Let anyone with ears listen*

What a week just past. Sometimes we should just stick with the scripture. To wit:

In Genesis 28 Jacob leaves. It says he left and went. It sounds rather like one of those critical moments in life, one of those things that presses on your soul, and then in the telling of the story it becomes simply “he left … and went.” But in leaving and going he found a place where God is and was. Of course, it was in his vulnerability, sleeping on the ground, exhausted on his journey, that he discovered God always is at hand. It was in his vulnerability that he discovered the very gate of heaven.

It is a metaphor, of course, for every life lived. For we who are lgbt people, it is a metaphor about how our lives are led in a constant state of coming out; we always are having to leave and go. And it is in the leaving and going and coming out that we find in our moment of vulnerability that God has opened the very gate of heaven to us, right where we are.

In Psalm 139 we are reminded by the psalmist that we are in relationship with God and that the relationship is mutual. God searches us out, God knows us, God discerns our thoughts, God traces our going out and lying down, God is everywhere, and the very gate of heaven is right where we are in every moment, God opens it to us. God knows our prayers, our needs, our very essence. Did you think free will meant your thoughts had no consequences? You may think what you will, but bear in mind your thoughts are universal and are always part of God’s very consciousness.

Our very being as lgbt children of God is embraced as part of God’s universal omniscient omnipotent consciousness. Open your hearts and thoughts to God with gladness; God rejoices in the searching out and knowing of you.

In Romans 8 we are reminded that in our adoption as children of God we are the first fruits of the Spirit, of the whole of creation that has been groaning in labor pains that we might be born as children of God, and in the realization of our childhood, in that moment in which we cry out “Abba! Father!” full in the knowledge of our salvation in the arms of our loving God—it is in that moment that we know truly that it is in hope that we are saved. “Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen?”

Paul focuses on the split between flesh and Spirit—he means that we must be aware that God is searching us out and knowing us, that God is with us on our journeys, that the gate of heaven always is opened to us, if we can get past our own selfishness. Lgbt people hold their breath when these passages come up because, as we know, so often we are falsely held out as “flesh” for our sexualities; but the thing to remember is that all of humanity is sexual, even heterosexuals[!]. For every human the question is how to remain constantly in awareness of our relationship with God so that we can find our salvation, in the hope known in God’s embrace. Yes, as we know, even lgbt people are children of God finding hope in God’s embrace.

In Matthew’s gospel chapter 13 Jesus tells a parable about sowing good seed in a field where an enemy later sows weeds. Of course Jesus is telling this parable to his followers to give them an example to internalize about good and evil. But the story is much richer than that after all. It says first and foremost that everything is always all mixed up. There is good seed among the weeds (which is the rather more optimistic version of the interpretation; but if you need a concrete example you should see my garden). The righteous, the good seeds, grow up and shine even among the weeds. Not even the enemy’s weeds can so choke out the righteous that God and God’s angels cannot find the children of God.

Certainly lgbt people know all about being mixed up in fields full of weeds, and other distractions from the fullness of life we yearn for. All of the scripture here tells us that God has, in fact, guaranteed our very salvation, our very hope, our very destiny as God’s own. Do not be obsessed about the weeds, instead leave and go, keep coming out, unto that place where you find the gate of heaven.

What a week just past—we began with a world obsessed with the World Cup, we end with a world in mourning at the tragic loss of life in an airliner shot down, and in the latest round of apparently constant war in Gaza. Everything is always all mixed up, indeed.

“But the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen!” [Matt. 13:43]

*Proper 11 (Genesis 28:10-19a; Psalm 139: 1-11, 22-23; Romans 8: 12-25; Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43)