Advent Day 13 - words and deeds

Matthew 11:16-19

            Not too long ago, being gay meant a person who lived from one encounter to the next, hid from society in dark corners and could not come to terms with themself. There are exceptions but that pretty much says it all about being gay. Really there was no choice, you were vilified, demonized and a consecrated relationship was out of the question. But which came first? You can't marry because you live from one encounter to the next? or is it that you lived from one encounter to the next because marriage vows were closed to you. It really was a vicious cycle that perpetuated itself in the eyes of society.  It is only when people dared to step into the light, love openly and demand respect that the cycle started to break. 

          In today's passage the religious elite who want what the want and have their own agenda, condemn John and Jesus for opposite ends of the same argument. Not too much different from the reasoning for condemning gay people.

           What conquers both is the light of love. 'Wisdom is vindicated by her deeds'. People began to accept marriage equality when they saw that gay people are capable of the same love as anyone else and are capable and desiring of living in the same long term committed relationships as everyone else. Again, it is the light of love that conquers. Another way of saying it is that actions speak louder than words.  Just as the religious zealots of Jesus' time were betrayed by their actions compared to their words, so too today, religious zealots are betrayed by their words compared to their actions.  Whether it is the Westboro Baptist church or the Roman Catholic church, actions speak louder than words. You can mouth anything, come up with seemingly flawless logic but your words are empty unless it followed by the works and signs of love. People see through the two faced nature of contrived arguments.

          What matters is love, lived out and displayed and witnessed. This is the sign and example of Jesus come to earth as a human.  Jesus did not come with contrived arguments or circular logic. Jesus walked, loved, had empathy, sympathy, he cured, he laughed, he cried. He was fully human and fully engaged in living. What a gift he gave us. The God man that epitomizes love. 

‘But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the market-places and calling to one another,
“We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;
   we wailed, and you did not mourn.”
For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, “He has a demon”; the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, “Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax-collectors and sinners!” Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.’