Coming out when you are a Roman Catholic is not easy. There are so many things the faithful disagree with about that monolithic church but rarely does anyone say anything. There is a silent dissension to a whole range of official beliefs but there is no one at the door with a scanner that unmasks those beliefs. You are free in the privacy of your own home to practice birth control (No!). You are free to think Priests should be able to get married (No!) or that women should be Priests (No!). Doctrinal questions about Mary being assumed into heaven in her bodily form (No!) can be disagreed with. Even though a Deacon in our parish once railed that Catholicism is not a smorgasbord where you can pick and choose what you want to believe (No!), it actually is, and people do in fact pick and choose what they believe. They most often do so in the privacy of their own heart and mind. No mental minders exist at the altar rail when a divorced person comes forward for communion. All this is tidy and nice, subversive perhaps. ( many of the faithful are probably better Episcopalians than Roman Catholics ). But what happens when you are gay? You certainly can be gay and keep it on the down low ( DL ) as they say. No one need know! (No!) But if you cannot bifurcate your personality and you have a shred of self respect you have to acknowledge that God made you gay. You have to come out especially since that church doctrinally brands you as "intrinsically disordered". No, if you come out in the Roman church the doctrinal police are there and at the ready. Parishioners or even the Pastor of a community might silently welcome you but one call on the diocesan/doctrinal hotline and you'd get the boot!
How does this tie into the reading this morning? It is clear that Jesus did not obey all the rules nor did his disciples. In fact, Jesus is well known as a rabble rouser who railed against the tortuous man made rules of those temple elite who actually herded more people away from religion than towards the God who is calling us. Jesus was not shy about calling out anyone. Jesus called truth to power and total love to the misery stricken and outcasts of society.
Part of being a follower of Christ is emulating his actions and the notion (truth) that we cannot be silent in the face of wrongs. We cannot be silent in our own churches and we cannot be silent in the face of political ignorance and inequity. We must all speak truth to power. This means speaking up and not on the DL. We have to be at the front lines - always! This may put us in harms way but we are complicit if we allow silence to be taken as tacit approval.
This means the pews of the Roman church should really be emptied and the Episcopalian church should be filled to the rafters with people who truly are free to believe what you wish to believe. I call them and have called myself, recovering Catholics.
Our commission by Jesus though also calls us to be out and proud. Eager and proud to acknowledge whom God created us to be. To not come out is a self loathing act of disrespect for God's creation in you. We must be honest, self respecting and visible. The gay community at large gets this. Call truth to power in church and work and in our lives. Do not bifurcate your life for anyone, Jesus lived and died so we all can be out and proud whether you are gay or straight. Be a grain plucker of the highest order!
How does this tie into the reading this morning? It is clear that Jesus did not obey all the rules nor did his disciples. In fact, Jesus is well known as a rabble rouser who railed against the tortuous man made rules of those temple elite who actually herded more people away from religion than towards the God who is calling us. Jesus was not shy about calling out anyone. Jesus called truth to power and total love to the misery stricken and outcasts of society.
Part of being a follower of Christ is emulating his actions and the notion (truth) that we cannot be silent in the face of wrongs. We cannot be silent in our own churches and we cannot be silent in the face of political ignorance and inequity. We must all speak truth to power. This means speaking up and not on the DL. We have to be at the front lines - always! This may put us in harms way but we are complicit if we allow silence to be taken as tacit approval.
This means the pews of the Roman church should really be emptied and the Episcopalian church should be filled to the rafters with people who truly are free to believe what you wish to believe. I call them and have called myself, recovering Catholics.
Our commission by Jesus though also calls us to be out and proud. Eager and proud to acknowledge whom God created us to be. To not come out is a self loathing act of disrespect for God's creation in you. We must be honest, self respecting and visible. The gay community at large gets this. Call truth to power in church and work and in our lives. Do not bifurcate your life for anyone, Jesus lived and died so we all can be out and proud whether you are gay or straight. Be a grain plucker of the highest order!
Matthew 12:1-14
At that time Jesus went through the cornfields on the sabbath; his disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. When the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, ‘Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the sabbath.’ He said to them, ‘Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him or his companions to eat, but only for the priests. Or have you not read in the law that on the sabbath the priests in the temple break the sabbath and yet are guiltless? I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. But if you had known what this means, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice”, you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is lord of the sabbath.’
He left that place and entered their synagogue; a man was there with a
withered hand, and they asked him, ‘Is it lawful to cure on the sabbath?’ so that they might accuse him. He said to them, ‘Suppose one of you has only one sheep and it falls into a pit on the sabbath; will you not lay hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a human being than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the sabbath.’Then he said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ He stretched it out, and it was restored, as sound as the other. But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him.
At that time Jesus went through the cornfields on the sabbath; his disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. When the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, ‘Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the sabbath.’ He said to them, ‘Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him or his companions to eat, but only for the priests. Or have you not read in the law that on the sabbath the priests in the temple break the sabbath and yet are guiltless? I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. But if you had known what this means, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice”, you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is lord of the sabbath.’
He left that place and entered their synagogue; a man was there with a
withered hand, and they asked him, ‘Is it lawful to cure on the sabbath?’ so that they might accuse him. He said to them, ‘Suppose one of you has only one sheep and it falls into a pit on the sabbath; will you not lay hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a human being than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the sabbath.’Then he said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ He stretched it out, and it was restored, as sound as the other. But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him.
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