Desperate for God's crumbs
(Mat 15:25 NKJV) Then
she came and worshiped Him, saying, "Lord, help me!"
(Mat 15:26 NKJV) But
He answered and said, "It is not good to take the children's bread and
throw it to the little dogs."
(Mat 15:27 NKJV) And
she said, "Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall
from their masters' table."
(Mat 15:28 NKJV) Then
Jesus answered and said to her, "O woman, great is your faith! Let it be
to you as you desire." And her daughter was healed from that very hour.
On 01 Jan 2011, in
Boston, Bishop Thomas Shaw presided over the marriage of Rev Katherine
Ragsdale and Rev Mally Lloyd. The Bishop said that God rejoices when
seeing two people “make a lifelong commitment in marriage to go deeper
into the heart of God through each other”. Although the Episcopal church
had stated that marriage is between a woman and a man, it does permit
““bishops, particularly those in dioceses within civil jurisdictions
where same-gender marriage, civil unions or domestic partnerships are
legal, may provide [a] generous pastoral response to meet the needs of
members of this church”.
The American Anglican
Council (AAC), a breakaway ultra conservative group supported by the
Anglican South, has called the actions “disregarding the authority of
the bible”. Whilst the bible in the OT does talk about same sex acts in
religious activities, little is spoken with any authority about gays.
Rather, the major issue when it comes to Jesus’ days was women being
divorced at will by the men which was considered a sin. When in Mat
19:10, the disciples humorously reverted that it is better not to marry
due to the binding commitment, Jesus replied the attraction to the
opposite sex is innate unless of course you are gay.
Jesus repeats in Mat
19:12, the commonly accepted notion that there are natural Eunuchs ie
gays, being un-attracted to women from birth. In a rather condescending
reply, Jesus added “there are Eunuchs who made themselves Eunuchs for
the kingdom of heaven’s sake”. This was not talking about celibacy,
rather of the prevailing religions where the temple priests would
castrate himself and wear women’s clothing so that the men would then
have anal sex with the priests in order to join together with the deity.
This was also the context of Paul’s letter to the Romans condemning the
pagan worshippers (in Rom 1:23-28) where the priests had exchange their
natural straight orientation to be castrated, and become “gay”!.
Rom 1:26 concerning
same sex actions between women was added in by Paul which can be seen to
be adding to the bible as it goes beyond Lev 18:22, was a reflection of
the development in Corinth when in the worship of Aphrodite, there were
thousands of female priests having a sex orgy in order to please the
gods, as well as having sex with the sailors who frequent the city. It
was the red light district “Geylang” (in Singapore) in a large scale and
yet profoundly different because they were motivated by religion - idol
worship. Hence, this was not relating to Lesbian relationships and to
say otherwise is to undermine the authority of the bible.
As a result of the
Christian Right repeated attempts to mis-use the bible and cherry picked
the verses for their own anti-gay agenda, the authority and respect for
the bible have been undermined. When referring to the bible, many now no
longer considered it of Godly inspiration revealing Christ, but instead
focused on the inconsistencies. The Holy has been made unholy by the
Christian Right and many are now calling the bible a mere theological
construction of how men saw God. Ultimately, the core revelation of
Jesus Christ is questioned.
We are throwing out the
baby along with the bathtub water, allowing a few verses that we could
not understand not being in the religious, historical, and cultural
context to trouble us so much as not to put the Bible as the primary
revelation of God in our lives. We have replaced the bible with the god
of self. We become gods! No different than the OT religions who had
molded God in their own images. We over emphasized our faith journeys
and our rights, to see God in others rather than being molded and guided
by the Word of God and the Holy Spirit. There is a call to return to the
bible, and to seek God's heart.
For Gay Christians, the
bible is seemingly against them. This was also the situation in Mat
15:22 where a woman from Canaan called out to Jesus for the healing of
her daughter of demon procession. The notion of supernatural demons is
not a mere construction of the mind as alleged by many, but they are
real entities as real as Jesus Himself. This woman came from Canaan, a
stronghold of worshipping Baal and Ashtoreth where the men actually had
sex with the temple priests so that they can be processed by the demon.
She kept crying have “mercy on us, Son of David!”. But Jesus kept silent
because this people had themselves to blame by choosing to worship the
demons and worst still in history enticing the nation of Israel to sin.
Furthermore, Jews were not in conversational terms with the Canaanites,
in particular, a Canaanite woman. Hence. Jesus remained silent until the
disciples could not stand the women and asked Jesus to rebuke her and
send her away as not to disturb them.
Jesus also kept silent
for the grace of God had not then extended to the rest of Judah and
Canaan. He was to minister first to the Jewish community who will then
bring the Gospel message of healing and salvation through the nations.
