Christ the Resurrected and Wounded One: Easter 2a

The holy gospel according to John (20:19-31)

¹⁹When it was evening on that day,

      the first day of the week,

      and the doors of the house

            where the disciples had met

            were locked for fear of the religious authorities,

      Jesus came

      and stood among them

      and said,

            “Peace be with you.”

      ²⁰After he said this,

            Jesus showed them his hands and his side.

                  Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.

                  ²¹Jesus said to them again,

                        “Peace be with you.

                              As the Father has sent me,

                                    so I send you.”

                  ²²When he had said this,

                        Jesus breathed on them and said to them,

                              “Receive the Holy Spirit.

                                    ²³If you forgive the sins of any,

                                          they are forgiven them;

                                    if you retain the sins of any,

                                          they are retained.”

²⁴But Thomas (who was called the Twin),

      one of the twelve,

            was not with them when Jesus came.

                  ²⁵So the other disciples told him,

                        “We have seen the Lord.”

                  But Thomas said to them,

                        “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands,

                              and put my finger in the mark of the nails

                              and my hand in his side,

                                    I will not believe.”

²⁶A week later Jesus’ disciples were again in the house,

      and Thomas was with them.

      Although the doors were shut,

            Jesus came

            and stood among them

            and said,

                  “Peace be with you.”

            ²⁷Then he said to Thomas,

                  “Put your finger here and see my hands.

                        Reach out your hand and put it in my side.

                              Do not doubt but believe.”

      ²⁸Thomas answered him,

            “My Lord and my God!”

      ²⁹Jesus said to him,

            “Have you believed because you have seen me?

                  Blessed are those who have not seen

                        and yet have come to believe.”

³⁰Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples,

      which are not written in this book.

            ³¹But these are written

                  so that you may come to believe

                        that Jesus is the Messiah,

                              the Son of God,

                  and that through believing

                        you may have life in Jesus’ name.

The gospel of the Lord.

-----

Every year on the second Sunday of Easter we encounter Thomas and the other disciples. Earlier in the day, Mary came and first said that someone had taken Jesus’ body and then later returned with more information to proclaim the Good News to the disciples: “I have seen the Lord.”

Having received this Good News, we then encounter the disciples that evening locked up in the house “for fear of the religious authorities.”

Every year, we hear this post-resurrection account in the Gospel of John, and it got me wondering: Why is it even in the gospel at all?  This question came up a couple times this week when I was talking to folks.  A lot of the time we ask ourselves what meaning a story might have or might be trying to convey, which is important to ask.  But one of the gifts in reading this particular resurrection account each year is that it gives us the opportunity to dig deeper into the story.  To wonder why it’s there, why the writer of John’s gospel chose to tell this story.  At the end of the account, it even says that more happened that isn’t written down, so why this one?

The story itself is a story of the disciples who, even after hearing the Good News from Mary that “Christ is risen!” remain scared and locked up in their house—most of them anyway.  Thomas is not locked up inside, but instead somewhere out in the community.

So why would a story of scared disciples be important to include in the Gospel of John?

The Early Church was a persecuted church.  Crucifixion, the capital punishment of that time, was a common tool of the Roman Empire to keep people in line—to enforce the Pax Romana.  This “Roman Peace” was not the true peace of free movement and expression that we might think of today.  Pax Romana was military power repressing any dissension, conflict, or perceived threat to the Empire.

So considering the Roman Empire’s terror tactics, and the religious authorities willing to work with them to exclude these Jewish rebels who are challenging the system that has been working “well enough,” there was plenty of reason for followers of Christ to be afraid.

But Mary has “seen the Lord!”  Last week we celebrated the Resurrection of Our Lord—Easter Day.  We proclaimed that God in Christ is more powerful than these forces of evil!  And the Early Church was even closer to the Resurrection, so how could they be scared?

Well, we have the promise of Resurrection—of life that vanquishes death, but Christ was still crucified.  Ultimately, Jesus shows up for the disciples minus Thomas and then again for Thomas himself.  And Jesus doesn’t show up in a body the way many of us might think a resurrected body should look.

Jesus breaks into this locked and fearful room and his whole body reminds them of exactly why they’re scared to begin with!  This resurrected Christ still bears the wounds in his side, hands, and feet.  There’s probably still evidence of the mocking crown of thorns and lashes inflicted before the crucifixion itself.

