Acknowledging God's Goodness in Others

Scriptural Basis

Matthew 10:32-39 (NRSV)

Jesus said, "Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven.
"Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.

For I have come to set a man against his father,
and a daughter against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
and one's foes will be members of one's own household.

Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it."

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The Gospel that was chosen for today's commemoration of William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury 1633 to 1645 is one that is used by conservative Christians quite a bit.  Evangelist Billy Graham used the first part of this Gospel at his crusades about acknowledging Christ before others so that Christ will acknowledge us before God as he encouraged people to come forward to publicly confess Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.  Mother Angelica founder of EWTN used this Gospel as her reason for not coming out of her cloister when former Bishop David Foley acknowledged her when he dedicated their new church.  Once again the Bible gets misused as a device to put fear in people if they do not view Jesus in the way conservative Christians view Jesus, those "other" people are doomed.  It closes people's thoughts to finding religion fulfilling and having some kind of attraction for diversity.  The erroneous teaching that the "fear of the Lord" means to be afraid that God will condemn us to hell continues because of Biblical literalism.  The "fear of the Lord" is an invitation to know that God has loved us and spared nothing, not even the dignity of God's divinity in Jesus, but gave his life for all of us.  Therefore, we are invited to consider loving God and our neighbor with the same self-less and sacrificial love.   Accomplishing this requires us to see our own prejudices and need for senseless violence towards people who  are different than ourselves.

Acknowledging Jesus before others means recognizing the goodness of God within all people.  My good mentor Fr. Tetrault often said: "God did not say we have to necessarily like our neighbor, God did say we have to love our neighbor.  There is a big difference."  There may be many things about a particular person we might not care for.  We are all different.  We all have different tastes, abilities etc.  But we are also all human. Created out of the love of God for the purpose of loving God in others and ourselves.   Christians are far from blameless for how we have used the Name of Jesus Christ to justify attitudes of bigotry towards other people.  Christian Tradition has often turned the Bible which is the story of how God loves God's people, into the book of God's penal code.  The Catholic church is notorious for using the Sacraments as bargaining chips towards married people who have divorced, supported same-sex marriage or a woman's right to choose.   While the Sacraments are not a "life insurance policy" to avoid hell, they are means by which we can grow in grace to love and serve God and one another as adopted daughter's and sons through Christ. In the celebration of the Eucharist, Rite I we pray:

We do not presume to come to this thy Table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in thy manifold and great mercies.  We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under thy Table.  But thou art the same Lord whose property is always to have mercy. Grant us therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat the flesh of thy dear Son Jesus Christ, and to drink his blood, that we may evermore dwell in him, and he in us. Amen.  (Book of Common Prayer, page 337).

God is not really interested in condemning us because conservative Christians use the Bible as a penal code.  God wants to manifest (reveal) God's Self to us by helping us to acknowledge God in others, just as Christ wants to acknowledge us before God.  Not just by our extraordinary faith, but because we seek the common good for all who are marginalized as failures.  This includes lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning and queer people.  It includes African Americans, women, Native American Indians, the Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Wiccans, Pagans, atheists and so on.  If we are going to acknowledge Jesus in others, we need to acknowledge that Jesus loves all people. And therefore, so should we.   Jesus came to call those who follow him to be people of radical hospitality and be about the ministry of reconciliation. 

This past weekend all of us in America have been shocked and horrified by the events in Tuscon, Arizona.  There is a media war that is being waged between the right and the left about who's rhetoric bears some responsibility.   I have to side with those who do call the conservative corporate media to some accountability for how they have perpetuated suggestions of gun violence coupled with outrageous discriminatory remarks towards people of different races, skin colors, sexual orientations/gender identities/expressions etc.  Not which the least is President Obama because he is our first African American President. 

One matter that I have to call attention to is the fact that the intern who saved Rep. Gabrielle Gifford's life this past Saturday, Daniel Hernandez is a Hispanic, Gay man.  Sadly, it has also not taken long for Conservatives and Tea Party folks to call attention to it for their own biased use.

It didn't take long after 20-year-old political intern Daniel Hernandez emerged as the hero of Saturday's mass shooting in Arizona for the cynics to figure out the angle. As a poster on Free Republic remarked, "Look shortly for the leftist media to push the 'Gay, Hispanic-American Intern saving the Liberal Congresswoman's life from the Tea Party' angle." Well, Freepers, here it is!

It's not quite that simple, of course. However we try to understand the causes of the tragedy in Arizona and the political rhetoric of violence, it seems clear that there's considerably more to the disturbing story of shooting suspect Jared Lee Loughner than can be explained by pointing to a few wry Sarah Palin quips. And if simply being gay and Latino were grounds for heroism, Ricky Martin's face would be on the $10 bill.

Daniel Hernandez is, by any measure, an extraordinary young man. He had been interning in Gabrielle Giffords' office only five days when an event at a local Safeway thrust him into the international spotlight for his quick thinking, bravery and competence in the wake of unimaginable violence. On the "Today" show Monday, Matt Lauer explained how Hernandez drew upon his high school training as a certified nursing assistant to check on the pulses of other shooting victims before noticing the severity of Giffords' wounds and, as he puts it, prioritizing her. He put her upright and held her in his lap as he applied pressure to staunch the blood. "I could tell she had a severe gunshot," he said. "I just tried to do my best until emergency medical services could arrive. My focus was on making sure I was doing everything I could to take care of her." Even when the ambulance arrived, he stayed with her, because "I saw my job then as not taking care of her medical needs but taking care of her emotional needs. I tried to comfort her and make sure she knew she wasn't alone. I let her know I was going to try to contact her parents and her husband."

Gay people as well as Hispanics now have a terrific role-model in one amazing person.  An individual who stepped outside of himself to do exactly what he was trained to do, to save a most precious individual life.  This very action by itself, brings to mind that God gifts every one of us with the ability to reach out to others and do something that reminds us all of why God placed us on this earth.  To be a helping hand for others when they are hurting and in need of a friend.   Jesus calls of God's people Jesus' friends and says: "No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends." (John 12:13).  Daniel Hernandez may have be a Christian individual, he may very well be an atheist.  Does it matter?  No.  He acknowledge God before others when he reached out to save the life and soul of one individual who had just been shot and faced the possibility of death.  Nevertheless, the fact that is gay and even Hispanic means we must acknowledge God in him too, and resist the prejudice and violence now hurled at him by those who are bashing him in the media, with all the ears of non-thinking people to hear.

As we commemorate William Laud who was not noted for openness to diversity, let us nevertheless be open to the beauty of God not only in the Liturgy or our church buildings, but also in all of the wonderful people, with all their diversity and beauty by which we all acknowledge Jesus before other people. 

Prayers

Keep us, O Lord, constant in faith and zealous in witness, that, like your servant William Laud, we may live in your fear, die in your favor, and rest in your peace; for the sake of Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Collect for William Laud, Holy Women, Holy Men, Celebrating the Saints, Page 165). 


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 the Epiphany, the Baptism of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Book of Common Prayer, page 214).

Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen. (Prayer Attributed to St. Francis, Book of Common Prayer, page 833).

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).