Crying Out To God With Joy

Church for LGBT - Open Table MCC - Philippines

In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”

And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowly state of his servant. Surely from now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name; indeed, his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty. He has come to the aid of his child Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”

Luke 1:39-55 (NRSVUE)

Makulay na hapon sa ating lahat. Today is the third week of our Advent series titled “Crying out to God.” Our first week was about “Crying out to God in our suffering” where we discussed why our tears can also be a form of worship, something that’s different sa nakasanayan natin where worship is supposed to be happy at celebratory. Last week naman we talked about “Crying out to God in Shame,” where we became upfront to the shame that we queer people experiences, shame rooted in factors that are beyond our control yet deeply affects us.

And today, paparating na tayo sa exciting part. Pwede bakong maging Evangelical for a bit? Sabihin mo sa katabi mo, “paparating na tayo sa exciting part mars!”

Our reading today is about the song of Mary, which for Catholics is popularly known as The Magnificat. A hymn that mary sung after nyang bumisita sa kanyang pinsan na si Elizabeth, who was pregnant.

While in this story, si Mary ang main character, we also have Elizabeth who was celebrating because God has liberated her from being barren, which her society sees as a form of curse or a punishment from God similar to Hannah whom we discussed last week.

We see here two women who were totally different yet share the same struggle. For Elizabeth, being part of the elite, as a wife of the priest wouldn’t suffice for her to be honorable in a society that only sees women as baby makers. Si Mary naman ay isang nobody, hindi sya galing sa isang prominenteng pamilya like Elizabeth. She didn’t even live in a fancy address, not BGC nor even Wilshire Annapolis, sa sobrang insignificant ng kanyang hometown na Nazareth, in the first chapter of the Gospel of John, one of the disciples even exclaimed “does anything good come out of Nazareth?”

In the midst of this differences, these two women shared the same struggle, ang maging isang babae sa panahon at lipunan nila. Women were seen as a second-class citizen and even a property, yes nasa Bible yan.

For Mary, it also didn’t help that she wasn’t married yet when she got pregnant. Isang malaking skandalo that will surely have her criminalized.

Yet, because of their struggles, Elizabeth saw past beyond those systemic prejudices towards Mary.

Elizabeth was also astonished, sabi nya nga “But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” Elizabeth clearly saw how privileged she was, to be a recipient of the the prophetic proclamation of how God’s power and favor rests upon those people that seems to be insignificant in the eyes of the society.

Sobrang saya ni Elizabeth that in fact, pati yung baby sa tiyan nya ay napalundag sa tuwa nung narinig nila si kumareng Mary sa pinto.

Very similar ang situation with all the characters that we’ve talked about for the past weeks. All of them were just ordinary people, mga taong we could definitely relate to. Mga taong walang rights, oppressed, and also suffering from shame out of society’s expectations.

Kaya nalang when they received the good news, they celebrated. Agad agad lumuwas si Mary papunta kila Elizabeth to share the joy from the news that they both received.

We are now in the period of Advent where hope is getting real, we have now received the news of the coming of Jesus. Naiiyak na natin lahat ng ating sakit at pighati as an individual and as community.

Mary and Elizabeth’s initial reaction was to immediately share the joy that they experienced with the people that matters to them. After they both individually experienced the roller coaster of emotions upon receiving the news from the angel Gabriel.

What are those joys in your life that need celebrating? Maybe minsan nahihirapan tayong magisip and it’s hard for us to see things worth celebrating. It doesn’t necessarily have to be grand, it can be as simple as having hopes of a better future. Remember that the object of Mary’s celebration hasn’t been fulfilled yet. A hope that is even dangerous for her or should we say, ilegal? Dahil she wasn’t married yet.

We can celebrate the fact that we have hope.

Some of us feel it, some of us are hopeful this Advent, lalo na’t malapit na ang bagong taon. Hope na magka jowa bago ang cut-off sa 31. Hope for a new life, mga new year’s resolutions, new year new me. Those alone are reasons for us to celebrate, hope, as it fuels us and makes life bearable is a gift from God.

And also while we acknowledge that our individual successes and joys are a gift from God and something that is ought to be shared. The challenge for us Christians is, like Mary, how can we respond to God’s blessing in a way that’s true to our calling?

Like Hannah, Mary, and Elizabeth, while celebrating God’s favor sa buhay nila, of course they are happy and they are supposed to. We owe it to ourselves to celebrate and savor God’s grace in our lives. We just have to remember that God’s grace doesn’t end with ourselves and shouldn’t be contained to us. Hannah, Elizabeth, and Mary saw their blessings or pregnancy to be specific, as a gift from God that they ought to dedicate to God as well. They saw the significance of their pregnancies, as God channeling grace through

them through their children. That eventually, their children will be a blessing to the Jewish nation, and later on, to us queer people gathered here, liberated by the love of Jesus.

It is a testament to God’s favor towards what our society sees as the least, and Mary acknowledges that in the Magnificat. God’s favor rest sa mga taong tulad natin that seemed to be powerless to enact change in our world, a group of humble people, although naka-aircon tayo, walang wala tayo kumpara sa mga Churches na makapangyarihan. Nagrerenta nga lang tayo dito because of the people’s generosity na hindi naman always sure. Walang certainty. Pag hindi na ulit nagpledge ang mga members for whatever reason or no reason at all (knock on wood) – okay naman na ako hindi ko na kailangan MCC – Eh di ligwak ang airconed chapel ng mga accla sa greenhills. But to reiterate, I believe God’s favor rest sa tulad natin na sa

song of Mary, the “outcast and the lowly”. The song of Mary is an affirmation of God taking the side of the poor and the oppressed, and that is Good news. God affirms us and promises to lift us up.

