Pride Sunday: Celebrating Love and Faith

Today's Scripture Readings

1 Samuel 17:57-18:5, 10-16

On David's return from killing Goliath, the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul, with the head of the Philistine in his hand. Saul said to him, "Whose son are you, young man?" And David answered, "I am the son of your servant Jesse the Bethlehemite."

When David had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was bound to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. Saul took him that day and would not let him return to his father's house. Then Jonathan made a covenant with David, because he loved him as his own soul. Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that he was wearing, and gave it to David, and his armor, and even his sword and his bow and his belt. David went out and was successful wherever Saul sent him; as a result, Saul set him over the army. And all the people, even the servants of Saul, approved.

The next day an evil spirit from God rushed upon Saul, and he raved within his house, while David was playing the lyre, as he did day by day. Saul had his spear in his hand; and Saul threw the spear, for he thought, "I will pin David to the wall." But David eluded him twice.

Saul was afraid of David, because the LORD was with him but had departed from Saul. So Saul removed him from his presence, and made him a commander of a thousand; and David marched out and came in, leading the army. David had success in all his undertakings; for the LORD was with him. When Saul saw that he had great success, he stood in awe of him. But all Israel and Judah loved David; for it was he who marched out and came in leading them.

Psalm 133 (BCP, p. 787)


2 Corinthians 6:1-13 (NRSV)

As we work together with Christ, we urge you also not to accept the grace of God in vain. For he says,

"At an acceptable time I have listened to you,

and on a day of salvation I have helped you."

See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation! We are putting no obstacle in anyone's way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, but as servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way: through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good repute. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet are well known; as dying, and see-- we are alive; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

We have spoken frankly to you Corinthians; our heart is wide open to you. There is no restriction in our affections, but only in yours. In return-- I speak as to children-- open wide your hearts also.

Mark 4:35-41 (NRSV)

When evening had come, Jesus said to his disciples, "Let us go across to the other side." And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?" He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, "Peace! Be still!" Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He said to them, "Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?" And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, "Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?"

Blog Reflection

Once while I was in college, a theology professor said that the purpose of the ten commandments was to help us understand what our problem was.  He never quite got around to telling us exactly what that problem was.  Even now, I tend to think it was one of those moments when we the students were to answer that question for ourselves.  Each of us could have named a particular problem, but does that really answer the question of why we need the commandment to love God, our neighbors and ourselves?

Our reading from Hebrew Scriptures is a love story between Jonathan and David.  One in which David loved Jonathan more the life itself.  Later as the narrative unfolds and Jonathan is killed, the pain of separation from one that David loved so much, is too much to bear.  The wound is deep.  The grief, all too real. 

One of the many things I have come to believe is that the human heart is something that it is not only impossible to try to control, in terms of who we love and how we love them, it is lethal to our overall health.   It is damaging to our physical, mental and spiritual wellness.  The world is full of enough tragedies in nature, sickness, crime and death that over work our human emotions.  Asking an individual to just not allow themselves the feelings of loving another person, is like telling the heart not to pump blood through one's body.

It is easy to call Pride Sunday as the continued call to justice and equality.  The ongoing discrimination for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in the Church and society continues to institutionalize itself in political campaigns and sermons.   Pride is our opportunity to celebrate our diversity as people who realize that we are all on this earth for a very brief period of time.  During that time, we all need to love someone, and be loved by someone.  It doesn't matter whether that love shared through romantic and sexual means is straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual, or that our gender is one that is different from the gender assigned to us at the moment we were born.  Pride celebrates the many ways in which our differences that divide us across political, social, religious and legal lines, are really there to unite us all as people who are here because of love, with love as the destiny to which we are all moving towards.

As Christians who believe in Jesus Christ as the Alpha (the beginning) and the Omega (the end), and the one through whom God reveals God's Self, we know that love was and remains the reason why we have the hope of salvation.  As Rev. Patrick S. Cheng writes in his book: From Sin to Grace: Discovering Queer Theology:

Christ is not only the Alpha (that is, the source of our creation), but Christ is also the Omega (that is, the ultimate goal of our existence).   Grace, therefore, can be understood as becoming divine. (Introduction, p. xiii). 

Cheng suggests, that any where we encounter the transforming power of Christ within relationships that becomes a moment for us to grow in grace, and encounter Christ is a moment that the Incarnate Word is helping us to be come more like the Divine.   LGBT people in our relationships, friendships and our sexual selves, can encounter the Crucified and Risen Christ, and be empowered to grow in the unmerited favor of God. When this happens we are connected to the Divine Revelation of the Holy One of God.  The mystery of God, becomes a living and interactive reality in the here and now.  It is transformational.  It is authentic. It is living.  It is beyond human explanation. It is the mystery of God, revealed in humankind.  The perfect revelation of God's Self in Christ.

In the Gospel today the disciples find themselves on a stormy sea.   While the waves are pounding against the boat, Jesus is sound asleep on the cushion.  The disciples wake Jesus and he wakes up, gets up and calms the storm.   Jesus then calls them out, by asking them if they have no faith.  From a glance, it is easy to take the side of the disciples.  They were afraid of drowning.  Storms are scary.  Yet, what Jesus is challenging them to do, is to believe that even the mighty winds and raging seas with all their destructive power are no match for what God can do in the lives of those who dare to believe in something stronger than nature, mightier than time and earth.

As we LGBT people continue to brave the storms of discrimination and violence, often done in the Name of Jesus, we may tend to think that God has either fallen asleep, or not even concerned.  It is way too easy to cast faith aside.  Feeling like to have faith in God is pointless, if religious groups led by NOM and the Family Research Council's are only going to keep hammering away at LGBT equal rights.   However, as Jesus rose in the middle of the storm on that windy day, so Jesus is alive and working with and through us.  Often in ways we cannot see, or understand.

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High, abides under the shadow of the Almighty.  Shall say to the Lord, "You are my refuge and my stronghold, my God in whom I put my trust.  God shall deliver you from the snare of the hunter, and from the deadly pestilence.   God shall cover you with his pinions, and you shall find refuge under his wings; his faithfulness shall be a shield and buckler."  (Psalm 91: 1-4, BCP, p. 719).