Christ is risen! …and Christ is (still) wounded.

And a week later, when Thomas is with the disciples, they are still shut up in the house.  And again Jesus, the Wounded and Risen One, shows up in their midst, embodying the crucifixion and the resurrection.

And maybe now the disciples will venture out into the world.  Maybe this resurrection story is for a community in fear.  Maybe this story is meant to be both reassurance that the power of resurrection is real—alive and at work in the world—and reassurance that following Christ can mean both crucifixion and resurrection—it can still be scary and dangerous.

Yet Jesus proclaims again and again, “Peace be with you.”  Into the fear and anxiety, into the doubt and disbelief, Jesus speaks words of peace—not of protection from all harm, but of presence and purpose that is greater than any harm.  Peace that is hope, which rests in God’s love.  Jesus speaks peace that has purpose.

Jesus, in his wounded and resurrected body proclaims the peace that at times “surpasses all understanding,” and that at its heart, comforts and encourages those in the Early Church and us today.  Christ’s peace does not proclaim us protected from all harm or struggle.  It proclaims God’s presence with us in all of life—in our woundedness, in our joy, in our fear, and in our courage.  And it gives us another chance at faith.

This peace, proclaimed to disciples who take a while to embrace and embody the resurrection, gives hope to those of us for whom faith is a journey.  We have hope that if it takes the disciples a while to embrace the resurrection even in the face of fear, then it’s ok when our journey of faith is slow, when we hang on to our fears, our doubts, our disbeliefs. 

When the Early Church needs to know that the Resurrected One is also the Wounded One, then we all receive reassurance that our wounds—the parts of us that we might want to be “fixed” or “healed” might just be parts of us that, like the rest of us, God loves immensely.  They might be the parts of us into which Jesus breathes and brings “Peace be with you” the most clearly.

Thanks be to God.

resurrection breaks in: easter 1a

The holy gospel according to Matthew (28:1-10).

After the sabbath,

      as the first day of the week was dawning,

            Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb.

²And suddenly there was a great earthquake;

      for an angel of God,

            descending from heaven,

                  came and rolled back the stone

                  and sat on it.

      ³The appearance of the angel was like lightning,

            and its clothing bright as snow.

                  ⁴For fear of the angel the guards shook

                        and became as if dead.

         ⁵But the angel said to the women,

            “Do not be afraid;

                  I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified.

                  ⁶He is not here;

                        for he has been raised, as he said.

                  Come, see the place where he lay.

                        ⁷Then go quickly and tell his disciples,

                              ‘He has been raised from the dead,

                              and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee;

                                    there you will see him.’

                  This is my message for you.”

⁸So the women left the tomb quickly

      with fear and great joy,

            and ran to tell his disciples.

⁹Suddenly Jesus met them and said,

      “Greetings!”

            And they came to him,

                  took hold of his feet,

                        and worshiped him.

¹⁰Then Jesus said to them,

      “Do not be afraid;

            go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee;

                  there they will see me.”

The gospel of the Lord.

-----

I need to confess that I have not been feeling Easter this year.  I have felt like I’m still in Good Friday, or even Holy Saturday.  Like these women—these Marys—I feel almost numb.  Every time I turn on the news or get online, there is another tragedy.  As I was working on this sermon, the news came out that we had dropped the biggest non-nuclear bomb ever used in combat in Afghanistan. 

And it’s not just what our and other governments are doing in other countries.  It’s in our corner of the world too.  Kids are still sick, people we love still die, Immigration and Customs Enforcement could come in and tear this community apart at any time, and domestic violence still haunts our community.

We know that the world both far and near is not how it should be.  And yet we still show up.  Like the brave women, the Marys, who show up at the tomb.  They bring nothing.  In Matthew’s account they don’t bring any spices to anoint the body, or anything at all really.  We don’t hear them worrying about how they’re going to get into the tomb.  They just go, walking numbly along the path to the tomb.  Maybe to sit and stare.  Maybe to sit and cry—if there are any tears left, that is.  Maybe just to not be alone with their grief.

The women show up and God crashes into their sorrow and grief.  God breaks in, literally rocking their world with the resurrection.  The folks guarding the tomb are lost in fear and become “as if dead.”

