Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost: Love the Cross. The Cross is Love.

Today's Scripture Readings

Jeremiah 15:15-21 (NRSV)

O LORD, you know;

remember me and visit me,

and bring down retribution for me on my persecutors.

In your forbearance do not take me away;

know that on your account I suffer insult.

Your words were found, and I ate them,

and your words became to me a joy

and the delight of my heart;

for I am called by your name,

O LORD, God of hosts.

I did not sit in the company of merrymakers,

nor did I rejoice;

under the weight of your hand I sat alone,

for you had filled me with indignation.

Why is my pain unceasing,

my wound incurable,

refusing to be healed?

Truly, you are to me like a deceitful brook,

like waters that fail.

Therefore thus says the LORD:

If you turn back, I will take you back,

and you shall stand before me.

If you utter what is precious, and not what is worthless,

you shall serve as my mouth.

It is they who will turn to you,

not you who will turn to them.

And I will make you to this people

a fortified wall of bronze;

they will fight against you,

but they shall not prevail over you,

for I am with you

to save you and deliver you,

says the LORD.

I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked,

and redeem you from the grasp of the ruthless.

Psalm 26 (BCP., p.616).


Romans 12: 9-21 (NRSV)

Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord." No, "if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads." Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Matthew 16: 2-28 (NRSV)

Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, "God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you." But he turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things."

Then Jesus told his disciples, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?

"For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done. Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom."

Blog Reflection

At times, you have to wonder if Christians give any thought to what we look like to those who observe us.  We say our prayers, recite our creeds and receive the Sacraments.  We boast of the word of God.   We say we believe in the love of God, neighbor and self.  Yet, what so many see, are Christians clinging to a faith without evidence of reality.   The more Christians are viewed as supporting injustice and oppression, including violence and prejudice the less real our Christian Faith appears to those looking from the outside in.

Just this past week, there was a horrible story about two Christian parents who beat up their gay son, after they disowned him.   Just the notion that a Christian would justify an act of heinous violence is frightening to say the least.  Not only does the Name of Jesus Christ become profaned by things like this, but the hope that Jesus could make a real difference in the life of that young man might very well be crushed.  In the son's case, any effort to embrace God with the reality of who he is, will seem like that God is just against him.  What he may never know, is that God's love for him does not stop because he is gay. 

As I read from the Prophet Jeremiah, I think he must have felt like that.  Jeremiah was speaking the truth about God to God's people.  They had indulged in acts of injustice.  They had forgotten all the wonderful things God did through out their history.  He was doing the work God gave him. Yet, all he found was resistance, threats against his life, and those who ignored him.  God in this reading does not promise to take him away from all that is happening to him, God promises to be with Jeremiah and that in the end, God's will will prevail for Jeremiah and for God's people.   God gives Jeremiah hope to face his sufferings and his salvation.

When Jesus tells Peter and the other disciples about His coming death, Peter did what I believe we all would have done.  If a man knows he is about to be killed, the proper thing to do is to try to save his life.  How could Peter and the others, get to know this amazing man, see his miracles, hear his words and just let him die?   That would be the case, except Jesus was God's perfect revelation of God's Self.   Jesus came to redeem us from our personal and spiritual immaturity, and return us to our Divine relationship with God.   Our redemption in Christ not only returns us to friendship with God, but also restores the relationship of humankind with the human community.   To experience the contemplative vision into ourselves, with a renewed view of the world around us.

"The function of prayer is to change my own mind, to put on the mind of Christ, to enable grace to break into me. When prayer is privatized religion on a spree, it's not prayer. Contemplative prayer, converting prayer, is prayer that sees the whole world through incense--a holy place, a place where the sacred dwells, a place to be made different by those who pray, a place where God sweetens living with the beauty of life. Contemplative prayer is prayer that leads us to see the world through the eyes of God." (Sr. Joan Chittister, OSB, Wisdom Distilled From the Daily: Living the Rule of St. Benedict Today. p.35).

Jesus accomplishes all that He sets out to do, through the Cross.  Our hope of knowing Christ in our own lives and sharing Him with others, is when we accept our crosses and follow Him in obedience to the will of God out of love.   Our cross as Christians, comes because we see past human labels, the suggestion that some people are first class citizens, and others are secondary and we embrace Jesus Christ and Him crucified as we embrace others because of Christ's love for us.   The love of God comes through laying down our lives for others.  In our relationships, in our communities, in those places where life is anything but certain.  Jesus Christ and His Cross lovingly saves us from our own sense of certainty.   We are saved to live with open hearts, minds and arms to love others as Christ has loved  us.