God is close to all of us as we face the reality of how abusive the Christianist right is, as God continues to shield us by calling us to holiness and hope in the One who ultimately can and does save our souls.   We are pursuing righteousness in calling on the leadership of churches, governments (national, local and international) to see LGBT people as deserving of equal protection under the law, and given the same opportunities as any one else.   Though we may lose a campaign, God does not abandon us, nor stop loving us.  Even when we are mad as hell over ballot referendums to take away marriage equality, or State's pass laws allowing discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and/or gender identity/expression, God is still with us, loving us, and holding on to us.   God identifies with our pain and suffering.  God cries when we hurt.  God celebrates with us, as we achieve successes in the work of justice, equality and inclusion.

As we celebrate this Pride Sunday, may we also take time to thank God for making us LGBT.   May we also thank God for all of the people who told us that God loves us as we are.  May we take time to praise God for those wonderful bodily sensations that tell us that we are being loved by God, through another person's touching, caressing, kissing and the joining of our bodies together.   May we celebrate that no matter what Christianists say or do to us, God has affirmed us in Christ, and continues to love us today and for ever.

Amen.

Prayers

                  Loving God, bless us as we gather to celebrate LGBT Pride.  We are, each of us, created in your image lesbian, gay, straight, bisexual, and transgendered, alike.  Hasten the coming of your kingdom when all are welcome and all are equal.  Anoint us with the balm of hope and send us your healing Spirit, that we may be known as a just and unified community.  We ask this in your Name, through Jesus Christ our Redeemer, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.  (I have been told this prayer can be found in the Book of Occasional Services).

                 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).

                  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, p. 833).

Third Sunday after Pentecost: The Price for Faith Gets More Costly

Today's Scripture Readings

Ezekiel 17: 22-24 (NRSV)

Thus says the Lord GOD:

 

I myself will take a sprig

from the lofty top of a cedar;

I will set it out.

I will break off a tender one

from the topmost of its young twigs;

I myself will plant it

on a high and lofty mountain.

On the mountain height of Israel

I will plant it,

in order that it may produce boughs and bear fruit,

and become a noble cedar.

Under it every kind of bird will live;

in the shade of its branches will nest

winged creatures of every kind.

All the trees of the field shall know

that I am the LORD.

I bring low the high tree,

I make high the low tree;

I dry up the green tree

and make the dry tree flourish.

I the LORD have spoken;

I will accomplish it.

Psalm 92 (BCP, p. 720)


2 Corinthians 5:6-10,[11-13],14-17 (NRSV)

We are always confident; even though we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord-- for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we do have confidence, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. For all of us must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive recompense for what has been done in the body, whether good or evil.

[Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we try to persuade others; but we ourselves are well known to God, and I hope that we are also well known to your consciences. We are not commending ourselves to you again, but giving you an opportunity to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast in outward appearance and not in the heart. For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you.] For the love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died. And he died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them. From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!

Mark 4:26-34 (NRSV)

Jesus said, "The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come."

He also said, "With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade."

With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it; he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples.

Blog Reflection

The word faith is one that is thrown around almost like a can of soda.  It can be full and closed tight, open and being drunk for all it is worth, empty and kicked all over creation, or thrown away and discarded as nothing.  

When we say the word Faith with a capital F we are talking about the Christian Faith as a whole.  When the conversation is an individuals faith,we spell it with a small f.   News organizations and those not associated with any religious based community talk about a person's faith in a more generic term so as to not offend one group over another.  When Christians talk the word faith it can mean many things.  

In our Gospel today, Jesus is talking about a faith that begins in those who make the leap of faith to believe in God, the Parent of Jesus.  It is compared to a small seed that is planted and grows to an enormous size so that it provides something for the individuals and others who might share in it.  A faith that is not so isolated, nor is it without the need to provide something to others beyond oneself.  Even if it is some shade from the summer heat, or the opportunity to belong to a community of people who believe in and live for something greater than themselves.  A community where there is plenty of room for differences of belief, behavior and understanding.  One that is not so confined to being abstract and idealistic, but also humanly practical and accessible.

It never ceases to amaze and/or disgust me to see people using the Christian Faith as a reason to exclude, denigrate and demoralize people who are different than themselves.  The ongoing debate about accepting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning and queer people into the life of the Church, because of the need to stigmatize and degrade is ever so very disturbing.   The endless and erroneous use of the Bible to target LGBT people, Muslims, Jews, immigrants and the poor to treat them as second class citizens on earth, and even to dare to suggest that they are unwanted by God, is a misuse of our collective and individual Faith.  Rather then see all that is so good and wondrous about the unconditional and all-inclusive love of God through Jesus Christ to be shared and enjoyed by people, all of whom are different from each other in some kind of way, many Christians use the Bible and our Faith, to establish their list of so called "Christian family values" to be violent and hateful.  

This past week we witnessed examples of the ongoing violence towards women when Michigan Democratic Law Maker, Lisa Brown was banned from speaking on the floor, for saying the word: vagina.  Male privilege can be used to demean a woman's reproductive health care rights to care for her own body, in the "name" of God violently, but, a woman talking openly about her body and the need to protect the rights of women is seen as shameful or vulgar.   It appears that so called pro-lifers determined to declare war on women just cannot take responsibility for the hell that women are experiencing because of their negligence and grotesque behavior.  Why is it that individuals in the "name" of the Christian Faith must make people so ashamed of the beauty of the human body?   How is it that this has been the case for so many centuries of Church history?

A New York law maker backed by the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) filed a bill to take away marriage equality for LGBT folks in the State.  

Another story out of Michigan about the House there passed a law that would allow student counselors do discriminate against LGBT students.       

This past week the breakfast giant General Mills publicly opposed the constitutional amendment that would ban marriage equality in Minnesota, a move that was amazing and awesome.  Yet, true to form, NOM's President Brian Brown declared a political war that is aimed at destroying the company for the position they took.

Just this past Friday, President Obama made the historic move of giving children of immigrants the opportunity to stay in America to study and work their way towards full citizenship.    The GOP House of Representatives was quick to condemn the move, accusing the President of granting amnesty, and suggesting it needs to be repealed.   The opinion being made by a Representative who in the past has led a very mean spirited campaign targeting Muslims in very hateful ways. 