There is no denying the violence and pain that put Jesus on the cross and then into the tomb.  That violence is just as real today around the world: at the hands of our and other governments, as well as at the hands of individuals, like the pastor in San Bernadino who killed his estranged wife, a child in her class, and himself, and in domestic violence in our own community over the last few years.

Violence is real.  Jesus is still being crucified and in this reality the women come to the tomb.  Mary and Mary, these faithful women caught in despair, show up at the tomb.  They show up because even though they might not have a plan or hope, it is the faithful thing to do.   

The witness of these women—the first witnesses of the resurrection—would have held no legal standing in their time and they have been maligned throughout church history.  Yet these women show up, expecting nothing but a tomb and the bloodied corpse of the one in whom they had placed their hope.  The One they thought would change everything.

But this isn’t the end.  This is where we are with the world right now, and this is where Christ breaks in.  This is where the resurrection shakes the foundations of this world.

Bishop Younan of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land points out that “The powers and principalities of sin and death could not overcome the love of God.  Yes they could crucify Jesus.  Yes, they could bury Jesus.  But they could not bury God’s love for this world.”

THIS is what Easter is. 

The women show up at the tomb, because it is the faithful thing to do and God breaks in.  Into their sorrow and confusion, the angel proclaims the message Christians have greeted each other with for thousands of years as the angel says, “⁶He is not here,” Christ is risen! Christ is risen, indeed.  Alleluia!

In the face of all the violence: resurrection breaks in!

In the face of sickness, death, and despair: resurrection breaks in!

In the face of broken relationships, lost lives, and hopelessness: resurrection breaks in!

In the face of every single thing that beats us down, discourages us, and gives us every reason not to believe: resurrection breaks in!

Resurrection breaks in no matter what!

The women respond “with fear and great joy” because resurrection breaks in.

These women show up today and throughout history.  Though they are not always named or recognized, women have been showing up forever.  They have known the secret that perhaps we who gather here today know deep in our souls, no matter what else we might think.  The women know: sometimes you just need to show up, even if you don’t want to or even if you don’t know why.

Because resurrection does break in!

And God, after all these years, still breaks into our lives, shaking the very foundations we’ve thought were so solid. 

Resurrection breaks in when executions are stayed, granting life in the face of death.

Resurrection breaks in when Muslims give blood to help Coptic Christians who were victims of violence.

God breaks in in surprising ways that don’t make sense.

Resurrections breaks in and changes us!

Resurrection changes our relationship with Emmanuel,

      who is God-with-us,

      and who is the God of life!

Jesus has vanquished death and the power it holds over this life. 

Despite all of the potential for evil, resurrection breaks in and Love wins.

Despite all of the reasons we might have to despair, despite our human capacity for death, destruction, and hatred, resurrection breaks in and evil doesn’t have the last word. 

Love is still stronger than hatred or fear.

Life still conquers death.

Because: Christ is risen! Christ is risen, indeed. Alleluia!

Resurrection breaks into our lives!

Christ resists oppression and overcomes evil!

In the face of all that may come, we can trust that no amount of evil will ever be the final word.  No amount of evil will conquer.

Because life is different

Because resurrection breaks in

Because Alleluia! Christ is risen! Christ is risen, indeed. Alleluia!

International Roma Day

On April 17, 1423 King Sigismund wrote a letter of safe conduct for "Ladislaus, Gyspy Voivode, and those who depend on him."  This is one of many letters and one of the most well-known granting safe travel and autonomy for Roma in Central Europe.  This letter protected Roma, who have lived throughout Central Europe (and the whole world) from even before that time and since.

Today is International Roma Day.  Many people have no idea who Roma are, let alone that this day exists.  If our current administration is any example, they also have absolutely no clue of the difficulties Roma have historically faced and continue to face today.  I was one of those people for a long time.

In 2009 I was accepted to serve with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Young Adults in Global Mission program in Slovakia.  I worked with Phiren Amenca, which meant that I spent much of my time in relationship with Roma in the village of Rankovce.  This year was profoundly formative in my life for many reasons.  The relationships I formed and the people who opened their lives to me, an outsider from the states, continue to impact how I live (and are part of why I am writing this blog today).  Roma have not always been welcomed, valued, or affirmed like they were by King Sigismund.  Their history is much more difficult.