If you are like me, you can read these words and even repeat them.  But, to live them means we have to face our own prejudices, and displace our comfort zones.   To do what this Gospel reading is about, we must let the Holy Spirit lead us away from complacency, so we can be open to conversion.   A conversion that wants to see an end to the racism that has lead to the excessive violence in Ferguson, and calls out the injustice for what it is.   A change of heart and life, that rejects heterosexism that breeds a hate so violent that the beating described above, ex-gay groups and so forth is condoned, and Christianity continues getting a very bad name.

As we journey from the summer into Labor Day weekend, may be all pray and work together so that we may fulfill the vows of our Baptismal Covenant, and bring the honor and glory due the Name of Jesus Christ.   May our efforts be blessed by the Holy Spirit, and what we accomplish give evidence of God's transforming grace.

Amen.



Prayers

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. The Book of Common Prayer, p.233).

Almighty God, you have so linked our lives one with another
that all we do affects, for good or ill, all other lives: So guide
us in the work we do, that we may do it not for self alone, but
for the common good; and, as we seek a proper return for
our own labor, make us mindful of the rightful aspirations of
other workers, and arouse our concern for those who are out
of work; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns
with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Amen. (Collect for Labor Day, The Book of Common Prayer, p. 261).

Almighty God, who created us in your image: Grant us
grace fearlessly to contend against evil and to make no peace
with oppression; and, that we may reverently use our freedom,
help us to employ it in the maintenance of justice in our
communities and among the nations, to the glory of your holy
Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with
you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (Prayer for Social Justice, The Book of Common Prayer, p. 260).

Second Sunday after Pentecost: Peace, Obedience, Inclusive Love

Today's Scripture Readings

Genesis 21:8-21 (NRSV)

The child grew, and was weaned; and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned.  But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, playing with her son Isaac.  So she said to Abraham, "Cast out this slave woman with her son; for the son of this slave woman shall not inherit along with my son Isaac."  The matter was very distressing to Abraham on account of his son.  But God said to Abraham, "Do not be distressed because of the boy and because of your slave woman; whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for it is through Isaac that offspring shall be named for you.  As for the son of the slave woman, I will make a nation of him also, because he is your offspring."  So Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water, and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed, and wandered about in the wilderness of Beer-sheba.

When the water in the skin was gone, she cast the child under one of the bushes.  Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot; for she said, "Do not let me look on the death of the child." And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept.  And God heard the voice of the boy; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, and said to her, "What troubles you, Hagar? Do not be afraid; for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is.  Come, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make a great nation of him."  Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. She went, and filled the skin with water, and gave the boy a drink.

God was with the boy, and he grew up; he lived in the wilderness, and became an expert with the bow.  He lived in the wilderness of Paran; and his mother got a wife for him from the land of Egypt.

Psalm 86 (BCP., p.709)


Romans 6:1b-11 (NRSV)

Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound?  By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it?  Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.  We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin.  For whoever has died is freed from sin.  But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.  We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.  The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.  So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Matthew 10:24-39 (NRSV)

Jesus said to the twelve disciples,

"A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master; it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household!

"So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.

"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."

Blog Reflection

Given how much the Bible is used to suggest the subordination of women, the reading from Genesis is a  bit refreshing.   Here we have the Lord God telling Abraham to do as his wife Sarah wishes with regards to Hagar's son who was also a son of Abraham.  The narrative also gives us a glimpse into a non-traditional marriage.   Abraham has not one wife and son, but two.  So much for the one man, one woman thing.   Some additional background into what is going on in this reading from Genesis is good for us to consider.

Isaac the son of Abraham and Sarah, and the son of Abraham and Hagar have a symbolic meaning.   Hagar the slave and her son are symbolic of Israel being held in the bondage of Egypt later in Exodus.   Isaac the son of Abraham and Sarah are symbolic of Israel being free from slavery in Egypt and wondering through the desert for forty years being led by Moses and Aaron into the land promised to Abraham and his offspring.

As I  read through the story in Genesis, I was struck by a profound and powerful thought.  God looking after Hagar and her thirsty son without distinction or bias.  God gave of God's abundance to the mother and son born in bondage, as God does to those considered free.   Whatever human made label that can be given to any person or group of people on any basis, God sees all persons through the eyes of loving care.  God has just as big of a plan for salvation and prosperity for those the Church and society considers unwanted or unlovable as God does for the so called "privileged".   Such may be privileged by humankind, but are no greater or least in the mind, heart and eyes of God.

The relationship of parents and their children who come out as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and/or questioning continues to be of tremendous concern.   Young women and men who contain within themselves a deep desire and capacity to love their parents and others as they truly are, seek acceptance and the opportunity to mature in a healthy home, church community and neighborhood free of violence, bullying and bias.   However, for way too many even in 2014, that is just not what happens.   Parents still attempt to commit their LGBT daughters and/or sons to self-abusive ex-gay or "reparative" therapists to "change" what is beautifully natural.  There are parents who threaten their children who are LGBT with the horrors of hell if they do not repent, loss of their homes, inheritance and/or participation in the family business.  