Examples such as the one's I gave above are not good representations of Christians exercising their faith well.  They are the means of misusing religious based zeal to maintain certain individuals as second class citizens through violence and prejudice.  They are actions being taken in civil society, by Christianists and Dominionists determined to be sure that the Christian Faith that is made public and permanent is the one that is exclusive and destructive to people of faith and of good will towards others who are different than themselves.

As progressive Christians and individuals who believe in being inclusive peacemakers, we have the responsibility of proclaiming an inclusive Gospel of Faith.   One that recognizes that Jesus came to heal broken relationships, by identifying with all humankind in all of our pain and suffering.  Jesus came as one who was poor, marginalized and without even a place to lay his head.  Jesus came to bring the face of God to a place where every human person can celebrate all of the good things God gives us.  The hungry were fed, the sick were healed, the dead were raised and the hopeless found a new reason to have hope in God's love and grace.  Just small actions of hospitality and reconciliation changed the face of human history in ways that we are still learning about.  A Faith that forgives us of our sins when we fail, and unites us to God and one another through redemption and the promise of eternal life.  A way of life that is ever progressing and not regressing.  One that is open and accepting.  Not rejecting and legislating others unjustly, so to give rise to oppression.

Let us see that the price of our faith is costly enough to say that when the Christian Faith is used to exclude and hate, we can say that is the wrong way to go. Because our founder Jesus Christ showed us all a better way.  Jesus led the way to proclaim that through the Cross, all reasons for scapegoating are destroyed.  The way of Jesus is through love and sacrifice of self for others, to guide Christians to the work of peace, justice, inclusion, hospitality and reconciliation.

Amen.


Prayers

Keep, O Lord, your household the Church in your steadfast
faith and love, that through your grace we may proclaim
your truth with boldness, and minister your justice with
compassion; for the sake of our Savior Jesus Christ, who
lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now
and for ever. Amen.  (Proper 6, 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).


Gracious Father, we pray for they holy Catholic Church. Fill it
with all truth, in all truth with all peace. Where it is corrupt,
purify it; where it is in error, direct it; where in any thing it is
amiss, reform it. Where it is right, strengthen it; where it is in
want, provide for it; where it is divided, reunite it; for the sake
of Jesus Christ thy Son our Savior. Amen.  (Prayer for the Church, Book of Common Prayer, p. 816).

Top Ten Questions About God, Jesus, the Bible and Gay Pride by Susan Russell

My blog will be taking a break this upcoming weekend.   I enjoy writing it so much.  This weekend, I will be taking a much needed rest and will resume the following week.

In place of  my usual blog I want to invite you to read an excellent article by Rev. Susan Russell on the Huffington Post .  I also encourage you to comment where you feel led to help continue to tip the conversation towards a God who is all loving and inclusive.  

Below is the blog article copied and pasted for you to read.   Clock on the link above to comment.

In preparation for our L.A. Pride Festival this weekend, the team putting together the materials for our Diocese of Los Angeles booth at the festival came up with the following ten "frequently asked questions about God, Jesus, the Bible and gay people" -- and asked me to give them my best shot. And so I did.
Have I mentioned lately that I love my job?

1. Is being gay a sin?

No. Sins are acts that separate us from God and keep us from loving our neighbors as ourselves. Being gay is not a sin. Bullying is a sin. Being hateful to other people is a sin. Putting yourself in the place of God to judge others is a sin. Being gay is not.

2. What did Jesus say about gay people?

Jesus said the same thing about gay people as he said about all people: God loves you beyond your wildest imagining and calls you to walk in love with God and with each other. He also said a whole lot about loving your neighbor, welcoming the stranger, embracing the outcast and ministering to the marginalized.

3. Does the Bible really condemn homosexuality?

The short answer is no; no it does not. The handful of passages in the Old and New Testaments that talk about God condemning specific sexual acts have nothing whatsoever to do with sexual orientation and everything to do with contexts such as cultic prostitution or gang rape. To put it another way, using the Bible as a handbook on human sexuality makes as much sense as using it as a handbook on astronomy. Just as those who wrote the Biblical texts had no concept of the science that would prove the earth actually revolves around the sun, so they had no concept of homosexuality (which wasn't defined until the 19th century.)

4. How do I respond when people say "God hates "f--s"?

First of all, God's nature is to love, not to hate. We believe that what God cares about is not our sexual orientation but our theological orientation -- and that the question that matters is not "who do you love?" but "do you love?" Recognizing that homophobia causes some folks to project onto God their own fears, prejudices and biases against LGBT people, sometimes the best response is simply no response. It can be a challenge, but getting triggered by hate-mongers prevents us from being the change we want to see.

5. I thought gay men and women weren't allowed to be priests?

The Episcopal Church has been ordaining women to the priesthood since 1974 and we have women deacons, priests and bishops throughout the church -- including two women bishops here in the Diocese of Los Angeles. When it comes to gay men in the priesthood, the issue is not homosexuality -- it is honesty. The church has ordained gay men for centuries but finally the Episcopal Church added "sexual orientation" in the non-discrimination list in 1994 -- ending our version of "don't ask/don't tell." Because the Episcopal Church allows for diversity of practice, the leadership of "out" LGBT and women clergy is more prevalent in some places than others. But the Diocese of Los Angeles is proud to have been in the forefront of inclusion.

6. Can I still receive Communion in your church if I am gay?

Of course you can. In many of our churches you will hear a variation on the invitation "whoever you are and wherever you find yourself on the journey of faith there is a place for you here." God's love is radically inclusive and so is the Episcopal Church.

7. Despite what is happening legislatively, can my partner and I be married in the Episcopal Church yet?

The only accurate answer to this question is "that depends." It depends on which diocese you're in and whether you're in a state that has civil marriage equality. For example, New York State is a marriage equality state. In four of the six dioceses clergy can both solemnize and bless a civil marriage and in one of them clergy can bless but not solemnize (a judge or justice of the peace has to do the civil marriage part). Here in Los Angeles clergy both blessed and solemnized same-sex marriages in 2008 when it was legal and our bishops have been in the forefront of working to overturn Prop 8 and get marriage equality back. As Facebook might put it: "it's complicated."

