Are We Ready to Live Our Life's Calling?

"I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worth of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." (Ephesians 4:1-3).

What a great mission LGBT Christians have. We are people who love others in our own unique way. The mission of unity and peace is really the mission of all Christians. In this blog I make a daily effort to present thoughts about how lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered individuals can embrace the loving message of Jesus Christ and live it out in society and the Church. I have taken on that focus for this daily blog because LGBT people are so often rejected by Christians. We are told we are sinners going to hell. We are told that we cannot accomplish God's will for our life or enter the kingdom of heaven unless we change our orientation. Neither one of these assertions is true. Last I heard, Jesus Christ is the judge of the living and the dead. Our sexual orientation and gender identity/expression is a gift given to us to know and share the love of God in and through our lives.

All during these past two weeks I have been writing about how LGBT Christians share a unique similarity with Jesus. When Jesus was born in Bethlehem, God came into the world through the Word by which God created the world. In Jesus God comes to call a world torn by violence, discrimination and marginalization to peace, justice and salvation through inclusive and unconditional love. The salvation God brings to us in Christ is the redemption of our souls from sin and also a conversion of heart. The conversion of heart should result in our desiring nothing more than the full inclusion of all people. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people are among those included in God's plan of salvation and conversion. Part of the conversion work for LGBT Christians is to see our sexual orientation and gender identities/expressions as God's gift to us in love for the purpose of love. Another important part of our conversion is to use that gift of love given to us by God and redeemed by the death and resurrection of Christ, to love others as God loves us. Our mission of love will call others to a conversion of heart. Like all missionary work, our work will bring about those who will reject our message of inclusive love. Our message of God's love for us and for others will be met by hatred sometimes violence and political corruption that seeks to hold onto it's power of control.

The fact that the world, society and even many within the Church do not and will not accept LGBT people as persons created and loved by God as we are, it is an opportunity to show such folks how wrong they are. We will not achieve that goal through violence and the same political corruption that our adversaries use against us. Our very difficult and awesome task is to "make every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" while challenging people to a change of heart about LGBT people. Each of us will have to decide how we will share how wonderful being LGBT and Christian is in such a way that is peaceful and respectful. When we are angry and the right wing hurls those insults at us, we will struggle and sometimes fail to respond in a peacefully and respectfully.

Our Gospel of John 6:1-14 for today's Divine Office presents some wonderful insights to help us understand how to carry on our missionary work. The Gospel is the story of Jesus feeding the five thousand hungry people by using the five loaves and two fish that the disciples brought with them. The disciples like us felt that they brought too little. However, the mind of God is not the mind of human beings. God can always take what little we are willing to share do good things. When we bring what and who we are to God and offer it to God as it is, God can take what we surrender and use it to do incredible things. This is why the Eucharist is so very important for Christians, particularly LGBT Christians. In the Mass, we Christians bring our bread and wine, our prayers and desires, including our pains and rejections to God in prayer. In the Eucharistic Liturgy God transforms what we bring to God and then feeds us with God's very presence and empowers us to be God's presence in the world around us.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered individuals have been told way too much that our sexual orientation and gender identity/expression makes us worthless to God unless it is changed. I would like to suggest that when we offer ourselves to God as we are and entrust what the world finds worthless and dirty into the hands of God, God uses them and us to transform us and the world around us. In the Eucharist God feeds us with the Goodness of God. As Christians who are fed by the Body and Blood of Christ, Who is our Bread of life and Cup of Salvation, God transforms us with all that is good and not so good into something wonderful and treasured.

In the thanksgiving after everyone receives Holy Communion, the Priest and Congregation together pray:

Eternal God, heavenly Father,
you have graciously accepted us as living members
of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ,
and you have fed us with spiritual food
in the Sacrament of his Body and Blood.
Send us now into the world in peace,
and grant us strength and courage
to love and serve you
with gladness and singleness of heart;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
(Book of Common prayer, Page 365)

It is clearly state in the words of this beautiful prayer, that after receiving the Eucharist, Christians pray to be sent into the world in peace. We are sent forth to "love and serve the Lord" through our witness, our works and through sharing the Gospel through our living, loving, struggling and participating in the work of Christ in our daily life. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered Christians are given the awesome task of fulfilling this calling through our unique way of loving and interacting with society and the Church to help transform discriminatory hearts and attitudes. All of us have the opportunity to accomplish this through our participation in "making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." Usually that effort alone is more difficult than most others we will take on. Who is up for this challenge as we begin 2010?

O God, the author of peace and lover of concord, to know you is eternal life and to serve you is perfect freedom: Defend us, your humble servants, in all assaults of our enemies; that we, surely trusting in your defense, may not fear the power of any adversaries, through the might of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
(A Collect for Peace, Book of Common Prayer, Page 99).

Almighty God, you have poured upon us the new light of your incarnate Word: Grant that this light, enkindled in hearts, may shine forth in our lives; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, on God, now and forever. Amen. (Collect for the First Sunday after Christmas, Book of Common Prayer, Page 213).