The Mark

Genesis 4:1-16

          It was unusual for my dad to tell me about a book he was reading, he read so many. He had a ravenous appetite for books of all kinds. Later in life, when we became friends, he shared more about books that spoke of the meaning of life, holiness and wholeness. Although my siblings might disagree, he was a good man, perhaps scarred by life's experiences and disappointments but he was a good man.

          One book we spoke of was a book that concerned this very passage. It involved what 'the mark' was that God put on Cain.  I do not recall the name of the book and I haven't been able to find any good Google results but here is the essence. The mark is that Cain was made white, as in Caucasian. This theory begins with the premise that we were all created as black men and women.  This is quite amazing that my dad would even convey this. His time was one of racial inequality and bigotry. I am sad to say my dad was cursed by his own brand of bigotry. Had he lived longer, perhaps he would have seen the light. Be that as it may, the mere mentioning of this possibility to me shows his mind was opening and functioning. Again, a good man.

           As evidence that this theory has merit, the author presented all the evils that have occurred in the world where the white man travelled. What happened to indigenous peoples in the Americas after the white man came? What diseases were foisted on poor unsuspecting Polynesians when the white man arrived?

           It is an interesting theory, the idea of a mark being a total change of color.  It hearkens back to that Star Trek episode of Bele and Lokai. I think the fact is when we harm one another in any way, we do mark ourselves. It is like a stain on our soul. It really may be totally invisible to others but somewhere deep inside we know we have damaged ourselves. We have not acted in concert with what we were created for.  This mark inside makes us unhappy and dark and eventually we become something we ourselves may not even recognize. I suppose the idea of confession is a way to cleanse the soul. God really wants no harm to come to us in any way, his love for each one of us so intense. But the stain of sin however invisible is still there. We need to exercise caution and introspection in how we act, how we have acted.

        Introspection, prayer, humility, forgiveness and forgiving ourselves are ways to take the 'mark' away. It needs to be done. To do this well, you might look at Ignatian spirituality. There are many paths to  wholeness and perfection but walk the walk we must and hopefully, prayerfully, mark free.

Now the man knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, ‘I have produced a man with the help of the Lord.’ Next she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a tiller of the ground. In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel for his part brought of the firstlings of his flock, their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. The Lord said to Cain, ‘Why are you angry, and why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is lurking at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it.’

Cain said to his brother Abel, ‘Let us go out to the field.’ And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. Then the Lord said to Cain, ‘Where is your brother Abel?’ He said, ‘I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?’ And the Lord said, ‘What have you done? Listen; your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground! And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you till the ground, it will no longer yield to you its strength; you will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.’ Cain said to the Lord, ‘My punishment is greater than I can bear! Today you have driven me away from the soil, and I shall be hidden from your face; I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and anyone who meets me may kill me.’ Then the Lord said to him, ‘Not so! Whoever kills Cain will suffer a sevenfold vengeance.’ And the Lord put a mark on Cain, so that no one who came upon him would kill him. Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord, and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

To hear, to see, to do

Hebrews 2:1-10
  

           I suppose it could be argued that I never shut up. I having something to say every day. Every morning, in the middle of the night, I get up and write this blog.  For 541 days so far. I feel blessed to be able to do it and blessed that my husband says nothing when I roll out of bed at 3am to meditate, write and eventually prepare for work.

            Actually, I like to shut up and listen. I like to think I do it better than many although my husband might disagree. It is only in listening with our eyes and ears that we can sense what really is going on around us. People speak with their bodies all day long and the words often convey deeper truths.

          For these reasons, I felt compelled to note that we are born with two eyes, two ears and two hands. But note, only one mouth. As Judge Judy would say, put your listening ears on! The world would be a much better place if we all would listen more, really use our eyes to see what is going on. That is, really seeing things, beauty , sadness etc. Finally, use our hands to help. If all we do is speak we are like that proverbial gong that does nothing.

