Embracing gayness and light

John 1:35-42

          It is the beginning of Jesus' public ministry and perhaps not unlike the beginning of the world. There is an inevitability of some things. Perhaps some of this is how the disciples began to follow Jesus, part of that story is related in today's passage. Part of the story too is the actual incarnation of Jesus. Was it inevitable that God would send his Son to us as a human? Was it inevitable that Jesus would die on the cross for us, die and rise again? Was it inevitable that Judas would betray Jesus. There are many theological discussion and writings about all these questions.

          Of any such questions, the most inevitable to me would be Jesus becoming fully human for all of us and dying for us. Why? Because it is God's nature. God so loved the world and love he did by becoming one with us in our humanity. Just as Jesus came to save the Jewish people and soon found himself embracing all sorts of 'others' from sinners and Centurions, from gentiles and women of every kind. God's love in this way seems inevitable. God always loves us. Whether we choose to accept that love is a much bigger question.

           Part of this discussion to me, especially during Lent, has to be the inevitability of who we are. That is, embracing our own human nature and embracing who God made us to be. "Be all that you can be" as the saying goes. Trying to be a nuclear physicist when your talents run akin to those of Picasso does not seem inevitable. That would not be embracing whom God made you to be. Where do your talents lie? In what ways are you the special creation that God envisioned and placed on this earth?

            There are myriad ways in which we can embrace our humanity, our talents our existence. For me that is being the best damn gay man I can be. I am embracing it along with all my other gifts and talents. I try to respect myself in the process ( and others of course ) and I realize being gay is but one portion of who I was created to be. Overall I was created to be a loving creature that returns love to God directly and through others. All of this I view as inevitability of sorts. Not that any of it has to happen, I can say no to my gifts and talents. I can say no to God. I can fail to love myself and others. In that sense it is not inevitable.

             The way in which it is inevitable is that there are things about me and only me that God made. I may be similar to others ins some ways, I certainly am not the only gay man or woman God created.  God did that throughout his created world and animal kingdom. But for those 'things' that make me who I am am, that is what Lent is all about. Salvation comes through embracing who you are in it's totality and that it really must be expressed. Just like Jesus had to love because that is the essence of who he is. I also hear he makes a mean bench because as a human he was a damn good talented carpenter too!

The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, ‘Look, here is the Lamb of God!’ The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, ‘What are you looking for?’ They said to him, ‘Rabbi’ (which translated means Teacher), ‘where are you staying?’ He said to them, ‘Come and see.’ They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon. One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his brother Simon and said to him, ‘We have found the Messiah’ (which is translated Anointed). He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, ‘You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas’ (which is translated Peter).