8. What do I tell people when they say being gay is a sin and a choice?

Tell them that Jesus said absolutely nothing about being gay but he said a lot of things about judging other people. Then tell them that while there is no consensus among scientists about the exact reasons that an individual develops a heterosexual, bisexual, gay, or lesbian orientation there IS consensus that sexuality is a continuum. So the "choice" is not to be gay, straight or somewhere in between -- the "choice" is to build our own healthy relationships ... and give other people the grace to build theirs.

9. Should I try to "pray away the gay?"

No. If you need to pray away something, pray away homophobia. Homosexuality doesn't need healing. Homophobia does.

10. How do I respond when politicians condemn my sexuality, citing their belief in the Bible?

Remind them that the First Amendment protects them in believing whatever they want to about what God does or does not bless but it also prohibits them from using those beliefs to decide who the Constitution protects or doesn't protect. Tell them to stop confusing their theology with our democracy. And then campaign for and donate to their opponent in the next election cycle.


Prayer

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).

The Day of Pentecost: Holy Spirit, Lead Us Into Truth

Today's Scripture Readings

Acts 2: 1-21 (NRSV)

When the day of Pentecost had come, the disciples were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs-- in our own languages we hear them speaking about God's deeds of power." All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, "What does this mean?" But others sneered and said, "They are filled with new wine."

But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, "Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o'clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:

`In the last days it will be, God declares,

that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,

and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,

and your young men shall see visions,

and your old men shall dream dreams.

Even upon my slaves, both men and women,

in those days I will pour out my Spirit;

and they shall prophesy.

And I will show portents in the heaven above

and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist.

The sun shall be turned to darkness

and the moon to blood,

before the coming of the Lord's great and glorious day.

Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.' "

Psalm 104 (BCP. p.736)


Romans 8:22-27 (NRSV)

We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15 (NRSV)

Jesus said to his disciples, "When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf. You also are to testify because you have been with me from the beginning.

"I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. But, now I am going to him who sent me; yet none of you asks me, `Where are you going?' But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts. Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because they do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer; about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.

"I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you."

Blog Reflection

These past two weeks since President Obama announced that he supports marriage equality for LGBT people have been amazing.  We have witnessed the movement of the Holy Spirit in wonderful and new ways.   We have also seen how quickly prejudice and violence rises from those who continue to use the Bible and the Christian religion as a means for hate and cruelty.

This past week we have been reading and hearing about the Pastor in North Carolina who has called for all "queers to be executed."   Many in America both religious and non-religious have responded with outrage and horror.   Yet, the Pastor's own church members supported what he said.   It is amazing and unbelievable how hate in the Name of Jesus Christ can be so popular.

Is it any wonder that so many upon hearing about things such as this turn away from the Christian religion?    Why would anyone want to participate in a religion with messengers who preach hate and violence, and encourage others to do the same?

Because those who preach and teach that Christianity and the Bible are the means for discrimination, cruelty and oppression are telling only one side of the story.   It is not the Christ side.   Their story of Jesus that suggests fear and destruction does not reflect the accurate picture of Jesus or the Christian religion.  We could easily say that they are taking the Lord's Name in vein and they do not even know it.

As we celebrate today the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost Day, we see how the Advocate changed the Apostles instantly.  Their moods, their activities and so forth were transformed so quickly, it looked  like they were drunk at 9am.   Peter rose and told the story of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and how this fulfills what the prophets had foretold.   The Church was born and given their sense of mission.  But, the story does not end there.   Just like the truth about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the Church and the Bible do not end with the book of Revelation.  Nor are they perfectly understood or described by one preachers words, or any particular church council.

Jesus said: "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come."

The first time I heard this Gospel passage preached on in a way that is open to diversity, was by now retired Bishop Christopher Senyonjo of Uganda.   He preached about how all of the truth about homosexuality or any part of the Gospel is not finished, but is a continually evolving.  Jesus recognized that the work of the Holy Spirit revealing God's truth to humankind would not end with the Apostles, but would continue to be unraveled throughout human history.  Through the words of Jesus from John's Gospel today, we know that truth is something that is not static, nor is it abstract.  It does not end with one declaration, nor is it "common sense" when their are so many different cultures, races, sexual orientations, genders, gender identities/expressions, languages and religious that understand truth to mean different things.  Yet, we know that the Holy Spirit, the feminine nature of God, continues to speak whatever she hears, and declares what is to come from the heart of God.

It is no accident that I might remember this Scripture being preached on by Bishop Christopher.  He preached and continues to preach on this matter, because of Uganda's continued efforts to pass a bill that would mean that LGBT individuals who are open, suspected or outed could be put in prison or executed by hanging.   The bill would mean that Pastors, counselors, teachers and/or parents who do not report homosexuals to the authorities could themselves face prison time.  The bill has been supported and encouraged by American evangelical missionaries of hate.

Yet, here we are on Pentecost Sunday, a week after the message of Pastor Worley calling for the execution of LGBT people.  Particularly after North Carolina voters passed a constitutional amendment to ban marriage equality earlier this month.  This just goes to show that Christianists are not happy with just passing marriage amendments.  They literally want LGBT people eliminated.  Once discrimination becomes a matter of being passed by voters, where does it stop?

Our Mother, the Holy Spirit desires to lead us into all truth.  Including the truth that the Church has got many things wrong.   The Holy Spirit can certainly reveal that the way the Bible has been interpreted and Church tradition has framed the discussion of homosexuality all through the years, as being totally wrong.

The question for us is, are we open to the Holy Spirit leading us into all truth?   Are we so arrogant that we refuse to be open to the Holy Spirit leading us to be more inclusive and loving, and less biased and violent?  Are we open that our Mother, the Holy Spirit may help us to know that the power of salvation and redemption by way of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, gives us every reason to love the unlovable?   To reach out to those marginalized and oppressed by the Church and society to minister to them by the way of radical hospitality and reconciliation? 

God the Holy Spirit comes to us so that we may know God's comfort and consolation in the midst of the pains, trials and sufferings of life.  She comes to share her grace and truth that it is okay to let her open up the Pandora's Boxes that we put God, our neighbors and ourselves into, to keep us from accepting and loving those who are different from ourselves.   Including allowing ourselves to let go of any criteria we have developed for how we judge others, and realizing that all of us, regardless of who we are, are in need of forgiveness, redemption and the hope of being loved unconditionally and inclusively.  To call on Church leadership to stop using our religion as an excuse to hate and exclude.   Instead, the Holy Spirit comes to help us to exercise the ministry of welcome and healing of those broken relationships that Jesus Christ came to heal.