The time was not yet right and the news of Jesus helping the Canaanite
woman would be portrayed negatively by Jesus’ enemies. When Jesus called
the Canaanite woman a “dog” in Mat 15:26, He was reflecting the
questions and criticisms that He would have been asked. Jesus was
reiterating the common religious notion that the Canaanites were not
only sinners but dogs, extremely dirty and filled with religious
idolatry. The question was asked not only to the Canaanite woman, but
Jesus was reflecting the question aloud to Himself and His disciples.
The Canaanite woman did
not deny that she was a “dog” and her daughter unworthy to be healed
because of their religious background. She also did not assert her
rights to be blessed by God for perhaps many of us would have scolded
Jesus to maintain the dignity and humanity of the woman. When seeking
God, she did not challenge the religious stereotypes. Yet, for many
gays, our first response would be to talk about social justice and to
challenge the false rhetoric by the Christian Right. In front of God,
the woman did not for she was desperate for God, rather than promoting
herself.
We are so concerned
about the actualization of our self, and our basic rights, yet the woman
was desperate for God’s blessings and healing. Do we get so upset by the
Christian Right misquoting the bible against gays, such that the Word of
God no longer hold dear to our hearts, nor the move and the presence of
the Spirit of God. We have taken to heart the condemnation of the
Christian Right that we are sinners, seemingly condemned by God, and
cannot be Christians by rejecting the Word of God and the move of the
Holy Spirit.
We have listened to so
much lies by the Christian Right that we have reacted to it as being
against God, against Jesus and the Word of God. The Canaanite Woman took
a bold step to come to Jesus for she knew almost certainly she would be
rejected first as a Canaanite and secondly as a woman. Yet, she was
desperate for God, desperate for God’s grace to heal her daughter. It
was faith, faith in the character of God that He is for her, and not
against her, and is full of love, grace and mercy that made her step
forward to seek God with all her might, soul and strength.
Are we desperate for
God tonight? Are we desperate for God’s love. Grace and mercy? Do we
have faith to see through the lies and rhetoric of the Christian Right
that God is for us and not against us! Tonight what are you desperate
for God for, desperate to meet Jesus, desperate for the Spirit of God to
be poured out to our lives:-
a) The right of
existence when in many countries homosexuality is a criminal offence.
b) The right to marry
your partner that your relationship may be recognized and affirmed by
the community, the state and legally including all the associated
responsibilities and benefits.
c) The blessings of God
for the locus (in the Christian Right) have stolen so much our lives and
we have lost so much of opportunities to live in joy and peace with
ourselves, the many relationships we have denied ourselves fearing that
somehow God is against our same sex attraction,
d) We might be lonely
and depressed of what should and might have been, no longer young, no
longer having any suitors, yet having no family and children to have
fellowship with.
Tonight, we are asked
to be desperate for God, desperate for the things of God, desperate for
the revelation of Jesus Christ through the bible, desperate for the move
in the Spirit. God is calling us to take the step of faith, and prove
that the rhetoric of the Christian Right is but lies from hell. Are we
willing to take that step of faith? It is a step of humility, no longer
demanding our rights, or for those who had caused so much to harm us to
repay fourfold their sins against us. It is a step of humility when we
have nothing of ourselves, all the pretensions of who we are and how
well we can do without God all swept away.
Are you willing to
settle for crumbs, to take what is available to us rather than insisting
on all our rights? Are we willing to go to the gay affirmative churches
even though we want the best! of the mega churches? Even the dogs have a
right to the crumbs, even the dogs have a right to exist, their
relationships recognized, and their faith in God affirmed! Can we humble
ourselves to seek God tonight, a desperation for God that even the
little things of God we find to be like streams of living waters for God
can transform 2 loaves to feed 5000. God is calling us to seek Him even
though we may have only crumbs to eat!. We are to be desperate and
humble for God. Are we so desperate that even the crumbs we will be
satisfied as long as we can touch God and see Jesus moving in our lives.
For even God's crumbs
is much better than nothing and will satisfy the desperate and the
hungry.... for God is a good God and after the crumbs, by faith, He will
give us the main meal and much more. For the seeking and humble heart,
God will not send away empty handed. The crumbs may be all that we have
left - prayer, the reading of the Word of God, and the fellowship with
Gay Christian saints at Church.
Pastor Rony Tan of Lighthouse Evangelism may call
us "dogs" in his sermons, just like the Jews would call the Canaanite'
using the same derogatory term. Are we willing to accept that term? or
do we resist accepting this condemnation into our lives by continuing to
have faith to seek God!, to seek Him through the bible and by keep on
attending church even though the bible has been misused by the likes of
Pastor Rony to come against the gay community to cause grave harm. The
Christian Right may call us names, but do we still have faith in Christ
to believe in the bible and God's promises for us residing within it
fulfilled in Jesus' name.
|