Acting with Boldness*

Recently a friend of mine won an award from the Guinness Book of World Records. My friend’s real name is irrelevant here (just like the prophets in the Bible), in the record books you’ll find her as Michelle DuBarry. She is, at the moment, at the age of 84, the world’s oldest performing drag queen (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/toronto/torontos-michelle-dubarry-on-being-the-oldest-performing-drag-queen/article28611008/).

And I’m proud to say she was maid of honor at my wedding.

Talk about acting with boldness. When Michelle began drag it was a sort of theater, this was in the 1950s, and the men who dressed as women to do short musical reviews, had to wear men’s underwear, because when the cops raided their shows they actually had to pull up their dresses and show their BVDs (the law was written in such a way that this made it legal, don’t ask me for the details ….). Michelle is a darling lady. When I first met her a decade ago she asked me how I was and I said I was very old and she said something along the lines of I didn’t know the half of it. She’s young at heart and always has been. But she’s also bold, and always has been. Prophets act with boldness.

I seem to be on a kick here. Prophecy is not that weird made up prediction nonsense you find all around. Prophecy is when people act in ways that God calls them to do, to show the rest of us the truth. Michelle is a prophet, and at this point she’s nearing Isaiah’s experience level!

In Wisconsin the snow has melted, and across the US the election is actually engaged and soon some people actually will vote (remember, at caucuses people don’t vote, they count how many are at which casserole). Yes, that was rude, but caucuses aren’t elections and the press shouldn’t treat them as elections. (We did see that they don’t actually count people, they actually just toss coins.)

Boldness is how God has called all of us to live. We are called to live life to the fullest, pushing the boundaries at every moment. No fear, no closet—it’s time to be out and to be boldly who God made you to be. No less than the world’s oldest performing drag queen has said “now we can be who we are.” That means you, too.

This Sunday in the Christian calendar is often called the Transfiguration. It is the last Sunday of the season of Epiphany, which means Christmas really is over now (so take those damn lights down!).

It’s time for Lent, and that means it’s the point in the calendar when we turn from the intimate darkness of winter to the encroaching spring and to the promise of new life. In the Church we soon will enter the season of Lent, with ashes and repentance and penitent acts—we are called to look inward.

I know, there is a great secularization of giving things up, this is caused by the irrational approach the Romans have brought—”tell them the rules but don’t explain!” But the purpose of Lenten repentance is not to give up something that is bad for you. If you smoke, you should quit smoking, and not blame it on Lent. But if you enjoy baloney sandwiches, you might give them up for Lent. Every day when you have a turkey sandwich instead you will miss your baloney, and in that moment of “missing” you will have repented and found a window open to God. That is what Lent is about.

When you look inward, do you find someone acting with boldness? You should. Because Lent is about acting with boldness. Don’t give something up, rather, think of it as entering into that spiritual space where you can be one with God. And then, once there, figure out who God has called you to be, and be that person. Like our great prophet Michelle DuBarry.

 

©2016 The Rev. Dr. Richard P. Smiraglia. All rights reserved

Last Sunday after Epiphany (Exodus 34:29-35; Psalm 99; 2 Cor 3:12-4:2; Luke 9:28-36, [37-43a])