As we conclude the Easter Season today, we go forth having been renewed in faith, hope and love.   Knowing that God has forgiven us, and reconciled us to God's Self by way of the Cross and Resurrection.  That our Mother, the Holy Spirit comes to help us by her grace and tender teachings to know that she groans in intercession before God on our behalf, so that we may be God's witnesses of all that Jesus Christ taught and did, being open to being lead into all truth.   The truth that does not end on Pentecost.  It only begins as we are open to what God's Spirit will do in and through us, if we are open to learning more truth as she hears it from the heart of Almighty God.


Prayers

O God, who on this day taught the hearts of your faithful
people by sending to them the light of your Holy Spirit:
Grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgment in all
things, and evermore to rejoice in his holy comfort; through
Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with
you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and
ever. Amen.  (Collect for Pentecost, Book of Common Prayer, p. 227)


O God the Father 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 thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.  (Prayer for the Unity of the Church, Book of  Common Prayer, p. 818).


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. 824).

Seventh Sunday of Easter: Being One and Being Inclusive of Diversity are Inseperable

Today's Scripture Readings

Acts 1:15-17, 21-26 (NRSV)

In those days Peter stood up among the believers (together the crowd numbered about one hundred twenty persons) and said, "Friends, the scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit through David foretold concerning Judas, who became a guide for those who arrested Jesus-- for he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry. So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us-- one of these must become a witness with us to his resurrection." So they proposed two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also known as Justus, and Matthias. Then they prayed and said, "Lord, you know everyone's heart. Show us which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place." And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias; and he was added to the eleven apostles.

Psalm 1 (BCP., p.585).


1 John 5:9-13 (NRSV)

If we receive human testimony, the testimony of God is greater; for this is the testimony of God that he has testified to his Son. Those who believe in the Son of God have the testimony in their hearts. Those who do not believe in God have made him a liar by not believing in the testimony that God has given concerning his Son. And this is the testimony: God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.
I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.

John 17:6-19 (NRSV)

Looking up to heaven, Jesus prayed, "I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth."

Blog Reflection

Jesus' famous prayer for the Apostle's to be one.  A prayer that has been the source used for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity on one hand and then used by many Roman Catholic Bishops to suggest that any church community or denomination not united to the See of Peter are not part of the "one Church" on the other.   This same Gospel gets used to accuse other church communities who have accepted lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people as ordained Bishops, Priests and Deacons, and/or began blessing same-sex relationships, of having "broken off from the one true Gospel."     This passionate plea by Jesus for his followers to be one is used time and again, to give Jesus a very bad Name.

This past Thursday, we commemorated the Ascension of Jesus to the right hand of God.  What that means and how it happened is different for everyone.  Just as each person has a unique understanding of what the resurrection means.  No two people discussing the Holy Trinity will understand it in the same way.  But, is their belief in God any less real because of their disagreements?  

When the Anglican Church was being formed, among the ways that the founders sought to make that distinguished us from Rome, is that although we pray in common, we do not have to believe in common.  As Episcopalians who are part of the Anglican Communion, we cherish independent thinking and the ability for each person to arrive at their own belief's, but still pray with us all the things Christians believe.  Yet, one thing we do understand is that our Baptismal Covenant incorporates us into the Body of Christ, and Holy Communion continues to united us one to another through the Body and Blood of Christ.   We believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, but we do not define how that presence is real (ie. transubstantiation or consubstantiation).  We leave that up to God and the individual to work out, while at the same time feeling free to dialogue with each other about our differences.  Can differences of opinion about doctrines, dogmas, sacraments, the interpretation of Scripture and so forth, still mean a oneness among the followers of Jesus?  As Episcopalians and Anglicans, we answer yes.  Because one matter that we do understand is the commandment of Jesus to love God, our neighbors and ourselves inclusively, is something we are all called to do.  That is something we can all agree on.

Christians have become so settled with disagreeing about doctrines and the like so long, that we do risk forgetting that the commandment of Jesus to be one in the loving of God, others and ourselves is really what Christians are all about.   No two people have to agree on anything.  However, seeking the common good of another individual who is different from ourselves, is what Jesus' prayer to be one entails.  It is not just a prayer about our creeds, sacraments, leaders or worship languages, etc.  It is a prayer to be one in what God through Jesus Christ did in his earthly ministry, and now continues to pray for all of us to do as he prays for us from his throne in glory.   We can use the Bible literally and even the meaning of the sacraments to exclude LGBT people from participating in Communion and be spot on if we want to be like that.  Except that by doing so, we have failed to love God, our neighbor and ourselves, making our actions null and void.  Read 1 Corinthians 13 for a better explanation of that one. Because the oneness of God's people to see God's presence in LGBT people, women who have had abortions, individuals of different races, religions, languages, behaviors etc, and seek to exclude them from the Church and the sacraments, is the Body of Christ, that is the Church, fractured. 

Being one and being inclusive of diversity are inseparable from each other.  They compliment each other.  They complete one another. When Church leadership uses the Gospel to instruct and guide Christians away from being inclusive of diversity, they render the answer of Jesus' prayer as unanswerable.  When Christians fail to hold Church leadership accountable for not being inclusive of diversity, we too grieve the heart of God, by not participating in the answer to the prayer of Jesus coming to pass.  When we work for justice and equality for all people, serving the needs of the poor, the hurting, those affected by political, religious and social oppression, we are making progress so that Jesus prayer for us to be one, is a step closer to becoming a living reality.

How are we playing our role of answering the prayer of Jesus?

What are some things we might do in the weeks and months ahead to help the Church answer Jesus' prayer for his followers to be one?

How might we be an example of someone who wants to be an answer to Jesus' prayer?

I think we could be a better example if we will think a little bit more about the ending to the Prayer after Communion on page 365 of the Book of Common Prayer.

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.


