Fully engaged

     Although I think we are all "queer" in one way or another, I think God may have created gay people and then gay extension, the gay community, for a reason. For myriad reasons better suited to a Doctoral thesis perhaps, we are outsiders. The LGBTQ community seems on the fringe of society, vilified by fake Christians, grossly misunderstood and doctrinally labelled as "intrinsically disordered" by the Roman church. In order, people who choose to lie and hate, people who are afraid of us and lastly, willfully ignorant and basing doctrine more on spurious logic and tradition. 

     In many cases and especially in the case of the Roman church, the gay community is an 'in your face' jab by today's passage from scripture. We are a vibrant living community that speaks well to the Spirit, loving God with true and earnest hearts while being spurned by man made rules, doctrines and ignorant beliefs. The church then becomes the 'millstone' around the neck that drags many people down.

       We are all charged with living as humans fully alive in the Spirit which God instills us with. God created each of us as unique individuals to live and be the His living Gospel message of love. It often defies doctrines but is celebrated in a human being engaging that uniqueness to the full. Intellectually, spiritually, sexually; all part of what a human is.

       Today the Episcopal church  remembers Columba, a stern and strong monk from Ireland. The historian Bede tells us that Columba led many to Christianity by his "preaching and example." He was much admired for his physical as well as spiritual prowess. I could wish he was gay, he sounds like a man fully engaged as a human, fully alive and a lover of the Gospel message. His personal engagement brought many people to God and he created many physical sanctuaries and institutions that fostered God's loving message. It also sounds like he may not have always been attentive to all the rules and minutia of the church which makes me personally love him all the more. It certainly ties in with today's scripture passage.

           Just as Jesus was a consummate rebel and called to task those that honour God with their lips alone, creating a quagmire of rules and rubrics, so are we as the gay community, as queer people, called to be a beacon of light and example by our lives and full engagement of who we are created to be by God.

Matthew 15:1-9

Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, ‘Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands before they eat.’ He answered them, ‘And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, “Honour your father and your mother,” and, “Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.” But you say that whoever tells father or mother, “Whatever support you might have had from me is given to God”, then that person need not honour the father. So, for the sake of your tradition, you make void the word of God. You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied rightly about you when he said: “This people honours me with their lips,
   but their hearts are far from me; 
in vain do they worship me,
   teaching human precepts as doctrines.” ’