This morning we begin our adventure into a Queer Christmas. In the initial scenes of the Gospel of Luke, a priest named Zechariah and his wife named Elizabeth are blessed with a child named John (later John the Baptist), who ultimately becomes the great forerunning prophet of Jesus. This being a parallel queer version of the story, I would like to introduce you to Bob and Tommy who ultimately have a daughter named John, who becomes the great forerunning prophet of Jesus. Let us journey into the magic of these queer events…
Bob was in the living room of his house praying and all of a sudden a light overcame him. The angel Gabby appeared and declared that Bob and Tommy were going to be blessed with a daughter named John. Bob gets scared and starts making excuses.
Now, I am really not concerned about whether you believe in angels or not. The magic and mystery always seems to take care of it’s self anyways. What I am most concerned about is the way you respond to life-giving information or light. So often we respond like Bob did and tremble in fear. We refuse to believe that something magical and fantastical could even happen to us. I think a large part of leading a life of light is surrendering to love and light. No excuses…just love. No excuses…just light.
Even though Bob was unable to speak when he left, he was so full of light and love that he was blinding. When was the last time you had such an affect on people…you shined of light and love so brightly that you blinded them?
Bob was able to tell Tommy on a tablet that a daughter named John was on the way. The two squeezed and shook with glee. Everyone else present thought they were crazy.
When you start embracing love and light regardless of the circumstance, people are going to think you are crazy. It is crazy to love your neighbor as your self. It is crazy to love your enemy. It is crazy…and sometimes crazy is good. Sometimes that which people call queer or crazy actually changes the world.
Not too long after, Marina, a social worker with Child Protective Services, called Bob and Tommy to ask if they were interested in adopting a girl named John, even though she didn’t meet any of their identity criteria. Bob and Tommy screamed in unison, “Yes!” Our society consistently judges and prescribes identity to people, but the God that we are talking about today asks us to move beyond identity to see the intrinsic individual value of all people. We are asked to love our neighbor as our self no matter what the identity of the neighbor is. Like many of us, Bob and Tommy had certain ideas about identity and God called them past such ideas. Today, God is still calling us to the same.
This season of birth beckons us to a birth of light and love.
Amen.
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