Known and unknown and the doors between

William Blake, quoted by Bishop Carlton Pearson in "The Gospel of Inclusion."

In the universe there are things that are known and things that are unknown and in between there are doors. If that is the case then the doors remain ajar through which the curious can peak. The tragedy of theology is that these doors have been closed.

I've been looking at this idea in a multi fold approach. With respect to the cross and the gift that was given by God at Calvary. Christ's sacrifice at the cross was God opening a door for humanity to peak through; to get a glimpse of what it is to love, sacrifice and give, to be the ultimate Good Samaritan. That action by God enables human kind to wrap its arms around the ultimate act of love as an example to live by. I believe by that action we are commanded to be Christ like. We are charged to strive for perfection, knowing that in our lives most of us will never be called to sacrifice as Christ did.

So, when we're commanded to be a Samaritan and sacrifice in a small way, through and act of kindness, generosity, hospitality, a smile, being polite, loving the Christo-eclesia folks who attend church on Sunday with whom we might have friction or disagreements or out right hostility, it is indeed a very small challenge in light of the gift of Calvary.

Imagine the doors that we open when we treat others to a glimpse through that door with a small act of kindness. Think about the example we lead when we pass our lunch out the window of our car to the homeless person begging at the side of the street. Think about the gift we give when we smile and engage a store clerk.

As important is how we treat those with whom we "share belief." Often we share a common belief in Christ as a savior but we get mired in the nonsense of personal opinion. We slug it out over marriage, abortion, salvation, sexual orientation, divorce, alcohol and all the while loosing site of the cross, the death, the suffering, the Resurrection and the church as bride of Christ. We need to knowingly nod to our brothers and sisters, let them have their say, respect their stance, value them as a person and love them.

These seemingly insignificant examples are priceless gifts to opening the door and looking into Christ-like service. In light of Christ's sacrifice these small gifts seem like nothing but in fact they are excellent illustrations of how simple it can all be.

Ephesians 2 4-5

Ephesians 2:4-5(New International Version)
4But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.

One of the hardest things for me to be mindful of, and I’ll admit that this is strange as a self professed “evangelical;” is the gift of Christ the Messiah. I get God and his infinite power, good, love and creativity. I get Christ the Messiah but sometimes I have a difficult time connecting that God is Christ incarnate and sent to Earth do minister, suffer, die and resurrect to save human kind from itself.

Typically my daily prayers are made to God because for some reason I can get my arms around the nebulous concept of a formless, faceless omnipotent and powerful God. On some visceral level I understand God but I tend to fall apart on the duality of God and Christ the Messiah. I think it’s a matter of ok, so God sent Christ, himself to Earth, to minister and shepherd human kind, but who was in control in Heaven or the realm of God. Yes, I know everything is God’s realm; but you know what I mean? Don’t you?

I guess maybe I need to dissect it this way. God is everywhere and even though for a fleeting second in his reality he occupied the human body that was the Christ, the Messiah, he was and is everywhere at the same time. God knew who would follow Christ, who would attend his sermons, who would seek him out for healing, who would be born, who would die. He so infinitely knows all that he could see and foresee all of this mapped out into the future. God actually created the map and the plan. So with all of that down I can wrap myself around the duality of Christ and God and the Trinity of God, Christ and Spirit. One triune God fully God and fully human and fully spirit at the same time whose sole purpose to reconcile God to human kind.

That is the grace of God.

The Election

"Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand." (Isaiah 41: 10)

I cannot remember ever feeling so anxious about an election. I know that I should just trust God and know that whatever happens tomorrow that on November 5th 2008 when I wake up, God, my God will still be in control of everything. At church on Sunday Pastor put it into clearly understandable terms for the second time in as many weeks. He asked, and rightly so, I believe, “Who is your allegiance to?”

As a believer and follower of the Christ, the Messiah, I have to say first to God, second to family and a close third to country. The allegiance to God is heads and tails above the second two because without that allegiance and love, the love for family and country in my mind diminishes. So with that love and allegiance firmly in place then nothing can ever be stolen from me.

