I struggled a lot with the readings for this first Sunday of Lent and how they relate to the justice, equality and inclusion of LGBTQ people in the Church and society. I consulted many sources from the Collegeville Bible Commentary, Sermons that Work in the Episcopal Church and finally Out in Scripture. All of them offered perspectives on the meaning of the Gospel story of the temptation of Jesus found in Matthew 4: 1-11.
The most important understanding I have gained from the temptation of Jesus that relates to LGBTQ people is that of our identity.
As I print the Gospel reading for this weekend, I suggest we think of this narrative as being linked with the story of Jesus' baptism that came before the temptation. In Matthew 3 Jesus has been baptized by John the Baptist. A voice came from heaven saying that Jesus was God's beloved, with whom God was well-pleased. To interpret the temptation of Jesus correctly in a way that is so very important to the spiritual and social lives of LGBT and to our activism, we must begin from the point that Jesus has just been told that he is the beloved Son of God. So through Jesus God tells all of us that we are God's beloved and with us God is well-pleased.
Scriptural Basis
Matthew 4:1-11 (NRSV)
Before we begin to unpack this Gospel, we must look to the first reading from Genesis 2: 15-17; 3: 1-7.
This reading from Genesis has been used by Christianists to demean women and LGBT people. There have been plenty of full-blown arguments about whether Eve the woman was responsible for responding to the serpent or Adam for participating with Eve without question. These theological arguments miss the point of what actually happened.
Why was it that after Adam and Eve took and ate the forbidden fruit that they discovered they were naked and covered themselves up?
The traditional response is because sin came into the world and they were now ashamed of their nakedness. that is not a completely wrong answer. However, it is quite incomplete.
The shame that came with their nakedness once their disobedience to God happened, was in that they suddenly saw themselves as shameful people, who were no longer loved by God. They "covered up" their identity as individuals created in God's image, as their sin of disobedience had corrupted them to the point that they had demeaned themselves as created out of God's love. Very much like LGBT people as they question their sexual orientation and/or gender identity/expression. Adam and Eve no longer saw the beauty of who they were before God and each other. They hid, as LGBT people do in a closet where the death of who they are, and how they are to love which really is pleasing to God, is trashed, and covered with the "fig leaves" of shame and confusion.
After Jesus emerged from the waters of the Jordan in Baptism, he had a full understanding and sense of who he was. God's perfect revelation in God the Son, Jesus the Christ. What is the very first thing the devil tempts Jesus with in the desert? "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread." The actual temptation here is not Jesus' understandable hunger. The deeper temptation is not to change the stones into loaves of bread. Satan is tempting Jesus to invalidate Jesus' sense of his identity as God's Son.
Jesus' response: "'One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God'" is awesome in and of itself. It means much more. Jesus' response is a declaration that his identity of being the beloved Son of God, is because of the word of God that has given him his life, identity and strength to uphold his dignity in the face of the greatest test.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning and queer people from the moment that we sense that our sexual orientation and/or gender identity/expression is different from the status quo are for a very long time, battling with a sense of dignity over our identity. We are told by Christianists and ex-gay groups that if we accept who we are, we "diminish" our sense of being created in God's image. Organizations like Exodus tell us falsely that "there is no good in a life of homosexuality. Why? Because God has said so." When in fact, nothing is further from the truth.
What is behind this kind of thinking? The temptation of Satan on the lives of LGBT children of God redeemed in Jesus Christ when the devil says: "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, 'He will command his angels concerning you,' and 'On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.'"
Jesus responds as should we: "Again it is written, 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'"
In other words, do not put God to the test of catching us because we throw ourselves off the ledge of heterosexism to see if an ex-gay group can help us to "pray away the gay." And that if somehow we fail the system of "change" of an ex-gay group, it is because we did something wrong and God has punished us. Do not question your identity as a child beloved by God, with whom God is well-pleased, by allowing the evil of Christianists and arch-conservative Catholics/Anglicans to suggest that somehow God does not love us because of our sexual and gender diversity.
We might even be led by the devil through Christianists to worship the idolatry of their philosophy of Biblical literalism that is full of erroneous interpretations. Instead of worshiping God as the God of our lives as LGBTQ people, we might be tempted to make the Bible itself our god, instead of the Incarnate Word of God, who is Jesus the Christ.
Many of us have been tempted by well meaning parents and ministers: "If you will only leave that sinful lifestyle, you might become part of a famous Christian rock band, or tour with a famous evangelist. You will be known as a great example of God's transforming grace."
In other words, worship a lie, a falsehood that is paved and disguised by a multi-billion dollar capitalistic enterprise, designed to make hate and bigotry a profitable business. Worship that, and all will be well.
