Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone. When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."
"We all have our own perception of, and relationship to, some God. We may not use the name "God." We may think in terms of Reality, Nature, The First Cause, The Behavior of the World, The Other, The All, The Ground of Being, The Force of Evolution, The Life Spirit, or Things As They Really Are. Each of us creates an image of the supreme mystery in which we find ourselves, and we are always in a relationship with it.
The nature of our concept of what controls life, and the character of our relationship to it changes according to our perceptions and attitudes. Our relationship can be one of fear or trust, of malaise or of enthusiasm. It can be anything we make it. We must train ourselves. We must learn to control our thoughts and feelings about life.
Experiences is the raw material from which we create our attitude toward, our engagement with, our vision of, our God. We are responsible for our vision, our beliefs. We can make our experience heaven or hell." (John McQuiston II, Always We Begin Again, The Benedictine Way of Living, pages 29,30)
The battle for marriage equality has been heating up in the State of Minnesota. The local Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis because of a grant from the Knights of Columbus in the amount of $1.4 million are circulating a DVD to Minnesota Catholics to oppose marriage equality. The organization Outfront Minnesota is asking Minnesota Catholics who receive the DVD to return it to the sender. Archbishop Nienstedt was on Minnesota Public Radio stating that there is no difference between civil marriage and religious marriage.
In California the debate over marriage equality continues to bring out the worst in Christianists. The Family Research Council has filed an amicus brief on the Proposition 8 case. Among their many erroneous statements made to denigrate LGBTQ people and their wish to marry the person they love was:
Proposition 8 does not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. Homosexuals may marry someone of the opposite sex, and heterosexuals may not marry someone of the same sex.
… nothing …even remotely supports the conclusion that Californians approved Proposition 8 with the intent or purpose to discriminate against homosexuals, as opposed to their knowledge that, if adopted, Proposition 8 would have a disparate impact on homosexuals. Nor are there any facts that could support such a conclusion.
Then there is my very favorite quote by Bishop Gene Robinson from his book In the Eye of the Storm. I have used it many times in this blog, but I do think it needs repeating.
"So the sin we're fighting now, within the secular sphere, is the sin of heterosexism. More and more people are feeling kindly toward gay and lesbian people, but that will never be enough. More important is the dismantling of the system that rewards heterosexuals at the expense of homosexuals. That's why equal marriage rights are so important. That's why "don't ask, don't tell" is such a failure, and such a painful thing for gay and lesbian people, even those who have no desire to serve in the military. These are ever-present reminders that our identities, our lives, and our relationships are second class--because the very system of laws that govern us discriminates against us and denigrates our lives." (Page 24).
In today's Gospel reading, Jesus reads his inaugural address which consequently is the inaugural address of all Baptized Christians. All Christians who have been baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus (see Romans 6) have the responsibility of helping "the oppressed to go free." Christians are suppose to "let the oppressed go free" not make peace with oppression and celebrate it. Yet, making peace with oppression of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, questioning and queer people is precisely what Christianists and the Catholic hierarchy are about the business of doing these days. Making peace with oppressing the religion of Islam is what Christianists have been doing over these past several months. In so doing, they are making their own experience as well as the experiences of the people they oppress captives of an understanding of God according to their own creation. This is not at all the God who is Father of Jesus Christ. This is not God the Holy Spirit, Mother of all Christians and Life-Giver.
The God who was perfectly revealed in Jesus Christ see's God's beauty and lovely self-disclosure in all whom God has made. In God's eyes all of God's children are loved and wanted. When God's child who is gay or lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, questioning or queer cries out to God because of the pain they are experiencing because of the oppression of Christianists and traditional Catholics, God's heart breaks with theirs. God wraps God's loving and outstretched arms around all of God's children who are oppressed, cannot see, are captive and in need of a Savior and Deliverer. God's love does not stop at the door of our sexual and gender diversity. The God who is Jesus Christ is not the angry, legalistic God that Christianists and traditional Catholics make God out to be. The God who loves all people unconditionally and all inclusively reaches out to love all people, not just some people, but all people.
Today, the words of the reading that Jesus from the Prophet Isaiah are fulfilled. Today, God comes to each and every one of us and tells us, all of us that we are loved. Heterosexism is the sanctimony of Christianists and traditional Catholics, and the oppression of sexual and gender diversity. Jesus Christ is the way to the unconditional and all inclusive love of God for both of us, yet freeing LGBTQ people from that oppression. In Jesus Christ, God came out and told all of us held captive or oppressed that in Jesus we are free.
Grant us, Lord, not to anxious about earthly things, but to love things heavenly; and even now, while we are placed among things which are passing away, to hold fast to those that shall endure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Proper 20, Book of Common Prayer, page 234).
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 in 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. (Prayer for Mission, Book of Common Prayer, page 101).
O God, you made us in your own image and redeemed us through Jesus your Son: Look with compassion on the whole human family; take away the arrogance and hatred which infect our hearts; break down the walls that separate us; unite us in bonds of love; and work through our struggle and confusion to accomplish your purposes on earth; that, in your good time, all nations and races may serve you in harmony around your heavenly throne; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Prayer for the Human Family, Book of Common Prayer, page 815).
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