Holy Communion: Not Denied to LGBTQ in Metropolitan Community Churches

Gospel  for August 16, 2015

John 6:53-59

New International Version (NIV)

⁵³ Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. ⁵⁴ WHOEVER eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. ⁵⁵ For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.⁵⁶ WHOEVER eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. ⁵⁷ Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. ⁵⁸ This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but WHOEVER feeds on this bread will live forever.” ⁵⁹ He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.

Reflection:

Every Sundays, we participate in the Holy Communion as our way of remembering Christ’s suffering, and love for all humanity. Do we still care about that in today’s time and age?

In different places, countries, Churches, we are not allowed to take Communion unless we confess our sins and one of them are homosexual acts, even if it’s done in the context of love. In Metropolitan Community Church of Marikina as well in other MCC's throughout the world, we are not required to confess our homosexual acts because it’s part of our humanity and sexuality, which no one can deny, even those who claim they are celibate or do not engage in pre-marital sex. No one is exempted. We all have our sexuality and humanity in us. 

Even in the Sacred Scriptures, this is described. In the Revelation of Adam, Adam says to his son Seph that the Illuminator's (Jesus) “...god loved a cloud of desire. He fathered him in his hand and cast upon the cloud above him some of the [drop], and he was born.47 He received glory and power there, and in this way he came to the water.” According to Bible scholars, this was an act of masturbation by God to bring about Jesus according to the Gnostic Gospels, which were hidden by the Church fathers to impose a sex-negative theology. Sexuality is part of the Bible, even in the Song of Solomon 1: 2, which is part of the canonical books, saying, “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! For your love is better than wine;” Sexuality is part of God’s gift to us. We should not consider it sinful or against God’s or our nature. If we deny it, problems arise. We need to have a healthy sense of our sexuality and spirituality integrated into one. If we deny either, then we stop being complete or fulfilled.

Holy Communion is part of a Christian’s life and that opportunity is not denied to us in MCC as gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgenders, queer or questioning because God loves us completely with NO conditions. It is our way of eating the “flesh” and drinking the “blood” of Jesus as it is written in our Gospel today, “⁵⁶ WHOEVER eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them.” John 6: 56

Prayer:

God, may we not take for granted the opportunity given to us to be able to take you through the Holy Communion. In other Churches, there are conditions of being able to receive you and that one of them is NOT loving romantically someone of the same-sex. However, through MCC, we are given that opportunity to BE ourselves while we love the one we love whatever their gender identity or sexual orientation is. May we cherish, appreciate it and be glad in it. In Jesus name we pray. Amen!

13th Sunday in Ordinary Time, 5th Sunday of Pentecost: Rise with God

Tonight I'll be talking about rising up from our deaths through God. When are the times you feel very down? Na parang gumuho na ang lahat. Ano yung mga bagay na nagreresulta sa pagkamatay ng pagkatao mo?

In our first reading from Deuteronomy 15: 7-11, it talks about being open-handed o "pagiging-bukas palad" sa mga mahihirap. Huwag daw maging gahaman o ganid. Minsan kapag may namamalimos, nagiisip tayo kung bibigyan ba natin yung mahirap ng pera o ng pagkain. O kaya naman kung may pakialam ba tayo o wala? Minsan kailangan din natin isipin kung makakatulong ba talaga sa tao yung gagawin nating pagbibigay o baka naman mas lalong masanay at hindi na matuto yoong tao. Sa aking experyensya, kung sa tingin ko kayang-kaya magbanat ng buto ng tao at mas malaki pa katawan sa akin o kaya naman mukhang masama ang asal, hindi ko binibigay. Ngunit kung nakikita ko na sobrang hirap na yung tao o kaya naman sobrang matanda na o may disabilidad na hindi na nya kaya magtrabaho, nagbibigay ako at sinasamahan ko ng dasal. O kaya kaunting barya lang kasi minsan nagagamit din sila ng mga sindikato. Kaya pinapakiramdaman ko rin kung magbibigay ako o hindi. Ang mahalaga galing sa puso natin ang pagbibigay at nais talaga natin tumulong at hindi pakitang-tao lang.

Sa pangalawang pagbasa naman mula sa ika-2 aklat ng Korinto 8: 1-9; 13-15, tinuturuan tayo na maging masiyahin kahit sa gitna ng pagsubok. Nagreresulta ito sa pagiging mapagbigay natin. Tinuturuan din tayong magbigay sa abot ng makakaya natin o minsa'y higit pa. There's POWER in giving! It enlivens us! It inspires us! It may be hard at first, especially if you're giving something that is so precious to you or something that's very hard to do, but eventually, you'll find fulfillment and joy.