We cannot honestly and fully love God and build a life of integrity and dignity before God through such greed, dishonesty and personal and spiritual deprivation.
In this Gospel of the temptation of Jesus is a reminder of the necessity of recognizing, living and protecting our dignity as God's beloved with whom God is well-pleased.
LGBT people are daily and weekly attacked at the heart of who we are and who we love. The dignity of our identity within which is how God has created each of us to love ourselves, God and others must be respected as sacred space and allowed to grow. The beauty of the stamp of God's created wonder in LGBTQ people is so loved and valued by God, that God gave the life of God's Son on the cross to save us from our sins and become God's adopted children.
Any Christianist preacher, Catholic/Anglican/Orthodox Bishop, Priest or the Pope himself who attempts to distort us about our identity as LGBT people, even if their intention appears loving, have unfortunately become an agent of the devil's plan of prejudice and violent self destruction. We have every business to say no, and become active in replacing their ill understood ideologies, with the truth of how all of us are loved by God as God's holy people.
During our Lenten journey to Easter, let us pray that we will be open to the grace of God in Jesus to recognize the dignity and integrity of who we are as LGBTQ individuals. Let us fast and work towards justice, equality and the full inclusion of all marginalized persons, including but not limited to LGBTQ people. So that, the full identity of who we all are as God's beloved people, with whom God is well-pleased may be understood and appreciated.
When we appreciate God's created and redemptive beauty within who we are, we can commit ourselves to the alleviation of oppression, injustice, and inequality of all persons We will work for the rights of workers to organize and collectively bargain for better wages, benefits and working conditions. We will see and guard the dignity and integrity of Muslims from congressional hearings designed to target them for the purpose of persecution. We will do all we can to alleviate the suffering of the people of Japan as they recover from the horrible earth quake and tsunami this past Friday.
God knows and loves all of us as God's beloved with whom God is well-pleased. May we not only learn to resist the temptation to trash our own identity, but to work to help others recognize those marginalized by the Church and society as among God's beloved, with whom God is well-pleased. Amen.
Prayers
The most important understanding I have gained from the temptation of Jesus that relates to LGBTQ people is that of our identity.
As I print the Gospel reading for this weekend, I suggest we think of this narrative as being linked with the story of Jesus' baptism that came before the temptation. In Matthew 3 Jesus has been baptized by John the Baptist. A voice came from heaven saying that Jesus was God's beloved, with whom God was well-pleased. To interpret the temptation of Jesus correctly in a way that is so very important to the spiritual and social lives of LGBT and to our activism, we must begin from the point that Jesus has just been told that he is the beloved Son of God. So through Jesus God tells all of us that we are God's beloved and with us God is well-pleased.
Scriptural Basis
Matthew 4:1-11 (NRSV)
After Jesus was baptized, he was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. The tempter came and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread." But he answered, "It is written,
'One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"
Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written,
'He will command his angels concerning you,' and 'On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.'"
Jesus said to him, "Again it is written, 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'"
Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; and he said to him, "All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me." Jesus said to him, "Away with you, Satan! for it is written,
'Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.'"
Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.
Before we begin to unpack this Gospel, we must look to the first reading from Genesis 2: 15-17; 3: 1-7.
The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, "You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die."
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God say, `You shall not eat from any tree in the garden'?" The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; but God said, `You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.'" But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.
This reading from Genesis has been used by Christianists to demean women and LGBT people. There have been plenty of full-blown arguments about whether Eve the woman was responsible for responding to the serpent or Adam for participating with Eve without question. These theological arguments miss the point of what actually happened.
Why was it that after Adam and Eve took and ate the forbidden fruit that they discovered they were naked and covered themselves up?
The traditional response is because sin came into the world and they were now ashamed of their nakedness. that is not a completely wrong answer. However, it is quite incomplete.
The shame that came with their nakedness once their disobedience to God happened, was in that they suddenly saw themselves as shameful people, who were no longer loved by God. They "covered up" their identity as individuals created in God's image, as their sin of disobedience had corrupted them to the point that they had demeaned themselves as created out of God's love. Very much like LGBT people as they question their sexual orientation and/or gender identity/expression. Adam and Eve no longer saw the beauty of who they were before God and each other. They hid, as LGBT people do in a closet where the death of who they are, and how they are to love which really is pleasing to God, is trashed, and covered with the "fig leaves" of shame and confusion.
After Jesus emerged from the waters of the Jordan in Baptism, he had a full understanding and sense of who he was. God's perfect revelation in God the Son, Jesus the Christ. What is the very first thing the devil tempts Jesus with in the desert? "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread." The actual temptation here is not Jesus' understandable hunger. The deeper temptation is not to change the stones into loaves of bread. Satan is tempting Jesus to invalidate Jesus' sense of his identity as God's Son.
