Where Is God In Our Priority?

As I begin this blog today I want to acknowledge and thank the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church for her outstanding statement concerning the anti-homosexual legislation in Uganda. My readers can click on her name and you can read the incredibly strong statement that the Presiding Bishop has issued. We have cause to rejoice today that she is a voice who speaks out concerning the human rights of all peoples, especially those who are now threatened by this draconian bill. Thanks be to God.

One of the principles of the Spirituality of St. Benedict is searching for God. Another way to say it is seeking God at all times, in all circumstances and places. Sometimes God shows God's self in places that are all too real. In other times and places, God's presence can seem either dim or questionable. When life slaps us in the face, a healthy and honest response is "God where are you, what are you doing?" God is always interested in our emotions and what is going on inside of us. God alone knows what is in our hearts and where it hurts the most. But sometimes when life stinks, it can feel as if God is not anywhere near where we need God the most. Sometimes God can be like that one thing we are trying to find that is just elusive. Like when we've lost something and we are tearing up our home to try and find it. When we finally find it, lo and behold it has been there in plan view or perhaps in a corner that we just have been avoiding. God is often the one we are looking for, but we have to look in the right place. That place in each of us is a different place, it is not the same for everyone. But our hearts are always a good place to start looking.

Sometimes the question we might not be asking is where is God in our priority, because we are very much at the center of God's priority. When God made the decision to save humankind, he did it by becoming one like us in the Person of God's Son, Jesus Christ. In Jesus Christ, God revealed God's self perfectly. God identifies with us in Christ in all humanities diversity and difficulty. Jesus who was the "way" to God the Father, has showed us that God knows us intimately, but wants us to be in an intimate relationship with God. Recognizing that we could not draw closer to God on our own God came to us in Christ to show us the "way" back to God. However, our relationship with God needs to be our priority if we are going to find peace within our hearts and lives. We cannot achieve that relationship by just living as if there is no one but ourselves to take care of. That is why our relationships as LGBT people is so very important. Our relationships with our lovers/partners, boy/girl friends is how God draws us closer to God's self through a life of love and sacrifice for someone else.

The Gospel lesson in our Daily Prayers today is taken from Matthew 22:15-22. Jesus is approached by the religious leaders and their henchmen in an attempt to trap him. Jesus is asked about paying taxes to the Emperor. The motive of Jesus' opponents is to try to trap him. "If he (Jesus) affirms that taxes should be paid, he loses the esteem of the religious nationalists. If he denies that taxes should be paid, he is subject to arrest as a political revolutionary" (Collegeville Bible Commentary, New Testament Volume, Page 893). The religious nationalists are trying to get Jesus in a corner to see how he will get himself out, and how they can detract from his popularity. Kind of like health care reform in our Senate now. Republican law makers trying to back it into a corner to strip everything useful, so it dies it's death by doing absolutely nothing. Unlike Democratic Lawmakers who often compromise doing the right thing because they too are being lobbied by the wealthy insurance companies and are anxious to please their money makers, Jesus does not give in to those trying to get him arrested.

Jesus recognizing the hypocrisy in the questions the Pharisees and Herodians are asking them Jesus asks to see a coin. When they show him a coin, Jesus said: "Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor's, and to God what is God's" (Mt:22,21). "Jesus,,,moves the debate to another level by challenging his opponents to be as observant in paying their debts to God as they are in paying their debts to the emperor." (Collegeville Bible Commentary, New Testament Volume, Page 893).

Sometimes the way the religious right attacks lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people, I get the feeling that they are far more interested in the money their heterosexism and homophobia gains them, then actually standing up for the principals of human rights that Jesus Christ advocates. Anti-gay religious right politics is a huge money gaining tactic. Promoting fear that the world will end if the gay marriage law was to continue in the State of Maine got the Catholic Bishop there over $50 million in donations towards the cause. And while Bishop Malone collected the huge amounts of money to help defeat marriage equality, Parishes that help feed people with the Gospel were closed. It was far more important to gain a political position, than to be a shepherd of the flock in Bishop Malone's pasture.

Interestingly enough the Old Testament Reading today has something to say about promoting justice and the cost for not doing so. My good friend Rev. Mike Michie at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Texas has given me the okay to reprint his commentary on the daily Scriptures. "Yesterday, we observed that God does indeed care about injustice. We are supposed to do something about it! As we continue in Amos 5:18-27, the prophet goes on to describe the coming "Day of the Lord". On the whole, the "Day of the Lord" was something Israel had been looking forward to. Amos is sent to rain on this parade. He compares it to a guy who escapes the clutches of a lion, only to be eaten by a bear.

So what does God want from us?

Advent is about preparation. It is about getting ourselves ready for coming of the Lord, not just at Christmas, but in our hearts and when He comes again. What God wants is our pure, honest worship. He wants sincere offerings, with no ulterior motives. He wants us to leave behind our idols, worship Him, and extend His love and justice to the world around us."

Today we are invited by God to give to God what belongs to God. Our hearts and ourselves and our intention to do something about the world around us. The health care debate does not have to go down in flames, but it will if people do not speak up and demand that our legislators think first of those who really do need health care reform. The religious oppression of LGBT people can change if people will encourage those in more progressive congregations to speak up and be voices for justice and equality where their voices are needed most. We should endorse people actually committed to helping to change the laws that allow heterosexuals to advance at the expense of homosexuals. We should show our partners, husbands/wives, significant others and friends our truest love and devotion because we are honoring Jesus Christ in him or her. Let our love and concern for him/her be genuine and supportive especially when days like this past Tuesday when the New York Senate voted down marriage equality. Let us be each other's encouragement when discouragement can so easily set in. Let us give to God what is God's, and that is our true devotion and loyalty by taking care of what God has given us to do.

Lord Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love on the hard wood of the cross that everyone might come within the reach of your saving embrace; So clothe us with your Spirit that we, reaching forth our hands in love, may bring those who do not know you to the knowledge and love of you; for the honor of your Name. Amen (Book of Common Prayer, Page 101).