Jesus and the Fence in Laramie

Deaths in the public arena have always catapulted people into the spotlight in a very negative way. People often wonder why it has happened. Whether it was Jesus in Jerusalem, Matthew Shepherd in Laramie, The recent increase of LGBT hate crimes in New York, Lynchings of African Americans  in the Southern states in the 1960's,  all have a common feeling that comes from these incidents.Through all of these ordeals, emotions are a major driver. The three main discussions that are involved in this subject are fear, suffering, and most importantly, love.

Fear is the driving element that causes us to do things we often regret. One of these is Fear of the "other", fear that the other is not entitled to the same place in society that you already inhabit. People often say fear controls action. It is a very good point to remember. How many corporations profit off of our fear? How many organizations get huge chunks of money because you fear this other. More than one killer has got off because they supposedly felt threatened by a hoodie, by the supposed advances of a gay man (HINT:  JUST BECAUSE YOU ARE A HETEROSEXUAL MALE, EVERY HOMOSEXUAL MALE DOES NOT WANT YOU)

Fear is also experienced on the part of people being "targeted"/"profiled". This fear has caused more than one LGBT person act different out in public because they were scared of the actions of others. Whether it would be because they carry a pocketbook, or wear workboots instead of heels.

Through our fear and our actions because of our fear, we cause some suffering not only on ourselves but others. When we fear, we worry, when we worry we end up with hypertension ( or other problems) .When we worry more about ourselves, we don't love others and that protection instinct causes us to hurt others(a good bit of the Suffering in the world). The only way to conquer all of these emotions is LOVE

Love is important to any of these discussions on anything involving Christianity. Love is our driving force, not fear. Love is also the thing which helps us to stand our suffering. Love is what God commanded us to do, and reiterated through Jesus. I am reminded of these words from Alice Walker in " Love is Not Concerned" :

 Love is not concerned

with whom you pray

or where you slept

the night you ran away

from home.

Love is concerned

that the beating of your heart

should kill no one.

Matthew Shepherd 

The Lists.....

Last week's scripture was the story of Mary and Martha. In it, Jesus comes to dinner at Mary and Martha's house.It was the duty of the women in each house, to take care of all the house duties. Like was custom,Martha frantically prepares the bread, the meat and whatever else was on the variously prepared dishes that night. Mary, however, sits under the feet of Jesus, listening to him discuss whatever questions were asked of him this particular moment. As we all know, Martha in a fit, scolds Mary for not helping her with the busy tasks. Jesus then turns the tables on Martha, and tells her that those tasks never get done but that He will only be present for a short time....now that's the traditional synopsis of what the scripture has said.... TRADITIONALLY

Now let's make this story current. We all have these mile long lists that will never seem to get done because normally, items keep reappearing back on our lists that we just did yesterday. These lists grow because of societal standards/norms.  We always have to wash our dress shoes on Saturday if we are going out, because we have to. We always have to have clean socks on so we have to wash our clothes. We always have to have energy so therefore we have to cook and wash dishes after. We have to change the light bulbs so we can actually see what we are doing after the sun goes down. What Jesus is bringing up is actually a very basic idea. Time is a commodity we think we have a lot of, but in actuality, we don't. People have spent more there lives tolling away just working on their lists, and never got a thing done.

Therefore, we have to make time to live. To go for a walk and actually enjoy the sunshine on your face. You have to make time for the fun things in life. You have to make moments where you aren't scared of the next big and bad coming around the corner but the next big and really great good coming around the bend. We have to not only accept the upcoming bad, but also try to make it into a good if we can. Whether it be by hook or by crook. But the scary part is we have to be paying attention and never forget.

North Carolina, Florida, Texas (and many other states), are all in mists of crazy chaotic moments right now. We all legislators and governors who are bent on destroying the fundamentals of our society. They have been cutting everything from Pre-K programs, Safety nets for the poor, etc.

In other words, concentrate on a better List.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uDxF5q0V9s

A Wide Table

"He hath showed you thee, o man, what is good: And do what The Lord requires of thee, but do justly, to love mercy, and walk humbly with thy God" Micah 6.8 KJV 

Open or Closed are two big words in today's society. Open or Closed minds, Open or Closed books, Open Gates and Closed Fences are all phrases we continue to drop into our dialogue we engage in. Our collective "soul" as a whole is bigger than Conservative, Moderate and Liberal.