With an allegiance to God and a love of God, it doesn’t matter who wins this earthly election. I live in this world but I am not of this world, I am beholden to something far greater and much more valuable. There is nothing that either of the candidates can do for me; they offer me nothing because I have decided to render unto Caesar that which is his and to God all that is his. With that said my path is crystal clear. Conversely my choice of the word all to God is deliberate too.

For conversation sake, if a “liberal” is elected I resolve not to let that stand in the way of my obligation to love and look after and save my fellow human and if a “conservative” is elected I will not let that stand in the way of my obligation to love and look after and save my fellow human. I resolve to walk as Christ with skin on and not absolve my responsibilities to an elected official on any level. By the very nature of their offices they are beholden to a minimum of two masters and generally more. They are obligated to the master of the electorate, to special interests, to party and to themselves. No where in there to I see them beholden to the Master, the Maker, the Alpha and the Omega.

To finish the thought, if I follow the Messiah, the Christ and live according to His will, I will live as a peacemaker, a lover of all human kind even the most disenfranchised and a provider to all His people. I will by my example if I do it right lead people to His way and His light. Seems to me that this is a great way to live, with that said, whatever happens tomorrow, I’ll leave it in the hands of God, who loved me and you so much that he sacrificed Himself, his Son, so that all of us might know everlasting life, love and peace.

Proverbs 8:17 and Robin Hayes

According to WRAL television in Raleigh NC, Robin Hayes, Republican representative from the North Carolina sixth congressional district said this on the weekend of October 18th,"Liberals hate real Americans that work and accomplish and achieve and believe in God."

I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me. - Proverbs 8:17

Oh my, here I have an issue with Mr. Hayes. He has since apologized but I believe the damage done. Too often the word liberal can be replaced with; black, gay, Jew, Hispanic, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, lesbian, bisexual, transgender or any person who doesn’t fit the narrow notion that the xenophobes portray as American. John McCain and Sarah Palin started the political bend down this path this year and the rotten Genie is out of the bottle and it may be next to impossible to get it back in. This kind of hate language smacks of McCarthyism or Fascism, it is dangerous, hurtful and divisive because it marginalizes those whom it attacks.

I am a self proclaimed evangelical Christian. For years I bought into the kind of language that Mr. Hayes so recklessly threw around this past weekend. In doing so, I rejected God, I stayed away from church and my heart grew hard and vengeful. After hitting my lowest of lows, I fought tooth and nail to retain my rightful gift, the gift that was paid in blood and pain for me and all on the cross at Calvary.

So with my love of God, Jesus and fervent prayers I reject what Mr. Hayes says about liberals. I believe that I diligently work to seek and love God and America. I have voted in every election since 1983 and almost always have crossed party lines with the exception of primaries. I am a capitalist. I am self employed, working without a safety net; I left the comfort of a state job over fifteen years ago and on average in this scary economy work some sixty hours per week.

I love my God and country and I refuse to allow the likes of Robin Hayes to take away what is rightfully mine. God loved me and all of humanity so much that he gave his only Son, so that I might know eternal love and happiness and life. My fear is that others will hear the words of Mr. Hayes, John McCain, Sarah Palin and any number of others and they will believe what is being said. That those hearing will stay away from God, they will not come to love God because a human with a reckless tongue is lashing out in hurt.

How do you get into Heaven?

Here is an interesting idea, I’m not worried about getting into heaven by the deeds that I do here on Earth.

In reading, “How Good is Good Enough” by Andy Stanley, the question is asked, what do you need to do to get into heaven? A child in a Sunday school class answers, be dead. This got me to thinking and chewing on the notion and hope of getting into heaven. Philippians 3:20 says, But our citizenship (actually our real homeland) is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. As an evangelical follower of the Christ there is no task that I can complete, no good deed to do, that can get me into Heaven.