Growing up, the sentence that best sums up what I learned about the Holocaust, or porraimos (the devouring) in Roma was: six million Jews died in the Holocaust.  Since then I have learned better.  I don't know of anyone who "died" in the Holocaust.  People were systematically targeted, tortured, and killed in the Holocaust.  Six million of those targeted, tortured, and killed were Jewish.  Almost five million more were not Jewish.

It is, indeed, vital to recognize the ways that anti-semitism (including anti-semitic writing from the namesake of my faith tradition, Martin Luther) actively targeted and still targets Jewish people.  It is also important to recognize that, by our best estimates from incomplete information, at least half a million, or 500,000 Roma (sometimes known as gypsies, though unless someone is self-identifying, that is generally a derogatory term) were also targeted, tortured, and killed.  This is between one quarter and one half of all Roma living in Europe at the time.

It's harder to know the details about Roma because frequently they were categorized as "social deviants," "tramps," and later "Gypsies," among other terms.  The Romani and Jewish peoples were the two main and largest groups targeted because Nazi Germany categorized them as "racially inferior."  The intentional targeting, torturing, and killing of Roma was not recognized as being racially motivated until the 1970s and most scholars didn't begin to pay attention until the 1980s.

Roma also continued to struggle under communism, which attempted to erase their culture.  After the fall of communism, since the discrimination that Roma have faced for centuries was never addressed, and even the reality of their persecution under the Holocaust has been erased and downplayed for so long, Roma have continued to face discrimination throughout the world, especially in Central Europe.

Roma in Slovakia especially are often placed in schools for children with learning disabilities, hired last for work--if at all--even when they do a better job, and stereotyped as lazy, thieves, or conniving (where do you think the term "gypped" comes from?).  The Roma I encountered cared deeply about me.  They wanted to get to know me and I wanted to get to know them.  We were both outsiders in the dominant culture, which helped us connect.

Whether it was connecting with the children who came to our after school-type program or youth group activities, or the adults who volunteered and worked to help the kids who came or who participated in our bible studies, we took the time to get to know each other.  The friends I made among the Roma were the hardest to say good-bye to.  They taught me (or tried to teach me) to dance.  They stood up for me personally as a queer person and for other lgbtq+ people they didn't even know at bible studies and when I couldn't be there or couldn't stand up for myself.

Today is International Roma Day.  This month is a great month to learn more about Roma, so here are some resources:

Books:
We are Roma: One Thousand Years of Discrimination by Valeriu Nicolae
Bury Me Standing: The Gypsies and Their Journey by Isabel Fonseca

Links: 
Check out #internationalromaday on social media.
My friend and fellow YAGM, Matt's blog, which includes a paper shared at the European Commission Meeting on Roma in Europe in 2010. 
Phiren Amenca, the European-based organization I worked with as a YAGM.
A Huffington Post article about some of the five million people targeted, tortured, and killed during the Holocaust who were not Jewish, yet were purposefully targeted, including the Roma.

Jesus' Abundant Life is Dangerous

The first reading is Ezekiel 37:1-14.

The holy gospel according to John (11:1-44).

¹Now a certain man was ill,

      Lazarus of Bethany,

            the village of Mary and her sister Martha.

                  ²Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume

                  and wiped his feet with her hair;

                        her brother Lazarus was ill.

³So the sisters sent a message to Jesus,

      “Lord, he whom you love is ill.”

      ⁴But when Jesus heard it, he said,

            “This illness does not lead to death;

                  rather it is for God’s glory,

                        so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”

      ⁵Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus,

            ⁶after having heard that Lazarus was ill,

                  he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.

⁷Then after this he said to the disciples,

      “Let us go to Judea again.”

⁸The disciples said to him,

      “Rabbi, the Judeans were just now trying to stone you,

            and are you going there again?”

⁹Jesus answered,

      “Are there not twelve hours of daylight?

            Those who walk during the day do not stumble,

                  because they see the light of this world.

            ¹⁰But those who walk at night stumble,

                  because the light is not in them.”

      ¹¹After saying this, he told them,

            “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep,

                  but I am going there to awaken him.”

¹²The disciples said to him,

      “Lord, if he has fallen asleep,

            he will be all right.”