 This verse says a lot about how WE engage in our communities. Not just our faith communities, but school and work. Whether it is on the Unionizing of workers for equal pay and fair treatment or Marriage Equality. All conversations have the same basic elements. The space and two (or more) participants. Conversations are built on certain perimeters that either enable conversation or cause discussion to falter. Stuff that enables conversation are things like finding common ground, building bridges, etc. Stuff that disables communication are not doing those things which enable communication. Things like talking in different language and terms, etc. 

Love, mercy, and justice are often either found in discussions, or seeds of doubt (which isn't necessarily a bad thing), fear, anger, or hurt. The latter being the negative counterparts. 

There also ways to engage in community to either either grow the seeds of mistrust or grow the flowers of love. Some simple ways is actually hearing and listening at the same time. 

There are both conservative and liberal gardeners, conservative and liberal fence builders, conservative and liberal cooks/chefs. 

When we come to the Lord's Supper Table, we are not only opening ourselves to the great work of God. We open our hearts to all those we engage with in general. Our friends, our families, or significant others, all of which are connected to us in everyday life, but through our common "soul". We are not only our strongest parts, but also the weaker (voiceless) . The Voiceless among us would those who have lost there voice. The people who have sometimes been made mute by our statements, or the statements of society , or factions of society. 

May our actions and dialogue give everybody the room and ground to speak. Liberals and conservatives, orthodox and progressive, male and female, LGBT etc. 

Multiply the Love in Our Hearts

"Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;  does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;  bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things..... Love never fails" I Corinthians 13.4-8 (New King James Version) 

Love is serious topic these days. Love is one of those things that is very hard to even pin down on what it is. In modern day context, Love is something we give to not only our dog, our family, our lovers/significant others, but it is also something we give to brands that we can't live without. I have got to the point lately where I don't even like to say I love Reese's cups, or any other assorted brands of chocolate. In this modern day of Rugged individualism, there is definitely Not Enough Love in Our hearts.

Last week we made momentous strides in the area of Love and Justice. With the Supreme Court striking down section 4 of  DOMA (The Defense of Marriage Act) , using the Equal protection cause. Marriages of Same Sex couples in 14 states in the United States now have the same rights and protections. There is still much work to be done with the other 37 states that still have discrimination enshrined in their Laws or in their states' Constitutions (including North Carolina)....Maybe we can find Love in our hearts 

Also in North Carolina, July 1st was the start of dangerous time for many families within the borders of the 100 counties from the mountains to the beach. More than 70,000 unemployed instantly lost their benefits. These benefits were going to people who in most cases were still looking for work (and with three people applying to every one job). I bring up these people to illustrate that Love is not shown to our fellow man.......Maybe we can multiply the Love in our hearts 

As I noted in the scripture earlier, "Love never fails"........I know sometimes we get beat down by the ever present doubt in our humanity. Doubt that is also ever present in the world surrounding us. Love, however, blows doubt away. I end with a song from Joyful Noise 

Let us multiply the love in our hearts, not only toward our loved ones, but toward ourselves, and to the stranger who we don't know........ 

Amendment One and Peace in the Body of Christ

You can easily see how this kind of thing works by looking no further than your own body. Your body has many parts—limbs, organs, cells—but no matter how many parts you can name, you're still one body. It's exactly the same with Christ. By means of his one Spirit, we all said good-bye to our partial and piecemeal lives. We each used to independently call our own shots, but then we entered into a large and integrated life in which he has the final say in everything. This is what we proclaimed in word and action when we were baptized. Each of us is now a part of his resurrection body, refreshed and sustained at one fountain—his Spirit—where we all come to drink. The old labels we once used to identify ourselves—labels like Jew or Greek, slave or free—are no longer useful. We need something larger, more comprehensive.

I want you to think about how all this makes you more significant, not less. A body isn't just a single part blown up into something huge. It's all the different-but-similar parts arranged and functioning together. If Foot said, "I'm not elegant like Hand, embellished with rings; I guess I don't belong to this body," would that make it so? If Ear said, "I'm not beautiful like Eye, limpid and expressive; I don't deserve a place on the head," would you want to remove it from the body? If the body was all Eye, how could it hear? If all Ear, how could it smell? As it is, we see that God has carefully placed each part of the body right where he wanted it.

But I also want you to think about how this keeps your own significance from getting blown up into self-importance or pride. For no matter how significant you are, you are only significant because of what you are a part of. An enormous eye or a gigantic hand wouldn't be a body, but a monster. What we have is one body with many parts, each its proper size and in its proper place. No part is important on its own. Can you imagine Eye telling Hand, "Get lost; I don't need you"? Or, Head telling Foot, "You're fired; your job has been phased out"? As a matter of fact, in practice it works the other way—the "lower" the part, the more basic, and therefore necessary it is. You can live without an eye, for instance, but not without a stomach. When it's a part of your own body you are concerned with, it makes no difference whether the part is visible or clothed, higher or lower. You give it dignity and honor just as it is, without comparisons. If anything, you have more concern for the lower parts than the higher. If you had to choose, wouldn't you prefer good digestion to full-bodied hair?

