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| p1. May 1-8 Community: May1. Suffering and joy together is the heart of community. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body- Jews or Greeks, slaves or free- and we were all made to drink of one Spirit� If one member suffers, all suffer together with it, if one member is honored, all rejoice together (1 Corinthians 12:12-13, 26). What united early Christians was not only the joy of their faith, but also the suffering of persecution from religious and political authorities. What unites lesbians and gay men is not only the joy of our sexuality, but also our suffering persecution- also from religious and political authorities. All religions could do better by accepting and suffering with their Lesbian and Gay members. As differently-abled bodies of one body, one community, let us suffer with one another and rejoice together. May 2. God said to Joshua, �Israel has sinned; they have transgressed my covenant that I imposed on them (Joshua 6:10-11).� �Joshua fit the battle of Jericho, and the walls came a-tumblin� down.� But after the battle, God was not pleased. The instructions for disposing of Jericho�s wealth had not been followed. Achan had taken some of the booty �devoted� to Yahweh. Because of his sin, all suffered a military loss, and �the hearts of the people melted and turned to water (Joshua 6:5).� We may not understand how our sins affect our community, but they do. And we may not understand why we have to be responsible for someone else�s mess, but we are. We�re all in this together. May 3. Each is responsible for self. Yahweh, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, yet by no means clearing the guilty, but visiting the iniquity of the parents upon the children and the children�s children (Exodus 34:6-7). The Hebrew concept of corporate guilt extended beyond the present to the future community. We know there is some truth in this as we try to clean up the environment or as we cope with generations-old animosities. But the prophet Ezekiel rejected the notion of generational culpability for sin, voicing God�s word; �Know that all lives are mine; the life of the parent as well as the life of the child is mine. It is the person who sins that shall be held responsible (Ezekiel 18:4).� Lord, keep me from faulting the past and failing the future by resisting responsibility for the present, O God of the ages. May 4. �Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother (Mark 3:35). Many of us create extended families for ourselves from within our community, sometimes in the absence of supportive biological families. But, in the presence of his supportive family who had come to see him, Jesus created his own extended family of faith in this scripture. Doing the will of God would become the organizing principle of the new family. Just as we are, Jesus could have been accused of attacking �traditional family values�! Thank you, God, for the family who created me, the family of faith Christ created, and for the family I help create. May 5. �I am the good shepherd�And I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also (John 10:14-16). We are the other sheep not of this fold. We may see things differently, but we hear the shepherd�s voice, and come home. Thank you, Good Shepherd, for laying down your life for us. Bring us home, so there will be one flock, one shepherd. May 6. �It would be better for you if a millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea than for you to cause one of these little ones to stumble (Luke 17:2).� In an exchange of letters between a lesbian pastor of a gay congregation and the straight male pastor of a straight congregation, the straight pastor warned the lesbian pastor of the danger of leading her flock astray. One of the lesbian pastor�s members responded, reminding the straight pastor of the danger of leading his flock astray. Antigay pastors seem to think themselves incapable of leading their members astray. Believing themselves immune to God�s judgment, such pastors think nothing of reinforcing antigay bias and hatred among straights, confusion within bisexuals, and self-hatred and spiritual anxiety among homosexuals who have not accepted themselves. WE PRAY FOR LESBIANS AND GAY MEN COMING OF AGE IN ANTIGAY CONGREGATIONS, LEST THEY STUMBLE AND FALL. May 7. �To whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded (Luke 12:48). God gives more responsibility to people he trusts. Keep us from causing others to stumble by our failure to know them adequately and to love them appropriately. May 8. �And who is my neighbor? The one who showed�mercy (Luke 10:29, 37).� An expert in the Law of Moses was trying to limit his liability by asking Jesus who was the neighbor that the law commanded him to love. Jesus told the story of the �Good Samaritan� to the expert in the Law of Moses and then switched the question to who proved to be a neighbor, and the lawyer was forced to reply, �The one who showed him mercy,� Jesus told him, �Go and do likewise.� Mercy begets mercy. As we show mercy- toward one another, toward those who misjudge us, toward all the communities affected by AIDS- we transform hearts. |