The power of love

1 John 4:7-12

          I recall as a young man saying to someone that I loved them but I was not in love with them. Such a fine distinction I was able to come up with. I find it a little comical now though the nature of love is so broad and expansive it really isn't a funny subject except in how we deal with love. God may very well view as infants  (no matter what our age) as we try so immaturely to love and divine the ways of love, to divine the ways of His love.

           Love is such a nebulous and fascinating subject. Love is perhaps the essence of our existence and it is perhaps our one try goal in life. That is, to love ourselves (accept whom God made us to be) and to love others. In trying to comprehend the ways and depth of love though we can make in seem incredibly complex and make novice mistakes as only we humans perhaps can do.

           One of my most memorable labyrinth walks was a regression of my life to the point before I was conceived by my parents to when I was conceived in the mind of God. The center of the labyrinth then became an immensely powerful place where I met the mind and creative love of God. Perhaps that's redundant. I was overwhelmed, shaking and crying.  

            Love is overwhelming. Love is all encompassing and simply more than we can take in and understand and yet we know it and it is palpable. I cannot adequately explain the number of times I am overwhelmed by the love of my husband and the love God showed me in gracing me with his presence and love. There are many times I feel so loved in our relationship that I could cry tears of happiness and joy. 

            If only for today, it may be a treasure to try to be cognizant of the love around us and the fantastic array that God places around us and in our lives. It makes for humbling thankfulness, great joy and a zest for life. 

Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.

In Your Face

Mark 1:29-45

               I'm feeling bold today.  How many times do we think that everything is cool, we just don't want to acknowledge the elephant in the room? Someone might say, I don't mind if people are gay - I just don't want to see it. You can see people of all ages (hetero people) showing simple signs of affection, holding, hands, a simple kiss, a simple "heh, honey" said in a food store while shopping; all these are ok until it's 2 men or two women. Screech! Halt! That's sooo disgusting. Do they have to do that in public? Don't let me fool you though, I'm not just talking being gay. It's all of life.  So when I read today's passage and I read about Peter's mother-in-law, I have to laugh. That's right Peter, the first Pope, the man whom Jesus handed the keys to - he was married. 

             So what happened in the Roman Catholic church? I thought celibacy was a gift and a mandated 'state of grace' for Roman clergy? (aside from converting clergy who were already married. That's ok). It's so in your face that Peter was married and now they can't. Well, many Popes and priests were married and many 'on the side' as well. It's laughable. While celibacy may be a special gift, it is not a gift to all. It cannot be mandated and it should never be a tool for the church to say that, basically, you are not called because you cannot remain celibate. So there it is, out and proud, Peter was married - to a woman!

              This morning I opened my computer only to find Gay Clergy Trading cards. What a hoot. How,  'in your face!' Gay clergy have been around forever, hiding amidst deniers and people who say being gay is "intrinsically disordered" while having a more than normal percentage of gay clergy within their own ranks.  Let's face it, so much of what the Roman church teaches is not of God per se, it's made up and defies logic and is wrong for everyone to see.  Sometimes, often times, the lunacy and hypocrisy is just so in your face. From blaming gays for clergy abuse, to 'celebate clergy, to 'annulments' instead of divorce to rampant 'birth control of the faithful and people who routinely 'live in sin'. Most of it is hypocritical BS, and the faithful know it! 

          So for today I am going to stick my toes in the water of everything that is 'in your face' and love it. I may even let my feet get pruney in those waters. There are so many elephants in the room, so much BS, let's spend a day acknowledging and facing some of it and really enjoying it. Don't you think God laughs at us? Let's laugh at ourselves a bit and in the process raise our conscienceless.

As soon as they left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.

That evening, at sunset, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. And the whole city was gathered around the door. And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him. 

In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. And Simon and his companions hunted for him. When they found him, they said to him, ‘Everyone is searching for you.’ He answered, ‘Let us go on to the neighbouring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.’ And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons. 

A leper came to him begging him, and kneeling he said to him, ‘If you choose, you can make me clean.’ Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, ‘I do choose. Be made clean!’ Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. After sternly warning him he sent him away at once, saying to him, ‘See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.’ But he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word, so that Jesus could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter.

His beloved disciple: impossible love, possible?