In reality, right now, and hopefully forever, I won’t have to worry about the end or eternity in heaven, it is far more important to live a Christ centered life here and now. Christ’s gift enables us for lack of a better word to only fret about today and what is directly before us, he says so. By his passion, crucifixion, death, time in Hell and resurrection Christ gave us the ultimate gift. He, fully God and fully man reconciled us to God, his father, the creator. By his deed, God’s deed, the plan, we have been given the everlasting joy of eternal life and salvation and all we have to do is believe, ask for it, ask for forgiveness and then model it to the best of our ability while trapped here on Earth.

I am not suggesting that we live willy nilly without discernment, planning, holiness and calculation but rather a more truly faithful and holy life. Christ’s gift challenges us to holiness not only in deed but in word. Matthew 12:37, for by your words you will be justified and by your words condemned, so to those who crucify with words, think first. Then when it comes to deeds, Jesus says in Matthew 5:9, Blessed are the peacemakers, for they well be called children of God. Peace on this level can be boiled down to a whole host of actions, feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, comforting those in pain and modeling Christ’s life through action.

All of this thought about Heaven and Hell leaves me wondering about those protestors who I saw at N.C. Pride yesterday. Did they think that shrieking at us through bull horns and berating us with their belief that we were going to Hell helped any of us? How do they reconcile the words of Jesus Chris in Matthew 12: 37? How do they reconcile that God is Love, Jesus is Love and we are to love one another as we love ourselves and above all else love God. Do they really think that telling another human being and child of God that they are going to Hell is a loving helpful action?

I used to become agitated, angry and furious with these folk. No more, I now pray for them all. I pray that they see that by word and deed we are to love our fellow human beings and only by doing so do we guarantee a place for ourselves in heaven. Day to day we must strive for holiness…wholiness if that fits better, and makes better sense. You see that in and of it self is the task and deed to get us to Heaven’s gate and beyond. We go to the creator, humbly and ask for forgiveness and professing our belief. It has only to do with us, self and no one else. There is where so many others, the verbal crucifiers, the physical crucifiers miss their mark. They’re not worrying about themselves, they are abusing others and nowhere in the New Testament does Christ God the Messiah abuse the beloved chosen.

Now, I feel a profound sadness when I read the likes of John McCann or see the screamers at NC Pride, they are not helping people by showing them a Christ like attitude but rather they perpetuate the notion that there is no place in a Christian world for outcasts and folk on the margin. The reality, Christ made it perfectly clear in his ministry that the marginal are those precisely whom we are called to serve. If we serve them, if we befriend them, if we save them then they will to know how to get into Heaven, and in by doing so at the end perhaps God with Jesus at his right hand will say to us, “Well done.”

Happy Pride and a response to John McCann

Let’s agree to disagree…a rebuttal to John McCann local writer with the “Durham Herald Sun.” Durham, NC

Here again is a pundit and talking head taking on homosexuality a subject I dare say he knows little if nothing about. McCann like so many others seems to rely on the age old myth that gay folk, bisexual folk, trans folk and so on somehow made a “choice” to be what they are. I’d challenge that the above alphabet of folk, gbtl etc. no more made a decision to “be” what they are than McCann has. What they did decide is not to hide what they are or live deceptively. To that end I’d ask John McCann, when, just when sir did you choose to be straight?

Dear Sir, please tell me how many same sex encounters, even if they were only in your mind, did you have before you choose to be with women and women exclusively? If John is honest and I have no doubt he would be, and perhaps he says, none, I’ve never had that attraction. Well then, wouldn’t it be logical for me to say that I have never been physically attracted to the opposite sex? I haven’t and by not being attracted that way in no way makes me less of a human or less entitled to basic rights and respect. That’s why we march once a year and a lot of us work tirelessly year round demanding equal treatment under the law. News flash, John et al, it still eludes us. One would think that an African American man would get that.

You see us gbtl folk can’t marry, so there is no tax deduction or marriage recognition there and so unequal protection under the law. We can’t join the military openly and therefore no VA health care or G.I. Bill of Rights. Oh, we could join but being what we are; don’t ask, don’t tell flies out the window right along with us queers. Then should we choose to live with someone and own property and perhaps one spouse should die within our unrecognized family. Then property rights fly right out the window. When my partner John died, I had to hire an attorney to fight off his mother just to save my home, my car, my bank accounts, my furniture and my semblance of life built with the man I loved. How many heterosexual spouses have to battle that battle? I’d venture to guess, none.

