Gospel For Gays

Spirit of conformity, spirit of evil

Two others also, who were criminals, were led away to be put to death with him. When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” And they cast lots to divide his clothing. And the people stood by, watching; but the leaders scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one!” The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine, and saying, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself!” There was also an inscription over him, “This is the King of the Jews.” One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, “Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” He replied, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” Luke 23, 39-43; from the reading for Passion Sunday, March 28.

Did Jesus laugh?

Laughter is a fundamental part of being human, but the gospels never show Jesus laughing. Why is this? I begin a series of speculations – and some personal research – on the subject this week, exploring the nature of laughter, of God, and the existential issue at the heart of the human-divine reality: this flawed creation.

Finding the gay Jesus

Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” He said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Doctor, cure yourself!’ And you will say, ‘Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.’” And he said, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown. But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.” When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way. Luke 4, 21-30; reading for Sunday, January 31.

The church of ‘no’

In extending an innovative welcome to disaffected and conservative Anglicans, Pope Benedict makes the church an even less welcoming place for gay people. For those of us who enjoy the protections of western societies, this makes little difference – but what about the plight of 10 million less fortunate gay Catholics, whose freedoms are constricted and threatened around the world? Where is the church for them? Where are we?

Clerical scandal, clerical isolation

A fresh clerical scandal and the disgrace of a Canadian bishop re-opens the question: is the old vocational model broken? The model in which priests are set apart in radical lives of service – and isolation? Isolation offers fertile ground for all kinds of dysfunctions. In my experience, God calls us out of isolation, not into it.

Sexual union and the nature of God

Some Pharisees came, and to test him they asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her.” But Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you. But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

Then in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her, and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”

People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.” And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them and blessed them. Mark 10, 2-16; Gospel for October 4, 2009.

Insiders and outsiders

Experientially, we encounter the Lord, and that encounter seems to contradict the precepts of the insiders. Does that mean that we should cherish the experience as something private and particular to us, and continue to live our own lives, in a kind of separate dispensation, apart from the larger church community?

My Own Story

Some people don’t know they’re gay until an incident blows open a door in mid life. Not me. I knew I was gay when I was twelve, although we didn’t use that word in those days. So did my parents, who sent me to a shrink to chase the demon away, without ever saying why I had to go and stare in silence at his Argyle socks while he questioned me about mum and dad.

Legion

Luke 8.26-39 (also Matthew 8.28-34; Mark 5.1-20)
Then they arrived at the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. As he stepped out on land, a man of the city who had demons met him. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he did not live in a house but [...]