The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part is dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don't, the parts we see and the parts we don't. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance.

You are Christ's body—that's who you are! You must never forget this. Only as you accept your part of that body does your "part" mean anything. You're familiar with some of the parts that God has formed in his church, which is his "body"-----I Corinthians 12.12-26(Message)

I know I haven't posted in a while...but after the day and week I have had, it kinda’ seems appropriate. This week and the next couple of weeks are going to be reasonably crazy, simply put. The first and MAIN reason is the primary election, and with that the constitutional amendment being considered. If you haven't heard about the Marriage Amendment or “Amendment 1” yet, it is pretty bad. In short, it states that the marriage of ONE MAN and ONE WOMAN is the only LEGAL DOMESTIC UNION recognized in the state of North Carolina. Proponents of the Amendment say it is to protect society from the perils of gay marriage <insert all of the standard arguments here>. If it was only that simple, I don't know what kind of response this Amendment would be receiving. Almost every group or organization is taking a stand on it, and it is pretty standard how they are lining up. On the proponents side, we have the Roman Catholic Church, the Southern Baptist, NOM, etc., etc. Basically, all of the fundamentalist Christians. Those of us against the Amendment are liberals, conservatives, Libertarians, etc. All of those against the Amendment are saying so because of several reasons.  I am sure 10,000 blogs have covered those points in detail. So I am moving on to other news......which relates to BIG chunk of information......

The first chunk of news came out yesterday. when on Facebook I noticed a video labeled "Man Films Himself Firing A Shotgun into Neighbor's Yard Sign Against Amendment One".  Apparently, a teenager from the Piedmont of NC took it upon himself to fire a shot gun into an Against Amendment One sign. Cops were called, the whole nine yards.  As I said, I am getting into a bigger point here, so I don't want to drone on and on about all of the details because I don't want to be to wordy.......(well any wordy then I have to be) .

The Second chunk of news came out earlier today when a minister's sermon from Marriage Sunday (some big deal the Proponents came up with to push parishioners to support the amendment. In it, he basically droned on for about 30 minutes according to reports, about a long list of stuff. The biggest chunk that grabbed everybody's attention was when he advocated violence against gay children.  To paraphrase, he said "If your little 4-year-old boy all of the sudden has a limp wrist, then you should pop that wrist". He also said if a little girl is "too butch" you should "rein her in".

The point I am trying to make here is that, in short, tensions are running high.  When you consider all of the items that are normally on everybody's list when in the midst of a a recession, pointing toward gay people and allies and doing violent acts and advocating for violent acts, is not the message you need to send. There are pretty much two factions in the church at this moment. There is the mainline denominations (which contains liberals and conservative), and in most cases liberal denominations. On the other side, you have more conservative and fundamentalist churches. If you look back in history, these two groups have been discussing issues since the beginning of time. Parts of the same body you could say have always argued on one matter or another. And from that body, there are 10000000s of individual cells, and from that our body is able to walk, talk, sing, and pray.. Our body is able to love, to reproduce, to be artistic. When you look at the individual cells, and individual body parts, each has a function and has capabilities of their own. In this paraphrase of Paul we see his words clearly. 

For no matter how significant you are, it is only because of what you are a part of. An enormous eye or a gigantic hand wouldn't be a body, but a monster. What we have is one body with many parts, each its proper size and in its proper place. No part is important on its own. Can you imagine Eye telling Hand, "Get lost; I don't need you"? Or, Head telling Foot, "You're fired; your job has been phased out?" As a matter of fact, in practice it works the other way—the "lower" the part, the more basic, and therefore necessary it tends to be. (21-24)

Every part of the body of Christ is important to the work of God, and not all Christians have to agree on every issue to get something done.  Certain denominations are great at some things, and others are great other things. Different denominations even disagree on what certain verses in the Bible even mean. I am not saying that to be critical, mind you. I am saying that say we are different. Opinions are great, everybody has them. I also believe we need to at least respect them, and allow them to exist, and not batter them, label them as "breaking-wrist offenses" or "rein them in offenses". Our children do not need to be exposed to that. A child should not be punished for who they are.

