April 24, 2011
Easter Sunday. A. Year
Colossians 3:1-4 or Acts 10:34-43
This Easter Sunday reminds us of our mission to create spaces that everyone can belong and where they can be restored. Party the resurrection is to see and acknowledge the pain of others, hoping to restore them to full membership in the community that loves and accepts them.
Allow the human need to belong to a community, with the grief of being rejected or exiled by the very community they want to belong, is an important social problem in the LGBT community. Scriptures are full of requests for reversal of roles, promises of restoration and excluded who are made to feel welcome at the banquet table. Social anthropologists cite a similar phenomenon they describe as social status "included / excluded."
Who is included / excluded in our community? How can we change these roles or eliminate them entirely?
In Matthew 28:1-10 and John 20:1-18, we hear Mary Magdalene's encounter with the risen Christ. The hallmark of John's Gospel passage is that Mary is crying alone . She cries because he sees that the stone has been removed from the grave for someone. Imagine, if you want, do what Jesus did for Mary Magdalene. No matter what you think might have been socially inappropriate in Mary Magdalene, her encounter with Jesus changed their social status excluded to included. And she loved him unconditionally.
In the gospel accounts of Jesus' tears of Mary is displayed in full. She witnessed death that Jesus suffered a cruel, ruthless and agony. All she can do for now is to take care of your body. Imagine their distress when it comes to the tomb and see that has been disturbed. She seeks comfort from the other disciples. So why do not you give? Why not recognize the other disciple Peter and his affliction? Why leave Mary weeping outside the tomb? Again, Mary cries alone. But it's quite interesting that Mary can see things that the male disciples, apparently could not: two angels. And then she sees the risen Christ.
Are we guilty of passing or failing to recognize the pain of someone, like the disciples did to Mary?
In Jeremiah 31:1-6, God makes a covenant with the people of Israel that always belong to God. The Holy comforted Israel with the promise of restoring the fortunes of Israel and Judah, and return to the land they once owned. The restoration will include construction of community (verse 1), rebuilding of the city (verse 4) and agricultural abundance (verse 5). In other words, the people of Israel will always have status listed for God, like Mary Magdalena has a status included for Jesus because she saw him alive before anyone else.
found
reinforced the idea of \u200b\u200bthe promise of contact and comfort Jesus in Acts 10:34-43, which illustrates the theme of liberation, when Peter preached his last sermon evangelist. Peter begins by proclaiming that "I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation who fear him and the justice done" (verse 34 and 35). About love and salvation God does not respecter of race, gender, sexual orientation, profession or any status. The special status or property of someone within the diverse range from the very creation of God, can not prevent anyone from the love of Christ. However, the questions that remain are "what is fair?" and "who is acceptable to Jesus Christ?"
What are we doing in our churches to give LGBT brothers and sisters a similar sense of belonging and restoration?
questions to these questions can be found if we seek God, particularly in our own private places of confrontation, these places where we judge ourselves sinners, where our fellow human beings, checked our sinfulness and more importantly, where we are confronted by God. In those places where we experience severe pain, alienation or embarrassment, Christ promises out to meet us. If we take advantage of Christ and the generosity of their love, we cling to the promise of the warning that Peter expressed when he says "that all that he [Jesus] will believe, receive forgiveness of sins through his name" (v. 43). Considered and experienced all things, is to believe in Jesus that ultimately matters. All the passages of Passover this week echoed the call to the membership and restoration.
inclusive Prayer
Risen God, forgive
for the times in which we have ignored
who are wounded among us.
Forgive us when we are those who hurt.
Forgive us when we are indifferent between them.
Help us to see those who do not see. Help us feel your pain.
Give us the strength to fight for the rights of all
to belong to our community.
Give us the strength to scream and use our voice
by those of us who have no voice.
we be agents of your life resurrected:
looking to hear, see, feel and include
to those we have ignored.
to assume this day as the beginning of a new time,
in the life of this community.
In the name of Jesus Christ, our resurrection and our Peace. Amen.
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