating the shame of those who have children and create families outside the traditional model.  In this story, God enters the world as the child Jesus, born of a woman who is not married to the father.  In this way God could be saying, “If you want to label such people negatively, you’ll have to use that label on Jesus.”  One problem with this rendering, however, is that readers often get stuck with the sexualized images and miss or avoid the transgressive good news of such a reading.

The Virgin Birth Narratives have been used by traditionalists to establish so called traditions to explain and legislate what the ideal sexual, familial and romantic relationship should or should not be.  Not to mention what the so called proper role of the male and female gender should be.  God broke into human history to turn the dominant and submission understanding that had been perverted by sin and discrimination to bring about liberation and equality.   What traditionalists have done in an effort to save face is worked to return the sin and discrimination back in place.  This is why laws preventing same-sex couples from marriage equality, as well as abstinence only education are so unjust and out of place.  They are based on presumptions that are neither true nor substantiated.  

It is no mistake that this weekends readings are what they are after yesterday's Senate vote to repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell passed with a vote of 65-33.  The 14 year Military Ban that requires women and men to serve and die in defense of our country by lying about who they are or be subject to discharge is finally dead.  A law based on the dead faith of living people has been legislatively destroyed.  Thanks be to God.  Yet, even as we rejoice there are already Christianist anti-gay hate groups vowing to force Congress to reverse the repeal of DADT. Traditionalists are planning to return the sin of discrimination that Jesus came to liberate us from, back claiming that it comes from their "Biblical traditions."

When God comes to us, God is known for turning our plans upside down and inside out.  One of the oldest quotes is: "If you want to make God laugh, tell God your plans."  God's use of Mary and Joseph to change the face and direction of human history, by also challenging many religious and social "traditions" is exactly what God the Holy Spirit does.  We cannot be left alone in our Pandoras Boxes of what we think about God, others or even ourselves.  If we are to experience growth in our personal, spiritual and social lives then we must be open to moving from where we are to beyond our wildest imaginations.  The biggest message of Advent and Christmas is no matter how difficult and challenging changes in our lives are, God is with us through it all.  Whether we are ready for God to move and change us and others around us or not, God is there with us and helps us face and endure whatever circumstances that come our way.  We are never alone.   God the Holy Spirit, like a good Mother leads us to Jesus by helping us to understand God's will as opposed to our own.  Even though Jesus came to ultimately go to the cross to die for the sins of the world, he still faced everything with God the Mother Spirit helping him to trust in God for every moment and each step of his journey.  So God the Advocate and Comforter is always with us.

Those of us who are challenging the status quo in terms of sexual and gender diversity are facing enormous political, social and religious obstacles.  We are facing the work of traditionalists determined to make things that are not part of the Christian faith to determine the laws of our country and our churches for each and every person.  We are facing those who tell us that our work for equal rights and full inclusion cannot be done because the Biblical laws rebuke being LGBT or acting on our sexual orientation and/or gender identity/expression.  Unlike Christianists, we are taking the opportunity to become more educated and aware of the misinterpretations that are created by intolerance, prejudice and apathy.  It is the same attitudes that are used by the Governor of Arizona to keep terminally ill patients from receiving organ transplants or enacting their horrible anti-immigration law.   The same behaviors are shown as our country continues to show complete disregard for the poor, lonely, discouraged, mentally/physically and psychologically challenged.  The God who came into human history through Mary came to bring all who are forgotten and marginalized into the company and wonder of God's unconditional and all inclusive love.  

No more was there to be the dominance of one person or group of people over another.  That is the tradition that was suppose to be brought about by the Advent and Christmas message.  It is that message that the Church has yet to fully acquire and proclaim.  It is the prayer that Jesus prays for each one of us as he intercedes for us at the right hand of God.  If such a prayer were answered violence would not even be considered.  Discrimination would be permanently outlawed and understood to be unacceptable.  The need for the Christianist capitalistic enterprise designed to destroy any and all individuals and institutions that do not think like they do, would be defunded and put out of business.  And there would indeed be peace on earth and good will toward all.

Purify our conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation, that your Son Jesus Christ, at his coming, may find in us a mansion prepared for himself; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (Collect for the Fourth Sunday of Advent, Book of Common Prayer, page 212). 

Eternal Spirit, Lover of our souls and bodies,
        We thank you and praise you for your enduring love.
    May we cherish our own embodiment
        as we do yours – that fleshly-wrap housing the Spirit
        of infinitesimal power and grace.
    May we continue to honor the Temple within,
        and gratefully treat our body
        that reflects your very presence.
    In the name of Jesus, Immanuel, God with us. Amen.  (Prayerfully Out in Scripture).