¹³Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death,

      but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep.

            ¹⁴Then Jesus told them plainly,

                  “Lazarus is dead.

                        ¹⁵For your sake I am glad I was not there,

                              so that you may believe.

                                    But let us go to him.”

¹⁶Thomas, who was called the Twin,

      said to his fellow disciples,

            “Let us also go,

                  that we may die with him.”

¹⁷When Jesus arrived,

      he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days.

¹⁸Now Bethany was near Jerusalem,

      some two miles away,

      ¹⁹and many of the Judeans had come to Martha and Mary

            to console them about their brother.

²⁰When Martha heard that Jesus was coming,

      she went and met him,

            while Mary stayed at home.

      ²¹Martha said to Jesus,

            “Lord, if you had been here,

                  my brother would not have died.

                        ²²But even now I know that whatever you ask from God,

                              God will give you.”

²³Jesus said to her,

      “Your brother will rise again.”

²⁴Martha said to him,

      “I know that he will rise again

            in the resurrection on the last day.”

²⁵Jesus said to her,

      “I am the resurrection and the life.

            Those who believe in me,

                  even though they die, will live,

                  ²⁶and everyone who lives

                        and believes in me will never die.

                              Do you believe this?”

²⁷She said to him,

      “Yes, Lord,

            I believe that you are the Messiah,

                  the Son of God,

                        the one coming into the world.”

²⁸When she had said this,

      she went back and called her sister Mary,

      and told her privately,

            “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.”

                  ²⁹And when Mary heard it,

                        she got up quickly and went to him.

³⁰Now Jesus had not yet come to the village,

      but was still at the place where Martha had met him.

      ³¹The Judeans who were with her in the house,

            consoling her,

            saw Mary get up quickly and go out.

                  They followed her

                        because they thought that she was going to the tomb

                              to weep there.

      ³²When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him,

            she knelt at his feet and said to him,

                  “Lord, if you had been here,

                        my brother would not have died.”

            ³³When Jesus saw her weeping,

                  and the Judeans who came with her also weeping,

                        he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved.

            ³⁴He said,

                  “Where have you laid him?”

            They said to him,

                  “Lord, come and see.”

                        ³⁵Jesus began to weep.

                              ³⁶So the Judeans said,

                                    “See how he loved him!”

                              ³⁷But some of them said,

                                    “Could not the one

                                          who opened the eyes of the blind man

                                                have kept this man from dying?”

³⁸Then Jesus,

      again greatly disturbed,

            came to the tomb.

                  It was a cave,

                        and a stone was lying against it.

            ³⁹Jesus said,

                  “Take away the stone.”

            Martha,

                  the sister of the dead man, said to him,

                        “Lord, already there is a stench

                              because he has been dead four days.”

            ⁴⁰Jesus said to her,

                  “Did I not tell you that if you believed,

                        you would see the glory of God?”

⁴¹So they took away the stone.

      And Jesus looked upward and said,

            “Father, I thank you for having heard me.

                  ⁴²I knew that you always hear me,

                        but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here,

                              so that they may believe that you sent me.”

            ⁴³When Jesus had said this,

                  he cried with a loud voice,

                        “Lazarus, come out!”

                  ⁴⁴The dead man came out,

                        his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth,

                        and his face wrapped in a cloth.

      Jesus said to them,

            “Unbind him, and let him go.”

The gospel of the Lord.

-----

When I started my first call in South Jordan, Utah, I didn’t know anybody anywhere near me.  So, I looked up the Salt Lake City Pride Center as a way of connecting with the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer community there.  In my search on the website, I discovered the 1 to 5 club, a group for those of us who identified more along the bisexual, transgender, and queer + lines than the lesbian or gay ones.

I still remember the anxiety I had early on there as I came out, not as queer, but as a pastor.  Particularly in the queer community of Utah, I knew my queerness wouldn’t be an issue in the group, but I also knew that the dominant religion in Utah was pretty clearly against lgbtq+ folks.  And here I was both queer and part of a religious institution.  To many people not just in Utah, but throughout this country and even in our town, I remain an anomaly or a contradiction.

I wonder if that’s what Lazarus felt like. 