Prayers

O God, the King of glory, you have exalted your only Son
Jesus Christ with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven:
Do not leave us comfortless, but send us your Holy Spirit to
strengthen us, and exalt us to that place where our Savior
Christ has gone before; who lives and reigns with you and
the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.  (Collect for the Seventh Sunday of Easter, Book of  Common Prayer, p. 226).


O God the Father 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 thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.  (Prayer for the Unity of the Church, Book of Common Prayer, p. 818).


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).

Sixth Sunday of Easter: Love One Another, Marriage Equality Exemplifies This

Today's Scriptures

Acts 10: 44-48 (NRSV)

While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word. The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles, for they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter said, "Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?" So he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they invited him to stay for several days.

Psalm 98 (BCP. p. 727)


1 John 5: 1-6 (NRSV)

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the parent loves the child. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith. Who is it that conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

This is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with the water only but with the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one that testifies, for the Spirit is the truth.

John 15: 9-17 (NRSV)

Jesus said to his disciples, "As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.

"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another."

Blog Reflection

What a week it has been   This past Wednesday when the media blitz began over President Obama's interview at which he spoke out in support of marriage equality, I could not wait for my partner Jason to get off the phone so I could tell him.   It was an exciting and historic moment.  One in which as Rev. Susan Russell wrote: "I don't just believe in it [Evolution], I have seen it.."

How appropriate if not prophetic that this Sunday we would read from the Gospel of John the new commandment of Jesus.  "Love one another as I have loved you." What is important about this Gospel is not just the words "love one another" but also what comes after.  "No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends."   Here, Jesus implies a love that cannot be explained or described.  It must be lived, experienced and witnessed to.  Then, such love is visible and way beyond any thing human words could say or write. 

The kind of love that Jesus is calling us to in this new commandment gets its background from what is written in the Hebrew Scriptures.  "Love the Lord, Your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself" (see Matthew 22: 36-40).   Jesus invites us to take that one step further today.  To love another with a sense of authenticity.  To love beyond just saying to someone "I love you" as beautiful as those words are.  This kind of love is found in the heart, but moves beyond itself for the good of another.   It is the very love by which our God gave the life of God's Son, Jesus Christ on the Cross, and then rose again from the dead to give to all of us, the hope of new and unending life.   It is the love that calls for sacrifice and a total giving of self for the benefit of the other.

What is so awesome about President Obama's announcement this past Wednesday, is that at last he sees beyond the issue of whether or not homosexuality is blessed by God, but that same-sex couples like any other two people who get married, do it because of a deep abiding love for each other.  A love that comes from God and is expressed through the same sexual and physical love of two people who literally lay down their lives for each other.  People who mirror God's unconditional and all-inclusive love for each other and for all the world to witness to.  A love that knows that we make mistakes, but we love each other any way.  A love that doesn't give up, but keeps on working at it, out of our love for the other person.

Marriage equality has nothing to do with redefining marriage or family.  It simply means that we recognize that the love of God is not limited to physical and romantic expressions of people of the opposite sex, but is just as beautifully expressed by same-sex. couples.

Many Christians have been evolving over the issue of homosexuality and marriage equality.   It is still a very controversial subject, but the playing field is leavening.   The "old leaven of malice and evil" is giving way to the "unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." and for that, let the Church say: "Alleluia."  Many more are coming to the understanding that the Bible in and of itself does not condemn homosexuality and it certainly does not label LGBT people as the worst of all sinners as Christianists would have us believe.   This matter was debated this week in an NPR discussion on the Morning Edition.

Rev . Susan Russell responded: "Jesus does say the most important commandments are "Love God" and "Love your neighbor as yourself." Given that, Russell believes if Jesus were here today, he would celebrate committed, same-sex relationships".

Among many important attributes of observing Jesus' commandment to love one another as we are loved, is to be open to better understanding one another in all of our diversity.  We can "lay down our loves for one another" by letting ourselves be taught about other races, religions, sexual orientations, gender identities/expressions and so forth.  As we are being led into more truths about Jesus and others, we learn to embrace one another and commit ourselves to the work of justice and equality for all people.   We can actually see the face of Jesus in the poor, the challenged, the immigrant, the individual in need of what health care reform can do for them, and why we need to pray that the U.S. Supreme Court does not take it away from us.   We can speak up for workers who are losing their collective bargaining rights and oppose voter ID laws, because we want everyone to have the opportunity to work for a good living wage and have a voice in our government.   And last, but certainly not least, we would understand why it is such an evil for North Carolina voters to take away marriage equality rights from their neighbors who are LGBT.  Not only marriage equality, but also civil protections for non-married heterosexual and homosexual individuals to defend themselves against domestic abuse.

If you are reading this blog today, I want to ask you to help the LGBT citizens in Minnesota as we face our own vote on a constitutional amendment this November.  Our citizens will be voting on an amendment to place discrimination on the Minnesota State Constitution that will prevent LGBT Minnesotans from gaining marriage equality.  My blog readers can help greatly with a contribution to Minnesotans United for All Families.   We also call them MN-United.  They are the official campaign working to defeat the constitutional amendment in November.  They need all the help they can get.  You will be happy to know that the Episcopal Church of Minnesota voted last October to oppose the amendment, and that St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral has joined the coalition to defeat the amendment. 

"Love one another" is what Jesus said.  Marriage equality is just such an example.  We need all Christians and people of good will to join in the effort to gain it and maintain it, so that "love in any language" will truly be "fluently spoken here." (Love in Any Language, by Sandi Patty).


Prayers

O God, you have prepared for those who love you such good
things as surpass our understanding: Pour into our hearts such
love towards you, that we, loving you in all things and above
all things, may obtain your promises, which exceed all that we
can desire; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns
with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.  (Sixth Sunday of Easter, Book of Common Prayer, p. 225).


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, p. 833).

 

Fifth Sunday of Easter: Love Unites Us to the Vine

Today's Scripture Readings

Acts 8: 26-40 (NRSV)

An angel of the Lord said to Philip, "Get up and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza." (This is a wilderness road.) So he got up and went. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. Then the Spirit said to Philip, "Go over to this chariot and join it." So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, "Do you understand what you are reading?" He replied, "How can I, unless someone guides me?" And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him. Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this:

"Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter,

and like a lamb silent before its shearer,

so he does not open his mouth.

