Contents of this page:

• December 11 - Ruth
• December 12 - Hannah
• December 13 - Mary
• December 14 - David
• December 15 - Bathsheba
• December 16 - The Shepherds
• December 17 - The Magi
• December 18 - Zechariah
• December 19 - Elizabeth
• December 20 - Mary

These devotions appear in the November-December issue of the Presbyerians for Lesbian and Gay Concerns More Light Update. (http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/~riley/PLGC.html) Copyright 1998 by Chris R. Glaser. All rights reserved. Permission granted for non-profit use with attribution.

"Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you! Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die - there will I be buried. May the Lord do thus and so to me, and more as well, if even death parts me from you!" Ruth 1:16-17

How well we know this passage! Rarely has the passion of love expressed itself so well. Ruth's love for Naomi surpassed all of her other loves.

There is no doubt that Ruth's blood flowed in Jesus' veins. Even if she were not listed in Matthew's genealogy, we would hear her in so many of Jesus' sayings and doings:

"How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!" (Luke 13:34)

"As Jesus came near the city, he wept over it..."(Luke 19:41)

Jesus was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved...Jesus began to weep. So the Jews said, "See how he loved him!" (John 11:33, 36)

"No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends..." (John 15:13-14).

"The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me" (John 17:22-23).

"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of God and of the Christ and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age." Matthew 28:19-20.

"As [Hannah] continued praying before the Lord, Eli observed her mouth. Hannah was praying silently; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard; therefore Eli thought she was drunk." I Samuel 1:12

Hannah was drunk with devotion to God and a desire for a son. She makes me think of parents who struggle alongside us to obtain full rights for their gay children in the church and in our society. They are drunk with devotion to God and their children.

Our opponents deride them, as the priest Eli derided Hannah, saying, "How long will you make a drunken spectacle of yourself" (1:14), adding "put away your bias and share our condemnation of your children." Our opponents think themselves like God, impartially able to render justice. But, in truth, our supportive parents are more like God, because God is partial to each and everyone of God's children - that's how God shows no partiality. Our supportive parents demonstrate God's steadfast love; and, in doing so, they demonstrate traditional family values.

In thanksgiving, Hannah offered her son Samuel to God's service. Her gratitude for her child made her praise and sing to the Lord, "My heart exults in the Lord; my strength is exalted in my God. My mouth derides my enemies, because I rejoice in my victory....The bows of the mighty are broken, but the feeble gird on strength" (2:1, 4).

Her prayer would serve as model for Mary's own prayer of thanks for a child who would send a Spirit that would make his followers look drunk on the day of Pentecost. But the inebriation of their fervent devotion to God enabled them to transform strangers and aliens into God's children.

Jesus himself was accused of being both glutton and drunkard, because his fervent devotion to God and God's children prompted him to celebrate the inbreaking commonwealth of God with those who once thought they were not children of God's household.

"Talk no more so very proudly, let not arrogance come from your mouth; for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by God actions are weighed...God raised up the poor from the dust; lifting the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with rulers and inherit a seat of honor." (2:3,8)

"My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for God has looked with favor on the lowliness of this servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for the Mighty One had done great things for me, and holy is God's name." Luke 1:46-49

Did Mary really understand the import of her unexpected pregnancy as early as Luke's gospel indicates? Or was it a gradual dawning insight as she watched Jesus grow "in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor" (2:52)?

It doesn't matter when she "got" it. What matters is she did come to understand the unnatural nature of this son of hers. It's like our baptism, as infants or as adults. It doesn't matter how conscious we were when we were committed to this Jesus - our understanding of that commitment grew through the years. And continues to grow. And will never be complete until we "know fully, even as [we] have been fully known" (I Corinthians 13:12).

Jesus' baptism as well only initiated his discernment process in the wilderness, tempted in every way as we are.

