My Beloved, With Whom I Am Pleased

Based on Matthew 12: 15-21

It can be hard to admit that we live in a world where evil sometimes wins. As we read the newspapers about crime, politics, war and inequality, we see how evil is all about us. We can blame it all on Satan which for some is the easy way out, or we can blame it on ourselves for being tolerant of it. In the end, the blame game is not really what is at issue. Some people have more choices at their disposal than others. People plagued by addiction may have the choice over how or whether they treat their addiction, but they do not always have power over what their addictions cause them to do. As long as people are addicted to control, there will be conflicts, racism,sexism,hetero-sexism and all the other "isms" of life.

It is too bad that human beings cannot become more addicted to good things. What a different world it would be if instead of fighting over world resources and who owns them, if they were seen as gifts to be shared with others. It is too bad that people hang on to their prejudices over color, nationality, challenge, religion, sexual orientation and/or gender identity or expression, and class. This big gigantic world that we are all on for a very short time, could be a much better place if we could all see ourselves and others as being equally created by a loving God, and that's why we should cherish each other too.

You see, God does not look upon us in the way we often see ourselves. God sees us through the eyes of God's Beloved in Jesus Christ. When God revealed God's self in Jesus Christ, the Word, God told us how much God loves us. In Jesus Christ, God's value of us was perfect. And it didn't matter what we came to Jesus with, even with our arrogance and ass like attitudes. God loved us even when we made choices that hurt God very much. Even to the point of Jesus dying on the cross. And God did all of this, because in Jesus God told us: "You are my beloved, with whom I am well pleased." (Matthew 12: 18) And what the author of Matthew's Gospel is telling us is borrowed from Isaiah 42:1 where God says: "Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights."

But instead of valuing ourselves and each other as daughters and sons of God, we do everything we can to put ourselves and one another down. We are never satisfied with knowing that God has given us everything. In Bishop Gene Robinson's book: "In the Eye of the Storm; Swept to the Center by God" Robinson talks in chapter 6 of "Daily Resurrection" and how God has already rolled away the stone of our tombs, closets, boxes and addictions. All we need to do is trust in God and let God lead the way. Because God delights so very much in us, God is so pleased with us that in Jesus God has pulled back the curtain that separated us from God and given us new life in the death and resurrection of Christ. We have new opportunities and goals to encounter God not on our terms, but on God's terms. And God sees us as beloved and cherished. We are at the heart of God's desire.

When we see evil flourish, and equality laws taken away it is heart breaking. Not just for us, but also for God. Because, God having given us all free will made God's self very vulnerable. And no matter how much we hurt God with our choices, God still loves us and sees us as God's beloved with whom God is well pleased. Is God happy with our choices? No. But, God loves us just the same. It is God's love that we should be concerned about offending, not whether or not God will send us to hell for the choices we make. Because when we offend God who is all deserving of our love, we've already put ourselves in hell.

We must continue to do our part to alleviate evil in our world. It is so appropriate when we write or call our legislators to pass health care reform, equal rights protections for LGBT individuals and speak up when Pat Robertson says that "Homosexuals do not want marriage, but to "destroy marriage." But we also do not need to fret over their own wickedness. "Be still before the Lord, and wait patiently for him; do not fret over those who prosper in their way, offer those who carry out evil devices.. Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath. Do not fret--it only leads to evil. For the wicked shall be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land." (Psalm 37: 7,8). I have to say that I have a hard time with those three words: "Refrain from anger." As a gay man myself, when people like Robertson make statements like he did, it angers me. It can be difficult for me to wait on the Lord, because I want God to do things my way, in my time and for me. And aren't we all just a little too self-centered in that way?

Perhaps all of us need to take a cue from Bishop John Shelby Spong's manifesto where he says: "I will dismiss as unworthy of any more of my attention the wild, false and uninformed opinions of such would-be religious leaders as Pat Robertson, James Dobson, Jerry Falwell, Jimmy Swaggart, Albert Mohler, and Robert Duncan. My country and my church have both already spent too much time, energy and money trying to accommodate these backward points of view when they are no longer even tolerable." After all, if it is so untrue, then why do we give it so much energy? Should we speak up and say it's wrong? I think so. But should we give them our energy and anger to the degree that we allow what they say to allow it to affect our relationship with God? I think not. For LGBT individuals are like all others, created and loved by the Holy Trinity, who is God. And the Scriptures I read tell me, tell us, that we are God's beloved, with whom God is well pleased.

Grant, O God, that your holy and life-giving Spirit may so move every human heart [and especially the hearts of the people of this land], that barriers which divide us may crumble, suspicions disappear, and hatreds cease; that our divisions being healed, we may live in justice and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen. (Prayer for Social Justice, Book of Common Prayer, #27. Page 823).