Mark 1:14-28

           It's interesting how you know facts and you have read things many times but all of sudden you see something differently or the pieces seem to come together. Here we have Jesus recruiting his first disciples, two sets of brothers, Simon and Andrew and James and John.  Wait, James and John? John as the 'beloved disciple', "the disciple whom Jesus loved"?

            I recall these two brothers getting into a bit of a problem when their mother asks Jesus if the 'boys' can sit at his right and left hand when they go to heaven. So their Mom was alive, John's mother was alive. Interesting tidbit except that I also note specifically that when Jesus was dying on the cross he turned to his own mother and said that she she should behold her son John. Further, Jesus tells John this Mary is to be his 'mother'. Interesting scenarios.

             This has shades of Ruth and Naomi. So often 'marriages' and committed relationships are cast by the joining of families and bonds that transcend earthly authority. We can recall the scripture passage from Ruth (1:16), Wherever you go I shall go. Wherever you live so shall I live.

Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God too. This is what Biblical love and Biblical commitment was ( and still is ).  In today's passage we see the same commitment perhaps as seen through Jesus and John. As Jesus is departing this world he affirms and commits the family together, John as son ( in-law? ) to Mary and Mary as mother ( in-law? ) to John.  I don't think I would be so bold as to say this except that it jumped out at me that John already has a mother and she is mentioned in scripture too. I may have added to the idea that Cana was a wedding feast for John and Jesus but it was more of a possibility. With this revelation to me I am thinking the evidence may be mounting.

                Before I get some hate mail, what difference does it make if Jesus was married to John? Would this diminish his message? His divinity? the value and extent of his love?  If anything it show just how human Jesus was. Jesus was just like us in every way, willingly and openly. He suffered willingly and openly too - for us. How powerful and how humbling to us.

                 If you are gay, this 'revelation' may be what helps you realize how much has been denied you in organized religion, false translations and from churches with agenda that are neither Godly or scripturally sound. 

                 Let us give thanks for the possibility of Jesus married to his 'beloved disciple'.

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.’

As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake—for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, ‘Follow me and I will make you fish for people.’ And immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.

They went to Capernaum; and when the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught. They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, ‘What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.’ But Jesus rebuked him, saying, ‘Be silent, and come out of him!’ And the unclean spirit, throwing him into convulsions and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, ‘What is this? A new teaching—with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.’ At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee.

Maintain our humility, proceed in love.

Philippians 2:1-4

              There is an Native American expression that tries to convey the evil of being judgemental, it says that before we judge someone, we should first walk a mile in their moccasins. That's clearly not an exact quote but you get the idea. The notion of not being judgemental is not necessarily a Christian one but it is a universal one. In judging others to build ourselves higher, we actually diminish ourselves with a truly false sense of quality.  We are never to judge. As Pope Francis stated, "who am I to judge?" How beautiful.

              I recall that my mother had a similar journey to me although she died way too soon to know. As a good and faithful Catholic woman, she was tormented by the fact that she had sought a divorce from her husband.  Not only was there internal torment, there was judgement and abuse at the hands of the 'holy women' of the church.  She was marginalized and kicked to the curb as unworthy, sinful and not in line with Catholic doctrine. She was anathema to many. She was a hero to her children.

              Little did my mother know that her sweet young son fought his own internal torment even if it took decades to identify in a coherent way; even if it took decades to formulate and say aloud to himself. I too was anathema and struggled to be a good and faithful servant while knowing that God was on my side and that God loved me no matter what. I not only failed to realize that I was gay but I failed to separate the punitive and wrong hearted doctrines of my faith from the love and charity of my creator. I sought the former, found an uneasy bond and then found complete joy in the latter.

                I find a great deal of anger in my heart at times for the Roman church and the actions of the humans that run it or people who profess their allegiance to it. This would then be a form of confession for my own judgement of them.  We all are human and prone to sin by emulating worldly paradigms instead of the love and peace of God. The church would be no different even if I choose to think they should be better. Even if they proclaim themselves to be better. We are all human. The Roman church is in reality no better and especially, no better loved than anyone else. We are all loved equally.