In his humiliation justice was denied him.

Who can describe his generation?

For his life is taken away from the earth."

The eunuch asked Philip, "About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?" Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus. As they were going along the road, they came to some water; and the eunuch said, "Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?" He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he was passing through the region, he proclaimed the good news to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.

Psalm 22: 24-30 (BCP, p. 612)




1 John 4: 7-21 (NRSV)

Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God's love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.

By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. So we have known and believe the love that God has for us.

God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because he first loved us. Those who say, "I love God," and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.

John 15: 1-8 (NRSV)

Jesus said, "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples."

Blog Reflection

The Easter Season brings us an interesting turn of events.  Today we read about the work of Philip sharing the Gospel with a eunuch (the gay men of that time), the love of God in 1 John, and the vine and the branches in John's Gospel.  There is a lot for us to consider here.

If we as Christians believe that Jesus fulfilled the prophesies of the Hebrew Scriptures, then among them would be Isaiah 56: 2-5.

Happy is the mortal who does this,
   the one who holds it fast,
who keeps the sabbath, not profaning it,
   and refrains from doing any evil.

Do not let the foreigner joined to the Lord say,
   ‘The Lord will surely separate me from his people’;
and do not let the eunuch say,
   ‘I am just a dry tree.’
For thus says the Lord:
To the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths,
   who choose the things that please me
   and hold fast my covenant,
I will give, in my house and within my walls,
   a monument and a name
   better than sons and daughters;
I will give them an everlasting name
   that shall not be cut off.

This would mean that eunuch was someone cut off from worshiping in the House of the Lord was now to be included.  The eunuch whom Philip meets and answers the questions of, is someone who would have experienced exclusion from the worshiping communities.  When Philip proclaims Jesus to be the one that the eunuch is reading about, Philip does not ask him to renounce who he is.  He calls him to repentance and forgiveness of his sins.  Philip baptized the eunuch without requiring him to become any different than he already was, except that  his life was without a Savior.  The eunuch remained such after his baptism, only now he could live his life in the knowledge that he had been redeemed by Christ.  The eunuch received the promise that was foretold him in Isaiah 56: 2-5.  

The writer of 1 John tells us that God is love.  We are told that the love of God and love of our neighbor are inseparable.  To say we love God while hating a sister or brother makes us liars.  God's love is authenticated when we love those who are marginalized and experience oppression and deprivation.  Loving others whom we do see, is a revelation of the love of God whom we cannot see.   Love is seen with the eyes of the body, heart and soul.  As human beings, even people of faith who do not live by sight alone, we tend to believe in something when we are touched by our senses.  Even if it is something we cannot physically handle.  When we can feel love moving our hearts through someone's kind gesture or support of inclusion and equality for all people, the love of God becomes knowable, because it has been experienced.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people along with many others who are considered "unacceptable" by the Church and society are like the eunuchs of our time.  They have been separated and told that there is no place for them either in church ministry or even in civil life.  Whole lists of criteria are created to find a reason to exclude someone.  Many parts of that set of standards are based on false information that leads to negative stereotypes.  The list becomes very useful, when someone's ways of behavior, expression or appearance just doesn't quite match what we think they should be.  Excluding people like this flies in the face of what we are told in both Acts and 1 John today. 

Our Gospel reading gives another look at others, this time through the words of Jesus as written by the author of John.  Jesus describes himself as the vine, and those who follow him to be the branches.   We bear good fruit when we abide in Jesus, because apart from him we can do nothing. 

The set of discourses found from John 13-17 have become part of the "weapons of mass destruction" on the part of Christians.  Jesus' proclamation of himself as the "way, truth and life" in John 14: 6 have become the hallmark Bible passage used by evangelists working to convert individuals from other religious traditions, sexual orientations and/or gender expressions etc for centuries.  The Gospel for today about the vine and the branches are among such that are used.   It is important to note that these writings are most likely not directly from John the Apostle and Evangelist.  They are part of a collection of writings by many from the Johannine communities into which many of them would have inserted their interpretations of what they understood.  They may very well have not been word for word what John would have said or written.  Those transcribing would have been a part of the communities that were experiencing a lot of persecution by Jewish people and the Roman Empire for exercising their faith.  What has been left to us in these Gospel writings, may be insertions and not necessarily literal words from Jesus or John for that matter.

The origin of these texts means one thing, while the truths contained in them have something to say to us, then and now. 

If we understand Jesus as the vine and God as the vinegrower, then we can also comprehend that our diverse ways of being, loving, believing, etc are not barriers for God to reach out to others through us.  That is, unless we allow ourselves to become those "fruitless branches" by way of our own prejudices.   We can render ourselves blind to others who worship and live within our communities.  Even those of other faiths and philosophies.  Yet, when we witness the actions of others who are different from ourselves, while they seek the common good of others through whatever means they use, we can read the Gospel through them.  Just as we can see God working in others who are different from ourselves, so we ought to give witness to the loving redemption of God in Jesus Christ through being inclusive and sharing of ourselves with everyone regardless of our diversity.  A hand and heart that reaches out to seek justice and equality for all people, is God acting and working, even if they do not pray the same creed as we do.   The desire to do good things for the benefit of others is in and of itself, something that comes from God.  Because without God: "you can do nothing."  So it is with all of us. We too, can reach out to receive, love and reconcile others to their communities and God, only so long as we who believe and pray to Jesus remain in him as we do the work.

As we continue through the Easter Season with only a week and a half to Ascension, and then ten days until Pentecost, we might want to spend some time praying and thinking about our relationship to the vine as well as other branches in our communities.  The Risen Christ is alive in our work for inclusion, equality and justice.  We have the extravagant love of God to help us to love those we see and touch within our own churches, neighborhoods and so forth.  It is a good thing to be about the ministry of hospitality and reconciliation.  Even if other branches do not share our view of the who the vine is.  All of us can bear fruit of some kind.


Prayers

Almighty god, whom truly to know is everlasting life: Grant
us so perfectly to know your Son Jesus Christ to be the way,
the truth, and the life, that we may steadfastly follow his
steps in the way that leads to eternal life; through Jesus Christ
your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity
of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Fifth Sunday of Easter, Book of Common Prayer, p. 225).


