Irony: once rejected, now a cornerstone.

1 Peter 2:4-10

       The Bible is sometimes used as a weapon against the gay community. When this is done, two things happen. One I believe is that God cringes and cries at the abuse of passages that are truly meant to be love stories between God and his people. Scripture contains immutable truths of love. If God is vengeful, I think the intolerant, unloving people who claim to hear His word as restrictive and in line with their own agenda should watch out. If not in this life, then the next. A secret corner of me wants to be at the pearly gates when they are turned away. They'll have this look of shock on their faces. That is, if God is vengeful. The second thing that happens when the Bible is misused and misinterpreted is that people in the gay community turn away from God. How many of us have been drummed into believing we are not worthy, we are evil, we are sinful? The innocents of God are turned away and the so called holy people are nothing more than agents of the devil. What else would you call someone that convinces people that God does not love them and that God's love is not inclusive and complete without restrictions. God's love is free and complete, total and without restriction.

         So when you come to a passage like this one, I almost cry because it speaks not only of Jesus as the stone rejected by man who becomes the cornerstone, it also speaks loudly to the gay community in a very positive way.

         Gays are often rejected.  To know that you were once rejected and now know that you are not evil just because of who you are is a beacon of hope and a source of joy and celebration. There are still those individuals and even churches that do not accept gays as full members of Gods love and creation just as they are. This passage is one of the ones that really helps you know that  it isn't so, you are accepted , loved and welcome.  You were rejected and now I am lifting you up, celebrating you as a special part of creation. No, not better than any other part of creation but a unique and planned part of creation. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

         What a glorious day to celebrate being gay. What a glorious day to say thank God for loving me and making me this way. Praise God. I was rejected and now am whole.

Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in scripture:
‘See, I am laying in Zion a stone,
   a cornerstone chosen and precious;
and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.’
To you then who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe,
‘The stone that the builders rejected
   has become the very head of the corner’,
and
‘A stone that makes them stumble,
   and a rock that makes them fall.’
They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.
Once you were not a people,
   but now you are God’s people;
once you had not received mercy,
   but now you have received mercy.