What exciting scripture we have. One wonders why this is not the scripture for Easter day, for certainly it says a lot more about the interaction of the risen Jesus with the human condition than do those resurrection stories we hear on Easter morning. I love it. Peter says basically, you idiots, you did this to our Lord. And did you think nobody noticed? You killed the “author of life.” But, Peter says, God raised him from the dead despite you. John says “see what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God?”
My friends my entire priesthood is based on this line, that you my friends should learn through me of the love that God has given us, that all of us have become the children of God. No matter what sins we have committed, no matter what excoriation has come our way.
Have you been bullied? Have you just been afraid to be gay in public? Well, John is calling you to realize that God has given you the love you need to overcome any obstacle.
Then, in Luke’s gospel, the ghastly ghostly Jesus tells them to calm down, and even eats some of their broiled fish. And then he opens their minds to understand the scriptures.
My friends this is important. Because the scriptures call you and me, glb&t, to open our minds to understand the scriptures, where it says that we are created in God’s own image, and we must learn to see what love the Father has given us.”
What more can I say?
3 Easter (Acts 3:12-19; Psalm 4; 1 John 3:1-7; Luke 24:36b-48)
©2012 The Rev. Dr. Richard P. Smiraglia. All rights reserved.
Dimensions of Reality: glbt Christian spirituality 