Based on Matthew 13: 44 to 52
It is interesting what people will do when they read about a good sale. People who really, really want what it is will stop at nothing to get what what they are after. They will use that spare money, make sure they get to the store on time. The reaction should they get there and find that they are all out of the item on sale can be one of "oh well, we'll just come back next time." Or: "Oh no!" It can make or break someone's day.
Well God made the decision that you and I are so very important to God that God was willing to spare everything to gain us for God's self. Even when we took advantage of God's generosity in creation and turned away from God, God still thought we were of the utmost importance to God. And so God did not even spare God's only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. When God came to us in God's perfect revelation, God opened up the way for all of us to be drawn back to God. God made no distinctions, no exceptions and no one was excluded from being part of God's plan of salvation. We are the treasure that God sold everything God had to buy the field. We are the precious pearl that God sold everything to have. We are the ones that God loves so much, that God literally put God's self out there, totally vulnerable and willing to give everything in order to draw us closer to God so that God could save us.
So what is our excuse for not welcoming everyone to be part of God's Church? Why is it that we have all this criteria? Over the years women have been told that they have their dignity as human beings, but they are still suppose to live in total subordination to men and not be included in Church leadership positions? People of different nationalities such as African Americans, Native American's, Eastern Indians, Asians, people from the West Indies, South America, Mexico and the Muslim people are told that they have their rightful place in American society, yet there are political parties that still accuse such people as "trying to take away things that are not theirs." Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered individuals when they seek their rights through the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Bill, or through the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) are accused of wanting to "invade the bathrooms of certain sexes so as to commit sexual assault." What is our excuse for not seeing others different than ourselves as one of God's most precious treasures or pearls? Why does our view of people's dignity and integrity stop at the doors of race, sexual orientation and/or gender identity/expression, national origin, religion, challenge or class?
Okay, our human limitations have something to do with it. All of us including this writer struggles every day to live the principles that I write about. I have days too when I am not as open. I make excuses too. I think the "excuse" that we do not look at with all openness and honesty is that we do not yet see ourselves as being God's treasure or pearl. And why should we give anyone else a benefit that we ourselves do not yet own? And this is a message that is as difficult for me to hear as anyone else. From the prayer of St. Francis: "It is in giving that we receive." All too often we have accepted "I cannot give what I do not have." While there is truth in that, the fact that we are alive, breathing, hurting, working, sleeping, loving, struggling is God's gift to us as God's precious pearls and treasures. Our problem is, we do not see God's gifts in the little things, and so we miss God's blessings big and small.
God's very gift of life that we share right here and right now, is the gift from which we can share goodness, love, integrity, dignity and wholeness with others around us. Just the opportunity to struggle to accept ourselves as God's pearl and treasure is a gifted chance given by God to see someone else as God's treasure and pearl. Oh, how this challenges my own stubborn heart, that doesn't want to move past where I am. And I suspect it is the same hardness of heart that keeps others from moving forward. As a gay man, I have heard so many times that I am not in God's good graces as long as I am gay, in love with my partner in a committed monogamous relationship. However, Jesus just told me today, that I am the treasure and the pearl that God spent everything including God's Son to obtain. Do we see ourselves that way when we look into our mirrors, or do we see someone that just is not good enough? Could that be why we have such difficulty seeing the goodness of God's treasure and pearl in someone who is different that ourselves?
O God, who created all peoples in your image, we thank you for the wonderful diversity of races and cultures, "sexual orientations and gender identities/expressions" in this world. Enrich our lives by ever-widening circles of fellowship, and show us your presence in those who differ most from us, until our knowledge of your love is made perfect in our love for all your children; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Prayer taken from the Book of Common Prayer, #7. For the Diversity of Races and Cultures, Page 840. Sexual orientations and gender identities/expressions were added by the author of this blog.)
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