“My little children”*

I guess the best part of this week is having Holy Week over with. I know I experienced a vast sense of relief once the Easter Vigil was done, and even more once Easter had come and gone. I’m not sure why such a beautiful time is so tense, but I suppose for a priest it has something to do with the combination of expectations and responsibilities.

The best part of this week is this wonderful reading from John’s first epistle. “My little children” he writes, “I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.” What has he written? That he has seen Jesus. That he has seen Jesus risen. That “God is light and in him there is no darkness at all.” And that it is a conceit ever to think that you have not sinned, just by your very being. This, of course, is the nature of humanity. And it is why God had to become man in Jesus, so God could experience sin first-hand as a human, and so God could learn how to forgive the sins of humans, especially those of us who are willing to repent.

I know there is a dark side to our religion, where people are persecuted and “sin” is evil and people are supposed to feel bad about being who they are. But this is not God’s will, and this is not the content of Jesus’ Gospel, and we see this truth in our weekly re-enactment of Easter at the Eucharist. We give thanks to God, we apologize for our mis-steps, we take a deep breath and breathe in the breath of life that is God’s Holy Spirit, and then, connected once more we resolve to stay connected.

And then we go out into the world, and get unplugged. The extent to which we stay unplugged is the problem. John here is saying to us, “little children” even if you get unplugged don’t worry, God will plug you back in.

This is the truth Doubting Thomas could not believe until he saw it. But blessed are we if we believe even though we have not seen. But then, we have seen. We have seen resurrection in our own lives, each day, each week, each moment. And we know the presence of God in our hearts.

My gay and lesbian and transgendered and bisexual children, do not ever believe that your sexuality is a component of sin. God made you in God’s own image, as you are. Believe, and be blessed.

*2 Easter (Acts 4:32-35; Psalm 133; 1 John 1:1-2:2; John 20:19-31)
©2012 The Rev. Dr. Richard P. Smiraglia. All rights reserved.