I think we are living in a critical time. I think this is one of those times in the history of creation that we can actually make a difference because the gates of heaven are open. Did you ever think what that might mean, that the gates of heaven might be open? It would mean that angels are moving among us, protecting us as they can, comforting us as they must, and moving us as necessary safely across boundaries. It also means that we can move into their realm. How do we do that? By learning to love.
We all know what it feels like to feel love; it’s kind of warm, it’s comforting, it’s tender. As wonderful as it is–and it is wonderful and should be rejoiced–it isn’t what God asks of us. What God asks of us is to give love, which is quite different. Giving love means many things. It means constant outward awareness not only of ourselves but of all around us—all of creation and especially all of God’s people. It means securing justice and maintaining righteousness. It also means thinking always of love, which means not giving yourself over to the absence of love. There should be security and comfort in the knowledge that love builds up, love persists, love grows into majestic beauty.
Do you think about majesty? I had almost forgotten what it meant until I returned to Oregon where I am surrounded by majestic beauty.
Majesty is the immensity of love realized in the eternality of promise and hope. Majesty is the healing power of love given.
Jacob, we are told, had such majestic love for Rachel that he worked and waited seven years to wed her and then apprenticed for seven years more in return for union with her (Genesis 29: 15-28). It is just one example in the Old Testament revelations of God’s manifestation in the world of the majesty of the dramatic power of love that persists above everything.
In return we are to give thanks by which we continue to give love back to creation. Psalm 105 reminds us to give thanks, sing praises, experience glory and rejoice—all ways in which we build up love to ever more majestic heights.
We have help when we need it, not just from those angels sweeping among us, but indeed from God. Paul reminds us (Romans 8:26-39) that God helps us when we are weak, that God’s Spirit intercedes between our cries “with sighs too deep for words” carrying our prayers to God, that God constantly searches our hearts.
Jesus’ string of parables of mustard seed, yeast and hidden treasure (Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52) reveal the same truth—that no matter how tiny a bit of love we manage to give, it will yield majestic results.
For we who are God’s LGBT children, created every one of us in God’s own image, our hearts searched constantly by God, for us the manifestation of love is the way we generate love that switches creation into new dimensions. Iconic author Armistead Maupin, a hero of the LGBT community, nailed it: “Sooner or later, though, no matter where in the world we live, we must join the diaspora, venturing beyond our biological family to find our logical one, the one that actually makes sense for us. We have to, if we are to live without squandering our lives” (Logical Family: A Memoir). It is in the living out of this search for and building up of our “logical families” with love pure and simple that we walk with angels through that gate into a new dimension of the possibility of the majesty of love.
Proper 12 Year A 2020 RCL (Genesis 29: 15-28; Psalm 105:1-11, 45b; Romans 8:26-39; Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52)
©2020 The Rev. Dr. Richard P. Smiraglia. All rights reserved.
Dimensions of Reality: glbt Christian spirituality 