So many of the McCann ilk and more extreme ilk seem to think that there is some sort of perverted choice at play here with so called decisions of human sexuality. Yet these same people deny that they ever made a choice most of the time. McCann even talks in his Friday September 26th column about a discussion he had with a friend of mine and male penguins raising an egg. He says there would be not egg without the female. True very true, but my challenge to John McCann when and if he comes to Gay Pride for N.C. tomorrow is take a look around at all of the gbtl families and notice that there are a lot of children being raised by single sex parents. You see we manage nicely with a donation.

Finally, what all of this who ha boils down to is bigotry; it manifests in interesting and unexpected ways but any way you slice it, it is homophobic bigotry. To mock, condemn, joke about gbtl folk simply because they are what they are is no different than doing the same thing based on race or color. We can synthesize it down to that simple a comparison, folk of color, whatever the color no more made that decision than gbtl folk made the decision to be what they are…they all are what they are...yes sir we are what we are, we’re not going away and we’re not going to live in shameful secret.

1 John and love, respect and etc.

1 John 3:18

Dear children let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth

So, here in late September 2008 we find America in the throws of the election season with venom spewed on the Internet and television alike. Each ad escalating the bend of their agenda and informing all of us just how low, degraded, degenerate and awful the other side is. Yet the pollsters, pundits, talking heads and media moguls alike sometimes wonder why America is a petty, foolish, selfish, self serving and punitive place. Is it any wonder?

When contemplating this verse from first John its easy to see that in America we don’t love with word, tongue, action or truth. We embroil and embody at times the worst in terms of human characteristics as all people do at times. This petty selfishness boils over in almost all aspects of day to day life. On our highways common courtesy is all but gone. Drivers willfully scoff law, drive at high rates of speed, weave in and out of traffic, litter, drive drunk and completely disregard their fellow human beings. In a word their actions embody hate, disrespect and selfishness.

In the grocery store, many people walk and talk with a cell phone to their ear so that they can avoid any sort of interaction with fellow human beings. You see I believe that it is easy to justify being rude to others if you have a phone to your ear because your mindset from the start is one of debasement of others. To simplify this observation, it’s like this, the telephone talker won’t even hang up a phone to deal with, interact with or be polite to other people right before them. The justification, well I was…on the phone, those real people around me or near me in real time, don’t count and don’t matter. Of course on the flip side, many a store clerk works with a phone to the ear so that they don’t have to humanize those that are right in front of them. Simply put this is meanness and disrespect at its level best.

Nightly on television we are faced with more channels than not that spin their take on the day’s events. It really doesn’t matter which side of the aisle you sit, it is spin. What most folks don’t realize is that television time, and most importantly “news” is a commodity that is for sale and that the owners of television stations don’t care what they sell over the public trust airwaves. To that end I had a television executive tell me so.

I had an email discussion with the news room manager of WRAL television here in Raleigh where I told him he should be ashamed by what his station transmits in terms of political ads. His response, don’t blame us we don’t make it, we just transmit it. To whit, my response was right on. By transmitting you are culpable. He just wouldn’t see it that way. Kind of like a Nazi dropping gas at Auschwitz and saying don’t blame me, I just drop it I don’t manufacture it. Is the Nazi soldier that drops the gas any guiltier or less guilty than the capitalist that makes the gas? I don’t think so. What fascinated me most with respect to the executive at WRAL was his complete disregard for his own and his company’s personal truth.

So then, what is the answer? I know for me it is staying out of the twenty four hour news cycle, its hype and lack of truth. For me it is a keen understanding that every ad, commercial and television talk show is trying to sell me something. It is tucking my cell phone away when in store and smiling at others and saying hello, it is driving the speed limit, letting others in ahead of me and attempting to be the person God expects me to be and my parents wanted me to be. Do I fall short? Absolutely, does that mean I stop trying, absolutely not.