The Gospel chosen for today is Matthew 16: 21 to 28. It is the story of St. Peter attempting to keep Jesus from going to Jerusalem to give his life and Jesus rebuking Peter. Following the rebuke of Peter, Jesus gives the call to Discipleship to pick up our cross and follow after him. Jesus then tells us: "For those who want to save their life will lose it, and who those who lose their life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?" (Verses 25,26).
This last verse that I have quoted is one of those that evangelists love to use in the attempt to convert people, particularly lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people. There are many preachers who would use this text to say: "If you want to save your life of homosexual relationships, then you will forfeit your eternal soul." What is wrong with this statement? First of all, no one but God alone knows what is in another persons heart and soul. Second, no one but God alone knows the eternal destiny of any one of us. Thirdly, God alone is the judge of the living and the dead. Such preaching has a level of arrogance that lacks Christian charity and any level of Biblical truth. No wonder so many LGBT people ignore Christianity and the Church.
What is it that Disciples of Jesus are being called to lose here? How does this relate to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people? How can we pick up our cross and follow the Lord?
The abuse of the Bible against homosexuals is not just limited to evangelical Pastors. It is also heavily abused by Catholics. I was involved in the Courage group for about a year and three months. During that time among the things we were taught to do is to "shoulder the cross of same-sex attraction and "lose" our desire for intimate sexual relationships with people of the same-sex." We were actually encouraged (which is a poor choice of words at this juncture, but I cannot think of any other) to see our "same-sex attraction" as something to be afraid of, scared of and we were to "shoulder" it through self denial and sacrifice of our desires so that we could live chaste lives. What's wrong with this picture?
I would like to suggest a different way of viewing this Gospel for LGBT individuals. The cross that Jesus is calling LGBT people to shoulder and follow after him, is the cross that says that we face our sexual orientation and/or gender expression/identity with dignity and grace in the face of a society and even churches that see us as dirty, distorted and intrinsically disordered. In the face of opposition, we carry the cross of love for even those who refuse to grant us marriage equality and civil rights. We carry the cross of seeing ourselves as truly loving and wonderful human beings even when people like Bishop Gene Robinson gets hate mail and death threats. To shoulder the cross and to "lose our life" means that we accept that we are going to shake things up in society. A Christianity that does not shake some people up, is a Christianity that is a story in the Bible with no relevance to anything.
The cross was more than just an instrument of torture. It was a statement that those who plant a cultural or point of view not shared by the common people will face torture, death and shame. Jesus was a cultural revolutionary. Jesus challenged the status quo. Jesus sought out the marginalized and stigmatized of society and the religious leaders of the day. Jesus was willing to give up all prestige, all respect and all ownership of his own life in order to serve the least and most in need. The one's who were on the bottom of society, those were the people that Jesus made friendships with. The people who were outcasts of society and the church of his time, Jesus made sure that they knew that God had a plan and a place for them. All of this, cost Jesus his life. This is the same life that LGBT individuals, families and couples suffer every day, just for being LGBT. In the face of the greatest prejudice and discrimination which is evil pulled up by its belly and thrown down on its head, LGBT people stand very courageous and we have said NO. LGBT people know that they are "fearfully and wonderfully made" (Psalm 139:14) just the way they are. LGBT people celebrate their love, even when many in society and throughout the Christian faith tell them they are "intrinsically evil." This is giving up lives of comfort to tell the world news that they are often not wanting to hear.
The LGBT community has every right to celebrate and live out our lives in the Name of Jesus Christ. We are Disciples of Jesus Christ, because we deny ourselves the comforts that many heterosexual couples enjoy, and we continue to speak out where injustice and hate are loud and prosperous. When we embrace our cross and see it as a way to life and through it call people to think differently about what they've always understood, we are giving up our life, lest we lose it. As we face law after law being given and then sadly taken away, and then fight again and again to have them resorted, we are carrying our cross and giving up our life. When we choose to see ourselves as beautiful and holy people, while right wing Christians spew insults at us, we are sacrificing ourselves in the face of incredible opposition.
Let us today embrace the cross and do it with a sense of joy and wonder at the great gift Jesus Christ has given us.
In the cross of Christ I glory, towering o'er the wrecks of time;
All the light of sacred story gathers round its head sublime.
When the woes of life o'er take me, hopes deceive, and fears annoy,
Never shall the cross forsake me; lo, it glows with peace and joy.
When the sun of bliss is beaming light and love upon my way,
From the cross the radiance streaming adds new luster to the day.
Bane and blessing, pain and pleasure, by the cross are sanctified;
peace is there that knows no measure, joys that through all time abide.
(In the Cross of Christ I glory, Hymn #441 in the Hymnal 1982)
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