         Spend a day listening at least twice as much as you speak. Listen to the words, look at the posture, the intonation, the joy or the sadness. Once you have really listened and have really been looking, then open your mouth and use your hands. If we do this, if I do this, my words and actions are more likely to be compassionate and loving. Just a thought.

           

Therefore we must pay greater attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it. For if the message declared through angels was valid, and every transgression or disobedience received a just penalty, how can we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? It was declared at first through the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard him, while God added his testimony by signs and wonders and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit, distributed according to his will.

Now God did not subject the coming world, about which we are speaking, to angels. ⁶But someone has testified somewhere,
‘What are human beings that you are mindful of them,
   or mortals, that you care for them?
You have made them for a little while lower than the angels;
   you have crowned them with glory and honour,
subjecting all things under their feet.’
Now in subjecting all things to them, God left nothing outside their control. As it is, we do not yet see everything in subjection to them, but we do see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honour because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

Family, marriage, brothers and sisters.

John 1:1-18

           But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God . When I studied scripture throughout the years, the question arose as to whom Jesus' brothers an sisters were.   This question has never been settled although the passages of Mark 6:3 and Matthew 13:55-56 seem clear,  just name just a few. Should it matter if Jesus had siblings? Should we look at this question as I did when one of my fellow Deacons fell ill in the Dominican Republic and I responded to "who is this man to you?" and my response was, he is my brother. I meant it too.

           I think in this passage the reference to brothers and sisters and who children of God are has quite a broad meaning. Many would have you believe that family is of blood with a mom and dad. Recent history, say from the 1960's forward, show that the idea of family is forever changing. The concept of a nuclear family is coming more around to what perhaps God had intended. If we are all brothers and sisters and God is our father, what limits are there then to family? With the increase in divorces and the decline of 'traditional' families, we have come to know a wide variety of family dynamics that are no less valid and in many cases, far more loving and nurturing. Is it any wonder that same sex couples, stepping into the light of day and into God's embracing love feel, nay, know that they too can be a loving, nurturing honest to God real family. After all, the 'traditional' family, at least biblically speaking, was most often one of betrothals for sale,  bartering for better livestock and property; concubines were everywhere. The construct of the perfect man-woman marriage is a fantasy that has never been reality - ever. 

          Marriage, family, brothers and sisters are all born of love, concern, mutual respect and dignity. It is not specifically born of law but born of God. With God, we are all children , all brothers and sisters . What marriage becomes is an attraction of souls, a mutual respect and a commitment to love and each other.  

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. (John testified to him and cried out, ‘This was he of whom I said, “He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.” ’) From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known. 

God's love bursting in on us

Matthew 3:13-17

          There are two specific occasions when I recognized an epiphany in my own life.  I find it quite telling that in both cases the information or the knowledge was in plain sight all the time.

           I have attended over twenty years of Catholic school. In spite of my rantings sometimes against the hierarchy or the their outdated beliefs, the church has done me enormous good. That is, based on the people of the church and God himself. Somewhere in my 17th year (my 10th of Catholic schooling), I attended a retreat called a Cursillo or Christian awakening. This awakening is an epiphany of sorts. Everything I had been taught and perhaps did not take to heart came to bear completely on me. I knew after that weekend how much God loves me. It wasn't because of some good deed I had done, it wasn't because He was hedging his bets that I would do something big at some time in the future either. (He already knows all that). God loves me because he created me and he loves every sinew and fiber of my being. He loves me! What a profound realization to know that on such a personal and intimate level. I still know that and I still make sure I tell everyone that they too are loved in a very special way because they were purpose built with love by God. God don't make junk as they say.  Since I was already in my tenth year of Catholic school, I am sure the nuns and priests and my family tried to help me realized this but this Cursillo was an epiphany for me. It was the first of two that I'll make note of.