The same is true of our gay and lesbian movements within denominations across the United States, our own nativity of the Spirit. Gradually its longlasting value will be known. Occasionally, we "get" it, and parallel Mary's prayer as she paralleled Hannah's, as Tony Gryzmala did in an exercise during a Dignity retreat that I led:

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My soul magnifies the all-loving God and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, who esteems, honors, and loves my gayness. Behold, all my family and friends shall recognize my blessedness, for the one who is mighty has done great things for me by creating me in that sacred aspect of the Divine Essence which is gay. Holy is God's name. I praise God and give thanks for being so honored and blest. Through my gayness, God's strength is shown: the proud and the privileged as put down from their thrones; their prerogative is shattered. Through my gayness, God exalts the sensitive, the expansive, the inclusive. God fills my hunger with overwhelming love, while the rich and greedy are sent away in the lonely isolation of their loveless power. Through my gayness, God will heal the human race in remembrance of god's mercy and covenant, as God spoke to Abraham and Sarah, to Noah, to Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and to their posterity forever. Amen.

Jesus answered, "Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God and took and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and gave some to his companions." Luke 6:3

David actually negotiated with the priest, who wants to know whether "the vessels of the young men were holy" (See I Samuel 21:1-6). But Jesus uses David's chutzpah to justify his and his disciples plucking heads of grain to eat on the sabbath, thus breaking the taboo of work on that holy day with slighter justification than say, healing the man with the withered hand in the story that follows.

This story makes me think about privilege. Already a hero, David was on his way to snatching the throne. He therefore could easily persuade the priest to bend the Levitical rules to feed himself and his men. Jesus too enjoyed the privileges of success, having developed a following of multitudes and, in the next passage, selecting an executive board (disciples). He could more readily challenge the Mosaic law.

A couple of years ago I wrote a curriculum for the Presbyterian church entitled "Unlearning Racism." One of the sessions dealt with white privilege; how those of the dominant Anglo-European culture in Canada and the United States could assume things, even "get away with things" that would be questioned if they were a person of color. Another example of this phenomenon is male privilege: men are allowed to do things for which women would be questioned or condemned.

So think about heterosexual privilege: to walk hand in hand, kiss in public, marry, have mutliple sexual encounters or failed relationships without being condemned for being heterosexual, adopt children, be included in the family album and gatherings, be welcomed in houses of worship as well as the workplace, etc.

And, to be both honest and thorough, gay men have some privilege because they're males, and lesbians have some privilege because they're not (that is, it's far less popular culturally to be perceived as giving up one's male privilege to identify as gay).

Thus the "under"-privileged have great difficulty persuading religious leaders to bend Levitical law and move beyond the limits of Mosaic law. But Jesus was the champion of the poor, the disfranchised, the outcast. It is Jesus, not us, who enjoys the privilege of nudging the church to overlook the law, whether the Bible's or the Book of Order's.

So let's introduce the church to Jesus.

"It is lawful to love or to hate gay people, to support same-gender love or destroy it?" Luke 6:9

"So David sent messengers to get [Bathsheba], and she came to him, and he lay with her." 2 Samuel 11:4

Now here's an interesting verse to contemplate during Advent!

The much-admired King David had his own White House intern. Except that Bathsheba was married and David's obstruction of justice included the murder of her husband Uriah. David's independent prosecutor was Nathan, who caught the king in his own judgment and convinced him to say, "I'm sorry."

But what about Bathsheba? Even Matthew's genealogy does not list her by name, but as "the wife of Uriah." Like so many women in the Bible and throughout history, she was acted upon by men, and that served to identify her. "She was asking for it," the sexist might say, bathing where the king could see her. "They were both consenting adults," an audience member on Oprah might say, as if she could have said no to a king. Professional boundaries were unknown in that time. Think how biblical the White House has become! And too many pulpits! Oh yes, let's return to *those* traditional family values!

(One might wonder about the parallels to Mary. Could she have said "no" to God? Isn't this a problematic model? that's why taking that story literally does a disservice to God. The story is not about relationships, it is about how Christians perceive Jesus - as a unique Child of God.)

The Bible tells us very little about Bathsheba herself, except that she was "very beautiful" and had the sense to claim David's responsibility by sending him the message, "I am pregnant." She also mourned her husband, a sign of faithfulness. And like many women, she had to suffer the recompense of her husband David's sin by losing her child.

Maybe that's why Jesus spoke so strongly against divorce and adultery. Maybe that's why he addressed women as subjects rather than objects. Maybe that's why he had so many women followers. In his ancestry were stories like this of women treated like property. Jesus proved he was as much a son of Bathsheba as a son of God.

