My thoughts (Tyler Connoley):

Jesus said the works he did testified to the fact he was sent by the Father. In the face of great opposition from the religious leaders of his day, he was able to stand up straight and say, “There is another who testifies on my behalf, and I know that God’s testimony to me is true.” The proof of Jesus’ sonship was the work God was doing in his life and in the lives of those around him.

When I read this passage, I think of what Jesus said in John 14:12: “Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these.”

Today, we also experience persecution from religious leaders. As far as we know, no one is plotting to crucify the leaders of LifeJourney Church, but modern-day Pharisees certainly stand against us for breaking their rules, just as they persecuted Jesus for healing on the Sabbath. Can we, like Jesus, point to the work God is doing in our lives and say God testifies on our behalf? I think so.

In the last chapter of our book, The Children Are Free, Pastor Jeff and I put forth an important argument for the full inclusion of lgbt people in God’s kingdom, which is essentially the same as what Jesus says in John 5. In the section titled You will know them by their fruits, we spend several pages chronicling the way God is working in the lives of lgbt Christians around the world — from lives transformed to miracles of healing. Then we say, “Everywhere you look, the gift of the Holy Spirit (God’s seal of approval) is evident in the lives of gay and lesbian Christians and our worship communities.”

Thought for the day: Maybe the opposition of religious conservatives still scares you. If so, think about how God is working in your life. You are a child of God, and like Jesus, you can say, “I know God’s testimony to me is true.”

Today, let’s join together in prayer for: those we know who have a hard time believing they are God’s children — and that can include ourselves, as well. May we listen to God’s testimony, and really believe what God says to us.

We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. Use the item above as a starting point, or consider the guidelines on the How to Pray page.

My thoughts (Christen Peters):

The many times I’ve heard this story related, or have read it, I’ve seen it as an example of Jesus throwing out rabbinical translation of law in favor of doing the greater good. And in doing so, Jesus touched off the conflict that would lead to his crucifixion.

I’ve always wondered, though, why Jesus singled out this person. This man has been paralyzed for 38 years, which must have been the vast majority of his life. Because of his handicap, he probably had never married. I can only surmise that it was members of his extended family who delivered him to the pools each day. Once they’d gotten him there, they went about their daily lives. They probably hoped like heck that he’d manage to make it into the pool so that they didn’t have to deal with having such an outcast in their family anymore.

This man has begun to feel so hopeless that when Jesus asks him if he wants to be healed, the man fails to even recognize Jesus’ offer of wholeness. He merely recounts the reason why he hasn’t gotten better already. In spite of it all, Jesus tells him to gather his mat and go — as if he’d been whole all the while and only needed someone to tell him so.

Does this sound even a little familiar?

How many times have you heard of families depositing gay men and women on the doorsteps of religion, hoping that they’ll be “cured”? Have you ever felt like an outcast in your family, school, neighborhood, city, and country? Have you ever cried in the night to be healed of this thing that seems to have separated you from the rest of the world, and from God?

How many times have you failed to recognize that you are already whole — you need only pick up your mat and go!

Don’t let yourself be thrown by verse 14. Doesn’t it seem unreasonable to think that Jesus considered the man to have been paralyzed because of some sin he had committed? I think the sin Jesus is talking about here is more likely a loss of faith, or a failure to see the nearness of God in all things and at all times. We talk often about how people come to Christ all gung-ho, then seem to fade away. I think Jesus is warning this man not to fall away from God again. And I think we would do well to heed the same warning.

Thought for the day: What is keeping me from seeing the nearness of God, and my own wholeness in God?

We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. If you need a place to start, consider the guidelines on the How to Pray page.

My thoughts (Tyler Connoley):

When people try to use Genesis 2 as a reason for denying the validity of my same-sex marriage, I often wonder, “When was the last time you read Genesis?” Because, when I read that story, I find it says just the opposite of what they think it says.

In Genesis 2, God has created the first human (Hebrew adam). The adam is called “he” because Hebrew doesn’t have a pronoun “it” — all Hebrew nouns are either male or female, like in Spanish or French. However, the earliest Rabbis who interpreted this text told us the adam was neither male nor female, because God had not created the sexes yet. One image of the adam that I really like is of a creature with four arms, four legs, and two heads, similar to the image of the first humans in the Greek myth told by Plato.

