Many years ago I attended a Christmas pageant at the church of my step brother. The pastor gave a very memorable sermon about this very passage. The pastor noted that when you meet Jesus, you always return ( as the wise men did ), by a different route. In other words, once you meet Jesus you are forever changed. That sermon, some 40 years ago, still resonates strong within me.
As a gay man, coming out is really the same. Accepting Jesus is all about accepting the inherent goodness of whom God created in you. It opens possibilities and sets you on a new course. Some might call it repentance, others might simply say that it is an acceptance of God's plan for all us, collectively and individually. When you come out as gay, you are accepting that plan of God that is uniquely you, unwrapping it, accepting it, and moving forward with it. Your acceptance and 'outing' of yourself is an acceptance of what God became man for and what Jesus accepted the cross and died for. To be fully human and fully alive, fully engaged in the gift we are as unique creations of the Father.
Just as the wise men did not return by the same route by which they came, so too all of us cannot be the same people we were before we fully accepted who we are. Being gay is not a single defining characteristic. Being gay is a part of the totality of who we are. An aspect of who we are. But once we come out, watch out. There is no returning by the same route. We are once and forever called then to embrace this one of so many gifts that God has graced us with.
To come out and to somehow return to the closet is as much as a sin. It repudiates and denies the whole reason God became man and died on a cross for us. What would have happened had the wise men returned by the same route? If you read the passage from Matthew again, you may suspect tat no good would have become of that. Once we know Jesus, once we know and accept who we are, there really is no going back to the 'old you'. You are a new creation ( newly recognized ). The calling to be all God created you to be is to be fully out, fully engaged in life and fully alive.
For coming out, for being fully alive and for new paths, I pray.
Matthew 2:1-12
In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, ‘Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.’ When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They told him, ‘In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet:
“And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for from you shall come a ruler
who is to shepherd my people Israel.” ’
Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, ‘Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.’ When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure-chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.
No comments:
Post a Comment