Is 46:3 “Listen to me, you descendants of Jacob, all the remnant of the
people of Israel, you whom I have upheld since your birth, and have
carried since you were born. 4 Even to your old age and gray hairs I
am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry
you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.”
Matt 5:13-16 13 “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses
its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for
anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.
Easter 2015, the Cross seems so far away just as
much as the remnant of Israel had forgotten about ever returning to
Jerusalem in Isa 46:3. After a long wait, we begin to live in unbelief
although still calling ourselves people of faith. Without vision, we
perish and return no more.
So is for many of us
in the GLBT Christian community. Will we be able to come Home to our new
Jerusalem on earth as it is in heaven?
Have
we made the Cross in our own image and intellect?
Jesus did not die for the sufferings of humanity
per
say rather the root cause of Sin within each one of us that we
could never escape because of the first Adam. Sin results in sufferings
much as the sins of the churches in persecuting gays.
Jesus death was indeed prophesied and planned
even deliberate with a chosen place and time.
It was God who let go His life and not man who killed Jesus.
When Jesus asked for the cup of suffering to
be taken, it showed that He was human keenly aware of the cruel and
gruesome death ahead. But since the fall of Adam, God had a plan and it
was in giving up His precious Son which was with Him since the
beginning. There was no other way but for Jesus to take the cup of
suffering because there was no other way for mankind to be redeemed, not
even in being ecumenical.
It was us who deserved to be at the Cross, an
accursed place for mankind is under the curse. Jesus took our curse
away. He alone, being totally perfect could be the sacrifice for our sin
as payment in full. The Gay community is under a
curse, a condemnation by society and church which kills. But there is no
condemnation in Christ redeeming grace.
It was
naively claimed
that God killed Jesus, but it was religion that killed Jesus. Jesus
willingly gave up His life and took our place of judgement at the Cross
suspended between Heaven and Earth. He who knew no sin, took all our
sins and sufferings with Him at the Cross.
Jesus was getting increasingly popular but He still
abided by the Jewish laws nor did he called for a boycott of the temple
worship. He did not call for the downfall of the hierarchal powers,
neither the Jewish puppet king nor the Roman colonisers. Jesus did not
challenge the hierarchal powers directly. Jesus
was radical in only His calling for the Kingdom of God, and His
demonstration of power and miracles, seldom seen at any progressive
conferences.
It was religion that killed
Jesus, it’s strict and prescriptive religious law, that the Jews
called upon because Jesus declared He is and was God in addition to a
priest and a prophet. That was the ultimate blasphemy for the Pharisees.
Because Jesus was so popular, on account of His
miracles, the bible quoting
people of faith
decided to use the Romans to kill Jesus and sacrifice Him at the Cross
hence doing their dirty works. If they had killed Jesus, they would have
incurred the wrath of the Jewish people. They let Rome bear the blame
just as Gays bear the brunt of the sins by Christians who put all the
sins of society upon the helpless gay sheep.
This is religion, harsh and
blaming others and not humble, no humanity, all about religious
laws and punishment, and doing good works of love that they could not
even see God. They pray to God the creator, but missed Jesus, the
redeemer. Religion killed God and put in place our self-righteousness,
our ability to follow the law either by being moral or by loving others
and then called it having faith.
Jesus death would have meant nothing without
resurrection reflecting that the sacrifice has been accepted by God. The
people of faith had hitherto believed in God the Creator, but that was
not enough. Our sins were unforgiven despite praying daily. The
sacrifice of the law, of lambs and bulls suffices were temporary and we
keep on going back to God to pray for forgiveness.
We now enter not only into faith, but by believing
and identifying with Jesus death and resurrection at the Cross. Not only
are our sins forgiven, but we find resurrection life, where we put on
the righteousness of God in Christ.
In Mat 5:13, Jesus talked about Christians, or
believers in Jesus and not those who profess only to a Christian
tradition that they will be like salt to a fallen and decaying world.
Like Jesus, they would bring comfort – healing, health, food to those
who mourn and are suffering from injustice. Christians are salty not
because they do good works of morality or alternative loving others, but
because it is in their nature, ie they are salty inherently. We have the
nature of Christ in us, His righteousness, hence are showered by God’s
love and grace. As Christ is, so are we. It is not our actions, but
actions will follow because a lamp cannot be hidden. Under religious
law, we try to be salty, but under grace, we become salty effortlessly.
How can we be not salty or loses our saltiness,
hence needed to be thrown away and are useless for the kingdom purposes.
1.
We don’t
have the nature of Christ in us. We may profess to be Christian because
of tradition and following the sacraments, but we did not identify
Christ death and resurrection into our lives. We can be professes of
faith, but not possesses of eternal life because of unbelief.
2.
The local
church may have diluted the saltiness of Christ, in water, so that there
is nothing distinctive and Christ is no longer the centre. The message
is diluted, where Jesus is no longer God (the very reason which He was
crucified), and the meaning of His death and resurrection diluted at
best, denied at worst. We have to return to church that believes Jesus
heals and Jesus saves.
We go back to Isa 46:3, the remnant of Jacob in a
foreign land, over 70 years. Where is God we cry out for our eyes have
grown dimmed!. And this is the cry of many gay Christians at Easter. We
are exiled and have lost everything. I have seen gay Christian leaders
losing their ministry, calling, and passion. We have tried to go on and
live one day at a time. We have been thrown out of churches.
Christianity for us is no more return to the law – abiding by moral
disciplines or loving others. It has to be much more, for we are a
desperate people, longing for restoration of all that we have lost.
Just as the children of Israel had lost hope with
the long passing of time, we were once young and full of hope but now
have grown old and weary. We desire to be salty, to shine for Jesus once
more, but what for, for our lives are lost. We have survived, kept the
faith, remained in belief but our eyes are dimmed looking to the sky to
see the goodness of God in the land of the living.
When will we O Lord return to our Jerusalem, and be
resurrected with Christ. We
already died many times as Gay Christians. When shall the dead be risen and the dead
bones be filled with flesh? We have been robbed and plundered. No one
delivers, no one says restore. Even, the worship places are broken and
full of idols. We live in hidden prisons.
Is 42:22
But this is a people robbed and plundered; All of them are snared in
holes, And they are hidden in prison houses;
They are for prey, and no one delivers; For plunder, and no one says,
“Restore!”
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