God is happy with the adam, but realizes the adam is lonely. God says, “It is not right for the adam to be alone; I will make a helper corresponding to it” (Genesis 2:18, my translation). Then God proceeds to make all the animals of the earth, the birds of the air, and everything that swims in the sea. With each, God brings the animal to the adam who gives it a name, but the text tells us “there was not found a helper corresponding to it” (Genesis 2:20, my translation).

I imagine the story this way, God brings the cat to the adam and says, “Will this be a helper corresponding to you?”

The adam says, “That’s a cat.” It loves the way the cat purrs when it’s petted, and the way it curls up next to the adam when they sleep. The cat is a great stress-reliever and a wonderful companion when the adam is sitting under a tree thinking, but the cat is not a helper corresponding to it.

So, God brings another animal. And another. They all have nice attributes, but none are quite right.

When all the animals have been made, and a helper corresponding to the adam hasn’t been found, God puts the adam to sleep, and takes one of its sides (the King James Version translates this as “rib,” but “side” is closer to the Hebrew meaning). Out of that side, God makes another adam/human.

When the adam awakes, God brings the new human to it, and this time the adam exclaims, “This one, at last, is it! Bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh” (Genesis 2:23, my translation). The adam has found a helper corresponding to it, and decides to call the new human woman. Anyone who has fallen in love knows the feeling expressed in that exclamation, “This one, at last, is it!”

The message of Genesis 2 is that humans need human companionship. Dogs and cats are great companions, and it’s wonderful to commune with nature, but they can never offer the kind of companionship other humans give us. Even if we’re not partnered, we are all “people who need people.”

And yet, some religious conservatives will use Genesis 2 to argue that certain classes of people are denied the companionship of marriage, because they fall in love with the wrong person. Arguing that Genesis 2 is all about the sex of the two humans, they say homosexuals must remain celibate for life. Worse yet, families and friends take this message and think it means they must disown their children, brothers, sisters, or friends. Having already denied them the companionship of marriage, they deny lgbt people the companionship of community.

Thought for the day: God said, “It is not right for the human to be alone.” It’s we who have twisted God’s words and added, “unless you’re gay, then you must be alone.”

We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. Use the item above as a starting point, or consider the guidelines on the How to Pray page.

My thoughts (Tyler Connoley):

In these verses, the author tells us Daniel and his friends were handed over to Ashpenaz, a character who will become important as Daniel’s story unfolds. Unfortunately, however, most English translators obscure one of the important aspects of Ashpenaz’s person. The NRSV calls him the “palace master” and The Message Bible calls him “the head of the palace staff.” A more literal translation would be Chief Eunuch (Hebrew, Sar HaSarisim).

The ancient Babylonians had a common practice of taking the best and the brightest young men from conquered nations and bringing them home to be officials in the king’s cabinet. The idea was that these men would be able to advise the king and help him assimilate the conquered peoples. However, because the Babylonians didn’t want these foreigners intermarrying with Babylonian women, they would first castrate them before they allowed them to hold high government positions. In Hebrew, these men are called sarisim, which means “eunuchs,” but many translators prefer to call them by their job description — officials or palace staff — perhaps to protect squeamish readers.

Why does this matter? Well, the fact that Ashpenaz was the Chief Eunuch tells us something about the men who were placed under his care — they were probably eunuchs as well. That means Daniel, one of the great heroes of the Bible, was almost certainly a castrated man. *

For those of us who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender, this is significant because it means Daniel was also sexually different. Like us, he might have been thought of by his colleagues in the palace as “not a real man.” Like us, he would have been unable to have a “normal” relationship with the opposite sex. And, like us, he may have had days when he wondered why God let this to happen to him.

However, Daniel also allowed God to use him where he was and as he was. Daniel didn’t just accept his lot, he excelled by God’s grace. There were avenues available to him as one of the eunuch officials, that would not have been available otherwise, and he used those to great advantage. If he had remained a bright young man, and married a bright young woman in Israel, we might never have heard of him. But, because he became a eunuch in the palace in Babylon, and allowed God to use him in that role, he became one of the great heroes of the Bible.

Thought for the day: What avenues are open to you, because of the things that have happened to you in the past? Are you willing to let God use you where you are and as are you are?

We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. Use the item above as a starting point, or consider the guidelines on the How to Pray page.

* Not all eunuchs were castrated. See this article for information on the ancient concept of “born eunuch.”