Coming out of the tomb, he was both dead—as in good and dead—four whole days of dead!  And yet he was alive.  He would eventually die again, but for now he was alive … and smelled awful!  He certainly didn’t fit the mold for an acceptable part of the community.

But Jesus was there, so what else could he expect but to come out of the tomb?

That tomb that had been comfort and tranquility, separation from all of his hardship and heartache.  Yes, it was dark.  Yes, it smelled terrible!  But when you’re dead, I’d guess you don’t really notice those things as much.

Then Jesus gets the folks gathered to move the stone and calls out, “Lazarus, come out!” and as Ezekiel points out, those dry—or perhaps just rotting—bones gain flesh and breath—gain life again.

It would be great if we could say that Jesus brings Lazarus back to life and everybody lives happily ever after, but that just isn’t true.  The smell still hangs on Lazarus, as the strips of cloth used to bind him in his death, trail out of the tomb with him.  And when Lazarus is at this most vulnerable moment, Jesus calls the community into the mess and stress and stink. 

The abundant life that Jesus brings is radical and revolutionary.  It threatens the systems we have in place that govern power and resources.  It threatens, as we renounce in our baptismal rite, “all the forces that defy God” and “the powers of this world that rebel against God.”

And this abundant new life requires something from the whole gathered community.  Jesus doesn’t call Lazarus back into life and leave him to go on his way alone.  Jesus calls him out and then tells the community to “unbind him.”

Abundant life is a community thing.  It’s not always convenient or comfortable, and sometimes it’s downright dangerous.  Touching this one who was dead would challenge the community’s policies around being clean and unclean.  Is Lazarus unclean because he was dead or clean because he’s now alive?  To unbind him, the community has to risk their own separation from religious practice, not to mention dealing with the stench and grime of someone who’s been dead for four days.

Right now, our government’s policies have bound up immigrants and minorities with legitimate fears of immigration raids, deportations, bans, and a wall.  The abundant community that we glimpse each week as we gather in communion means that the comfort and convenience of the relationships we’ve developed is being called to account.   

No matter what, God will love us, but we have the choice as a community of faith to give up some of our comfort and convenience in order to remain faithful not only to the abundant life that Jesus brings, but also to the relationships we’ve been investing in.

The next part of today’s gospel, which we don’t get, is the fallout from Jesus’ encounter with Lazarus at the tomb.

The gospel reads:

⁴⁵Many of the Judeans therefore,

      who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did,

            believed in him.

         ⁴⁶But some of them went to the Pharisees

            and told them what he had done. 

            ⁴⁷So the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the council

                  and said, “What are we to do?

                        This man is performing many signs. 

                        ⁴⁸If we let him go on like this,

                              everyone will believe in him,

                              and the Romans will come and destroy

                                    both our holy place and our nation.”

                  ⁴⁹But one of them, Caiaphas,

                  who was high priest that year, said to them,

                        “You know nothing at all!

                              ⁵⁰You do not understand

                                    that it is better for you to have one man die for the people

                                          than to have the whole nation destroyed.”

                        ⁵¹He did not say this on his own,

                              but being high priest that year

                                    Caiaphas prophesied that Jesus was about to die for the nation,

                                    ⁵²and not for the nation only,

                                          but to gather into one the dispersed children of God. 

            ⁵³So from that day on they planned to put him to death.

-----

We will learn more about the fallout next week, especially on Good Friday. 

But what we do know is that abundant life is dangerous.  It threatens our comfort and our convenience.  It threatens the ways of the world so much that people immediately begin plotting to kill Jesus and it will lead Jesus to death on a cross. 

And yet it is profoundly life-giving. 

My relationship with those who became deep friends in Utah would not have been a part of the abundant life Jesus calls us all to if I had not shared not only the part of me that was similar to them, but also the part of me that was potentially contradictory.   

In sharing all of myself and entering into the messy unbinding that comes with our relationships and abundant life, I actually received the gifts of grace and vulnerability from my friends as well, and together we walked with each other in the struggles and triumphs of our queerness and in the struggles and triumphs of our faith.

I will never promise you that abundant life, this life we have through Christ, will be comfortable or convenient. 

I can pretty much guarantee you that when we are most faithful to Jesus it definitely won’t be, especially now, especially in these days. 

But it will be worth it.

Thanks be to God.