I never had any doubt that being gay and being a Christian were not mutually exclusive. This is in spite of the fact that I have heard all sorts of condemnations about what gay people "do" , how immoral they are, all about their "lifestyle" and perhaps worst of all, that my own church would label me as "intrinsically disordered". Really, it's right there in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. That's not the point though. After much soul searching and therapy and prayer, I found the courage to accept who I am, whom God made me, a gay man. So when I heard of a gay Bishop in the Episcopal church my ears went up like in Scooby-Doo! I read all about him (Bishop Gene Robinson that is, not Scooby Doo ), saw a movie he was mentioned in and read a book he wrote called In The Eye Of The Storm. To me, this man showed just how well a life of faith and being gay can be integrated. He was one of my early heroes and a muse. So it is no surprise that when I heard he was going to appear at The Center in the Village, I had to see him.
That was long winded, eh? The fact is, when someone touches you in your heart or soul, you would do anything to go and see that person. In the secular world it might be a musician or a band whose songs really appeal to you. It could be a poet or a painter or, a person of faith. So it is no surprise that when the Apostles really started to get going, slow starters that they were, people came out into the streets in order that Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them. The message of Jesus, his love, touches our very soul because he was human like us. God, yes. Human too. It is not so very hard to understand that people clamored to him and his message that being Godly and human are not mutually exclusive.
This notion of duality is not something we always recognize. In fact, it is something we often hold in contempt. As long as history has been written down, humans have tried to decide that you cannot be a Samaritan and good; you cannot be a native American and have a soul, you cannot be Black and be smart , you cannot be of Islam and be for peace or any other number things people often believe are mutually exclusive. I think Jesus may have been one of the first to point out that most of life's exclusions are not mutually exclusive at all. Maybe it was something Jesus discovered as he lived his human existence. Maybe he was letting us know gently and by example. But Jesus was a rebel of the highest order and he lived a life of all embracing non-exclusivity.
The plan then is to look at the news today, listen to neighbors, relatives and friends, read some radical Christian Scripture, and see in what areas or ideas I might find some things that I find are mutually exclusive. Can you accept that you are Godly and fully human yourself for example? What would Jesus say? Hint: The answer always involves love and understanding.
Today's spiritual exercise for Jesus' posse.
Acts 5:12-26
Now many signs and wonders were done among the people through the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon’s Portico. None of the rest dared to join them, but the people held them in high esteem. Yet more than ever believers were added to the Lord, great numbers of both men and women, so that they even carried out the sick into the streets, and laid them on cots and mats, in order that Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he came by. A great number of people would also gather from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those tormented by unclean spirits, and they were all cured.
Then the high priest took action; he and all who were with him (that is, the sect of the Sadducees), being filled with jealousy, arrested the apostles and put them in the public prison. But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors, brought them out, and said, ‘Go, stand in the temple and tell the people the whole message about this life.’When they heard this, they entered the temple at daybreak and went on with their teaching.
When the high priest and those with him arrived, they called together the council and the whole body of the elders of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought. But when the temple police went there, they did not find them in the prison; so they returned and reported, ‘We found the prison securely locked and the guards standing at the doors, but when we opened them, we found no one inside.’ Now when the captain of the temple and the chief priests heard these words, they were perplexed about them, wondering what might be going on. Then someone arrived and announced, ‘Look, the men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people!’ Then the captain went with the temple police and brought them, but without violence, for they were afraid of being stoned by the people.
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