While they were going, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests everything that had happened. After the priests had assembled with the elders, they devised a plan to give a large sum of money to the soldiers, telling them, "You must say, 'His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.' If this comes to the governor's ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble." So they took the money and did as they were directed. And this story is still told among the Jews to this day. Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age."
Are Christians about the work of deception or evangelization? As I read this Gospel as part of morning prayer today I was struck by the account of the priests making the deal with the soldiers to keep the news of Jesus' resurrection a big secret. The priests did their own political maneuvering, including paying an amount of money and promising to protect the duties of the soldiers to keep people from hearing that Jesus had risen from the dead. Meanwhile, Jesus meets with his disciples to instruct them to baptize all nations in the Name of the Holy Trinity and that he would be with us until the end of time.
I think a lot about this kind of thing as I also think about how evangelical and conservative Christians who practice Biblical literalism want to keep the real understanding of homosexuality, bisexuality and transgendered issues from coming to light. To allow a newer and more correct Biblical understanding would mean that LGBTQ people can attain equal rights under the laws of our Country and sacramental equality in our churches. Jesus Christ will have truly risen from the dead not just for people who are heterosexual, but also for people who are LGBTQ. This would mean having to share our churches, military, jobs, housing market, adoption services, marriage rights, taxation equality, civil authority, religious ordination etc with those who are LGBTQ.
My good friend Alvin McEwen wrote a magnificent blog article about how the Family Research Council manipulates legitimate date to hurt the LGBTQ Community
Once religious right groups find an item which can be used to demonize the lgbt community, they repeat this item ad naseum, even if they have to omit some crucial facts which could change the flow of what they are trying to push.
For example this quote by AIDS researcher Ronald Stall:
One of the nation’s leading AIDS researchers, Ronald Stall, has declared, “It may be a fallacy to say that HIV is the dominant, most dangerous and most damaging epidemic among gay men in the United States today. There are at least four other epidemics occurring among gay men that are intertwining and making each other worse. This is called a syndemic.” The “four other epidemics” are “substance abuse, partner violence, depression and childhood sexual abuse.”
That is how the Family Research Council spun the quote while using it to make the case against a repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell.
It is quite the shameful deal to be twisting words and making them work for your own political cause. Kind of like accepting money to keep the news of Jesus' resurrection as if you were asleep while the body was stolen. Christians are suppose to be telling the world of Jesus' resurrection and calling for all nations to be baptized so that we can all share in the new life promised to the followers of Christ. But no, instead we take the money and keep Jesus' triumphant work of redemption under our breath while minorities including LGBTQ people are kept from hearing of Jesus' message of salvation, because unless we are willing to change our sexual orientation and/or gender identity/expression, the Paschal Mystery just cannot save us. Or at least that is how it sounds to us who are LGBTQ. And quite frankly, that just is not true.
The crucifixion, death, resurrection, ascension and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost are the work of God's salvation in Jesus Christ for all people. We share in that Paschal Mystery through the Sacrament of Baptism. That includes LGBTQ people. Our sexual orientation and/or gender expression/identity, and our choice to exercise our sexuality within loving, committed relationships does not diminish our opportunity to share in the salvation Jesus Christ won for us by the Easter experience. Conservative Christians are rewriting the Bible and the theology of the Church to say that, Jesus Christ and the Bible do not. When conservative Christians, Evangelicals and Fundamentalists say that LGBTQ people cannot be saved except if we denounce who we are, how we love and who we love, or seek reparative therapy through ex-gay ministries, they are deceiving LGBTQ people and other Christians.
To go forth and to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to invite people to be baptized is to be open to all people from all walks of life. In Revelation 5: 9 we read that God has redeemed by the blood of the Lamb for God's Self "from every tribe and language and people and nation; you have made them to be a kingdom and priests serving our God, and they shall reign on the earth." If the terms every and people do not include LGBTQ people than this ancient hymn that is included in Revelation has a serious problem. The writers got the inspiration to include this in the hymn from somewhere. Given the richness of the words the inspiration had to be from God's Holy Spirit. I cannot believe that God's Holy Spirit does not know that love is also a language spoken through actions that originate from our hearts and minds, and translated through our bodies. Those who truly understand that love is the language of the heart can also comprehend that those who are homosexual and bisexual who choose to love members of the same-sex in holy, loving, committed relationships are speaking the language of love that is included in the people mentioned in the hymn from the Book of Revelation. And those men who were born women, knowing that they are really men and vice versa, who speak the language of being a man who is suppose to be a woman and vice versa speak the language of being transgendered people. Transgendered contains the root trans which is the same root that begins the word transformation. The Paschal Mystery was not only a definitive moment in salvation history, but also a point of transformation. Transgendered people experience the trans-formative power of God in a powerful and physical way, from the inside out. Is it possible that we can look at the transformation of one gender to another as the changing of our old sinful nature to the new and holy nature that God intended? When we truly become the holy person God originally intended for us to be, we not only transform ourselves in to who we are suppose to be, but help transform the world in to a more welcoming and inclusive community of love for all people.
When we learn to look towards people of different races, nationalities, sexual orientations and/or gender identities/expressions etc through the eyes of the incredible things God is able to accomplish by God's work of redemption, we can also begin to understand that keeping people from their equal rights and from sacramental equality is down right evil. If we really worked to see that kind of thing, then accepting payments for keeping this information under wraps is understood to be unacceptable. When we get out from our Pandoras Box that we keep ourselves and try to keep the Holy Spirit in, we can truly know and share the news of Jesus' saving work, because we would not want anyone to miss out on all the wonderful things God has for those who love God.
O God, the protector of all who trust in you, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: Increase and multiply upon us your mercy; that, with you as our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we lose not the things eternal; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Proper 12, Book of Common Prayer, Page 231)..
Grant, O God, that your holy and life-giving Spirit may so move every human heart, that barriers which divide us may crumble, suspicions disappear, and hatreds cease; that our divisions being healed, we may live in justice and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Prayer for Social Justice, Book of Common Prayer, Page 823).
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