The arrogance of seeming to know the mind of God

 Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on me. Melt me, mold me , fill me, use me.                 Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on me.

       For many years one of my best friends was one of my brothers-in-law.  He was a good man who had an experience as a youth, at the hands of a neighbor, that made him somewhat homophobic. That experience tainted his life a bit. Needless to say, when I came out at the age of 50, he was deeply upset. I am not aware of the depth of his horror but I know for certain we are no longer friends. I thought of that relationship in my life when I read about the story of Marina (Mariam), the monk whom we remember this day. When Marina died and was his body was being dressed for burial, his fellow monks discovered he had been born a woman. I can imagine that their reaction may have been similar to that of my ex brother-in-law. Perhaps a feeling of betrayal, perhaps revulsion. The story goes that a blind monk received sight after having touched the mere corpse of Marina for the burial process.

        One of my role models as I was coming to terms with being gay was Bishop Gene Robinson. I went to simply be in his presence a few times at lectures and  read his book 

In The Eye Of The Storm. One thing Bishop Robinson noted that the battle over equality and gay rights is that "it's about hearts, not parts". How very true that is.  In the case of Marina, his service and dedication to God was not contingent on what sex he was or was not. The Spirit of God in the miracle Marina conveyed was not whom The Church would have chosen. Likely, had it known that Marina was Mariam, the story would have had a decidedly different ending.  The Roman church has the arrogance to think it knows the will of God and has thoroughly convinced itself that their thought processes, treatises, logic and tradition all make them correct. They believe they know the will of God. In fact, they seem to think they are the will of God. Such arrogance will be their continued downfall.

        The mystery of life and of God is not to be revealed to we humans in it's totality. Perhaps we will never know on this side of the grave if at all. God gives us hints in the created wold of the mind of God. God gives us hints as to Her own very nature by the things She created.  The created world cannot be pigeon holed or set into tidy black and white cubicles. To do so insults God and denies the awesome power of God to be ALL things, even the things we fail to understand or refuse to recognize as gray, beige or as in the rainbow.

       In our arrogance and failure to be open to the vast variety of God's creation, we deny the very Spirit that moves us forward. In denying the Advocate promised by Christ, we deny God and hasten our death. By not being open to every single person, especially those in the LGBTQ community, we deny the face of God and we die.

        At several family funerals that I attended, even after separation from that family, I had occasion to see again that ex brother-in-law.  He was a mere shell of his former self. I pray for him as I pray for me and all of society and for that Roman Church that also is dying.  Of all things in life, we must be open to the gifts, graces and diversity of God. If we do not, we stunt ourselves and the growth towards our very wholeness and holiness.  My ex brother-in-law dies daily in his unwillingness or inability to accept and love of even himself, let alone me or others who are 'different'.  The Roman Church dies daily in it's arrogance in thinking it knows the will of God, the mind of God. There is no room for the Spirit there.

           I pray today for the conversion of hearts, not parts. Parts which are far less important and far more difficult to understand or even define. God is so inscrutable. The Spirit gives life and our witness is total and unabashed love for all.

Acts 1:1-14

In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. After his suffering he presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over the course of forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. ‘This’, he said, ‘is what you have heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.’

So when they had come together, they asked him, ‘Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?’ He replied, ‘It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority.But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’ When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up towards heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up towards heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.’

Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath day’s journey away. When they had entered the city, they went to the room upstairs where they were staying, Peter, and John, and James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son ofJames. All these were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as his brothers.