Matthew 15:21-28
I get a real kick out of people who say they think their church would be better off smaller, but purer. Really?? Two things lay in a balance. On one side are the doctrines, rules, pomp and circumstance. On the other side is faith, love, miscreants of society and sinners ( all the things Jesus preached of and people he preached to).
There is a comfort level found in rules, groups, and uniformity. But what is uniformity? God did not create everything uniform. God in fact created everything different. Even twins are different. Every person is different in one way or another. Some seem exact polar opposites. This difference is the springboard for queer theory. Queer what? Queer is different and in that sense, we are all queer. There is something about each and every one of us that is different from the rest. Physical, social, mental, we are all queer.
You have 5 groups of small balls on a table. One group is all blue, one group is all green, one group all red, one group purple and another group with nothing but different colours. They are all the same. Why? because even the group with all different colours has a sameness. The similarity is that they are all different. The commonality is that they are all different. Humans, nay, the entire world is all different. There may be similarities but we are are all different. We are all queer.
I am well aware of our penchant to want to group things, place things in boxes, real or imagined. It does give us some comfort. It seems they call a person eccentric if they have a set of dishes where every plate is totally different, where the living room is post modern and the bedroom is early American, a person who uses a Nash Metropolitan or AMC Pacer as their daily driver. We all have our quirks and definitions of what eccentric is. We are in fact all different even while we love similarities.
Jesus preached to and loved a very diverse group of people. Many view him as a rebel and revolutionary for such associations. Many believed he blasphemed by going counter to accepted laws and rituals. I think we all know the messages of love, faith and forgiveness that comes from God. Are we as equally aware that there is a message of diversity and inclusiveness? Are we aware of our own queerness? Can we accept others? Can we accept ourselves?
I get a real kick out of people who say they think their church would be better off smaller, but purer. Really?? Two things lay in a balance. On one side are the doctrines, rules, pomp and circumstance. On the other side is faith, love, miscreants of society and sinners ( all the things Jesus preached of and people he preached to).
There is a comfort level found in rules, groups, and uniformity. But what is uniformity? God did not create everything uniform. God in fact created everything different. Even twins are different. Every person is different in one way or another. Some seem exact polar opposites. This difference is the springboard for queer theory. Queer what? Queer is different and in that sense, we are all queer. There is something about each and every one of us that is different from the rest. Physical, social, mental, we are all queer.
You have 5 groups of small balls on a table. One group is all blue, one group is all green, one group all red, one group purple and another group with nothing but different colours. They are all the same. Why? because even the group with all different colours has a sameness. The similarity is that they are all different. The commonality is that they are all different. Humans, nay, the entire world is all different. There may be similarities but we are are all different. We are all queer.
I am well aware of our penchant to want to group things, place things in boxes, real or imagined. It does give us some comfort. It seems they call a person eccentric if they have a set of dishes where every plate is totally different, where the living room is post modern and the bedroom is early American, a person who uses a Nash Metropolitan or AMC Pacer as their daily driver. We all have our quirks and definitions of what eccentric is. We are in fact all different even while we love similarities.
Jesus preached to and loved a very diverse group of people. Many view him as a rebel and revolutionary for such associations. Many believed he blasphemed by going counter to accepted laws and rituals. I think we all know the messages of love, faith and forgiveness that comes from God. Are we as equally aware that there is a message of diversity and inclusiveness? Are we aware of our own queerness? Can we accept others? Can we accept ourselves?
I am here. I am queer. I am proud and I am loved.
Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, ‘Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.’ But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, ‘Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.’ He answered, ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.’ But she came and knelt before him, saying, ‘Lord, help me.’ He answered, ‘It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.’ She said, ‘Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.’ Then Jesus answered her, ‘Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.’ And her daughter was healed instantly.
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