Whether a woman or man is LGBTQ or straight or cisgender, she or he is someone valued by God without distinction.   Who they are, who they love and whatever their true gender is, such to those belongs God's unconditional love and transforming grace to change society and the Church into a more just and inclusive existence.   God offers to them the waters of freedom,  hope and possibility.   For they are "fearfully and wonderfully made" (Psalm 139:15).

At first glance our Gospel Reading sounds as if Jesus is talking nonsense.  He is talking about a servant and the master, what is hidden, the relationship between parents and children.   I would suggest that His words to us today, suggest our willingness to listen more intentionally to the Holy Spirit and what our relationships with others around us need to look like.

It is important to take note that in the time in which this Gospel narrative would have taken place, children had no rights.  They were often committed to slave labor once they were old enough.  They were owned by their parents as property, and could be sold by a local governor if one could not pay their taxes or debts.  A fair majority of children lived in poverty with their parents.  Life for parents and children was anything but family bliss.

As Jesus tells us about the relationship of the master and the servant, He is talking about the relationship of God with us to respond "for the love of God" (See The Rule of St. Benedict, Chapter 7:34) in obedience to the will of God.   In this is a truth that many of us in our time of "do as you please without limit" do not like to hear.   Yet, the contrary is more true than we would like to admit.  When we see ourselves as free to do what we want with no guidance or accountability to another, we are in fact in slavery.   When we submit ourselves to be obedient to God through the wishes of another, we find real liberation from our false-selves to a true knowledge of who we really are.  

Jesus is not saying here that we are not to value our relationships with our parents or others in authority.   What He is saying is that to the extent that we rely on any relationship apart from the reverence and/or consciousness of God who is present in all relationships; is the point in which we have surrendered our true peace for something that cannot fulfill or complete us.   If an LGBTQ child is so bound to her/his parents Christianist faith that she/he cannot be who God made her/him to be, there can be no peace for the child.   Closets are places of death, not life.   Keeping oneself enclosed in a false shame to be self-abusive and suppressed can only lead to a death of one's true identity and being.   When we live openly and faithfully to who we are, and are able to mature in a healthy way into who we are and who we love, we can find God and be obedient to God's will.   There is no obedience to the will of God, without self-knowledge and the freedom to be who we are lovingly created to be.  When we are, we can be obedient to God, because we will be surrendering our true-selves freely and without coersion.

As Christians who have received the Holy Spirit by the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, we must surrender ourselves to the peace that God gives to our lives through Christ.   That peace that the world cannot give, can be ours when we experience that true love that casts out all fear has been our experience to know and share.   In being open to the conversion of the Holy Spirit through our daily life experiences, relationships and failures, we can discover anew the merciful love and grace of God again and again.  It should not only help us experience a new freedom in Christ for ourselves, but it should transform our biases into loving acceptance of others who are different from ourselves.   The notion of sacrificing our prejudices to be inclusive of others, is something we give over freely and without reserve.   Because the love of God is so wonderful an experience in our own lives, we would not dream of  not sharing it with others around us.

Amen.

Prayers

O Lord, make us have perpetual love and reverence for your
holy Name, for you never fail to help and govern those whom
you have set upon the sure foundation of your loving-kindness;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you
and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.  (Proper 7, Book of Common Prayer, p.230).

Look with pity, O heavenly Father, upon the people in this
land who live with injustice, terror, disease, and death as
their constant companions. Have mercy upon us. Help us to
eliminate our cruelty to these our neighbors. Strengthen those
who spend their lives establishing equal protection of the law
and equal opportunities for all. And grant that every one of
us may enjoy a fair portion of the riches of this land; through
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.  (Prayer for the Oppressed, Book of Common Prayer, p. 826).

Grant, O God, that your holy and life-giving Spirit may so
move every human heart [and especially the hearts of the
people of this land], 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, p.823).

Fifth Sunday after Pentecost: Contemplative Prayer, Oneness in Christ and Justice

Today's Scripture Readings

 1 Kings 19: 1-15 (NRSV)

Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, "So may the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life like the life of one of them by this time tomorrow." Then he was afraid; he got up and fled for his life, and came to Beer-sheba, which belongs to Judah; he left his servant there.

But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a solitary broom tree. He asked that he might die: "It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors." Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, "Get up and eat." He looked, and there at his head was a cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. He ate and drank, and lay down again. The angel of the LORD came a second time, touched him, and said, "Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you." He got up, and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God. At that place he came to a cave, and spent the night there.

