Sometimes I wonder what it would be like if gay people truly were integrated. In my own mind I would want it to be something like the atmosphere at the Gay Games. There, almost everybody is lgbt. I first experienced that in New York in 1994, and then again in Amsterdam in 1998. It was wonderful, if fleeting, to be able to walk around in an exclusively lgbt environment. But I don’t think that is what integration is going to look like. I think integration is going to look a lot like, well, Amsterdam today, or maybe San Francisco or New York or Los Angeles. There, lgbt culture sort of disappears into the background. I was in Los Angeles earlier this summer, and the main thing I remember was hearing Lady Gaga everywhere I went. I think that’s what integration will look like.
Which sort of goes to show you that God has God’s own plan for things. This is a close relative of that old saw “be careful what you wish for (or we could say, pray for)” because you might get it. But, it might turn out to be not at all what you had in mind.
This week’s scripture has that lesson from Exodus about “manna from heaven.” The people complain that by following God they’ve wound up out in the wilderness starving. So God promises them plenty of bread. Only when they get it, it comes in the form of a dust-like substance in the morning dew. No leavened loaves for them. It goes well with the Gospel parable about the laborers hired last in the day who have got the same wage as those who worked all day in the hot sun. These go well together because they both speak to the issue of the power of God to make the experience of creation equivalent, regardless of the many kinds of divergence humans try to introduce. In God’s intension, all is equal, all parts of creation are equal, all persons in creation are equal, and each person’s share in creation is equal.
That’s a good thing, because it means there truly is no discrimination, no bar to salvation, no room for injustice in God’s kingdom. If people suddenly stopped discriminating, what would the world look like? It would look about the same, except there would be more diversity in each person’s immediate presence. And the cultural things that arise to keep us apart would begin to disappear.
It is a situation much to be desired. Do you want a glimpse? Have a look at the chancel at the Church of the Holy Trinity any Sunday, then, when you come to communion look along the rail, and as you head back to your seat look around the church. There you have it. God’s kingdom in diversity, in equality, in your midst.
*Proper 20 (Exodus 16:2-15, Psalm 105:1-6, 37-45 Confitemini Domino, Philippians 1:21-30, Matthew 20:1-16)
©2011 The Rev. Dr. Richard P. Smiraglia. All rights reserved.
Dimensions of Reality: glbt Christian spirituality 