My thoughts (John Seksay):

I recently found an early attempt to start a journal when I was first coming out. It was March, 1993 and had only one entry. It reads:

“I’m not sure how to lay to rest the years of painful silence that surround my inner child — the sense of abandonment and betrayal by everything he believed in. Such is puberty for the gay child/teen. What balm exists for the loss of self-esteem and the absolute absence of any positive self-image?”

God has shown me how the word addresses this very issue.

Today’s scripture passage first came to my attention when I started attending LifeJourney Church and read The Children Are Free. What an overwhelming sense of acceptance and reconnection to God began with these events! Unlike my upbringing in the Roman Catholic church, God didn’t see me as evil, corrupt, or “intrinsically disordered.” Jesus had known, and spiritually accepted with great compassion, men like me. He acknowledged my existence without contempt or judgment! (For an examination of this scripture, see this page.)

But read carefully everything that is said in the scripture. Jesus opens the topic by saying “Not everyone can accept this teaching, but only those to whom it is given.” He finishes with the statement “Let anyone accept this who can.”

This calls up another painful memory from my struggles as an adult. When I first brought up this issue as an adult with my parents, I was married with kids. Mom was the coach and mentor most often sought out by all the kids. She didn’t reject me outright, but steered me toward counseling, where I was given a multiple question test. I will never forget the look in her eyes when the results of the test indicated that I “officially wasn’t gay.” I knew then that my mother’s deepest love was reserved for a son she didn’t really have, but desperately wanted. I never let her see the gulf that event opened in my heart.

After finally coming out, I did experience acceptance from my siblings and children, and came to understand what Jesus was saying. Only the people willing to love me unconditionally could see me as I truly am; those who brought other expectations in their hearts would remain fixed on their own internal image of me. It is the same with Jesus’ teachings — often our internalized prejudices about what is right or good literally close our hearts to His words.

Eunuchs were also a very difficult subject for Jews to deal with, because the cultural roles for male and female, parent and child, were deeply ingrained, as they remain in many societies today. Was it just circumstance that selected Philip, an apostle of Christ from Hellenistic background, to meet with the eunuch from Ethiopia on the wilderness road? I like to believe that God knows the limits of God’s servants, as well as their abilities, when God calls them to a task.

Jesus recognizes the challenge by warning us that not everyone will have the spiritual capacity to accept us as we are. One of our major challenges as Christians is to love ourselves as we are, and still have compassion for those who lack the spiritual capacity to do likewise.

Thought for the day: My prayer for today is that my love for Jesus and His teachings will also be unconditional. May I see and hear every blessing they have to offer!

We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. If you need a place to get started, consider the guidelines on the How to Pray page.

My thoughts on this passage (Tyler Connoley):

This is the turning point in the story of Esther. Before this chapter, the wicked Haman has tried to annihilate all Jews by writing a law making it legal to kill Jews and take their property on the thirteenth day of Adar. After this chapter, Esther will save the Jews from the impending holocaust by going to the king to change the law on behalf of her people. But, before that can happen, Cousin Modecai must make Esther aware of the danger. He has to get a message into the king’s harem, where he’s not allowed to go because he’s a man, and from which Esther can’t leave. How can he do such a thing? Who can take the message?

Enter Hathach, a eunuch employed in the harem.

In the ancient near east, eunuchs were given special boundary-crossing abilities: They were allowed to pass between the worlds of men and women; they served in temples, guarding the sacred spaces from the profane; they were even employed to guard the tombs of famous people, marking the boundary between the living and the dead. A big reason for this boundary-crossing power was eunuchs’ status as “neither men nor women.” In a real sense, eunuchs were the original transgender community.

And, in the book of Esther, a eunuch is the pivotal character who makes the salvation of the Jews possible. Without Hathach, the message would never have gotten to Esther, and she couldn’t have gone to the king. Hathach is the hero of Esther 4:1-17 for the simple reason that Hathach is able to cross out of the women’s world (the harem) and back again. And that’s why this is one of my favorite scripture passages.

Esther 4:1-17 is a reminder that all of us have a role to play, and that often the thing that makes us most different is what makes us most necessary. It’s also a strong affirmation for those of us who are gender-variant. Think about it this way, if it hadn’t been for the gender-variant Hathach, the Jews would have all been killed — there would be no Jewish people, and there could have been no Jesus. That’s quite an affirmation of Hathach’s importance.

Thought for the day: Take a few minutes to think about what makes you different, because that’s a key to knowing how God will use you most powerfully. God made you just as you are for a purpose that only you can fulfill.

We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. If you need a place to get started, consider the guidelines on the How to Pray page.