Then the word of the LORD came to him, saying, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" He answered, "I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away."

He said, "Go out and stand on the mountain before the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by." Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him that said, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" He answered, "I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away." Then the LORD said to him, "Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus."

Psalm 42 (BCP., p.643)


Galatians 3:23-29 (NRSV)

Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise.

Luke 8:26-39 (NRSV)

Jesus and his disciples arrived at the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. As he stepped out on land, a man of the city who had demons met him. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he did not live in a house but in the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he fell down before him and shouted at the top of his voice, "What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me" -- for Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many times it had seized him; he was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the wilds.) Jesus then asked him, "What is your name?" He said, "Legion"; for many demons had entered him. They begged him not to order them to go back into the abyss.

Now there on the hillside a large herd of swine was feeding; and the demons begged Jesus to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.

When the swineherds saw what had happened, they ran off and told it in the city and in the country. Then people came out to see what had happened, and when they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. Those who had seen it told them how the one who had been possessed by demons had been healed. Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them; for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned. The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him; but Jesus sent him away, saying, "Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you." So he went away, proclaiming throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him.

Blog Reflection

Thus far, my studies during my Novitiate have me doing Lectio Divina using Preferring Christ: A Devotional Commentary on The Rule of St. Benedict by Norvene Vest.   The text of The Rule that she uses is a version by Fr. Luke Dysinger, OSB, of St. Andrew's Abbey in Valyermo, California.   We are given a portion of the Prologue, a Chapter to use for an entire week, so that the words of The Rule can sink deep into our hearts and God can speak to us there and help us grow closer to God.    At current, we are still in the Prologue.   The words that have been jumping out at me over these last 3 weeks have been about listening.   "Listen."  "Incline the ear of the heart."  "To you therefore, my words are now addressed."  "Let us at last arise, since the Scripture stirs us."  "let us hear with wondering ears what the Divine Voice admonishes us, daily crying out: Today if you hear his voice, harden not your hearts."  "And again, You who have ears to hear, hear what the Spirit says...." (Preferring Christ, pages 2-5).

All this brings me to the essential element in contemplative prayer.  Listening.  Contemplative prayer requires us to listen, and "incline the ear of the heart" in order to hear God speaking to us.   This is why St. Benedict places such emphasis on silence.  Silence is not just about the absence of noise, such as no TV, phones, internet, music, etc.   It is about silencing the noise within us.  The noise of our anxieties over the plans we are making, what our next meal will be, getting together with a friend, those things that just work us up.  To be able to hold a close conversation with God in contemplative prayer, it is essential that we practice a silence that could easily pierce everything that distracts us. In contemplative prayer, we are not seeking to get something we want.   We are seeking union with God, to the point of seeing things from God's perspective.

The narrative from the Hebrew Scriptures for this weekend is about a life in peril.  Yes.  However, it is also about knowing where and how God speaks to our heart and soul.   It is not through violence, the mighty fire, and the earthquake.  It is through the stillness of our interior selves, by way of the voice of the Holy Spirit calling to us, to seek union with God. Elijah did not just learn this, he experienced it.  God wants us to experience that union with God as well.  God wants to grow closer to each of us from the point of where we are.  All God asks of us, is to quiet our interior selves long enough to be able to listen to what God is saying within us.  If we will do that, we will discover that God is so full of love, so full of compassion and a desire for us, that we will wonder why we did not take time to meet God in this way before. 

The Psalmist opens with such the appropriate response to what we have heard from the Hebrew Scriptures.

As the deer longs for the water-brooks,
  so longs my soul for you, O God.

My soul is athirst for God, athirst for the living God;
  when shall I come to appear before the presence of God.  (Psalm 42: 1-2, BCP., p.643).

Our hearts and souls long to be nourished by God, by helping us to experience God's abiding presence in the midst of our troubled hearts.  God wants us to pour out our hearts to God, and so allow ourselves to be renewed in grace to live holy lives.

The work of Christ's redemption is not merely a legalistic penal code.   It is a way of living to the point, that the love of God, neighbor and self becomes the manner by which we exist.   All are one in Christ as St. Paul tells us in the reading from Galatians, because of Christ's work of redemption on our behalf.   We are all part of Christ, regardless of who we are in terms of gender, race, creed, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, employment, language, physical/psychological or developmental challenge.   In Christ Jesus, we are all one in His Body, the Church.  Each of us come with our peculiar characteristics, behaviors, opinions, and understandings.  Some of us are not that well educated, others are very well educated. The point is, none of those things tear us away from being one in Christ.  We are one by our common Baptism, and our need of God's grace through Christ. We are united to Christ and one another because of the Holy Eucharist.   In our Post Communion Prayer in Rite II we pray:

Eternal God, heavenly Father,
you have graciously accepted us as living members
of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ,
and you have fed us with spiritual food
in the Sacrament of his Body and Blood.
Send us now into the world in peace,
and grant us strength and courage
to love and serve you
with gladness and singleness of heart;
through Christ our Lord. Amen. (Book of Common Prayer, p.365).

