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Wednesday Wondering - May 29, 2024

Scripture

Ephesians 3: 14 – 19

14For this reason I bow my knees before God, 15from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. 16I pray that, according to the riches of God’s glory, God may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, 17and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. 18I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.


Reflection

We find ourselves in the middle of Pride Week, and I have been wondering about what this week means to me, and to the rest of the LGBTQ+ and two spirit community. I believe that it means many different things to many people, because Pride is very much an individual experience, although we come together to celebrate it with each other. For some this is a week to embrace their true identities, for some it is a chance to test the limits of who they think they are, for others it is a time of celebration, and for others it might just be a time to live vicariously through someone else who might be ‘out’ when they themselves feel as if they cannot be. Whatever this week means to members of the community, each individual has been on a journey that has brought them to where they are today.


The reality is that my journey to acceptance, acceptance of myself, has been a challenge. It has been a journey that has been filled with self-loathing and, dare I might say, self-hatred. It has been filled with lived expectations of others and society. It has been a journey of self-discovery and challenge. For many of us in this LGBTQ+ and two spirit community, we have lived lives full of challenge and struggle as we come to live as we believe we were created to be. It has been challenging for so many of us and that is why this week is so important. It is a time when we can not be afraid and in solidarity we come together to celebrate who God created us to be. The scripture from Ephesians reminds us all of God’s love and God’s call for us to love, but what does it mean to love? We quite often get bogged down in this world’s understanding of love, as something that is there to make us feel good, in some ways to benefit ourselves and our relationships, but  I think that the reading today challenges us to something more. In the midst of all the anger, hatred, bigotry, and violence that we have faced we remember that it is Pride Month, I think that there might be something for us to learn from this community, of which I am a part.


When I was growing up it was not unusual to hear the word “queer” being used as a derogatory term for members of the LGBTQ+ and two spirit communities. But in recent years the community, the LGBTQ+ and two spirit communities, have begun to reclaim the word and it has in some ways been reclaimed to its original meaning. The original definition of the word ‘queer’ was something that was different, strange, peculiar, something that was different from the ‘norm,’ something different than expected.  I wonder if this might be why the community is reclaiming this word, because in so many ways as a community we don’t fit into the ‘norm’ or what is expected. I think that it goes further than that and beyond this community as it might just reflect on everyone and why we might just be challenged to think of ourselves and how we are called to love in ‘queer’ ways.


The reading from Ephesians speaks to the hope that we might just be able to comprehend the breadth, length, height, and depth of God’s love. In other words this love of God is deeper, wider, bigger than what we expect love to be, what we currently understand love to be. The love of God goes beyond our expectation, it goes beyond our ‘normal’ understanding of love. God’s love might just be something that is very different from what we understand love to be and I think that in our world today we might just need that kind of love. We might need a love that is more expansive than our current understanding of love as we are faced with hatred, and racism, Islamophobia, homophobia, transphobia, and the continued marginalization of so many in our world. To love in a ‘queer’ way is to say that we will love differently, we will love, maybe, as God wants us too, calls us to love. We will love unexpectedly, we will love radically, we will exist in God’s love and bring this unexpected, radical love to the world. So in the midst of all that is happening I invite you to continue to love. I invite you to hear God’s call to love in unexpected, wider, deeper, and fuller ways. I invite you to ‘queer’ love.


Prayer

God of infinite love, help us to hear your call to love. Help us to hear your call to love, not as the world loves, but to love in a way that is deeper, wider, bigger, than the world’s definition of love. Give us the courage to love radically, to love as you love. Give us the strength to face all that the world brings to us continuing to heed your call to be people of deep, meaningful love. You call us to love those whom society has marginalized, those who have faced hatred and racism, those who might just not fit what society says is the ‘norm.” Help us to always live as people of great deep love each and every day. We ask this in the name of love incarnate, your son, Jesus. Amen.

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