Do we Believe God Loves Us?

John 5:30-47 (NRSV)

"I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge; and my judgment is just, because I seek to do not my own will but the will of him who sent me. "If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true. There is another who testifies on my behalf, and I know that his testimony to me is true. You sent messengers to John, and he testified to the truth. Not that I accept such human testimony, but I say these things so that you may be saved. He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. But I have a testimony greater than John's. The works that the Father has given me to complete, the very works that I am doing, testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has himself testified on my behalf. You have never heard his voice or seen his form, and you do not have his word abiding in you, because you do not believe him whom he has sent. "You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that testify on my behalf. Yet you refuse to come to me to have life. I do not accept glory from human beings. But I know that you do not have the love of God in you. I have come in my Father's name, and you do not accept me; if another comes in his own name, you will accept him. How can you believe when you accept glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the one who alone is God? Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; your accuser is Moses, on whom you have set your hope. If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But if you do not believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?"

As we read through the Scriptures, particularly the Gospel of John it can become clear even if it appears a bit obscure that what many fundamentalist Christians preach is not quite the way things are. Most of us have had the experience of having a street preacher or two approach us and they just spew Bible verses, numbers and passages all for the purpose of getting us to accept their points of view. Yet even today in our Gospel from our Morning Prayer we read: "You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that testify on my behalf. Yet you refuse to come to me to have life. I do not accept glory from human beings. But I know that you do not have the love of God in you."

Yet in the Scriptures there are certain truths that do exist among them in the very beginning of today's Gospel are the words: "I can do nothing on my own". If Jesus being God's perfect revelation knows that he cannot accomplish what he needs to do on his own, what makes us think we can do what we need to do without God's help?

In today's Forward Day by Day we read:

"We are God's. God loved us into being. We do not belong to ourselves--we belong to the one who created us in love to live in love. We are the result of an incredible love affair started by God and into which we are invited." (Page 90)

Imagine that? All of us including lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people are the result of an incredible love affair between God and us. Just like a great sexual encounter is always better when it is with someone we are passionately and madly in love with, so all of us with our gifts, beauty and wholeness are the result of God loving us to the point that God wants to be intimately involved with all of us. God share in our joys, celebrations as well as walks with us in the midst of our deepest sorrows and suffering. As a lover's heart breaks when the other is hurt or in trouble, so God weeps and mourns over us when we are injured or in a place of desperation. When God reaches out for us, are we willing to reach out for God?

Today many people are suffering and longing for God's answered prayers. Many have lost jobs, homes and have families that wonder how they will make it through to the next day. The LGBT community heard Pres. Obama's State of the Union speech in which he promised again to overturn Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Yet, we still did not hear a time limit and a date by which he plans to have the task taken care of. The LGBT community like all over groups of people need to remember that no one can do it all alone. Our country and those in our armed forces who wish to serve this nations defense are counting on us to speak up for them and their cause. The Courage Campaign has a great petition as does the Human Rights Campaign asking Pres. Obama to make good on his speech and get the job done this time.

How can we ask God to help us so that we do not attempt to do everything on our own?

Give us grace, O Lord, to answer readily the call of our Savior Jesus Christ and proclaim to all people the Good News of his salvation, that we and the whole world may perceive the glory of his marvelous works; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Collect for the Third Sunday after the Epiphany, BCP, Page 215)