We thank you, God, for the women who have gone before us who have gone unthanked for their unrecognized gifts to the faith we hold so dear.

"In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night." Luke 2:8

I'm sure none of you had the mischievous thought I had when the media began mentioning that Mother Teresa took her turn cleaning the bathrooms in her order's houses. "Wish I got media attention when I scoured my toilet," I thought.

Recently someone called to update me on his current troubles in the church. He spoke reverently of a leader of the LGBT community who took time to talk with him at an event, though the leader despaired at being besieged by the media. "If the media were there, he probably called them," I wanted to say honestly, knowing this leader's predilection for the press. "He's going to stop doing everything else he's doing to write," the phone caller added, sympathetically. "Wish I could stop everything I do to write, " I laughed to myself, envious. Writing is what I do between the cracks of all my other work.

Ninety-nine percent of what you and I do does not get our name in the newspapers, will not be recorded, and may even be taken for granted, like the 99 sheep in Jesus' parable who got ignored while that good shepherd searched for that "loose cannon" sheep.

I've come to look on that 99 per cent as a spiritual discipline. We don't need spiritual disciplines devised by spiritual gurus. If we view fixing meals for a lover or visitor, cleaning the house for the family or guests, earning a living even in a job that isn't quite perfect - if we view these as spiritual opportunities not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought and as forms of service to our loved ones, our customers and clients, and our community, then these spiritual exercises may also bring us closer to God.

People sometimes recommend monastic communities where I could "get away" and be alone. But the truth is, because I work at home, I am alone most of the time. I probably live a more monastic lifestyle than most monks. My "retreats" are getting away to be with people in my work as a retreat leader. Many of you have a similar experience when you are "alone" in the midst of a busy workplace or an unwelcoming church. These wilderness feelings may also serve as part of our spiritual discipline.

In our ordinary lives as "shepherds," then, we may have a mystical opportunity to listen for God's messengers proclaiming glory and peace, to discern and relish the holy born in our midst.

Jesus washed his disciples' feet long before there were media to flash it around the world. But Jesus was savvy enough to know that even the humblest acts reverberate throughout history.

We return to our daily tasks, glorifying and praising God for all we have heard and seen.

"In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men [magi] from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, 'Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.' " Matthew 2:1-2

Somehow I missed the connection of the word "magi" and "magic" until a recent PBS documentary on magic mentioned it in the context of what ancient Greeks distrustfully called foreigners with strange religious practices. Later in the program, one of the experts described magic as "ritualized optimism."

I liked that. I believe that our observance of the nativity of Jesus is also a form of ritualized optimism. Many of the stories of Jesus' birth are really stories of how the world should have created to it. Mary and Joseph should've known of their child's uniqueness before conception, even without the benefit of marriage. Herod should have quaked in his royal boots. Common folk like shepherds should ahve seen visions of angels. Foreign sorcerers should have recognized the infant's magic.

I believe, however, that the truest story surrounding Jesus' nativity was the poverty and obscurity and homelessness into which he was born, exemplified by there being no room for his parents in the inn, no place for his nativity except a manger in a barn.

It's true that, in our own nativity, when we came out as lesbian or gay or bisexual or even transgendered, some of us saw stars. Some of us had parents who appreciated our uniqueness. Our emerging rights placed fear in those who base their political power on our oppression. Ordinary and extraordinary folk have seen visions of our worth and witnessed our own magic.

But most universal is the poverty and obscurity and homelessness we experienced as we gave up the riches of the closet, risked being forgotten and ignored, and endured exile from all we call home. There is little room for any nativity of the Spirit.

And yet there is magic in every nativity of the Spirit. Not magic in the sense of manipulation of God, but magic in the sense of God's working within us - God's own "ritualized optimism" that all things may work together for good for those who love and trust God.

Jesus was accused of magic, casting out demons that caused an individual to be mute and visionless by the power of Beelzebub (Matthew 12:22-32). Jesus warned of committing the unforgiveable sin of misidentifying the Holy Spirit. Even today, our opponents commit that sin, claiming our loss of silence and our gain of vision comes from Satan rather than from Jesus.

