Jesus In The Gay Parade

 

Jesus In The Gay Parade

     We, the Church, run screaming away.  Fingers in our ears.  “Don’t look Johhny!”  They are the untouchables.  Lepers of society.  Unclean persons keeping to their own kind.  Compact them all away like nuclear waste.  How weird We must look to God!

     Jesus stepped into this world to be with us.  We weren’t drawing closer to Him so He made the journey.  The very heart of the Father was poured out when He sent His son.  He was the Way to understand the Father.  Two open hands reaching as it were from Heaven.  Any picture less than this should have a mill stone strapped about its neck and tossed into the deep.

     So would Jesus have marched in a gay parade?  Would your Jesus have been in with the crowd?  On the six-o’clock news, did your neighbors see your embarrassment as your self-declared Teacher hugged a queer man in compassion?

     Those who are healthy have no need for a physician.  When He stepped into the world, He did not condone our sins.  He simply wanted to be with us.  Whatever division be between us and our neighbor therefore is not modelled by the Great One.

     How many of us are ostracized by those ‘incrowds’ keeping a code which justifies the us and them mentality?  Somehow that code alienates the lesser down the caste system.  Soon those above look down on those as dogs.  Prejudice blinds people into holes.

     It is not about being gay, homosexual, or transgender.  Is a person a person before God?  Is a person worthy of dignity regardless?  Can love bridge the discomfort of touching another who is different?  Will our eyes truly convey the love of Christ?

     We all walk this earth in shells of bodies.  We wander for inclusion.  Upon conception, we all share this basic need.  Since separated from God who gives us meaning, we grab the one or group who helps define what togetherness feels like.  Aloneness is painful.  A friend is sought to endure the grind of this life in a mill unforgiving.

     Identity gives security.  If we adhere to this group or another, we maintain inflexibility as we force ourselves to pledge allegiance.  Daily we run our flag up the pole and curse those who do not salute.  We are comforted to see numbers with us but what happens when defectors change their minds?  Holding close to the pole, the wind of popular opinion blows then tears our flag from its grommeted fixtures.  Our desperation causes panic in a vacuum of belonging.

     Jesus’ identity was with the Father.  He knew who He was independently of man.  He understood He was accepted by the One who gives dignity.  Strength from above meant freedom below.  He saluted no one’s flag.  He was cursed.  He was judged. He was condemned because He was queer and didn’t fit in.

     The Word says Jesus was tempted in all ways and yet was without sin.  He was in company when the crowds came.  He was a loner when they left.  His affirmation came from His Father and that freed Him to do His thing.

     Would Jesus have walked in a gay parade?  Would my Jesus?