Now we come to probably one of the most intense Gospel narratives.   There are so many messages to be listened to.  How do we discern what is really important?   By examining some important points.

Mental illness then (and even today), was not handled very well.  People who had mental illness issues, often had them as a result of the horrible oppression they lived under at that point in history.   They were outcast from the communities.   They often were left among the graves, as they were considered good as dead.

When the man in this narrative, who is possessed by an evil spirit says that his name is "Legion" what might he be saying?   He is speaking out of the reality of the horror he most likely witnessed when legions of Roman soldiers plundered people, and whole communities right in front of him.  He probably saw them all happen when he was very young, and lived with the horror of the great evils that possessed him ever since.  Fear. Anxiety. Unconsoled grief.  Perhaps even shame.

The swine on the country side are symbolic of what is going on in this narrative.  The pigs represent a change in the country in which Jesus was in.  He was no longer in no pork eating Israel.  He was in a Gentile place.  People in that country were so scared of the man, that the pigs on the hill country were more important than the life of the man who lived among the tombs.   When Legion asks to be sent into the swine and not the abyss, they are trying to tell us something.  The abyss from which they came, is a place where their power over the man came from They begged not to go back for fear of what awaited them should the Son of God send them there.  When Jesus finally commands them to go into the heard of swine that runs down the hill into the water to be drowned, it is not animal cruelty as some suggest.   It means that the life of the man who was tormented all those years was so important, that if it meant sacrificing the swine to make him well, that is what Jesus was willing to do.   It meant that that which had plagued the country at that time was cast out in shame and disgrace, and the man was set free.   Once again, Jesus is interested in the dignity of this tormented man.  Giving him the freedom of living as one redeemed by God was the most important thing He could do for him.  And, Jesus did it.

After Jesus frees the man, he wants to go with Jesus.  Jesus tells him and all of us to take care of what we have at home.  It might be nice to go off and see miracles, and hear great sermons.  But, what God has given us, that which is right in front of us, is what God wants us to pay attention to.  

What evils in our time do we settle for, because we want to hang onto other things that are least important?

How about our consistent inattention to the issue of mental illness in our time?

How about uncontrolled wealth at the expense of those who are poor?

How about male-privilege at the expense of the dignity of women, such as the anti-abortion bill passed by the US House this past week?   Yet, funding for job training, education, health care programs that benefit women, men and children are continually on the chopping block.  How is a woman who is economically challenged suppose to be able to support a child, when she can barely support herself?

How about the looming danger of student loans rates about to go higher than they already are, because some bankers want to make some money off those who already live in poverty?

How about companies polluting rivers, the Gulf of Mexico, the air and out atmosphere in the name of their billion dollar profits and CEO salaries, at the expense of the beauty of the earth and the sacredness of God's creation?

This past week, we have witnessed an incredible event.  Alan Chambers, the President of Exodus International, an ex-gay "ministry" is closing it's doors.   Chambers has issued a formal apology for how he and the organization have hurt so many people, many of them who unfortunately took their lives because of the misinformation of the organization.   He himself has been on an incredible journey by which he appears to be experiencing a great conversion within himself, and those who manage Exodus.   While he himself has not had a complete change of opinion about homosexuality, and is unclear about where he should stand on marriage equality at this point in time, he is at least willing to say that his opinions one way or the other, do not mean he has the right to control the laws of the country, or keep them out of houses of worship where they are affirmed and accepted.  In fact, he wants to see the Church become a more welcoming place for all.  Including those who understand differently than he does.   We have yet to see what becomes of all this, but, this beginning is a great sign of progress.  It is right that we celebrate it that way.

Could this be a sign of Jesus freeing us from a great evil in our time, so that souls who are still imprisoned in self-internalized  homophobia can begin to see that their sexual orientation and/or gender identity/expression are blessings from God?  Not barriers to living holy lives, or loving others with purity of heart. 

When Chambers read his apology to a group of ex-gay survivors, many of them told him of their concern about his continued use of language that hurts LGBT people.   You can watch the video here.

Our Gospel today, does not have a terribly happy ending.  Jesus is asked to leave that area, because the people there recognize who Jesus is, and what He can do.   As Jesus often comes to change us from the inside out, to make us a more inclusive Church and society, it is so easy to push Him out in those who are different from ourselves.   We make Jesus the new "other" that we must control, manipulate and oppress because of our personal biases.  Whatever we might want Jesus to do for us, the last thing we want because of our personal selfishness, is to allow Him to change us.