In closing, I pray that we will all live in the Peace of Christ which surpasses all understanding. And I want to close with a few lines from “You Can't Stop The Beat” from Hairspray the musical...

You can't stop today
As it comes speeding down the track
Child, yesterday is history
And it's never coming back
Cause tomorrow is a brand new day
And it don't know white from black

Let's us be happy to live in a world where all opinions matter and there is no black and white, gay and straight...Let us live as Paul inspired the Galatians to........

Pax et benedictus

Bottom of

Coming Out

The month of October is a very special month, we have several reasons to start thinking not only about our collective community, but also our individual selves. October is the first month of Autumn, the early portions of the month are set aside to talk about the hazards and precautions associated with mostly Breast Cancers, secondly , other forms of Cancers. The mid portion of the month is associated with National Coming Out Day (the reason for my post), and the latter portion is associated with of course Halloween or All Hallow's Eve. With so many reasons to post in the month of October, I thought it would be my first priority to something to make us all think. Some of my posts, will be very political based , others will be theological based, others(I dare say, most) will be some where in the middle, this will be the first example of one where I am going to be speaking to the "whole" person, both scientifically, and theologically.

When looking at National Coming Out Day, not only do a large portion of people have to come out, not only as being supportive of the LGBT community, but also what has become known as the gay church, even more so in the African American community . It is important to think that not only do we come out, but Christ came out (some argue about when that technically was) in his own ministry(the office of Christ)  but it happened none the less.

The first group I would like to talk about in relation to National Coming Out Day is the actual reason that they came out with the day in general, LGBT people . I came out to my family two years ago, it was actually started nine months before National Coming Out Day, and was actually reaching it's culmination right in October. My story is not a short story, so therefore, to long to take up this post, but it took many years, and much analysis to actually not only figure out why but also how I am different. My story however is not an rarity. Psychologist/Counselor training programs are actually revising the number of how many people are LGBT from 10% to 15%. Whether it be lesbians or gays or transgenders, all of our population needs to be considered when making laws, and I am meaning that we are not discriminated against. That in the end, the rights of minority are NOT trampled upon by the majority, whether it be in the ballot box or the work place or the educational institutions. One also can not forget the actually sanctuaries. Another facet ( I don't want to even wager how big this facet is, but a facet nonetheless), are people who are on the DOWNLOW, whether it be for political or social reasons, or any other reason. Firstly, let me say, it is no help to either you or the people you are trying to protect, because it doesn't. Whether it is through the lying or through the possible spread of disease. This is worse even in the African American Community.

We as the people of God, have a very important place in terms of the creation, and by it, not only did Jesus, the savior of humanity not only live every desire, but also every feeling by being not only fully human but also fully God. When you look at the life of Our Lord and Savior , we can see Jesus not only coming out as Messiah but also the perfect sacrifice. There are two points in Christs life where I see Jesus coming "out" of the hidden in the bright light of the public. Those two points are Wedding at Cana and the Transfiguration. The most important one that actually  shows him coming out to me, is the Wedding at Cana. At this point in Christ's life, we see something very important to the time of Jesus but also to our culture, a wedding. Jesus is sitting at the table as a guest, and what happens, they run out of wine. From there we all know the story, Jesus is bade by his mother, to help with the situation, and Jesus at first says "The time is not yet at hand", but then he eventually does as his mother says and commands the servants to fill pitchers with water, which he turns into wine. This was Christ coming out, he officially steps from the quietness of obscurity into the spotlight of public and not only public life but also ministry. Not just the jews, but also the greeks and every other gentile, male and female. After this he spent a little more than three years traveling over the Israel countryside healing lepers, preaching the Gospel, and proclaiming the glory of the Lord.

Like Christ did two thousand  eleven years ago, the church is also in the middle of a coming out process. Some parts of the body of Christ fully support full inclusion of their LGBT brothers and Sisters, others are on a journey of acceptance, others stand at the door like the armed gaurds in Alabama in pre-Civil Rights south. The United Church of Christ, the Metropolitan Community Church, the Affirming Pentecostal International, and countless others are leading the charge for FULL LGBT inclusion in all facets of the Body of Christ. Other churches, such as the Evangelical Lutheran Church and the Presbyterians are making transitions in acceptance. Unfortunately there are still those who stand at the door. My prayer is that those who stand at the door will listen to the testimony of US, the people who in most cases have been part of their communion table since they were young, and thrown out, not because of something they "chose" as some would believe, that is as natural as eye color and height and many other traits that are not chosen by the individual.

Peace and blessings on this National Coming Out Day,