But the song of Mary is also a challenge to us, on how we can turn God’s grace and hope in our lives to be a channel of blessing in the world that we’re in. How God’s blessing of liberation in our lives can be a seed of hope and transformation in the lives of our queer siblings and even straight Christians, Amen ba straight Christians? and how can this can be a prophetic witness in the society we’re living in, a society built on the tears of injustices.

This hope is for each one of us and as a Church community. God’s favor rests in MCC? Agree? Kahit may kachakahan at dark ages, favor is with us as long as we cooperate with God. Poor MCC but full of grace. Santa Mesa napupuno ka ng grasya. And as our year is closing, can we remind all of us how far we’ve gone? In the past few weeks, we’ve talked about how our Church was built on our tears as queer people exiled from our faith home. That like our ancestors in the faith, they needed to start from nothing, and rebuild their homes and live in a foreign land. That was our story right? As mga taong galing sa iba ibang simbahan Although hindi ko nawitness personally, we’ve come to a point na tatlo na lang ang umaattend, and for sure iniisip na nila kung may future ba ang MCC?

While we are celebrating hope, let’s also not forget that we’ve cried many tears before we got to this position. Like Hannah, dumaan tayo sa proseso ng pag grieve at pakikipagbuno sa Diyos, and for some maybe even questioning God, and that’s totally fine. May we not forget that our hope was also rooted in our helplessness and cries before God. May we also be inspired by the courage and fighting spirit of those who went before us, the reason why we are here, being blessed by a safe space such as our Church with all of its imperfections and flaws.

And yet here we are, with the things that have happened to our community in the past years, there’s no denying that it was God’s way of announcing to us the same hope that God has announced through the angel Gabriel to Mary. That in Mary’s humble stature in life, she will be used as an example that God can use the lowliest of the low to show God’s love to everyone. We are all like Hannah, Elizabeth, and Mary, mga taong in the eyes of the world are powerless, oppressed, and even have no rights. But God’s favor rests upon us. We are saved, we have been delivered, and when the time comes that we have savored God’s grace, like Mary, we should now share that blessing to others especially to our queer siblings.

Advent is about hope. And as a Church, can I just remind all of us that hope is with us right now. That hope is in the changes that we have witnessed, the growth, the systems in place, the aircon maybe, and most important of all the, the stories of healing and liberation na ating nawiwitness, in fact some of them are seated in this room right now. Can we celebrate that? Trigger warning, magiging Evangelical ako ulit, can we give God a round of applause? Pakitapik din lahat ng kilala mong volunteers dito, yan ang hope! Minsan kasi it’s hard to notice those things that are worth celebrating because it happens gradually, it doesn’t come like a Beyonce entrance na may pa fireworks at marching band. Pero mukhang malapit na kasi may drumset na tayo, na hindi pa bayad kaya enjoyin na bago maremata, joke!

For some, this challenge to be an embodiment of that hope might be overwhelming, we might feel sometimes that we are not qualified, or as practicing Christians may doubt tayo whether tinawag ba tayo

ng Lord dahil parang ang weird lang na wala naman tayo masyadong nakikitang mga queer Christians who was able to live as a queer and called at the same time. Parang may contradiction nga sa terms na yun eh, queer na may calling? Hmm, parang imposible. It also doesn’t help na sa ating mga previous Churches, we don’t get to see openly out queer people in positions of authority.

As an Evangelical, we always say before, that God “doesn’t call the qualified, but God qualifies the called.” We might feel that we’re not up to the task, that this hope hasn’t been done or been fulfilled before. Can I remind you that you are favored, that God calls you to do the unimaginable just like the nature of Mary’s pregnancy. God calls all of us to be the “voice that calls in the wilderness,” a voice that breathes safe spaces to life so that future generations of queer children will live in a world filled with love, and even a place where straight people will be relieved from the pressures of our patriarchal societies. For as long as oppression and injustice exists, the Church’s mission does not end. It does not end until we bring God’s kingdom here on earth, as it is in heaven.

God will definitely lift the humble, and rulers will see where the power of God actually resides, it’s in the places that they least expect. Places and people that our society despises, that are recipients of prejudice. People and places that are mocked while being exploited at the same time to maintain the same system that benefits the privileged at the expense of the oppressed.

People like Mary, whom the society sees as insignificant and even scandalous, I’m sorry to break it to all of you, but this is where God’s power is made manifest. It’s through you, a queer Christian or even a suwail na straight Christian frowned upon by today’s religious powers, that God’s voice is going to be heard, through your life and message that denounces acts or systems that breaks the heart of God.

God has already sent us the message of hope, and like Mary our task doesn’t end upon receiving that hope. Mary was given the responsibility to raise that hope from its infancy until he is ready to proclaim the good news of healing and liberation. So let us carry this hope with us, no matter how small it is or how uncertain our situation looks now, and as one chosen family, we will parent this hope until God’s promise, like the promise to Abraham and his descendants, are fulfilled – to multiply it as the stars of the heaven. As long as there are tears falling from the eyes of a queer children, we won’t stop clinging to this hope that has been Given us. Amen? To God be the glory!

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