1 Peter 3:17-22
Life is pretty equal to everyone in some ways. No one is excluded from some of the crap of life. Money does not guarantee you will find true happiness and meaning in your life, no one is guaranteed to find their true love, that you won't get divorced, that you will be cancer free, that you won't get taken advantage of or any other malady that occurs in life. The only things that you are guaranteed is the love of God and your ability to face any trials with a smile. How do you handle what comes your way? Some people complain incessantly to the point you want to stick a hot poker in your ear. Some people face challenges with aplomb. Some people are given a lemon and they make lemonade. It's easier said than done but it is quite to the point.
If you are so afraid of loving that you will get hurt or be made a fool of, you are a sad sack indeed. You will always get hurt somehow and you may easily be made fun of but what better cause to get hurt in than to love?
Let's shake things up! Today the church remembers the Holy Cross. The cross that the Romans crucified Christ on, the cross that the Romans used as a threat, a sign of fear and to force obedience and submission is the sign we now use as Christians is a sign of deliverance, hope, faith and a promise of eternal life. Now that is a turnaround!
When I was a newly minted member of my statewide LGBTQ committee I was astounded to find out that the Q stood for more than questioning. That's what I always thought it meant. It turns out that there is a significant number that have it standing for queer. Queer is used as a badge of honor and even respect. People identify with queer even if it was used in my youth as a term of denigration and something you just never wanted be called. In my LGBTQ prayer group we have discussed at length "queer theory". We are all "queer" in our own way and many people, myself included have come to realize that our differences and "queerness" should be accepted, celebrated and elevated.
Once again, what was considered bad is turned around. To get hurt is bad but to get hurt for love? What better cause could there be? Yesterday I officiate at the wedding of two good friends. There was a day not too many years ago when we (gays) were relegated to closets and back allies and dark bars. Now we have stepped into the light and have demanded dignity and you know what? We love like everyone else, we want our love recognized and yes, even sanctified. Wow what a turnaround.
When life gives you lemons how do you embrace it? If there is a challenge or a roadblock, how do you handle it? We all have them, how do you handle it? I say embrace it , love it and learn from it. Know in your hearts that the cross of fear is now the cross of celebration and hope.
For it is better to suffer for doing good, if suffering should be God’s will, than to suffer for doing evil. For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight people, were saved through water. And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you—not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him.
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