We are invited this Sunday to sit quietly with God in contemplative prayer, find our oneness in Jesus Christ, and to see Christ's work of mercy among us, as God's justice.   All of these have opportunities for us to allow the Holy Spirit to displace us a bit, so that we can grow closer to God, and reverence God's presence in others.  The hardest step to take is the first one.  It begins with our willingness to listen to God from within ourselves.  It continues by our viewing others from God's point of view and not just our own.  Spiritual and personal growth manifests God's presence as we are open to what God has to say to us, as we seek union with God in working for justice, equality and true peace for all people.

Amen.


Prayers

O Lord, make us have perpetual love and reverence for your
holy Name, for you never fail to help and govern those whom
you have set upon the sure foundation of your loving-kindness;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you
and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.  (Proper 7, Book of Common Prayer, p. 230).


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, p.815).

Grant, O God, that your holy and life-giving Spirit may so
move every human heart [and especially the hearts of the
people of this land], 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, p.823). 

Seeing Faith in LGBT People While Christianists Create Dens of Thieves

Today's Scripture Reading


Matthew 21: 12-22 (NRSV)

Then Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold doves. He said to them, ‘It is written,

“My house shall be called a house of prayer”;
   but you are making it a den of robbers.’

The blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he cured them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the amazing things that he did, and heard the children crying out in the temple, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David’, they became angry and said to him, ‘Do you hear what these are saying?’ Jesus said to them, ‘Yes; have you never read,

“Out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies
   you have prepared praise for yourself”?’

He left them, went out of the city to Bethany, and spent the night there.

In the morning, when he returned to the city, he was hungry. And seeing a fig tree by the side of the road, he went to it and found nothing at all on it but leaves. Then he said to it, ‘May no fruit ever come from you again!’ And the fig tree withered at once. When the disciples saw it, they were amazed, saying, ‘How did the fig tree wither at once?’ Jesus answered them, ‘Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only will you do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, “Be lifted up and thrown into the sea”, it will be done. Whatever you ask for in prayer with faith, you will receive.’ 

Blog Reflection

One day while I was looking up blogs to find ideas to help me write my own blog, I came across one with a photograph that struck me.

The photograph to my left was found on Heaven and Earth along with the title: "Guess Who's Coming to Wall Street".  The blog author Fr. Paul Bresnahan writes exceptional blog posts about the Church being a house of prayer for all people.  He has written passionate posts about why the Church needs to include LGBT people in our houses of worship.

The sign that this individual dressed as Jesus is holding reads: "I Threw Out the Money Lenders for A Reason."  The sign makes a reference to the Gospel used in today's Daily Office.  The figure and words are there as part of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

One explanation of this Gospel is that Jesus chased out the money lenders because he was angry that money had become more important than worshiping God in the temple. Jesus was making a statement that God's House was a place of prayer, not a place where thieves get away with stealing. 

The Occupy protestors are calling on those who make quarterly profits higher than 3 family units make in a year, to allow those families who don't make quite that much money to have a shot at a better life for themselves and those they love.

What Jesus is saying in the first part of this Gospel is let the House of God be a place of prayer where all people can come and worship.  Let everyone who wants to come pray, sing and rejoice in the presence of God without taking the dignity  away from the people who come there.  When people from all walks of life come to pray in God's Holy Place, they come with burdens all ready too heavy to carry alone.  The Church is challenged in this 21st Century to allow individual people to come to God as they are, with their own unique ways of thinking, believing and even behaving without high expectations.

Included in today's Gospel is the story of Jesus interacting with children and praying with faith so that we may receive what God wants for us.   In each situation, we see and hear Jesus telling us to let children come and offer their praise to God, and pray to God with the willingness to accept God's will so that good things can happen.

It is a very difficult experience for a young woman or man to grow up in a world and be taught in local church communities about God and their faith, and then discover in their youth years that she is a lesbian and/or he is gay.  When a woman or man knows that she is attracted to both women and men, or a man is attracted to both proves to be bisexual, their greatest fear is their attraction to a person of the same sex.  As youth wonder what is going on in their minds and bodies as they react very differently compared to their peers, they risk harassment the possibility of violence that is so self destructive.  And if that is not enough, to hear sermons about how God condemns all homosexual acts, while many pastors ignore their own crimes of misappropriation of Parish funds, etc, is so confusing to an LGBT youth who just wants to better understand who they are, and who they love.  Many are told to pray with faith so that God may change them from gay to straight, or go to an ex-gay group.  Parents of LGBTQ youth are told to attend PFOX or Encourage (The Catholic churches' companion ex-gay group for parents of LGBTQ people) to change.