               Our journeys cannot progress lamenting the past or wallowing in self pity for being wronged or by laying blame for this or that. We must cast others journey's aside because after all, it is their journey. We must not judge any one's journey and we must appreciate the difficulty they must have while always continuing on our own. 

                I pray that we find encouragement in Christ and in the love of God, certainly not in someone else's stumble or fall. We are all certain to fall at one point or another, in one way or another. Let us maintain our humility and proceed in love.

If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.

On respect for each person

John 1:1-7,19-20,29-34

          I may have noted this before but my parents were divorced, my Dad moving out when I was 5 years old.  Before you let loose any Awww's, let me assure you it was a great thing. It certainly was good for each of them and it was good for us kids who no longer had to witness the hostility, anger and act as non combatants or collateral damage in the middle of a war. Best of all, my parents were actually very good people, always went out of their way to love us as if 'the other' was somehow not. I know that I feel I got more loving than most of my friends coming from non 'broken' homes.  One of things that my Dad did for me was he'd buy me books that he thought might interest me or help me in some formative way. I still remember each of them from Johnathan Livingston Seagull to A Remarkable Medicine Has Been Overlooked and The Power of your Subconscious Mind. I love my Dad even though he has been gone now for twenty years.

             In the last book i'd note that I was initiated into the thought that we are many times what we are told or worse, what we tell ourselves. Our subconscious mind listens all to well to what is being said, whether it's a bad parent saying 'you're a stupid kid' or a bad teacher who informs student 'you're good for nothing. 'You'll never amount to anything'. Of course we listen to many voices but we do listen to repetitive messages from outside and within. Oh how very much I wish we could all realize how much we are loved, how much value we hold just by ourselves and just how special God created us when he initialled envisioned our coming into existence. 

           In today's passage we have a story in which John was quite clear about who he was himself. That is, not Messiah. He did know who he was, his role and his value. When Jesus comes along and is baptized, God proclaims who Jesus is and his worth. He is God's beloved son 'in whom he is well pleased'. Whenever I taught religion and in my personal relationships to this day, I always try to show respect and instill the feeling that everyone has a unique self worth as imagined and then created by God. I always thought how wonderful it would be if I could get the children in my class to realize just how loved they are, how special they are, how gifted they are.

           It is with intense sadness that I see people demeaned, marginalized or whose character is besmirched simply for accepting their God created qualities. Of special interest to me are the kids who are gay and have to deal with the torment of classmates, the rejection of parents and family members.  How can we not weep at how Leelah Alcorn was treated by her parents and just as worse, their "religion".  I am sure God weeps in heaven for all of us and welcomed Leelah with open arms and a warm embrace. 

          Of course it is our job to be the best we can be, acknowledge our gifts and talents and use it all for God's glory. Equally as certain is that we should honour each others journey even if we do not understand it. No religion can have validity if it does not recognize this fact. It is one of the reasons so many people are flocking away from organized religion and why Face Book is filled with so many non-sectarian spiritual bouquets. 

         I pray we are gentler with ourselves and everyone else. People hear and listen to what we say.

           

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.

This is the testimony given by John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, ‘Who are you?’ He confessed and did not deny it, but confessed, ‘I am not the Messiah.’

The next day he saw Jesus coming towards him and declared, ‘Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, “After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.” I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel.’ And John testified, ‘I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, “He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.” And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God.’

Je Suis Charlie

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

          Each day I receive an inspirational thought in an e-mail. An acquaintance of mine arranged this and I am forever grateful for an additional tool to start the day on a thoughtful, appreciative and prayerful note. I find that how I start my day is a fairly good barometer of how I will focus, view and handle life during the next 24 hours. That's me. Today's message was "If we worked on the assumption that what is accepted as true really is true, then there would be little hope for advance." (Orville Wright, 1871-1948)