            The second epiphany was probably more astounding and when I look back on it all, I am amazed I did not know but I managed to hide myself from the person that mattered most - myself.
I used every weapon in the arsenal of self denial. Sublimating, rationalizations, but just knowing something was not right with me.  Then it happened, I was ordained and it's as if I came springing out of the water and God said, this is my beloved son - my gay son. What started to emerge was not the machinations of the devil trying to keep my from my ministry as I was told. After therapy, prayer, and intense introspection, I came to the epiphany that I am gay. Wow! Hidden in plain sight, having been married for 30 years ( to a woman ) and with two children. I am gay. I am not sure in today's world that such an astounding realization can be fully appreciated.  Kids growing up with Will & Grace, Glee and some excellent role models in media, sports, politics and the church should find coming out a bit easier even though I know there is still bigotry and hatred out there. As a good Catholic boy of 50, I was stunned. Even so, the knowledge and freedom of saying it aloud made me joyful, a true epiphany.

            These might be two big examples but I know if I spent an hour or less of time thinking about it, we have epiphanies all the time. The realization someone loves you, considers you a friend, is an ally and that you are in fact a beloved child of God just as you are, just as God created you.

          Epiphanies do not have to be about being gay or how much in fact God does love you. They are truly important if you happen to be gay. It is critical that you absolutely know how much God loves you personally and without reservation. We do need to be open to the realizations of life that elevate us and God. Epiphanies can happen to any one of us at any moment and at any time of our lives. Epiphanies are God bursting int our consciousness.

          

Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him.

John would have prevented him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?"

But Jesus answered him, "Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness." Then he consented.

And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him.

And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased."

Know the law but live love

Galatians 3:23-29, 4:4-7

           If you were to read a book of American folklore it might include a silly story of a couple who were travelling in their motor home, set it on cruise control and then want aft to have a cup of tea together! More to my point, there is another story of parents who went away for a romantic weekend leaving their teenage son home alone for the first time. They come home and everything looks suspiciously clean only to find the guest bath painted all jet black, toilet, sink, walls, shower door, floor, everything! Clearly something happened while the cats were away. Lastly, and I don't know if this is a peculiarly American phenomena, what happens to a young man or women who head off to a distant college only to return home after a wasted semester filled with booze, drugs and rampant sex. It happens all too frequently.

          Before Jesus became incarnate, the Jewish people were subject to a whole array of rules and laws.  Many observant Jews still subscribe to a host of dietary laws and we'd say they are strictly 'kosher'. But for the ancient Jews, the laws were much more than dietary laws. In many instances they were rules for survival. They lived among warring, hostile peoples and many laws were for the preservation of the community who experienced great outside influences.  We do the same today with our own children. We make rules, laws and curfews so that we can control our children until such time that they are capable of making their own decisions.  Of course you can't just teach the children rules, you have to give them freedoms little by little so that you don't wind up with a child who goes out of control the first chance they get. This is how you wind up with a black bathroom.

            When Jesus became incarnate, he said he did not come to abolish the law, he came to fulfill the law. Once he gave the two great commandments, the original ten were much harder to follow. It required thought and maturity. It still does and being a good Christian is not as simple as following a subscribed set of rules even though some think it is that easy. It's as if humanity was having a bar mitzvah when Jesus came. God was telling us we were coming of age. We had the maturity as humans to now go beyond strict laws and we could now use judgement, compassion and love to make decisions and live.

          As faithful people, we are bound by laws to guide us but not to rule us. Love, compassion, charity and faith all transcend laws, religious and perhaps otherwise as well. I'm not advocating breaking civil law but our history as humans and as Christians are replete with examples of conscientious objectors and people who broke the letter of the law because they answered to a higher authority. Think, the underground railroad for one.

               Know the law but live love  

             

            

Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’ So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God.

Turning away from the One who loves you

Matthew 10:32-39

            In almost any gay movie that involves someone coming out, there seems to be a requisite scene. A young man who has 'been with' someone meets them at some later point in public. The other person offers a sincere gesture of recognition to the person only to be rebuffed, often in a very harsh way, almost as if to say, OMG you're gay??, get away from me! The person is not quite ready to come out yet.