Jesus' response: "'One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God'" is awesome in and of itself. It means much more. Jesus' response is a declaration that his identity of being the beloved Son of God, is because of the word of God that has given him his life, identity and strength to uphold his dignity in the face of the greatest test.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning and queer people from the moment that we sense that our sexual orientation and/or gender identity/expression is different from the status quo are for a very long time, battling with a sense of dignity over our identity. We are told by Christianists and ex-gay groups that if we accept who we are, we "diminish" our sense of being created in God's image. Organizations like Exodus tell us falsely that "there is no good in a life of homosexuality. Why? Because God has said so." When in fact, nothing is further from the truth.
What is behind this kind of thinking? The temptation of Satan on the lives of LGBT children of God redeemed in Jesus Christ when the devil says: "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, 'He will command his angels concerning you,' and 'On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.'"
Jesus responds as should we: "Again it is written, 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'"
In other words, do not put God to the test of catching us because we throw ourselves off the ledge of heterosexism to see if an ex-gay group can help us to "pray away the gay." And that if somehow we fail the system of "change" of an ex-gay group, it is because we did something wrong and God has punished us. Do not question your identity as a child beloved by God, with whom God is well-pleased, by allowing the evil of Christianists and arch-conservative Catholics/Anglicans to suggest that somehow God does not love us because of our sexual and gender diversity.
We might even be led by the devil through Christianists to worship the idolatry of their philosophy of Biblical literalism that is full of erroneous interpretations. Instead of worshiping God as the God of our lives as LGBTQ people, we might be tempted to make the Bible itself our god, instead of the Incarnate Word of God, who is Jesus the Christ.
Many of us have been tempted by well meaning parents and ministers: "If you will only leave that sinful lifestyle, you might become part of a famous Christian rock band, or tour with a famous evangelist. You will be known as a great example of God's transforming grace."
In other words, worship a lie, a falsehood that is paved and disguised by a multi-billion dollar capitalistic enterprise, designed to make hate and bigotry a profitable business. Worship that, and all will be well.
We cannot honestly and fully love God and build a life of integrity and dignity before God through such greed, dishonesty and personal and spiritual deprivation.
In this Gospel of the temptation of Jesus is a reminder of the necessity of recognizing, living and protecting our dignity as God's beloved with whom God is well-pleased.
LGBT people are daily and weekly attacked at the heart of who we are and who we love. The dignity of our identity within which is how God has created each of us to love ourselves, God and others must be respected as sacred space and allowed to grow. The beauty of the stamp of God's created wonder in LGBTQ people is so loved and valued by God, that God gave the life of God's Son on the cross to save us from our sins and become God's adopted children.
Any Christianist preacher, Catholic/Anglican/Orthodox Bishop, Priest or the Pope himself who attempts to distort us about our identity as LGBT people, even if their intention appears loving, have unfortunately become an agent of the devil's plan of prejudice and violent self destruction. We have every business to say no, and become active in replacing their ill understood ideologies, with the truth of how all of us are loved by God as God's holy people.
During our Lenten journey to Easter, let us pray that we will be open to the grace of God in Jesus to recognize the dignity and integrity of who we are as LGBTQ individuals. Let us fast and work towards justice, equality and the full inclusion of all marginalized persons, including but not limited to LGBTQ people. So that, the full identity of who we all are as God's beloved people, with whom God is well-pleased may be understood and appreciated.
When we appreciate God's created and redemptive beauty within who we are, we can commit ourselves to the alleviation of oppression, injustice, and inequality of all persons We will work for the rights of workers to organize and collectively bargain for better wages, benefits and working conditions. We will see and guard the dignity and integrity of Muslims from congressional hearings designed to target them for the purpose of persecution. We will do all we can to alleviate the suffering of the people of Japan as they recover from the horrible earth quake and tsunami this past Friday.
God knows and loves all of us as God's beloved with whom God is well-pleased. May we not only learn to resist the temptation to trash our own identity, but to work to help others recognize those marginalized by the Church and society as among God's beloved, with whom God is well-pleased. Amen.
Prayers
Almighty God, whose blessed Son was led by the Spirit to be tempted by Satan: Come quickly to help us who are assaulted by many temptations; and, as you know the weaknesses of each of us, let each one find you mighty to save; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (Collect for the First Sunday of Lent, Book of Common Prayer, page 218).
Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing you have made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent: Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Collect for Ash Wednesday, Book of Common Prayer, page 217).
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).
Ever-welcoming God,
you invite us to bring all that we are,
our questions and our failures,
into your life-giving presence;
Give us courage to live before you without pretense,
that we may know the joy of forgiveness and renewal
without fear of expulsion.
Amen. (Prayerfully Out in Scripture).
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