In our gospel today Mark 5: 22-24, 35b-43, we learn another "raising the dead"-story of Jesus. Most of the time, we just hear about Lazarus. But in this instance, it was a father asking Jesus to heal his daughter. Unfortunately, the daughter has died when the father and Jesus arrived. At this moment, Jesus said, "Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep...“Talitha koum!” (which means “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”
How does the gospel for today speak to us as Filipinos and as a rainbow nation? Speaking of rainbow, double of it appeared after the 21st Pride March at Lapu-Lapu Monument, Rizal Park yesterday. The rainbow is the symbol of the LGBTQ nation. In the Bible, it says, "I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth" (Genesis 9: 13) As many of us know, the rainbow appeared after God destroyed the earth by flood. The rainbow appeared after a great disaster and signifies hope. As Filipinos, we need to rise from our ignorance and don't be just contented with what we see at face value. We need to rise up as a nation. We need to help one another instead of pulling one another. Let's think of what we can do for our country for it to rise up from its "death" of poverty, corruption, lack of education, etc. Someday, we'll rise again and be admired by many countries.

As a rainbow community, the gospel speaks to us to rise above our challenges as a community. We need to work together in order to effect change in our society. In order to help our community, we need to practice word of honor, setting aside differences, acknowledging that we were once victims of discrimination, verbal abuse, bashing, bullying, therefore we should end that cycle already with the best of our efforts. We also need to swallow some of our "bad" pride to work with others who are totally different from us. We need to learn to forgive after justice has been served. If justice hasn't been served, let's learn to be patient and trust God that he'll do the rest while we do our part.

Rising up from a mess is not easy, but through God, with supportive friends, we can rise up from any difficulty. I'll end my message with a quote from Joel Osteen, a renowned Pastor/evangelist/writer, "I believe that God has put gifts and talents and ability on the inside of every one of us. When you develop that and you believe in yourself and you believe that you're a person of influence and a person of purpose, I believe you can rise up out of any situation."

Ash Wednesday: How we LGBTQ, our friends and family can respond?

5“And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. 6But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. 7When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words.

16And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. 17But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you." Matthew 6: 5-7; 16-18 NRSV

As being part of an emerging Church of mostly LGBTQ with our supportive friends and family in the Metro Eastern Manila, where religious fanaticism is common and traditionalism is deeply ingrained in our inner consciousness, how do we respond to the Ash Wednesday?

First of all, it's not the "ash" that is put on our foreheads that will change or stop our sins but it's ourselves. It's up to us! Whenever the ash is painted on our heads, we are told, "From dust you came, from dust you shall return. Repent and believe in the Gospel!" It's true that we came from dust and to the dust we shall return; however, do we always have to repent for almost anything? What do we need to repent, if we need to? Is it doing homosexual acts? Is it being created differently? Do we have to repent loving someone of the same-sex even if it's in a romantic way? If ever we need to repent, we can repent from irrational fear or aversion towards LGBTQ people or, most of the time, our self-judgement of our very own sexual identity. We can also repent our silence of not speaking out for injustices that is done against the LGBT community or our friends. Nevertheless, we still need to believe in the Gospel of unconditional love that Jesus taught us, not the Gospel of hate, prejudice or indifference.

It is common that we are so proud to have that 'black cross' painted on our foreheads but how long will it last? Are we going to stop fasting or abstaining when the ash is gone? Fasting or abstinence can be done in any day at your own will, without external force and and according to our health capacity. Fasting is not just fasting from meat. Abstaining is not just not taking a bath on Tuesdays or Fridays, like what most of the Filipino tradition we hear from our elders from the provinces. Abstaining can also be from playing too much games, from drinking alcohol everyday, from gossiping, from cheating, from lying to our partners, from "selfie"-ing. It's up to you what you want to fast or abstain from. It can be something that takes up too much of your time, instead of being of service to others through whatever your talent, skills or resources you have. And when you fast or abstain, you don't have to proudly say it or show it to others like what the hypocrites did during Jesus's time and even until today.

When we fast, we can combine it with prayers, singing, praising or thanking God. When you are deeply praying for something, you can fast, and most of the time, what you're praying for, happens or is granted by God according to your faith and God's will. I learned this from one of my truest friends, who is already now in Saudi and still an active supporter of MCC Marikina due to his endless support to our Church in many ways, whether moral, financial, intellectual, emotional, spiritual, etc. He's the first MCCer in Marikina, aside from me. His name is Ramon Janea III a.k.a or humbly known as "Bodeng", who now works at the biggest bank in Saudi Arabia. He didn't miss any Bible Fellowships until he left the Philippines. When we also fast, we also don't have to look tired or, as we say colloquially, look "haggard". We can stay fresh and let not others see our fasting or abstinence. We don't have to punish ourselves in front of other people.

As LGBTQ followers of Jesus, including our friends and families, the purpose of our fasting can be the passage of a comprehensive Anti-Discriminaton Law in our country, for an affordable vaccine and cure for HIV, a lifetime partner or a job or vocation where we can grow not just sustainably, but as a person as well. This Ash Wednesday, we can start annointing ourselves with oil which we blessed with faith (preferably olive or indigenous or essential oil you're comfortable with) and wash our faces with reverence for God, without others having to see it. Trust me, it feels quite different and peaceful when I tried this. It left me a feeling of serenity and, of course, trying to live out the greatest commandment of God, which is love, which can be, at times, challenging nowadays.

To conclude, we don't have to overdo fasting and if we are really sorry for the mistakes we've done against our neighbors, against God, or against ourselves, we need to do something about it in concrete ways and not just during Ash Wednesday or the rest of the Lenten season, but everyday!