LGBTQ youth can give praise to God, because God gives all children a heart to sing and rejoice in God's gifts.   The Church can play a vital active role in helping all children learn to accept and embrace different kinds of people.  When the Church embraces all children including LGBTQ youth, the lessons of inclusion can help them through life's toughest challenges.

What LGBTQ people often grow up to understand that their prayers for God to change them are answered.  Their faith has not mislead them.  The theology of their Parish Priests have been misleading them.

In today's Forward Day by Day there is a great meditation on the ending for today's Gospel.

Here’s a promise from the mouth of Jesus that has perplexed people. I’m probably not the only one who, having heard these words as a youngster, thought to myself: If I just pray and believe hard enough, I’ll get whatever I ask for. Some adults may have thought the same way. To do so is to ask to be disappointed or disillusioned. Just what did Jesus mean when he said those words?

The key word is faith. Faith isn’t just believing something (or, as Mark Twain said, “believing what you know ain’t so”). It’s not about what you believe, but a relationship based on trust and surrender. Sometimes people of faith believe things that are mistaken, including things about God and the ways of God. But their prayers are acts of trust and surrender to a God whom they may understand only slightly. A faithful prayer is one that accords with God’s will and aligns the will of the pray-er to the will of God. When such a prayer includes a request (and it is appropriate to ask God for things), it is a request that God bring his purposes to fruition and that nothing in us will stand in the way.

The reason God does not change LGBTQ people is because God has created, redeemed and continues to sanctify us for God's purposes.  God performs God's work of salvation in and through LGBTQ people to love ourselves and others around us as God joyfully and wonderfully made us to do.  (See Psalm 139: 14).

Even though Christianist organizations such as NOM, FRC, AFA and others continue to turn churches and our government into a den of thieves through billions of dollars in lobbying money and breaks the commandment to not "bear false witness against thy neighbor", God continues to bless this world with loving and holy LGBT people, relationships and families. 

Among the many challenges for the Church in 2011 is to understand that God works with and through people regardless of whether we like how they live, worship, love and think.  The Christian Faith through it's various expressions is not a religion of one group has it totally right, while others are completely off center.  The Christian Faith also "does not hold a monopoly on truth" for those who do not share what Christians believe.  All of the preaching and targeting of other people and religions that do not participate in ultra-conservative Christianist ways, do not help the Christian religion maintain our greatness.  If anything, it is taking the name of Jesus Christ in vein to mean something Jesus never conveyed in his words and/or actions. 

Prayers

Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (First Sunday of Advent, Book of Common Prayer, page 211).

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). 

Fifth Sunday after Pentecost: The Weeds Known By the Name Ex-Gay Groups

Scriptural Basis

Matthew 13:24-30,36-43 (NRSV)

Jesus put before the crowd another parable: "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, `Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?' He answered, `An enemy has done this.' The slaves said to him, `Then do you want us to go and gather them?' But he replied, `No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.'"

Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples approached him, saying, "Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field." He answered, "The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen!"

Blog Reflection


The subject of ex-gay groups have been all over the news these past two weeks.  

On Friday, July 8th, Truth Wins Out put out a press release about the clinic operated by Marcus Bachmann.  Marcus Bachmann is married to Michele Bachmann who is the representative of Minnesota's 8th Congressional District and also a Presidential Candidate for the 2012 election. 

In the press release Truth Wins Out (TWO) revealed that they had sent John Becker an undercover staff member to receive counseling services from a so-called therapist at Bachmann's clinic. During the session, it became very clear that the counselor was performing reparative and/or ex-gay "therapy" with Becker.  The counselor attempted  to "change" John Becker's sexual orientation.  The "therapists" methods were not based on any scientific fact. The work that the "therapist" did was based on the illogical and harmful work of the National Association of Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH).  During the "therapy" sessions, the counselor referred to his perception of how God creates a man to be attracted to women, not other men. 

Being an ex-gay survivor myself, watching the clips via the news media this past week brought back some memories.  I remember the days of being involved with the Catholic church's ex-gay group Courage, that was started in the 1980's by the Late Cardinal Cook. I remembered the first time the Courage Chaplain told me that God created me as a straight man, but that I have a "problem" known as "same-sex attraction (SSA)."   A problem that was most likely brought about because of my father who was emotionally and psychologically abusive.  There were various reasons mentioned for what my "problem" was. 

As I have listened to the rhetoric this week, including AFA's Brian Fischer remark that the Bachmann's are the "victims of a hate crime, because of their heterosexual orientation," I became very disturbed. Even with the research of the American Medical Association and the American Psychological Association of  reparative/ex-gay therapy which is done at Bachmann's clinic.

