Members of the Body*

There are times when I think my body parts are at war with each other. Mostly my knees, which seem to be in a very bad mood lately. I love this reading from Corinthians. Can you imagine a knee saying to an ankle “I have no need of you”? No, I can’t either. All of the parts of the body, no matter how dysfunctional, are necessary, and what’s more, they’re all expected to work together in unison.

But, body parts is just the lovely beginning of this week’s scripture. We also have the fulfillment of scripture in the presence of the people of God. Beginning with Nehemiah. Now, what you need to know is, this event really did take place. And it was at the end of a very long exile, when the people had been brought back to Israel, and built a new city on the ruins of the old, and begun a new temple to God. In light of their sins, which they believed had caused their generations-long outcast and exile, they now wanted to turn again to God, directly. And this scroll Nehemiah is reading to them is probably an early version of the book we call Leviticus. “Rules” for the Levites, the tribe of Israel that provided the high priests.

So, I love this reading from Nehemiah. Of course, I can never forget the lecture Dr. Richard Corney gave in my Old Testament class at GTS about this reading. I could just see Nehemiah standing before the Watergate (like some ancient Richard Nixon) reading transcripts while the terrified people cried and the scribes gave interpretation. Well, if you’re old enough to remember the Watergate hearings, you will see the obvious parallel. (Otherwise, as Emily Litella used to say, “never mind!”) Look at this behavior! They  bowed their heads, they answered “Amen Amen.” They wept. Wow.

So, then, in the Gospel we have Jesus acting out this same thing. He goes to the synagogue where he had been an irrelevant little kid (or was he? we don’t know; maybe he had been a geek?). It says he’s full of the Spirit and he proclaimed the good news, which is God’s favor—release, recovery, freedom.” And then, sitting, a proclamation: fulfilled right in front of you.

So what is it that unites us with these stories? It is the truth about our lives as God’s children, as created gay individuals. God made us gay in God’s image. God calls us to constant work in God’s kingdom, which has drawn near, which is fulfilled in our hearing, if we will sit, stop weeping, and listen. And, as St. Paul notes, the body is one with all of its members, perfect in unity and diversity. No member of the body may cast out any other member of the body. God made you and me gay, because the body of Christ needs gay members. As former presiding bishop Edmund Browning famously said “There will be no outcasts.”

*3 Epiphany (Nehemiah 8: 1-3, 5-6, 8-10; Psalm 19 Caeli enarrant; 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a; Luke 4:14-21)

©2013 The Rev. Dr. Richard P. Smiraglia. All rights reserved.

Hanging by a thread*

I apologize for taking two weeks off. I was in Amsterdam, resting. Usually when I am there I am inspired to write for this blog, but this time I was inspired only to sleep and sleep and sleep. And it was terrific. The sun doesn’t come up until mid-morning and goes down by 3 so sleep is just the natural thing to do. And eventually it even snowed for me. Wasn’t that a nice gift? Here’s a photo:

In this week’s scripture I am finding a thread about God as proud benefactor … I’m afraid those words look a little cold, but it’s a generic way of saying God so loves each of us that God makes each of us into God’s own child, inheriting great riches.

In Isaiah God says God is holding a crown of great riches in God’s hands—a crown of beauty, a royal diadem—in 1 Corinthians Paul reminds us that God is a Spirit that gives gifts, one Spirit, millions of personal gifts, each given as each child of God is able; in the Gospel even we have the same thread, in that wonderful story about the wedding at Cana. You know this story is read at every wedding in the church, and nobody get’s it. Everybody thinks it is about Jesus blessing weddings between heterosexuals. I don’t know why; that isn’t in the story at all. What is  in the story is the part about how usually the best wine is served first, but Jesus has caused the best wine to be left for last.

Why is that important? Well, it means those who crowded forward at the beginning, rather than those who helped God create equality for all present, received from the old wine. The new wine was received, richly, by those who were left after the “important” people got done, or drunk, or whatever, and went away. I’ve never worked in a bar, but I have a lot of friends who are bartenders; and I know once the crowd is gone and the doors are closed, things change. And the drinks served in the dark at 3am are the sweetest drinks.

So what is the thread?

God has made a rich universe of people. LGBT people are some of the richest. And the wine we drink, the richness of our marriages (for instance), or our ordinations, or any sacraments given to us in the church, is far finer because we are the last. In other words, the message of the wedding at Cana is the same message we have heard a zillion times from Jesus—the first shall be last, and the last shall be first.

We, because we are gay, are first, because we are literally last. Savor the love with those whom you love, which is this wine Jesus has made just for you.

While I’m writing about threads, let me show you this cute little Christmas tree ornament:

We’ve had this for years on our tree. This year as we dismantled the tree in a hurry because I was going to Amsterdam, it fell on the floor and the little guy standing at the back fell off. For two weeks they sat forlornly on the dining room table. When I got home the other day I headed straight for the glue, so I could put him back where he belonged, hugging his buddy, moving forward in life on that little skateboard. Then I got to thinking how, even when they were separated by the accident, they still were connected by that red thread, which is used to hang them on the tree. And that made me think how even when we’re apart Brad and I are connected by the thread which is the love we share. And that made me realize, this is the same thread we see in today’s scripture. God’s love is the thread that binds us all.

*2^nd Sunday after the Epiphany (Isaiah 62:1-5; Psalm 36:5-10; 1 Corinthians 12:1-11; John 2:1-11)

©2013 The Rev. Dr. Richard P. Smiraglia. All rights reserved.