Baby Jesus, we open our treasure chests, and offer you the gifts of our selves, our love, and our homes.

"I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. But now, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time, you will become mute, unable to speak, until the day these things occur." Luke 1:19-20

Gabriel is really making the rounds! Getting a little testy, too, because he responds to the "righteous" Zechariah's fear and questions by rendering him unable to speak until the miracle of his wife Elizabeth's pregnancy and the birth of John the Baptist had been accomplished.

If only our opposition, full of fear and questions, were silenced by an angel. Instead, the moderate mainstream remains mute as our opposition bombards us with ridicule, slander, and the removal of privileges and of rights. Now the deafening silence of the middle of our church has even made their inaction sacred by declaring it a "sabbatical"! (Note: Chris is referring to the Presbyterians discussion to put the issue of homosexuality "at rest" for a while after their recent division over Amendment B within their church.)

Their attempt to Christianize their wimping out on our rights in both the church and society is laughable when one things of Jesus' attitude toward the Sabbath displayed in his own teaching and ministry. The sabbath was made for us, not us for the sabbath, he declared over and over again, proving it by healing on the sabbath at the drop of a hat, even feeding his disciples on that sacred day.

Those on the Lord's side will continue to heal on the sabbath instead of using it as an excuse to allow lesbians, gay, bisexuals, and the transgendered to be spiritually abused by those who temporarily have the upper hand in our denomination.

"Immediately [Zachariah's] mouth was opened and his tongue freed, and he began to speak, praising God. Fear came over all their neighbors..." (1:64-65).

After those days his wife Elizabeth conceived...She said, "This is what the Lord has done for me when [God] looked favorably on me and took away the disgrace I have endured among my people." Luke 1:24-25

It's a shame that the goal of sexuality came to be procreation. The same type of people who abused Elizabeth for not having children are the ones who, today, abuse those of us whose sexuality does not produce children.

Luke tells us that Elizabeth and Simeon both lived "blamelessly according to all the commandments and regulations of the Lord" (1:6). But no matter how squeaky-clean their lifestyle, the fact that they hadn't produced children meant she was blamed, disgraced, and ridiculed, much like Hannah before the birth of Samuel. Beyond the gender inequity of such condemnation, what about the inequity between the have's and the have not's, between those who had children and those who didn't?

Seems like the spiritual community should have a different standard that the mere biological requirement of reproduction. Seems like the community concerned with the sacred would recognize the holy in sexuality apart from any product.

That's the kind of spiritual community Jesus wanted. That's why he defended the eunuch as Isaiah did. That's why the new spiritual community would be called his brothers and sisters. That's why our own spiritual community has to get over itself and recognize us as siblings.

This is what the Lord has done for us when God looked favorably on us and took away the disgrace we have endured within the church.

"[God] has scatterd the proud in the imagination of their hearts..." Luke 1:51

In truth, God does not really need to step in to scatter the proud. The "imagination of their hearts" is quite enough for the proud, the arrogant, to mistake their connection with the humble, the outcast. Maybe the proud are not altogether bad people, but they have bad or at least inadequate imaginations.

Mary had a good imagination, one capable of wrapping itself around the plausibility of God becoming a human being, of entering human history, and forever changing - if not the whole world - a good portion of it. If God can do it, the high and mighty can, and so the powerful are brought down from their thrones, the rich sent away empty - unless they realize that their wealth is to be found in solidarity with others, the vulnerable, the poor.

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me," Jesus claimed for himself Isaiah's prophecy, "because [God] has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. God has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor" (Luke 4:18-19). Jesus also had an excellent imagination.

Advent is a time to practice our imagination, to press our credulity to the limits, as we await the entrance of God into our world.

"It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of the needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God," Jesus told his disciples (Mark 10:25). Those rich not only in possessions, I imagine, but in "righteousness" as well. They too woul dhave to give up all their possessions, their good deeds, their obedience to the law, to come unburdened into the commonwealth of God.

We must imagine, we must hope, that because "for God all things are possible" (10:27), even our opponents will let go of their heterosexualrighteousness (yes, my own word) to sit at table with us in the commonwealth of God.

"Surely, from now on all generations will call us blessed; for the Mighty One has done great things for us, and holy is [God's] name." Luke 1:48-49