             There is a very hurtful feeling that is elicited when you think you are friends with someone and you are turned away.  I suppose it's the same with straight people when you fall in love and at some point one party or the other falls out of love. You approach the person and are summarily slammed down. Your  are shocked, your world is rocked - and not in a good way.

              One of the visions of what sin is that I learned as a youth was that you are turning away from God. Venial sins were a movement away while Mortal sin was a wholesale turnaround if not a sprint away from God.  Either way though you are rebuffing God. Whatever action it is that denies your holy essence or makes the worldly more important than God, you are rebuffing God. I find this concept somewhat useful even if it is simple.

               The question arises, will God look upon you at your death or perhaps before and say I don't recognize you?  Would God rebuff us even when we turn away from him? An interesting question for sure. I found great solace in a book called Good Goats, it speaks of this very question.

               The question eventually comes down to what is more important though. While God recognizes family and relationship and wants them honored, if they become more important than the love of self and God, they can be placed aside. Our eternal salvation , in the end, is not from family, spouses, lovers or friends. Salvation does not come from being a member of a specific church or religion either.

              Ultimately, we must turn toward God and if not perfect in doing so, at least make the effort to constantly try to make turns toward God. While God is loving and loves us enormously, I wonder if our wishes to be separated from him (by our turning away - sinning if you will), will be honored. Perhaps that is the essence of Hell if there is one. It is God's sad recognition that we can turn away from Him and he cries as he acknowledges our choice. Basically, we send ourselves to Hell if that is what have chosen. We condemn ourselves.

          In the meantime, I have no desire to seek God and hear him ever say to me Who are you? I will always try to make my choices in concert with God's love and will.  How about you?

‘Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven.

‘Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.
For I have come to set a man against his father,
and a daughter against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.
Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.

Banish the "H" word

Romans 12:6-13

             I have a wide array of rubber bracelets in my closet, each has a statement or message. If I wore them all at once I think it would very much give away the fact that I am gay, so wide is the rainbow of colors. One of my favorites though is the band that says Erase Hate from the Matthew Shepard Foundation. Hate is a word that should be erased from the human vocabulary. It is so strong and so toxic.  So once again I am wondering about translations and what the original text says because right here in today's passage it says to hate evil. I wonder what word appears in the actual text and in what precise cultural context it was used and what it meant. 

            Hate is a word that conjures up the evil one just by it's mere use and yet we use it almost without thought. I hate so and so, I hate brussel sprouts,  I hate fags! That latter statement and worse have been justified by statements in scripture that are mistranslated and/or taken out of context. There are a great number of people who claim to be Christian and spew misinformed, bigoted and vitriolic dung about gays and the gay community. They feel justified by rabid preachers who espouse hate in the name of God. They don't see the irony nor do they know what Jesus actually preached and lived, otherwise they would not act so. Apparently theirs is a vengeful God but God is love pure and simple.  Luckily, there is a growing movement among real Christians, very often moved by the Spirit outside the bounds of some organized religions that recognize that love is love no matter who it is and that Gods' created world is much more diverse than narrow minded religious zealots care to admit. Sadly it is the vocal minority like the Westboro Baptist church, Fundamentalist whackadoo's and the Roman Catholic Church that are asked to respond to questions about homosexuality and marriage equality. All any of them do is spout hateful rhetoric, circular logic and outdated ancient theorems about the world. One is not surprised that they have argued against racial equality, that indigenous peoples have no souls and that a woman's place is at home, apparently barefoot and pregnant. It would almost be believable should they return to their long ago abandoned belief that the world is flat and that the sun revolves around it. 

          No. The admonishment to hate evil leaves too much up for judgement and bigotry. The only true measure of being a good Christian, or a good Jew or Muslim or person, is how we love. Again, leave the bad translations and ancient beliefs aside.

          They will know we are Christians by our love, not hate.

We have gifts that differ according to the grace   given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching;the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.

Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good;love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honour. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer.Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.