"Love One Another"

"‘This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another."--John 15: 12-17

In the garden at my church, there is a fountain with the words, "Love One Another". It's a calming and lovely piece of art to look at. Water runs down from doves and a crucifix in a steady flow. When I've looked at this fountain, I've imagined this to be representative of God's love flowing down over all that is.

Good thing to keep in mind as you read this post. The lesson of the new commandment Jesus was giving to the disciples was yesterday's gospel lesson at noon-day. It was an amazing contrast to the week as it was in Tallahassee, FL.

The spill-over from the contentious review of the Human Rights Ordinance sunk to yet another new low when Commissioner Bill Proctor sent a letter to Sheriff Larry Campbell requesting more security due to the actions of "alleged deaf citizen" Terry Galloway. With a stroke of the keys on a keyboard, Commissioner Proctor went from offending not only the LGBT community, but alienating the disabled as well. Further hitting a flat note was the Tallahassee Democrat's editorial board. In an effort to call for civility in the public discourse, they chided the LGBT community for threatening a "buycott" of businesses that oppose the HRO and seemed to lend defense to Commissioner Proctor's right to go on and on ad nauseum referring to the LGBT community as pedophiles. The "threat" made to Commissioner Proctor by my friend and neighbor was nothing akin to the violence and bullying we've been witnessing from the Tea Partiers. Sheriffs deputies were right to remove her, and she did not resist them escorting her from the room. But her words (No! You compare me to a pedophile! Shame! This is the kind of hatred we are trying to get rid of!) do not rise to the level of "threat"... not on the Homeland Security scale... nor even on the school playground. Buycotts and protests are all in keeping with the history of any minority group trying to wield what little power it has to stand up to the majority. Clearly, the editorial board does not understand this, and does not understand or appreciate what we of the LGBT community face from the majority.

As I stood with Fr. Lee Graham outside the chapel yesterday, he asked me how things were going with this ordinance debate. He is no stranger to civil rights struggles as one who found himself in the thick of things in Alabama during the brave stands of Martin Luther King, Jr. I told him my version of the truth: that while I understand small businesses of five or more employees being afraid to be sued, fear of litigation is not reason enough to deny protections to minority groups... including those of a different sexual orientation, gender identity or expression. And I sighed, "I have again witnessed new and amazing ways in which people can be hateful and mean to one another."

Fr. Graham shook his head. "Well, isn't that the lesson for today? 'Hate one another as I have hated you?'"

And that brings us full circle, back to the garden, and the water that flows like God's love over all that is. In his homily, Fr. Graham noted that we don't get to choose God because God is the one choosing us. I would add, "whether we want to be chosen or not!" God has long since made the promise to be with us to the end of the age, and there was no asterisk on that statement. That means being with ALL of us. Amidst the rancor, I have struggled to quiet myself and stay tapped into the Love that keeps flowing like a fountain... and not allow those who are projecting and preaching fear and hatred to suck me into their vortex. It is very hard. It would be easy to go through that gate, and meet them in the Hell of their own creation.

So, in an effort to remember... and re-member myself to that source of Love... I offer up this prayer:

O God, the Father of all, whose Son commanded us to love
our enemies: Lead them and us from prejudice to truth:
deliver them and us from hatred, cruelty, and revenge; and in
your good time enable us all to stand reconciled before you,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
--Book of Common Prayer, pg. 816