Gracious Father, we pray for they holy Catholic Church. Fill it
with all truth, in all truth with all peace. Where it is corrupt,
purify it; where it is in error, direct it; where in any thing it is
amiss, reform it. Where it is right, strengthen it; where it is in
want, provide for it; where it is divided, reunite it; for the sake
of Jesus Christ thy Son our Savior. Amen. (Prayer for the Church, Book of Common Prayer, p. 816).


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).

 

Thursday of the First Week in Lent: Ask, Seek, Be Persistant in Prayer in the Search for God

Today's Scripture Readings

Esther (Apocrypha) 14: 1-6, 12-14 (NRSV)

Then Queen Esther, seized with deadly anxiety, fled to the Lord. She took off her splendid apparel and put on the garments of distress and mourning, and instead of costly perfumes she covered her head with ashes and dung, and she utterly humbled her body; every part that she loved to adorn she covered with her tangled hair. She prayed to the Lord God of Israel, and said: “O my Lord, you only are our king; help me, who am alone and have no helper but you, for my danger is in my hand. Ever since I was born I have heard in the tribe of my family that you, O Lord, took Israel out of all the nations, and our ancestors from among all their forebears, for an everlasting inheritance, and that you did for them all that you promised. And now we have sinned before you, and you have handed us over to our enemies.

Remember, O Lord; make yourself known in this time of our affliction, and give me courage, O King of the gods and Master of all dominion! Put eloquent speech in my mouth before the lion, and turn his heart to hate the man who is fighting against us, so that there may be an end of him and those who agree with him. But save us by your hand, and help me, who am alone and have no helper but you, O Lord. 

Matthew 7: 7-12 (NRSV)

‘Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for bread, will give a stone? Or if the child asks for a fish, will give a snake? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

‘In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets.

Blog Reflection

There is nothing so horrible than to find yourself at rock bottom, with no one there to listen to you, receive you, or hold you in your most desperate hour.  That feeling of total helplessness, by which there is no way out.  Whether the reason be an addiction, grief from the loss of a relationship or job that went bad, the death of someone very close, or just reaching such a place of such depression that there seems to be no way out.  Finding yourself at that place is a horrible feeling.  Human words are often unable to express the total feeling of rejection and isolation of the heart at such a moment.

To be at such a point, one is almost tempted (and sadly, many are not only tempted, they do) reach the point where they have lost faith in God.  Faith in humankind.  Faith in themselves and their friends. It is at this point, that one has to make the decision to face things as they are and reach out for some kind of help to get up and live again.  Or, to stay there and let all of life lose all meaning, hope for the future and even the reason for living. 

How very sad that so many school students who have been questioning their sexual orientation and/or gender identity/expression, or who knew and had accepted themselves, or just been suspected of, found themselves there.  The only option they felt they had, was to take their lives. 

In our reading from the Apocrypha today, Esther seems to be in one of those places.  That spot where the only hope she has is God.  So,from her despair and for the good of not only she, but her people, she cries out to God.  Esther prays from the depths of her nothingness, and recognizes the goodness of God so that she can empty herself with some kind of trust in God.  She recognizes that she is before the lion who looks to devour her, her people and the hope of all who are looking for some kind of help.

Jesus tells us to ask, to seek, and be prepared to receive. But what is it we are to ask?  Who and what is it we are to seek?  What should we be prepared to receive?

The problem with how prayer is often portrayed is a kind of "I ask you, you give me" thing.  Just like putting coins in a vending machine and getting what you have selected.  This illustration of prayer, is not quite accurate.

The other extreme is to think that Jesus might be telling us to ask, seek and be prepared for nothing.  After all, why pray for something we might very well not receive?   This also, is not what is going on here.

Here, Jesus is giving us a wonderful description of a Parent who loves their children to the point, that they absolutely would not respond to their requests for help in such a way, as to totally disregard their love for them.  Even if a parent is not able to give exactly what the child has asked, they are still going to take the time to listen and give what they can.  How can God who is the perfection of love, do anything less?

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning and queer people, and other marginalized persons in the Church and society, know what it is to ask and appear to be getting no where.  We say that we want our equal rights now, but, we make only a small amount of progress.  Some times we gain some. Some times we lose some.  We open our hearts to the renewed understandings of how the Bible does not teach against loving and committed same-sex relationships, or an alternative gender identity/expression, yet, we are faced by the oppression and violence of Christianists and other hate groups.  We may be tempted to give up on God and all religion.  It can seem as if God is not paying attention, or giving unfair wins to the other side.

Regardless of what side of politics we are on, what our understandings of God and others are, God's relationship to all of us is one of love, mercy and seeking to help us grow. Each of us grows at our own pace and as God prompts us by the Holy Spirit. God comes to us and helps us grow from where we are.  God does not have high expectations of us. God just asks us to be faithful. God meets us more times than not, at the point of our need, not our want.

When we are persistent in prayer, what God is looking for from us, is the willingness to receive the grace of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit who helps us accept God's will and not our own.  Even if we are in a place that we have arrived, by no act of God's will, nor ours, God still meets us there and wants us to experience God's grace and providence.  God wills to see us to where God wants us.  God is on our side.  God is not telling us to join some godless ex-gay group, or that our opponents are right. God is empowering us by God's grace to accept ourselves as we are, where we are, and invites us to ask and seek God's will to respond to God's grace in this present moment  God's grace in what is to come will be there, as we learn to accept God's grace in the here and now.

Lent is an opportunity to make room for God within the silence of our hearts, as well as through the noise of the situations of life at which we find ourselves.  If we will make ourselves available to God's grace right here, right at this moment, God will reveal God's will and grace for all that is to come.  And, God will provide the strength and help to accept and bear what is given to us.


Prayers

Strengthen us, O Lord, by your grace, that in your might we may overcome all spiritual enemies, and with pure hearts serve you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Thursday in the First Week in Lent, Holy Women, Holy Men, Celebrating the Saints, p. 39).

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, p. 217).

O God of peace, who hast taught us that in returning and
rest we shall be saved, in quietness and confidence shall be
our strength: By the might of thy Spirit lift us, we pray thee,
to thy presence, where we may be still and know that thou
art God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Prayer for Quiet Confidence, Book of Common Prayer, p. 832).