           Three things came to my mind with today's passage and this quote. One is simply a sign I saw yesterday,  Je Suis Charlie. It offered solidarity and a message about the recent barbarism and religious lunacy that occurred in France.  What religious fanatics do ( and have done over the centuries ) is shameful, demonic and absolutely has no bearing on any message God wishes to reveal to mankind. Je Suis Charlie was posted in solidarity by a person who posted information, not unlike myself that was often challenging and counter to many accepted beliefs. To promote thought and to question the status quo should not be something that endangers one's life. Yet what happened in Paris shows us the extent to which warped ideologies can infect and inflame people to horrific actions. It is intensely sad that such lessons are still being learned after humanity has lived through similar 'infections' such as the Nazi's, the Inquisition, various Pogrums and the Crusades. Are we destined to never learn from our errors?  The right wingnuts in this country spreading hate, lies and misinformation about the LGBTQ community run the risk of creating similar hateful and misguided actions here. In fact, hate crimes against gays inspired and provoked by these hateful "Evangelicals" and self righteous religious wingnuts occur daily. A simple act of defiance (read: affection, love, companionship) such as hold hands or a simple kiss is enough to incur beatings and even death.

          So here I am each day, writing what I hope are prayerful reflections but often rants against the power elite and status quo. I write sometime challenging notions that might make some people a bit squirmy. Little did I know I was writing many times in the vein of Orville Wright.  Challenging assumptions and hoping to advance knowledge, love, fellowship and faith.  This could get me killed though so I too should say Je suis Charlie!

           My third point and perhaps the most important of all because it based on scripture is today's passage. When Christianity was spreading far from Jerusalem and into cultures quite different from Judaism, certain problems arose. Different cultures among other things requires respect of the other and a desire to learn. One of the problems about that learning process is that different cultures have different views on things and often have much different ways of expressing things. Such is the case when Christianity began to come to Greek areas.  So much was different. Philosophies, ways of expression. The Greeks did not have the foundation of ancient Judaism or their scripture and in fact had their own history and deeply embedded culture.  In many ways this is the age old issue of unknown cultures cultures clashing. Not so different from East and West, Blacks and Whites and many other culture clashes in human history.  What this passage is trying to address is that because of Jesus There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female. If the passage were written today it might easily have read, no gay or straight, no Muslim or Christian or Jew. The passage is trying to focus on the fact that we are all children of God. We all call God "Abba" (read: Daddy). We are all His children.

         As children of God we are called to learn ad grow, but also respect each other and part of the learning is from each other. There is a tension in learning because it does challenge us. But for those who do the challenging, whether it is satirical comic in France, or a blogger sitting on a little island in the Atlantic or Orville Wright, we must not raise our hackles and inspire hate and vengeance in response.

      We are all children of the same God. If we raise our hackles, it should be against fantiscism, hate and fear mongering and to stop violence, brother against brother.

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.

Not just cookie cutter kitsch!

Romans 12:6-13

          It's said that we are a nation of people that strives for the best. Never to be outdone, we are always looking to one-up, do one better, be the best than we can be. **

          I go to the gym on a regular basis. I not a 'gym rat' or a 'no neck' by any stretch of the imagination, those people in my estimation are trying to be the best 'something'. They are buying into a paradigm that says the best body makes you a better person, more desirable or better looking. None of those goals fit with mine which is to make myself healthier and stronger in that it contributes to me being a better person as part of many other fine attributes.

           I think we are called to be the best person we can be but not to extremus, not one aspect overshadowing another and certainly not at the risk of demeaning others. Discover all of who you are, some of the attributes mentioned in today's passage, love who you are, embrace and share who you are. Those are goals worth working hard for.  When we love who we are we can offer others the great gift that God gave us and that we have unwrapped.

           Today I'd like  to honor Jeanne Manford who started PFLAG. If you don't know what that organization is, I urge you to explore and support it. But who is Jeanne Manford? She is simply a mother who embraced her gay son. She loved him, embraced who he was and celebrated it. Just as we should accept our talents, gifts and abilities, we should accept who we are and embrace it. Gay, Straight, Bi, white, black, Asian, Indian, whomever; embrace who you are. As Lola says in Kinky Boots, "I'm your cocoa butter bitch, not just cookie cutter kitsch! Be who you are and celebrate it, revel in it, love it. 

           You are a gift from God to everyone, not in embracing the whims, attitudes or judgements of society but be being exactly who you are with all your gifts and offering them up to your fellow man and thereby to God.

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.

** for a nation that supposedly strives to be the best we are far from it in almost every way. Lower in education, generosity, caring, forgiveness, and countless other Gospel based goals. We do excell in violence, hate, misinformation and waging war. :(