In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.
He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.
And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth. (John testified to him and cried out, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.' ") From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father's heart, who has made him known.
By now this Gospel reading is not only familiar to us, but we might be tempted to ask why are we back here? It has now been three weeks and four days since Christmas Day. The Season of Epiphany began last Wednesday. Aren't we suppose to be moving on? One thing about the Christian Faith is that we move forward while remembering for whom it is that we go forward and what Jesus Christ means for the world, the Church and for all humanity. In Jesus, God came to us to tell us that we are loved by God and that through Jesus we have the hope of salvation.
The first reading for today's Morning Prayer came from Gen. 2:4-9, 16-25, the story of how God created human beings and gave us dominion over God's creation. God's creation in the beginning of the world and then coming to us in God's Son Jesus, is all part of one big story of salvation history. In today's reading from Hebrews 1:1-14 we read:
Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. He is the reflection of God's glory and the exact imprint of God's very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word. When he had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.
God has shown God's perfect love for all of God's creation by God's incarnate Word. Through God's Son all have the opportunity to draw closer to God and to find in Jesus the hope of salvation.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered individuals are called by God to live as people who are loved by God. We are loved by God as people who love in a very specific way. Just as Jesus loved everyone in God's unique way, so God has empowered LGBT people to love others in our unique way. A professor of mine from College always used to tell me that God has loved each of us more than he has loved anyone else, because when God created us, he made each of us with our own ability to love in our own special way. My professor would remind us that no one else on earth loves in the way with which God has created each of us to love. Those of our friends, partners and family, church communities who love and accept us, do so because they see in us God loving them in a way that no one else can. We have every right and obligation to defend our love and our rights to be people who can love freely and equally like anyone else.
It is up to us today, to see ourselves as God sees us. Not just as people with a sexual orientation and/or gender identity/expression that is different. We have a choice today to see how God has created us as something and/or someone good with good things to offer and therefore choose to do constructive, holy and noble things. Or we can give in to the negativity of the religious right who tells us that we are damned and unhealthy. If we see ourselves as God sees us as beautiful people, then we can learn to cherish ourselves as God does. How do we know that God loves and cherishes us? Because God became one of us, to save us from sin. God came to tell us how beautiful we are, how loved we are, and how God wants each of us to live as people loved by God.
When Jesus opened his arms of love on the Cross, God showed us that God wants to draw everyone to God's loving embrace and wants no one to think that God does not love them. What ever our differences are, how ever unique we may be, God wants us to know that God thinks we are just terrific. God wants to be in relationship with us, because God made us able to love God and others in that special way. Yesterday, God told us that we are God's beloved and with us, God is well-pleased.
Father in heaven, who at the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan proclaimed him your beloved Son and anointed him with the Holy Spirit: Grant that all who are baptized into his Name may keep the covenant they have made, and boldly confess him as Lord and Savior; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen. (Collect for the First Sunday after Epiphany, the Baptism of the Lord, Book of Common Prayer, Page 214).
O God of peace, who has taught us that in returning and rest we will be saved, in quietness and confidence will be our strength: By the might of your Spirit lift us, we pray, to your presence, where we may be still and know that you are God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Prayer for Quiet Confidence, Book of Common Prayer, Page 832).
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