Whoever is from God hears the words of God. The reason you do not hear them is that you are not from God.' The Jews answered him, 'Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?' Jesus answered, 'I do not have a demon; but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. Yet I do not seek my own glory; there is one who seeks it and he is the judge.
Very truly, I tell you, whoever keeps my word will never see death.' The Jews said to him, 'Now we know that you have a demon. Abraham died, and so did the prophets; yet you say, "Whoever keeps my word will never taste death." Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? The prophets also died. Who do you claim to be?' Jesus answered, 'If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, he of whom you say, "He is our God," though you do not know him. But I know him; if I would say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you. But I do know him and I keep his word. Your ancestor Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day; he saw it and was glad.' Then the Jews said to him, 'You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?' Jesus said to them, 'Very truly, I tell you, before Abraham was, I am.' So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.
Saint Theresa of Avila has been quoted to have said: "The foundation of any Spirituality is self knowledge." To know ourselves is the beginning of knowing who God is to us. For lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, questioning and queer individuals we cannot know ourselves as heterosexual or as only one gender in body and mind. We were not made that way. So when an ex-gay ministry attempts to suggest that they "cure" us of the gay, what they are actually attempting to do is get LGBTQ people to lie to themselves and to God. This is why Bishop John Shelby Spong as well as myself refer to ex-gay ministries as fraudulent. (A New Christianity for a New World, page 14),
Throughout the heated discussion in John's Gospel chapter 8 Jesus has been debating with his audience in the temple about who Jesus is. He is throwing some major problems in the faces of those who are listening. John's Gospel has some major problems in it, especially for those of us who condemn all attacks against the Jewish people and their religion. I cannot condone to any degree the anti-semetism that comes from suggesting that the Jewish or the Islamic people must convert to Christianity in order to find salvation in God. Many individuals including myself when I was part of conservative Christianity have made use of John's Gospel for such biased purposes. And to those who may be reading my blogs that are of the Jewish or Islamic Faiths, whom my own careless rhetoric has harmed over the years, I sincerely apologize and ask your forgiveness. I hope that somehow we can all join together in peaceful prayer for God to help us end the violence and prejudice that comes from religions based discrimination in all of it's forms, including but not limited to LGBTQ and peoples of non-Christian religions.
For those of us who are part of the Christian Faith, we can take from this Gospel that Jesus is telling those in his hearing that he is God. If we believe that God was in Christ, then we must also believe that God has the power to save all peoples, including those who are of the Jewish and Islamic religions, because their God and our God is the same God. Yet, because the Christian religion has fundamentalist individuals means that we have people who use Christianity as an excuse to scapegoat people of different religions, sexual orientations and/or gender identities, immigration status, races, genders, nations of origin. Fundamentalist Christians make it their doctrine and their mission to spread the Gospel of hate, using violence if necessary. Take for example the missionaries of hate that went to Uganda to help their Parliament construct a bill that if passed would mean life in prison or death by hanging for known homosexuals. This is quite the contradiction to St. Francis of Assisi who said: "Preach the Gospel at all times, when necessary use words." St. Francis' words "when necessary use words" means that our actions must help spread the Gospel and only when necessary should we speak. Silence in the middle of doing what is right goes a lot farther, than preaching violence and prejudice with all hell, fire and brimstone.
Jesus in today's Gospel is in trouble for telling his audience who he is. So often when LGBTQ individuals come out to their parents, friends, families, school or church communities and work places they are in trouble because they told someone who they are. In most cases, they are in trouble before they say a word. If woman shakes hands with someone with a tighter grip than most women, she must be a lesbian and therefore she will now face harassment because she is different. If a young man in school enjoys more time with the drama club or learning a musical instrument, he is different, he must be gay. That young man will face horrible discrimination just because he is assumed to be gay and may or may not be. A youth who has trouble not having an erection in the shower at the gym in his school faces the possibility of violent bullying because he is assumed and may very well be gay. Judy Shepard has faced individuals calling her a liar for saying that her son Matthew was in fact murdered because he was gay. Many fundamentalists against the hate crimes law, tried to shame her and suggest he was trying to sell drugs. As soon as an LGBTQ individual is known for who she or he is, that individual could be in trouble. Why? Because fundamentalist Christians believe that anti-gay bullying will help cure the gay. Read more about that kind of thing here.