Here At The Beginning: We Prepare To Remember and Anticipate

Mark 1:1-8 (NRSV)

 The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

 As it is written in the prophet Isaiah,

'See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way;
the voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
 
"Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight,"'

John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. He proclaimed, 'The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.' 

Not long ago my least favorite Gospel was Mark.  Being a man of many thoughts and words, I used to like Mark the least for being shorter than the other synoptic Gospels.  However, I have become more appreciative of the Mark's Gospel because Mark doesn't waste much time, he gets right to the point.  His Gospel is about the Good News of Jesus Christ and that John the baptizer was the one preparing the way for the salvation Jesus would bring to those who believed in him.  What Mark's Gospel is not short of is challenges in either interpretation or in the messages of the narratives contained within.   John's mission was to inform those listening that God was coming to God's people to baptize us with the Holy Spirit so that we may be changed within to bring about radical change to a waiting and dark world.


As I have been pointing out all through the Season of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit represents the feminine nature of God.  Thought Tradition is full of masculine pronouns to describe the Advocate of God, the very nature of the Spirit as Comforter, Sanctifier, Consoler and Life-Giver have very feminine connotations to them.  As God is the Creator of women and men in the image of the Holy Trinity, so God is beyond gender descriptions. Yet we can related to God the Holy Spirit as Mother as much as we can related to God as Father.  Jesus himself though appearing as a man, also had a feminine nature to him.  Most of the Wisdom literature refers to the Wisdom of God in feminine terms.  Jesus is known not only as the Son of God, but also as the Wisdom and Word of God which can be translated in the feminine.   


The Baptism Jesus brought was a changed heart and mind.  A change from seeing ourselves as dominant while demanding that others submit.  God's perfect revelation in Jesus was born into a society in which to be male was to dominate and own a female.  The female was thought to be the weaker of the human species.  That is why the translations that suggest that the Bible has the concepts of heterosexuality and homosexuality are very mistaken.   The Biblical writers themselves had no such concept.  The male was understood as the dominant the strong, while the female was seen as the subordinate, the weaker.  Therefore the idea that any man the stronger of the two would suddenly wish to make himself like the weaker was seen as the cultural taboo which is what the word "abomination" in Hebrew "toevah" means.  It is interesting that most conservative Christians with their anti-LGBT rhetoric seem to be bent on being sure that heterosexual people continue to dominate and benefit at the submission and expense of those who are not.   All most LGBTQ people want is to be allowed to live and love in peace with the rest of the world.  Yet, because of the human nature to dominate what is considered weaker, there are many groups of people not limited to LGBT that wind up losing as other groups win big time.


God came in Christ to help us understand that the underprivileged are also important to God.  Jesus also came to call us out of our need to dominate those considered weak.  This understanding has everything to do with the words found in the Magnificat found in Luke 1:46-55.  God comes to lift up the lowly, while the proud are scattered in their own conceit.  The hungry walk away filled with good things, while the rich are sent away with nothing.  Those who were considered strong and dominate are now weaker and subordinate.  Because God knows and views all of God's people as loved unconditionally and all inclusively.  


As we have been preparing the way during Advent, we have also been praying and waiting for the return of Christ.  What a different return Christ would have if we could only allow ourselves to see every human person as having their own integrity, dignity, value and respect.  So that we would not do anything to diminish who another individual is, because each person is created, redeemed and sanctified because we are all loved by God.   We might actually understand why we must love one another as God in Christ has loved all of us.  As we prepare to celebrate the Incarnation in which God was born into human history in Jesus Christ in the midst of all of our mess and poverty, may we also anticipate God's return by being willing to walk with one another in the midst of our poverty and mess.  We are all facing the reality of the economic disaster of the days we are living through.  We all have the things we need most.  What we do not need is more separation between the have's and have not's.  We do not need more prejudice, apathy and violence.  We can always use more friendships, love and a willingness to reach out to those marginalized by society and the Church.   We would do those things because it is what God in Christ came to do.   It is recognizing God's goodness and love in every person with no reason to denigrate anyone.

Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us; and, because we are sorely hindered by our sins, let your bountiful grace and mercy speedily help and deliver us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory, now and for ever. Amen. (Collect for the Third Sunday of Advent, Book of Common Prayer, page 212).

God our heavenly Father, you have blessed us and given us dominion over all the earth: Increase our reverence before the mystery of life; and give us new insight into your purposes for the human race, and new wisdom and determination in making provision for its future in accordance with your will; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Prayer for the Future of the Human Race, Book of Common Prayer, page 828).

Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen. (A Prayer Attributed to St. Francis of Assisi, Book of Common Prayer, page 833).