Reparative/ex-gay therapy is based on ignorance that plays into fear that creates and nurtures  horrible atmosphere around individuals and whole communities based on our sexual orientation and/or gender identity/expression.

In the Gospel today, Jesus tells the parable of the weeds and the wheat. In the explanation of the parable Jesus states that he is the sower of the good seed and that the sower of the wheat is the evil one. He describes the weeds as good only for burning.

What frightening imagery!

What is also fearful about the wheat and weeds imagery is how often it is used by preachers and even ex-gay "therapists" to scare LGBT and questioning individuals from youth to adulthood, into believing that their sexual orientation and/or gender identity/expression are "weeds" that are ruining the good seed that God has sowed with in them.  This imagery along with the interpretation and application are all misplaced and incorrect.

As I have written in many blogs, sexual orientation and/or gender identity/expression are linked to the soul of our being. They are part of how God has created each individual person. From that soul comes a person's ability to love other people. Not only physically and sexually, but also completely whole-heartedly. An individual who is LGBT cannot love another person physical, sexual or platonic as a straight person or as a person who is not transgender. The very soul from which a person loves another person in all facets of her or his being is a product of that "good seed" sown by God with in every individual regardless of sexual orientation and/or gender identity/expression. 

Reparative/ex-gay therapy, along with it's misinterpretation of Scripture, spiritual malpractice and doctrinal abuse are weeds within the Christian community that are only good for one thing. 

Burning! 

Why?  Because they are harmful to individuals as well as to whole communities of good people.  Good people who are who we are, love as we love and only desire to do so without some reparative/ex-gay guru attempting something that is unnatural and lethal to what God has so freely and lovingly created. 

What should have been included in today's Psalm is 139: 14: "I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.  Wonderful are your works, that I know very well."

Fearfully (the word should be lovingly) and wonderfully made are all God's people. Individually and communally. We are all created by the beauty and wonder of God's holy love. We are all created with God's love as our origin and destiny. God knows each of us, before we know ourselves. God the Holy Spirit who took part in our creation has given to each person something unique, powerful, wonderful and designed for  holiness of heart, mind and life. One of those parts of each human person that is unique, powerful, wonderful and designed for holiness of heart, mind and life is our bodies ability to love and be loved by another person and to respond to giving and receiving that love, as if we were never closer to God in any other given moment.

An individuals sexual orientation and/or gender identity/expression that is part of every human beings soul, is Sacred Space.  It is a place that no individual, counselor, pope, bishop, priest, deacon, minister, lay person, individual other than God and one's soul mate has any business violating or attempting to alter for their own purpose or pleasure. 

Such is the danger of reparative/ex-gay therapy.  Such an invasion and molestation of one's soul cannot be understood as something holy or Christ commissioned. Reparative/ex-gay therapy is a "weed" that seeks to destroy the goodness of the seed that God has planted in each LGBT person, family and/or couple.  It is the same good seed that exists in heterosexual individuals and/or individuals who are born of one gender and stay that way their entire life.  How a woman or man loves another person, same-sex or opposite-sex is part of that Sacred Space where God dwells and calls each individual by her/his name and is fearfully and wonderfully made.

Progressive Christians and all individuals of good will, need to consider very carefully the news we have heard this week. There is the temptation to make religion as the culprit. As badly as religion is manipulated and abused for the work of reparative/ex-gay therapy, it is just that. A manipulated and abused use of religion to invite fear, prejudice and violence of a very severe nature. It is a capitalistic industry that needs to be starved to death and allowed to die. It does not serve a good purpose. It is destructive. Worst of all, it distorts and disdains the Name and reputation of the God of unconditional and all-inclusive love.

I hope everyone will commit themselves to telling the truth about reparative/ex-gay groups. I also hope that many others will take the information we heard this week seriously enough to give the collective response that this kind of abusive and intrusive "therapy" must be protested and discontinued. 

May God the Holy Spirit with her grace of conversion and healing lead us all to become effective missionaries in this important endeavor.


Prayers

Almighty God, the fountain of all wisdom, you know our necessities before we ask and our ignorance in asking: Have compassion on our weakness, and mercifully give us those things which for our unworthiness we dare not, and for our blindness we cannot ask; through the worthiness of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (Proper 11, Book of Common Prayer, page 231).

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).

O God of our Lord Jesus Christ, our only Savior, the Prince of Peace: Give us grace seriously to lay to heart the great dangers we are in by our unhappy divisions; take away all hatred and prejudice, and whatever else may hinder us from godly union and concord; that, as there is but one Body and one Spirit, one hope of our calling, one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of us all, so we may be all of one heart and of one soul, united in one holy bond of truth and peace, of faith and charity, and may with one mind and one mouth glorify you; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Prayer for the Unity of the Church, Book of Common Prayer, page 819).