LGBTQ people are not the only ones who get in trouble for living out who they are. Women are also in the same boat. GOP US Senate Candidate Sharon Angle of Nevada has been campaigning by suggesting that women who are pregnant due to rape or incest should not have abortions because it is God's will. Since when is outrageous violence ever the will of God? Since when is suggesting that because women are the weaker species and therefore are to accept violent sexual behavior from men suppose to be the will of God? Just because the Bible was written from a time when this was how the culture existed? Times do change, and so do our interpretations of what the Bible means. The longer Jesus lived the more apparent his message of nonviolent domination became better understood. Jesus not only did not accept a culture of domination, he made every effort to avoid those who tried to dominate him.
The Episcopal Church today commemorates David Pendleton Oakerhater. A native of the Cheyenne Indians of Oklahoma. He was converted to Christianity by an Army Captain while he was imprisoned accused of inciting rebellion. In Oakerhater is an example of how a man who was facing horrible persecution found the peace of Jesus Christ and turned his tragedy into an opportunity to bring peace between the Indian Nation of Cheyenne and the United States. He was a deacon and a missionary of the Episcopal Church who died in 1931. Here is a man who faced horrible discrimination and terrible injustices. Yet Jesus Christ entered his life and made use of the tragedies he faced to attempt to do justice with and for others.
Today we are challenged by the Gospel and by David Pendleton Oakerhater to confess who we are and to live out who we are. We will face challenges because we live out the Gospel as we are. Jesus faced the ultimate sacrifice for being who he is, by giving his life for those who were cast off to the side of society and the religion of his time. There were no unimportant people to Jesus. There is now no individual person that is not important to Jesus. God cares for and about all of God's children, including the Native American, the LGBTQ, the sick, the poor, those who cannot know or speak English, the African American, the Asian, those in the prisons of addiction or to keep them safe from society, women, Islam, Jewish or any other religious persuasions. All of us are important to God in Jesus. Jesus told us that God was in him to let us know that God loves each of us, personally, unconditionally and all-inclusively. When we are willing to live before God in all honesty about who we are, God the Holy Spirit will lead and "guide us in the way of all truth." (John 16:13). Like Jesus we will have the task of serving and loving others as they are, because as "God has loved us, so we ought to love one another." (1 John 4: 11).
Lord of all power and might, the author and giver of all good things: Graft in our hearts the love of your Name; increase in us true religion; nourish us with all goodness; and bring forth in us the fruit of good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Proper 17, Book of Common Prayer, Page 233).
God our heavenly Father, you have blessed us and given us dominion over all the earth: Increase our reverence before the mystery of life; and give us new insight into your purposes for the human race, and new wisdom and determination in making provision for its future in accordance with your will; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Prayer for the Future of the Human Race, Book of Common Prayer, Page 828).
O God of unsearchable wisdom and infinite mercy, you chose a captive warrior, David Oakerhater, to be your servant, and sent him to be a missionary to his own people, and to exercise the office of a deacon among them: Liberate us, who commemorate him today, from bondage to self, and empower us for service to you and to the neighbors you have given us; through Jesus Christ, the captain of our salvation; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Collect for David Pendleton Oakerhater, Holy Women, Holy Men, Celebrating the Saints, Page 555).
Almighty God, you proclaim your truth in every age by many voices: Direct, in our time, we pray, those who speak where many listen and write what many read; that they may do their part in making the heart of this people wise, its mind sound, and its will righteous; to the honor of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Prayer for Those Who Influence Public Opinion, Book of Common Prayer, Page 827).
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