Are We Prepared to Meet God?

All of us at one time or another have prepared ourselves for a job interview. We select the best clothes, prepare to answer tough questions and show up early so that we are on time. We greet the interviewer with a nervous but friendly smile, hand shake and warm attitude. Yet, we are always cautious about getting over confident, for we do not know a company by the interview alone. It is only after we are hired that we find the ins and outs of a particular place of work. What kinds of people are there and what kinds of opportunities the work we were hired to do will require of us. But, were we really prepared for everything? Probably not quite everything.

As we go through this season of Advent we are asked to prepare ourselves to meet our God. We remember that God came to us in God's perfect revelation in the Incarnation of God in Christ as we will remember on Christmas Day. Are we prepared to meet our God?

There is a reason why in the Liturgical Calendar that Christmas is the one major feast day that is movable depending on the date of December 25th. We will notice that Ash Wednesday could happen any number of dates between February 9th as what happened two years ago, to as late as March 8th. Easter can be any number of Sundays ranging from March 23rd as was the case in 2008 or as late as April 25th. However, Christmas is the one date of December 25th that can happen any day of the week and it is still a Holy Day. Why do you suppose that is? It is actually that way for a reason. And the reason is to remind us that once in human history, Jesus was born and he could have come any day of the week, exactly what day, we do not know. Likewise, Christ could come any day of the week at any moment and therefore we need to make ourselves ready for Christ to come again. One of the key elements of Advent is to meditate on the kingdom of God being already here, but not yet.

God is already here by the very fact that God created every one of us. All of us have the very imprint of God in our created being. All of us were created in the image and likeness of the Holy Trinity. We will also recall that in Matthew 25: 31 to 46 Jesus tells us that when we serve the least members of his family we are serving Jesus. This in and of itself is a pretty good indication that what we hope for is already very much within our grasp. However, the full completion of all that we want and hope for has yet to be completely realized and that is why during Advent we meditate on Christ's second coming while preparing to celebrate his first coming in the Incarnation. All of this gives us pause to reflect on our readiness to encounter God in our lives, in the lives of others and even within ourselves.

In today's first reading from Amos 4:6-13, God is talking through a prophet who is not affiliated with any religious body. (Check out Forward Day by Day, for today, Thursday, December 3rd on Page 34). This is someone who is not of any organized religion. Amos is a guy who probably was not theologically trained. He might very well have been one of those pesky gay men trying to hold a protest after the State revoked his right to marry. He was someone who wasn't too popular with the religious leaders of his time. They thought he was just a pest, someone who was just a nag. Yet, God spoke through Amos and called people to prepare to meet their God.

In today's Gospel of Matthew 21:33 to 46, Jesus gives the parable of the Vineyard Owner and how the tenants treated those who came and finally how they killed the Vineyard Owner's son. Those who have been entrusted with taking care of the Vineyard are quick to eject from that vineyard anyone whom the Vineyard Owner sent to take their proper share of the harvest. Those who had the right to be there, were thrown out, beaten and tortured. They were treated like second class citizens, those who as far as the vineyard workers were concerned had no right to be there.

This can be very much the case of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people in the Church and society. LGBT individuals have been created by a loving God. We have been created with an incredible capacity to love not only people of the same sex, but just about everyone. We are people who can throw one hell of a party. We even get a little loud and crazy. We are people who are here to share the same country, church and society that everyone else has a share in. Yet, when we encounter Popes, Bishops, Priests, Ministers, Governors, Congress folk, State and/or Federal Legislators who treat us as second class citizens, it as if we are being told that we have no right to the harvest in the vineyard that God has given us. This kind of treatment is wrong. There is no excuse for religious and civil leaders to deny us our civil rights. The very fact that our civil rights have to be put on the vote of a city council, State Legislative process, ballot initiative or be the subject of Congressional action is absurd. No one's rights should be voted on. No one should have to rely on the majority to tell anyone else how they should conduct their personal life. Unless someone is posing physical harm to anyone else, who we love and how we love is really our own personal business. And we have every right to tell religious and civil authorities to get their moral judgments out of our bedrooms.

Yesterday was truly a sad day in this nation. When the New York State Senate killed the marriage equality bill yesterday the outrage from the LGBT Community nation wide was justified. The rallies that took place all over New York State were warranted. What happened there was wrong. The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) celebrated as LGBT people's right to claim blessings that are rightfully ours were lost.

Yet, from all of this the worst thing that we can do is give up and walk away with no resolve to continue our work to be released from religious and civil oppression. We must continue to launch new campaigns for marriage equality all over the Nation. We must continually challenge the outspoken religious right's opposition to LGBT people by letting them know that we are people of good will just like anyone else. We need to continue to show that we are people with an incredible gift of love and we want our love to be acknowledged and celebrated.

When I asked as I entitled this blog post: "Are We Prepared to Meet God?" I meant, are we really prepared to meet God with the attitudes many of us carry in our hearts? Our nation is becoming the correct understanding of what the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah really was, the failure to show hospitality. Are we really prepared to meet God while we water down the public option in the health care reform bill in the US Senate and let the wealthy insurance companies reap the benefits of health care reform? Are we really prepared to meet God while the Parliament of Uganda considers imprisoning people who are gay and those who know people who are gay but do not report them? Are we prepared to meet God while so many people are still unemployed, homeless, and without means to supply for themselves the daily necessities of life? As long as we allow these things to continue to mark injustice and oppression for people on the earth, how then are we going to do when we meet God in the second coming?

What can we do today to help us be ready to meet God?

Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (Book of Common Prayer, First Sunday of Advent, Page 211.)